VOLTRON: Defender of the Universe
For what it’s worth (which is very little), I’m a Star Blazers guy.
Never really got into Speed Racer, Battle of the Planets, or any of the other poorly dubbed Japanese imports.
Now I do remember watching Voltron, of course, but never quite had the same affinity for the mechanical Lions that I did for Conroy and his Black Tigers, so I marched into this game Voltron fandom-free…
And let me just start by saying the presentation is pretty top-notch and nostalgic fun.
We’re treated to the actual animated opening credit sequence from the TV show (as originally voiced by Optimus Prime himself, Peter Cullen), which immediately sparks a few candles and dims the light, setting the perfect mood for some anonymous bad guy stompin.
After selecting one of five lions, each with its own “special” attack and varying strengths/weaknesses, we’re treated to further animated clips taken straight from the show which when all pieced together will resemble something of a storyline, before dropping us into a fairly drab (though sharply rendered) environment to kill hordes of Drule air and ground forces while rescuing civilians and occasionally escorting indigenous vehicles to safety checkpoints.
Unfortunately, we have to fight through the same exteriors in each of the game’s sections for three levels in our Lion before we can get to the money shot, melding with the other cats to form Voltron.
And it’s here that the hopes and dreams of controlling the ultimate Defender of the Universe are quickly crushed, as we soon realize it has been reduced to a handful of Quick Time Events.
Instead of dancing around and button-mashing for a little robot rumble, we are forced to press the corresponding button to attack and defend with the character animations playing out the action for us. A highly unrewarding experience, unless you really really like QTEs.
And if you do, you need to talk to someone…
That being said, this dual-stick shooter (with the left stick for directional firing and the right for movement, ala Assault Heroes) feels incredibly fluid and features a nice HD presentation, but it’s severely marred by a relatively short single-player campaign (though there is co-op and multiplayer to be found here, too) and the inability to actually play as the game’s titular ass-kicker.
At 800 Microsoft Points on the Xbox Marketplace, I believe this is a pass. But when it eventually drops in price, 400 Points is a definite maybe for Voltron fans.
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