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Vexx is a sixth generation platformer (released on PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox) heavily inspired by Super Mario 64. As a result of this, the core controls are pretty good for the most part. The titular Vexx long jumps, high jumps, and flare kicks with ease, arguably better than SM64 Mario does. However around the movement controls, there are several issues that add up against it. Originally the game aimed to be almost entirely open world with stronger combat focus. However due to insufficient resources and time crunch at Acclaim Austin, the once whole game world of 18 levels was shattered into just 9 separated levels. As a result this caused a lot of content to be cut and shuffled around the game. From a story aspect, this makes the story confusing since there is dialogue that references the old world layout instead of the final layout, granted there's barely any dialogue in the game to begin with. For the gameplay aspects, this made many parts of the game to be left unpolished, confusing, out of place, and often times more difficult than they should be. Some harder sections from the later portion of the original plan show up earlier in the final product and can cause difficulty spikes that force you to learn quick or come back later. However it is worth noting that even with the cuts, many of the collectibles still have multiple ways to approach them, even if some ways seem unintentional by design. This gives the player some creativity in tackling platforming challenges. The worst aspect overall is probably the notorious camera, which can be controlled by the player in some areas and not in others. To the new casual player, this can result in many deaths from being unable to gauge jumps or see what's happening in front of you. Sometimes you can reorient the camera by pressing triangle/Y to bring the camera behind you in an over-the-shoulder view (like in PS1 Spyro games), but sometimes it doesn't amount to much. This is the only way to center the camera behind Vexx as well, no immediate "click R3 to center camera behind you" function like with earlier platformers of this console generation. The PS2 version is notably the worst out of the three sixth gen consoles. During my time 100%ing it, it seemed like particle effects and sound effects present in the other two versions were missing. More noticeably is that the game rarely ever hit the 60 FPS mark, unlike the other two versions (something that was originally claimed possible for all three consoles pre-release of the game). I also had to deal with very long auto-saves after retrieving major collectibles, which could be attributed to my larger 16 MB memory card. Unsure if that is the exact cause though. Overall the final product is fairly mid-grade to me. Once again due to development issues, this came out much later than big games like Jak and Daxter, which were actively redefining the 3D platformer standards. As a result, Vexx missed the boat on newer quality of life concepts while it remained tunnel-visioned on SM64. All this being said, it's still an okay package sure to interest anyone who loves SM64 or older 3D platformers with decent movement controls. Ultimately I felt like I had a better time uncovering the game development history than playing the game itself, since so much happened that shaped not only Vexx but other parts of the game industry. I won't play the PS2 version again, but I definitely want to see this game have a redemption in this age of remakes/remasters.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
This is an excellent game with a great story; however, the controls for the right analog stick are wonky. It has the inverted control where if you want to look left push the right analog to the right. If you wanna look right push it to the left.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
The goal in this game is to keep Vexx alive while hunting down Wraith hearts in various worlds. In each world there are ten of these hearts to collect, which will open gates to new worlds. Each heart has a riddle to solve, to assist in locating the heart, but the riddles are definitely not easy. I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys riddles and is skilled at the type of player controls the game offers. Deciphering riddles and obtaining hearts are two very different skill sets in this game.
Love this game. It's lots of fun and the different places Vexx goes to is amazing!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I setup all my game systems in my new office and went looking through my games. I was like WTF where's my Vexx. Thank you so much I loved this game so much when it came out.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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