Brave: A Warriors Tale is virtually devoid of any contemporary call to action marketing rigmarole; theres nary a household name to tout between the titular character, developer and publisher; no big gameplay innovation or concept to speak of; no tangible violence; no celebrity voiceovers; no online bells and whistles; and the base gamepaly and technology are strictly last-generation. In other words, its got my name written all over it. Contemporary marketing hooks usually contain high levels of superfluous; big names often suck up money better spent on development; innovation and shiny technology dont guarantee great gameplay; and as far as Im concerned, the last generation was one of the best.
Sure, I love it when a good epic comes together as much as the next guy, but Im also the first in line whenever a budding developer or publisher is willing to buck the trend and put out a bargain-price game based on gameplay and presentation alone thats so utterly locked onto its target demographic they might as well be walking around with bulls-eyes painted on their foreheads. Namely, remnants of an era that began on September 26,1996 with Super Mario 64, that started to slowly decline in 2002 until finally being put on life support in 2005. Currently, its still touch n go, although the patient is stable and the prognosiswell, you tell me. Are you out there? And if you are, where the heck were you in April 2005? You call yourself a Psychonaut!?
Not that Brave is going to rekindle platforming; theres A Crack in Time coming to do that...Brave: A Warriors Tale is a port of the 2005 PS2 game (Brave: The Search for Spirit Dancer) in which an elder Brave, now a Tribal leader, recounts his great adventure to a promising young brave boy (or girl, the choice is yours) named Courage; yours to control in a slapdash playable prologue and finale that do little more than make you wish VIS Entertainment did the port. The core game holds up surprisingly well otherwise, albeit much more so on Xbox 360 than Wii. Outmoded geometry has a tendency to develop fresh warts porting up, but Brave gets a clean bill of health. The textures and models look markedly better on 360, as do the effects, and the gameplay is as taut and reflex-oriented as ever. The Wii doesnt fare nearly as wellmuddy textures, sloppy collision, texture draw, jaggies... Porting from PS2 to Wii is never pretty, but the Wii is flush with twitch gaming. The 360 needs a platformer, even if it is five years young.
If you ask me (they didnt), Southpeak would have been better served bringing the original game closer to 360 specs. The overall design and gameplay certainly warrant it, and theres a lot to like about the way VIS Entertainment presents their Native American theme.
Dont let Braves big anime eyes and huggable demeanor fool youtheres a big, well-devised game built around him that goes the extra mile to ring true to his roots. What A Warriors Tale lacks in modern sheen, it more than makes up in scope and originality.
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