Cute and it hurts

Reviewed by RUSSELL BAILLIE

Banjo-Kazooie

Rare

Nintendo 64


It's one of those games where cleanliness is next to cuddliness. Where the 3D graphics deserve a capital "D".
And where its juvenile approach will have you getting so in touch with your inner child it will start feeling like a body-swap experience a la Tom Hanks in Big.

So Banjo-Kazooie is good? Yes, and so cute it hurts.

This has the bear-bird duo of Banjo and Kazooie going out into the world to battle the evil witch Grunthilda and rescue Banjo's little sister Tooty.

Along the way there's the usual collection duties involving musical notes, bits of jigsaw and the like.

With Banjo's feathered friend in his backpack, they can be com-bined in all sorts of hilarious moves (the "beak barge" gets me every time) and occasionally fly about the place. But what makes B-K's mix of nutty cartoon and fairytale a classic platform game is the nine worlds it offers in which to wander -- vast landscapes with snow, deserts, swamps, haunted houses, underwater settings in which to dive and perilous slopes to navigate.

Eye-popping and side-splitting, Banjo-Kazooie is kid-easy but, gameplay-wise, as smart as they come.

Spyro the Dragon

Universal

PlayStation

This game represents possibly the first decent PlayStation 3D platformer as well as the console's first quality push into the kid-plus market.

It has a cute-as-a-button charac-ter in Spyro, a young dragon charged with rescuing the elders of his species which an evil despot has turned into statues.

He has quite a headbutting technique and dragon breath to clear a path (Look! Barbecued sheep!) as he wanders from world to world, freeing dragons and collecting gems.

He can glide but watching him drown, should you unfortunately steer him waterwards, is possibly the single most heartbreaking moment in videogame history. The first time, anyway.

Graphically, it is startling for the PSX format and runs really smoothly as Spyro navigates his day-glo 360-degree territories.

However, despite its innova-tions and inventiveness, its repetitiveness means it holds the attention for only so long.

Some games induce a juvenile enjoyment; Spyro requires a juvenile sort of mood to make you want to return.

Colony Wars Vengeance

Psygnosis

PlayStation

A sequel to last year's Colony Wars, this furthers the Stars Wars-like adventures of the debut with improved graphics, diverse missions, bigger explosions and a further hefty chapter of its own sci-fi lore.

You are Navy space fighter pilot Merthens. And you're soon off bouncing around the galaxy, indulging in zero-gravity dogfights, mining asteroids, going on salvage missions, and attacking bases on enemy planet surfaces, all of which gives this a degree more variety than then first instalment.

Like the first, your success or failure can alter the course of history and the campaign - which also means you can keep going if you're hopeless until you are history yourself.

Fans of the first will appreciate their own The Empire Strikes Back while newcomers should enjoy this superior space flight-sim.
- Russell Baillie, 7DAYS

PICTURED: Spyro the Dragon