PlayStation

Blasto

Despite one Uranus joke too many, sci-fi parody Blasto offers galactic-size yuks courtesy of NewsRadio's Phil Hartman, who supplies the voice of burly space hero Captain Blasto. Beady-eyed aliens are trying to take over the solar system, and it's up to you (as Blasto) to zap 'em back to the fifth dimension using such weaponry as the ''Nuke-o-matic Atomscatter 9000.'' Take a moment to admire the graphics, which make you feel like you're romping around in a 3-D version of an old Marvin the Martian cartoon.

Captain Blasto is in opzet zeker niet uniek in zijn soort. Daar staat wel tegenover dat het spel volkomen in balans is. Gameplay, humor, graphics en besturing: dit spel is gewoon af.

It was obvious from the first moment that I loaded up this game, that Sony had put a lot of time, effort and thought into Blasto. From the nicely detailed and entertaining animation at the beginning of the game to the ongoing one-liner running commentary of Phil Hartman and the new technique used allow for larger levels without extensive load time, there is much to like about this game. The game does require a bit of patience at times, but in the end it will keep you entertained for many long hours. We should be seeing some followups to this game in the near future. If you find Phil Hartman funny, if your perfect afternoon includes the disintegration of a hostile alien force and rescuing well-endowed babes, then you are guaranteed to love Blasto from Sony. You should definitely check this one out!

Overall I would rate Blasto a pretty enjoyable experience. Once I got used to rather clumsy controls and learned to compensate for them, I was able to settle in and really appreciate all that the game had to offer. The graphics are retro and rather surreal and do a good job in portraying the overall outer space theme of this game. The sound effects are brilliant and you are even treated to Phil Hartman's voice as icing on the cake.

On the whole, Blasto isn't a game that comes out every day. Maybe if it had arrived before Mario 64 and Tomb Raider, I'd be a lot more excited, but it didn't. It's got almost everything you'd want in a game-- great graphics, sound, laughs, vixens, and guns, but there's room for improvement. If you've had your way with Mario and Lara Croft and are looking for a real challenge, I definitely recommend Blasto. Don't dump your girlfriend so you'll have money to buy it, but definitely give Blasto a try. It's a work of art.

Att spelet sedan har bra grafik, konstig åttiotalssynthpop med rymdlika inslag i soundtracket och en skön spelkontroll gör ju inte direkt saken sämre. Och så är det så där lagom svårt och klurigt. Så man har att göra ett tag framöver när man ska rädda rymdbabes i Captain Blastos skepnad.

Phil Hartman's funny quips give the lead character personality, and the retro-futuristic music is absolutely dead-on. Adding variety to the gameplay, you can fly with a jet pack, swim, or even ride around on a big chicken! Overall Blasto looks and sounds like a million bucks, but its gameplay is less than earth-shattering.

Blasto är förvisso ett beundrasvärt och intrikat plattformsspel men tyvärr har det inte biceps nog att leva upp till sina intentioner.

The levels don't have any sense of pacing -- the end of the stage feels like the beginning, with no sense of accomplishment. The worst is getting no feedback from the game. Every time you flip a switch, you don't know what you're opening or activating until you search through the level again. Even Phil Hartman, one of the most caustic-sounding comedians of our time, sounds like he's phoning in his performance. It all makes Blasto tiring to play. If you're looking for a great platforming game, wait for Tail Concerto or Crash Bandicoot 3. If you need to play Blasto, wait and see if Sony puts out a sequel.

Sony's Blasto is the latest in a long line of games that attempt to distill the best that the 2D platform games of the past had to offer into 3D. With large, roaming environments that stream from the disc, Blasto does this in a different way than titles such as Super Mario 64, Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot, and Pitfall 3D, and the originality is certainly nice. The only problem is that it just doesn't make the leap into 3D as well as it could have. Well all right, that's not the only problem.