By Elias Dounis on October 27th, 2004

Scaler is a game that most people would’ve never expected to get any enjoyment from. In fact, many probably never even knew the game existed until coming across this review. Well for those curious enough to find out if the game is good or not are in for treat. Scaler is a platformer that, despite being unoriginal, is extremely enjoyable for gamers of all ages. But, we all know that no game is perfect, and Scaler isn’t without its imperfections. And what are these imperfections you ask? Read on to find out.

Scaler is a humorous game. While it won’t earn any hard laughs, the game’s humor is reminiscent of games like Rayman 3, which is obviously inspired by blockbuster movies like Toy Story, Shrek, Finding Nemo, and Shark’s Tale. I must admit that I’m a fan of this kind of humor, so you better believe that I got a chuckle from the game’s humorous dialogue, explicit facial expressions, and the actions of the game’s main character, Bobby "Scaler" Jenkins. In particular, when Scaler acquires Lizard Eggs, which is the main objective of each level. He’s always putting on a show for players with an in-game cinematic after acquiring a single egg. My favorite had been one which recreated showdown from a classic western film. It was all there, the cold stare, the subtle finger movements, and the dramatic music. It was just great to see in action, and there’s usually a different cinematic featured for each egg acquired, but I had witnessed few being repeated, which is a shame. Also, I had been hoping that they would’ve included a recreated scene from the opening act of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indiana Jones acquired the golden idol from the weighted pedestal with a bag of sand. The way the eggs are suspended in each level of the game just yearn for this kind of spoof.

As you can tell the game doesn’t take itself too seriously, but that’s the magic of it. It doesn’t need to. This is also shown with the game’s story. It’s a simple one about a boy discovering the plans of a mad scientist-like character who imprisons the boy and sends him off into another dimension, which transforms him

Now, Scaler is actually a very linear 3d platformer. Pushing forward through the game’s levels usually leads players to their goal, which is to collect an oddly shaped Lizard Egg. However, players are given some sort of choice, since most levels are split off in sections in accordance to collecting the Lizard Eggs that can be found in the game. While this probably doesn’t sound too thrilling, since everyone seems to want to play open-ended games these days, I have to say that the varying gameplay situations the game tosses you into are very enjoyable.

The gameplay elements of Scaler are proven ones that have worked in games like Sonic Adventure 2 and Rayman 3. The game especially seems to take inspiration from Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes when looking at its "grinding" aspect. Vines are prominently featured in the game, used to make one’s way from one part of a stage to another, and Scaler has the ability to grind on these rails, that, in fact, actually present many obstacles to players, which include spiked spheres, giant player-eating Venus fly traps and breaks in the path which require for players to jump from vine to vine and side to side. Despite all the twists and turns these rails never present any platforming difficulties since a stationary camera is used and since jumping is restricted in a linear fashion, always keeping players on the rails.

Speaking of the game’s camera has reminded me that camera positioning always seems to be an issue amongst true 3d platformers, and today’s games have often implemented a free-roaming, player controlled camera to solve issues that players may run into. Scaler unfortunately suffers from a handful of camera nuisances but for the most part functions very well. The game often stays directly behind Scaler unless there’s an action sequence that functions better with a static camera position that often shows the action from a distance. However, in close quarters there are times when the camera will be placed in an awkward position that creates an obstructed view. Attempting to solve these sticky situations doesn’t provide players with anything too usable either, mostly because full camera rotation is restricted when trying to manipulate it with the right analog stick. Luckily though, the camera troubles in Scaler aren’t incredibly frustrating like in the aforementioned Sonic Heroes.

As mentioned earlier, a heavy part of the game includes grinding rails, but aside from your traditional platforming stuff, there’s also on-rails scenarios implemented into the game, and even a very light aerial aspect. But first, let’s discuss the game’s more traditional platforming aspects.

Even though the game features a double-jump maneuver, it’s actually light on platforming. Sure, you’ve got your moving, crumbling, and floating platforms, but there’s nothing in the game that challenges gamers in that respect. If by chance they miss a platform and end up taking a dive to their ultimate doom, they can always come back and do things right with little, if any, difficulty. This is a bit unfortunate because a truly great platformer should challenge a player’s skill. Additionally, in the game Bobby "Scaler" Jenkins also has the ability to climb up certain surfaces and cloak himself, but it isn’t emphasized much, and when these scenarios are encountered the obstacles presented are also easily passed. In truth, Scaler is more action based than a platformer, much like Ubisoft’s Rayman 3. Your main weapons in the game? Bobby "Scaler" Jenkins’ claws and tongue. Both claw and tongue attacks are extremely easy to use. The claws have a very simple single button combo setup and Scaler’s tongue is used as lock-on weapon of sorts, always hitting the closest enemy, instantly killing smaller baddies, while putting larger ones into a daze. I became personally fond of the tongue attacks simply because it’s the most useful when wanting to get out of sticky situations. Of course, for those extremely sticky situations Scaler also has this super charged electro-shock attack he can use and fry all nearby enemies with, however, this attack is only available for limited use, since it needs to be charged by grinding on vines, which produces a static shock effect used to charge the attack.

Now, you must be thinking, "What exactly are these sticky situations?" Well, the game does present players with many baddies to take out. Some are tiny, some big, others are bigger, and some go "boom" in your face. Like any good game, there are specific strategies that must be used for taking each these baddies out, whether it’s waiting for an open spot in their attacks to swipe them with your claws, or just lashing at them with your tongue from a far distance. When facing these enemies one on one, things aren’t too difficult, but, much like a latter stage in Sega’s Sonic Heroes, Scaler, throughout each level of the game, encloses players in a certain part of a stage, creating an arena of sorts, and then tosses enemy after enemy at you until you feel overwhelmed. In earlier stages, these arena encounters aren’t too frequent; at most you’ll encounter maybe three or four. But in the last two levels of the game, you’ll feel as if the entire stage had been comprised of these arena fights, and they’re not easy to overcome either. Why not? Well, some of these baddies are tricky to take out and there’s also these dog-like creatures which are tossed at players in packs, chasing after players and coming towards them from all directions. You better believe that these types of situations can manage to become frustrating, but luckily I don’t believe most players will reach their boiling points due to the fact that there’s no such thing as "Game Over" in Scaler. If you die during a stage, you’re put in an area that is relatively close to your last position. Oddly, this prevents the game from being the overly frustrating experience it could’ve been otherwise.

Adding a bit of color to the game are transformations that allow Scaler to transform into other weird lizard-things with different abilities. Throughout the course of the game, players will be given the mission of putting to waste a number of a unique creature found in a few of the game’s stages. After doing this, players will then have the ability to transform into these creatures and use their various abilities. For instance, transforming into this short dwarf-like creature called a Bakudan

The last two scenarios in gameplay I would like to address are the game’s on-rails missions and boss fights. The game’s on rails shooting missions are rather entertaining, but much like the rest of the game, they do not pose much difficulty. Even the casual player should have little problem in completing these stages and the one boss that is fought in this fashion. However, the many boss battles found in Scaler are very entertaining. Most boss battles apply new techniques and various creature transformations learned throughout the course of the game, creating a sense of balance in the game. It feels Zelda-like in a sense, with bosses featuring distinct patterns and openings for attack.

Unfortunately, Scaler isn’t exactly a lengthy game. While it is a platfomer with collect-a-thon traits, the collecting aspect is not heavily emphasized upon, which results in the game not featuring much to do in terms of replay value. Sure there are upgrades that can be acquired throughout the course of the game with the collection of little floating yellow balls called Klokkies, and other gems which unlock art galleries, but there’s not much of an incentive to go back and collect them all after the main adventure has been completed.

Visually, Scaler is surprisingly a great looking platformer. The game is colorful and thanks to an interesting art direction the game’s world presents players with an atmosphere that feels otherworldly, similar to that of Ubisoft’s Rayman games, with odd structures and eye catching colors used to grab a player’s attention. Technically speaking, Scaler is pretty solid. While things may not be too detailed, the textures used are clean and the game’s frame rate is smooth. It

I’m not one to go into the technicality of it all, but in terms of sound, Scaler isn’t half-bad. What’s really surprising is the quality of the voice acting found in the game. The dialogue and performance has this witty charm and humor that makes the game’s characters feel alive and it’s also the main source of humor in the game. So, in this respect, Scaler’s sound area is excellent. However, the game’s soundtrack feels out of place. It seems that only cheery and upbeat soundtracks fit in the platformer genre and that found in Scaler isn’t anything like what we’re used to. It’s percussion driven, almost jungle-like in nature. Additionally, you can barely hear the game’s tunes while playing, so it almost feels as if there is no soundtrack at all. Oddly, there is a theme in the game that is of epic proportions, but, once again, it feels out of place, way too menacing for a game of this nature. As for the sound effects themselves, they basically carry the audio portion of the game outside of custscenes. They’re done well enough that the near-lack of music in the game won’t really bother players much, and that, my friends, is a good thing.

My experience with Scaler has been a rather enjoyable one. The game doesn’t really attempt to break new ground in the platformer genre, but what it does is take formulas that have proven to work in past platformers and used them to the best of its abilities, thus providing a rather entertaining gameplay experience. However, it’s a very short adventure that doesn’t call upon players to come back and play through for another run. There are times when it feels dragged on, even though it can be completed in under a six hours. Hopefully, Scaler’s faults can be worked on in a sequel; not only because I would like to see what a more polished game from developer Artificial Mind and Movement would look like, but also because the game’s ending hints to one.

Scaler is identical visually, in terms of gameplay, and feature-wise for both Xbox and PlayStation 2 platforms. Thus, this review will be featured in both Xbox and PS2 areas of the site