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40 Winks Review
Noel Brady
00/12/0000
There's no doubting that the Playstation is now coming towards the end of it's life, but in it's final months games such as 40 Winks are helping keep it along that bit longer.
Eurocom claim that their latest title pushes back the limitations of the Playstation even further than Gran Turismo or Resident Evil 2. The titular winks are small creatures who ensure that we have nothing but the sweetest in our dreams. The evil Nitekap however is attempting to pollute our slumber by kidnapping the winks and turning them into nightmarish hood-winks. Your mission inevitably is to save the 40 winks.
You can choose to play as either Ruff or his twin sister Tumble, and although the differences appear to be mainly aesthetic, there are certain areas of the game that only one of the two can access. The moves available to you are pretty standard until, that is, you start dreaming about yourself in a different form. Represented in the game as Jack-in-the-boxes that you can leap into, the different guises you can adopt include a robot, ninja and my personal favourite of a fairy.
Different forms can perform different moves, some of which are necessary to proceed through the game, but you'll have to find time-extension tokens if you wish to remain in costume for more than a few minutes. Both characters have four potential forms in addition to their usual appearance and although somewhat similar, there are subtle differences between their weapons and myriad special moves.
The game areas are typical dreamscapes with pirate, castle, space, prehistoric and underwater levels all appearing in addition to the nightmare world. This results in incredibly varied enemies. You might be swordfighting with a pirate one minute and firing missiles at a teddy-bear-piloted aeroplane in the next. Other enemies include spiky pufferfish, killer RD-D2's, venus flytraps and spooky ghosts.
Controlling your chosen character becomes instinctive very quickly. The problem of useless camera angles has been remedied by enabling the player to reposition the camera with the second analogue stick at any time. This means you feel confidently aware of your surroundings at all times.
The graphics are a real testament to how the developers have gotten to grips with the Playstation in recent years, showcasing beautiful hi-res locales packed with detail. Though much of the environment is merely cosmetic- it would be nice to be able to smash every table, point or plant you see- it's undeniably one of the prettiest Playstation games around.
Gameplay-wise 40 Winks is pretty much bog-standard platforming stuff, with you having to hit switches, defeat bosses and reveal secret areas.
