31-Jul-2003 Sometimes too much ambition can be a bad thing
In case you didn't know, this is the age of 3D gaming. Everything now has to be in the third dimension or risk being labelled old-skool, retro or, worst of all, niche.
Therefore, we get a GBA version of Stuntman resplendent in all three dimensions, but with it comes a whole load of problems that cripple what could have been a promising title.
Make It Faster For better or worse the game tries to stay true to the PS2 original, setting you a series of progressively more difficult vehicular stunts to perform, spread over six movies. We're talking dodging explosions and daredevil jumps, and all without the PS2's millennia-spanning load times. So far, so good. But what they haven't done is incorporate any of the excitement or speed of the original.
The car-trashing antics may be well thought out, but they take place in a world where things happen very slowly - especially at the start. So the high-speed donut you pulled feels more like a sedate parking manoeuvre by an aircraft carrier.
This flaw permeates throughout, wrecking any chance of enjoying what might have been a good game. So sadly Stuntman GBA must join the ranks of hopelessly over-ambitious GBA games that tried to punch above their weight... and failed.
Quite simply, handheld Stuntman tries really hard to be like its PlayStation 2 brother, but the GBA's limitations make this a totally pedestrian experience.
Not content with detailed 3D graphics, this GBA upstart also wants to speak to us. All upcoming sessions are heralded by the unsettling spectre of a disfigured man explaining what the plan is. He even tells you what to do while you're motoring along. All very nice but without pulse-tickling speed he may as well be reading a shopping list.
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