Iffy Game Corner: TRON Evolution (360)

A spin off from Crap Game Corner, I take a look at some games that had some potential, but ultimately delivered groans instead of screams of joy.

TRON Evolution is a prequel to the recently released on Blu Ray TRON Legacy movie. Evolution has you, playing as the character called ANON, go around The Grid and clean up an infection by a virus program called Abraxas, and ultimately defeat him. You have a variety of moves on offer, and can run up walls, leap from wall to wall, ride light cycles, grapple to get to far ledges and control light tanks in your quest to clean up the system. The only problem is, that once you start, and get a way into the game, you'll soon get the feeling that you've seen it all before. And here is where...

Prince Of Persia. Yep, I'm afraid so. For all the running, jumping and wall-jumping you can do, it's nothing more than a re-skinned version of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Yes, it looks absolutely brilliant, and sounds just as good, but the format is getting a little tired. And it's a shame really, as there is potential underneath for an excellent TRON game.

Another problem is the controls. There were sometimes when performing a wall jump (read 30 minutes worth of frustration!!!!) that you have to land the left stick in the right  place to execute it well, which is a bit troublesome as another problem is that you couldn't see the platform you were meant to jump onto, so jumps became a leap of faith because of the also dodgy camera which flails like a fish in a boat. You can move it with the right stick, but it does no good, as it still shows you nothing. I will say, though, that the levels where you ride a LightCycle and drive a LightTank are welcome breaks in the levels, and gives you something different to do when you're not scaling each and every wall.

As I said before, the graphics are outstanding, with the LightCycle trails behind your bike shining bright, and the clashes of discs when you fight an enemy. So is the music, as there are two tracks taken from the film, and original music which do the game a good service. Its just a shame it's been done as a 'been there, done that, got the t-shirt' kind of game, when it could have been so much more. And thats a kind of repeating pattern with modern released games. They all seem to copy each other, and offer no variety, and thats sad in this day an age, when no-one has the guts to do something different, and play it safe every single time.