Vexx: The Dark Side of Platformers

Vexx starts in the world of Astara, where an ancient race of people once lived. Like a parallel Earth, this planet played host to a wonderful sentient species of human-like creatures known as the Astani. They ruled in complacent peace and expansion, creating a portal that could link-up their world with a host of others. Among those, to the horror of the Astani, was the Shadowrealm, home of the powerful demons known as Shadowwraiths. One of them in particular, Dark Yabu, led an attack against Astara and its people. By ingesting the power of the portal, or Rift Gate System, they grew more powerful and easily overtook the helpless race. The war raged for days, perhaps weeks, until all the Astani , save one, and all the Shadowwraiths, save one, were destroyed. The surviving Astani, Reia, sealed off the Rift and secluded its power. Shadowwraith Yabu survived as well, continuing his quest for total global destruction.

Seven hundred years passed, during which, the shock created by the appearance of the Shadowwraiths took its toll on Astara. Pieces flew everywhere and, until the time of the final war, the planet lay in fragments, like an asteroid belt. Though separated, the Rift continued to work, allowing access to the various lands of Astara that had fragmented off. One piece, known as Overwood, housed a wonderful new civilization of forest dwellers. Hidden from view and secluded in secret safety, they thrived and multiplied. Then, as if by the evil hand of fate, Dark Yabu discovered their hideaway, and invaded their lands.

Vexx was a young one, living with his grandfather, the guardian of the village and forest, Vargas. Though fighting furiously, they were soon overtaken, and forced to toil away in the mines. Having been beaten and verbally abused enough, Vexx lashed out one day, only to be stopped by Yabu's magic forces. Yabu would have killed him, but Vargas took the death upon himself by turning Yabu's rage against him instead. His grandfather slaughtered before his very eyes, Vexx vowed revenge against the dark lord. In the shroud of darkness, Vexx made his way to the head airship of Dark Yabu's fleet, where he accidentally found the mystical Astani war talons. Once reawakened, they lurched onto the hands of their new host, and permanently provided him the powers needed to confront Dark yabu and his forces.

The game features a complex, yet creative battle system in which a combination of buttons leads to different attacks. You will use those well over the course of nine huge, non-liner worlds and during the awesome final battle. You will see a large tree infested with metal workshops and machinery, a huge haunted house setting, a dome of water and fire related puzzles, and loads of other places. The Rift system acts as the hub, in which nine doors lead to the specific worlds. To get there, you have to collect wraithhearts, the remnants of the shadowwraith's power from the Rift system. Each heart collected will power the system more and more, leading to more places to explore. To get these hearts is going to require all you skills and abilities in loads of puzzles, traps, and landscape traversing ends.

Vexx combines all the best in action and adventure gaming needs. Creative level design with real-time lighting and day-to-night cycles will leave you breathless. The various combos in fighting abilities are fun to master and put into action. Though sometimes less noticeable, the music and sound effects give an atmosphere of mysteriousness and vastness. Those who love the levels and exploration involved in game play will really enjoy this game. The story and character involvement was a little too simple, but it worked for its purposes. Put another way, had the creators only extrapolated on the ideas and premise a bit more, then this could have easily been an RPG video game.