| Blinx: The Time Sweeper |
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Information About ™Blinx: The Time Sweeper |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT BLINX: THE TIME SWEEPER | |
| 2002 video games | |
| xbox games | |
| fictional cats | |
| video games with time travel | |
''Blinx: The Time Sweeper'' is a '' was released for the Xbox in 2004 . INTRODUCTION Advertised as 'The Worlds First 4D Action Game', ''Blinx'' is a third-person platform game, in which player controls Blinx, a Time Sweeper, on his mission to prevent the end of the world. The game revolves around Blinx's (then-near-unique) Time System: Blinx is outfitted with a magical vacuum cleaner, the Time Sweeper (or TS-1000), with which he can exert some control over Time itself; slowing, speeding up, reversing or stopping its flow entirely. PLOT In ''Blinx: The Time Sweeper'', the player takes on the role of Blinx, an anthropomorphic Cat who works at a facility known as the Time Factory. The Time Factory is a facility located outside of Time, dedicated to the creation, distribution and maintenance of the flow of all time throughout the universe. When glitches or corruptions in time are found, the Time Factory dispatches Time Sweeper agents to locate and correct them. Left unchecked, temporal glitches can manifest themselves into malevolent Time Monsters, roaming freely among dimensions, distorting everything with which they come into contact. When a gang of evil pigs known as the Tom-Tom gang begin stealing and destroying Time in dimension B1Q64, it becomes temporally unstable to the extent that the Time Sweepers decide that it is safer for all dimensions if B1Q64 is allowed to disappear into non-existence, killing all within. When Blinx receives a message from a young princess trapped within the doomed dimension, Blinx grabs his Time Sweeper and dives into dimension B1Q64 through the Sweepers' Time Portal moments before it closes. In each stage, Blinx must travel from the Start Gate to the Ending Gate, eliminating all Time Monsters that exist on the stage. Each level has a time limit of 10 minutes. TIME CONTROLS Blinx has all the controls on a standard VCR available to him in the game, plus Retry. To gain Time Controls, Blinx must first collect Time Crystals. The Time Crystals appear as shining, floating, spinning crystals in the game world. Blinx can collect the Time Crystals in any order, but when he possesses four at once, they are converted into Time Controls. If Blinx holds three of a particular Crystal, he gains one of that Time Control. If Blinx holds four of a particular Crystal, he gains two of that Time Control. Blinx can trigger any of these first five Time Controls at any time.
There is a sixth Time Control, called RETRY. This Time Control cannot be triggered manually, it is triggered automatically when Blinx is knocked out by an enemy or lost to an infinite chasm. If Blinx holds no RETRYs when he is knocked out, the game is over.
Blinx can hold any combination of REW, '''FF''', '''PAUSE''', '''REC''' or '''SLOW''' up to the number of Time Holders he possesses. He begins with three Time Holders, but you can gain up to 10 as the game progresses. The Time Control RETRY requires a special type of Time Holder, called a Retry Holder. Blinx begins the game with 3 Retry Holders, but can hold up to 9. (An allusion to the lore that Cats Have Nine Lives .) BLINX AS A MASCOT Some suggest that Blinx was proposed as a possible '' ( Master Chief ) was considered too violent (and also lacking in identity behind a visor). Due to the game's unpopularity and low sales, it never achieved the suggested goal and Master Chief is seen, unofficially, as the mascot. RECEPTION ''Blinx'' got decent reception by critics and public. Reviews were, in most, average and GameSpy even included the game in its "Most Overrated Games Ever" feature[http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/september03/25overrated/index21.shtml . Although the graphics were generally praised, the game's execution, notably the control method, was considered to have resulted in the game being too difficult. Sales were not very good: by 2003, only 560,000 copies were sold {Link without Title} . Despite that, in 2003 ''Blinx'' entered the Platinum Hits range (as part of the all-age Platinum Family Hits). Gamespot editor, Greg Kasavin gave it a fair rating, noting that you get a sense of relief from completing a level, rather than enjoyment or satisfaction. EXTERNAL LINK |
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