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The Misadventures of Tron Bonne
(MoTB) is probably the ultimate example of a niche game.
Many folks who were soured at the new 3-D taste of Mega
Man Legends(MML from here on out) will write this one off
as another 3-D ''milk the franchise dry'' Capcom game
without even playing it. The others who have never even
played MML will probably take one look at the cover and
say, ''What the heck is this?'' Thankfully, I was a huge
fan of MML; and despite mediocre magazine reviews I was
steered in the direction of MoTB by the small cult
following it had received on the internet. Pleasantly
surprised, I must say after buying it that this is one of
the few games I've ever played that is just pure 100%
Grade-A fun. The graphics in MoTB are sort of a mixed bag. Let me start off with the good points. ALL of the characters have huge, sharp looking anime-style portraits that appear whenever they have dialogue. The cool thing is that each character has about seven to eight different poses for their portraits, and this variety helps in contributing to the anime feel of the game. MoTB had some of the best character design I've ever seen in a video game. Tron's ship, the Gesellschaft, is a huge craft with tons of colorful pre-rendered backdrops. Actually, colorful just about describes ALL of the graphics in the game... and that's a good thing. Some of the drawbacks to that sharp anime look is that at times the graphics seem a little blocky or too perfectly geometric at times. While I loved the layout of the Gustaff action stages, it felt like they were created by anal-retentive level designers. Every surface had a sharp angle or was a perfect geometric shape. While it did fit in with the look of the game, I was looking for a little more variety (graphics-wise) in these levels. While Capcom has been notorious in the past for doing horrible dubbing jobs, with MoTB they seem to have cleaned up their act. All of the returning characters from MML have the same voices (except for Bon, for some reason they replaced him with an American voice actor), and Teisel steals the show with his scenery-chewing antics. Other highlights are Loath, who has a *perfect* bad guy voice, and the sugary sweet Servbots that will have you laughing at every one of their little naive comments. The music just sort of sits in the background, except for a few good songs. Much like the MML soundtrack, MoTB's music really isn't anything special. Some of the songs that stand out are the Servbots' theme, the Gesellschaft theme and the ending theme. MoTB is a game that doesn't take itself seriously, so don't expect a serious story like Metal Gear Solid. Basically, Teisel, Tron's older brother, gets kidnaped and held for ransom. Tron has to collect one million zenny to pay off the loan shark(Loath) and get her brother back. It takes place in the same universe/world as MML, so the cool ''digging'' concept is still intact. Gameplay is where MoTB excels. MoTB features four different styles of play : Action(my personal favorite), which resembles the boss stages in MML, RPG, which isn't an RPG at all but a first person maze crawl, Puzzle, a brain racking mini-game where you have to transport boxes using a certain number of moves, and Free, which is like the Sub-Gates in MML and a free-for-all treasure grab. A surprising amount of depth is involved in MoTB, too. Tron has 40 Servbots at her command, each with a special skill and three areas of improvement through training(strength, brains, and speed). Tron can take one, three, or six Servbots with her, depending on the type of mission. The Servbots don't just help in battle, however; they can repaint the Gustaff, develop new weapons, change the BG music, and all kinds of other neat stuff. One thing about the puzzle levels... they're HARD! I had to consult an FAQ to beat all of the puzzle stages past the first. Sadly, there are only three different RPG levels... I wish that they would have included more. MoTB is short and sweet, much like the Servbots. Although the game is over way too fast, that sadness you feel when you finally finish the game shows how great the experience really is. If you enjoy quirky games, or if you enjoyed MML, MoTB is WELL worth the money. Heck, it's even budget priced. So go out there and buy it! Then, maybe Capcom will bring The Misadventures of Tron Bonne 2 over to the USA when it comes out. - Bob Mackey |
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| All text, original pictures and HTML © 2001 Bob Mackey. All rights reserved. |