Techtite Game Reviews ---

Darkened Skye began as a computer-only release in 2002. With little publicity muscle to speak of, it's one of those titles that became popular purely through word of mouth. Trouble is, this isn't exactly the sort of game title whose video game translation would be done with expert precision; after all, the company that made it could barely afford publicity for the original game. In fact, some PC owners probably never knew this game was released for the PC at all! Is it still worth checking out on the Game Cube? Yes. Does that mean the translation is perfect? Not quite.

I think what made me like this game so much on the PC was its sense of humor, particularly in what you collect: Skittles! Hey, in a Super-Mario world where you're often collecting little stars and mushrooms without rhyme nor reason, why not? I don't know what commercial endorsement the game designers had with the Skittle candy company, though it's a funny inside joke. I'll take collecting fruity candy over magic mushrooms, any day of the week!

Why "Skittles"...? Here's the story: this is a magical realm whose rainbow powers, via five colored prisms, were taken by an evil wizard named Necroth. Sometime during production, someone must've seen the similarity between this rainbow-magic story and those "Taste the Rainbow" Skittles candy commercials. They got the rights to use these candies' likeness in the game, and a running gag was born. You must collect as many skittles as you can, and combine them in various sets of colors to create various magic spells. Cool.

Of course, the core to any good story is its lead character; the one you will be hearing and seeing for the whole game. In this case, that heroine is Skye, a "Dwendil farmer" whose destiny has --you guessed it-- been foretold. Skye is a likeable character from the start, whose voice is adorably supplied by Linda Larkin (best known as Princess Jasmine from Disney's hit film, Aladdin). Making her even more expressive is an extremely well designed character model. Few game engines --yes, even via the Unreal and Quake sagas-- make characters so realistic, that even their eyeballs move in the direction they're looking. This one-two punch --talented voice actress, well-animated heroine-- makes for a very important plus. No matter how hard the game is elsewhere (we'll be getting to that!), you'll want to see the story progress for Skye, scene after scene.

If Skye is the best part of the game, its humor is the second best. Skye is joined by a friendly, cynical Gargoyle named Draak; a cynical character with a slew of witty one-liners. Skye is not beyond a punchline or two herself, including a scene where she looks at "you" on screen, trying to explain how a Skittle eaten by whale was not dissolved in his mouth. I think the funniest scene, though, is when Skye resurrects an enemy warrior, to obtain an item you can only get while he's alive. The paradox of saving the life of a villain is poked fun at, when the warrior says matter-of-factly: "Hey, I like you. You helped me! I want to beat you up now, okay?"

As for the game itself, it plays not unlike a typical 3D action/adventure, where the key is to explore, defeat a few baddies, solve a few puzzles...and collect Skittles. Both Skye and her game's designers are a tad new at action-adventuring, however, so Skye cannot swim, nor can she duck, nor climb. There are a sizeable number of jumping puzzles --particularly in the air and water worlds-- though they are mostly offered as adventure puzzles more than any arcade challenge (finding all the switches to raise all platforms in the water, for example). Fair enough.

The problems arise in Skye's translation from PC to video game platform. As any PC gamer will tell you no aiming control is quite like the mouse; in addition to point-and-click simplicity, it's just a perfect maneuvering tool, when you want to quickly aim your fireball spell up, down, left, or right, with ease. When such games are translated for a game system, however, a compromise must be met. Perhaps an "auto aim" option, or at least enemies that cut you some slack when trying to aim your shot; I don't know. All I know is, the aiming in this version of the game is pretty bad. This is a shame, because otherwise this is exactly the sort of game a Game Cubist would want; humorous, amusing, and with an engaging lead heroine. What a terrible mistake by the game translators!

What makes this aiming mistake all the more serious is the "realism" in the aiming mechanism. See, in the PC version, the game designers knew that if they made aiming a mere point-and-click affair, it would be too easy. So, sometimes your spells aim dead-on, sometimes they don't. This was challenging enough in the PC version, without being translated verbatim to a gamepad, where aiming is already difficult. Every once in a while, I come across a game that's nearly perfect, if not for that one flaw that you could go on and on about. This is one of them.

For the diligent, however, there is still more than enough reason to try this game out. The overall game is tough, but fair, and also a lot of fun. True, you cannot swim nor jump very far, though this merely enhances the magic puzzles (a shrink spell lets you enter narrow spaces; a levitate spell helps you get higher). Characters you meet are intriguing and imaginative, and overall, this is a fun game. Really.

Some puzzles are even quite easy if you know what the "trick" is. I was particularly annoyed by these tentacles in the water world, which smack you right off the small platforms you're trying to jump to. The trick here is that such tentacles are immobile. Just jump backwards to a prior platform and shoot away! Oh, right; the aiming mechanism sucks. Oh, well; the tentacles can't get you at a farther platform, so just be patient. You'll get through the area eventually.

Of course, anyone with that "Re-Play" cheating device on their system can forget all about the hard parts of the game, and simply enjoy the adventure-puzzle elements. Re-play currently has codes that provide not only infinite health (meaning you can often just ignore enemies completely!), though also a "super jump," and the ability to shrink and grow at ease. However, for people who want the game proper to be fun and flawless; I feel your pain. A Princess-Jasmine-voiced heroine is hard to not want to help throughout her quest, you know? Maybe this game company will learn from their mistakes, and Darkened Skye 2 will be even better (auto-aim would be nice). I'm more than happy to give Skye a second chance. Give her one.

	Final Rating : Small Crater. Great jokes, a great heroine in the lead and a cute story is not all a game needs. Aim a spell in this game, and see why.
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Darkened Skye

A Techtite Review