They’ve made some of the world’s best movies, written some of the best music
and created the best theme park. Most recently they collaborated with the
world’s greatest animation studio (Pixar) to create a monster of a
toy movie.
During the 16-bit gaming era, Disney began licensing their intellectual
properties to several video game companies. Continued success at retail has
encouraged game developers to use every Disney property available.
The latest Disney game to
land on the ‘Cube is PK: Out of the Shadows. PK is a superhero version of
Donald Duck. No longer the hot-headed, easily-angered duck we all know and
love, Donald can now jump, hover and shoot alien invaders with his blaster
weapon. It sounds cool, but once inside the game, players will realize that
PK should have probably stayed within the shadows.
Every level is as
straightforward as they come. Don’t expect to find yourself exploring
enormous, colorful worlds, because PK’s architecture is made up of many basic
platforms and long corridors. That’s mainly what this game is: a
kid-friendly, platform-filled shooter. There aren’t many items to collect,
just weapon power-ups, health replenishers and 40 robotic-like things that are
needed to complete the game. There are 6 robots in each level, most of which
are hidden in fairly obvious locations. The thing that makes collecting them
difficult is that they can only be snatched while the robot time limit is
running. The time begins to count down once you’re within the robots’ range.
When the time is up, the robots go into hiding and cannot be caught until you
return to the level at a later time.
When you’re not
collecting the few items that are necessary to complete your mission, you’ll
find yourself running, jumping and shooting. In most cases, only one enemy
will stand in your way, but there are times when as many as two dangerous foes
will attack at once. I know it’s scary to think that gamers might actually
have to battle two enemies simultaneously, but don’t be afraid — each of the
game’s six baddies have an easy-to-learn attack pattern that can be figured
out in a couple of seconds.
As you can see, Disney’s
PK: Out of the Shadows is not big on variety. There are different levels in
this game, but they all play exactly the same! Sure, the level changes, but
the mission does not. Run around, jump a few dozen times, shoot every enemy
in sight, and when all is said and done, you get to do it all over again. And
again. And yet again, until you’re blue in the face.
Aside from being
repetitive, PK’s biggest flaw is its camera. Or more appropriately, its lack
of a camera. There is no way to manually change the view in this game. You
can press the lock-on button (right trigger) to place the camera behind PK,
but it doesn’t always work, and when it does, it’s not always helpful. This
creates a big problem in the latter half of the game, since you end up dying
over and over again trying desperately to complete a task that is nearly
impossible to complete in the current view. No one wants to lose in a game
because they couldn’t see where they were going, or because they couldn’t see
the enemy that was shooting them in the back. That brings up another problem
with the camera: enemies. Since the lock-on function doubles as a poor
view-changer, there is no guaranteed way to lock-on to an enemy that you
aren’t facing. If your back is to an enemy, or if you’re standing a little
sideways, the game may interpret your action as being a view change, moving
the camera in an awkward position. Meanwhile, the enemy continues to shoot PK,
depleting his life.
Some levels have
two-dimensional, Crash Bandicoot-type areas where the camera cannot be changed
at all. In this case, the lock-on function works pretty good. However,
without the ability to change the camera, moving along the small platforms and
avoiding deadly searchlights (that’ll shoot bombs at you if you’re spotted)
can be really tricky. Most of these areas are set up like a simple maze,
where you’ll have to move in and out of the foreground. If the camera could
be manipulated in some way, areas like these would be easy enough for a gaming
novice to conquer on the first try.
In PK’s defense, the
camera is manageable. Most gamers with any amount of skill are used to
conquering games with bad cameras, and with a little practice, you’ll
definitely be able to finish this game. The thing is, why would you want to?
Why would you want to go through the trouble of battling the camera instead of
challenging enemies? Because it’s fun, obviously. (Not the camera battling
part, the enemies.) PK isn’t exactly what I’d call challenging, but it does
have some difficult parts, and the run-and-shoot nature of the game is a nice
change of pace from the "collect six items, unlock a new world"-type of
action/adventure games that flood the market every Christmas. Of course, the
"fun" received when playing PK may not be enough for some gamers, especially
those looking to get the most out of their money. The fact that it’s short
(and repetitive) doesn’t make the game any better.
As far as the graphics
go, PK is below most other GameCube titles. Donald Duck looks really good —
the cel-shading technique used on him is one of the best yet. Other than
that, there isn’t much in this game that’ll catch your eye. The animation
isn’t choppy, but it’s not particularly fluid either. Cartoony backgrounds
are intended to create a comic book-like feel, but the plain design defeats
the purpose. Cool polygon effects like real-time water are nowhere to be
found. In their place are a number of unrealistic-looking, badly animated
effects that make the game look very dated. Furthermore, when the characters
speak, their mouths don’t move as smoothly as they should. Given the
incredible mouth movement technology that is available to game developers,
such mistakes are unacceptable.
Gameplay: 6
Disney’s PK: Out
of the Shadows is moderately fun, but it gets old way too fast. The gameplay
is addictive — from the end of the first level I was hooked. But by the end
of the fourth level I began to wonder if I was going to get to see a new
episode, or if I was going to have to watch the same show ten times in a row.
No one would watch ER if every episode was a rehash of the first. The same
logic can be applied to a video game’s levels.
Graphics: 5.9
Donald Duck (er…PK)
is lookin’ good in cel-shading glory, but the rest of the graphics are around
the quality of three-year-old Dreamcast games.
Sound: 5
With annoying
voice-overs and average music, silence has never been more golden.
Difficulty: Easy
The hardest part
is managing the camera.
Concept: 5
This isn’t
exactly an original concept — Rare made a very similar game for Nintendo 64
called Jet Force Gemini. Like JFG, Disney’s PK: Out of the Shadows is an
extremely repetitive shooter.
Overall: 6
In one of Linkin
Park’s most popular songs, they say, "I tried so hard and got so far, but in
the end it doesn’t even matter." That’s kind of how I felt when Disney’s PK:
Out of the Shadows was over. Its high points are not nearly high enough to
prevent it from being another average PlayStation 2 port.
