Knight's Apprentice

Being that this game doesn't have a single review to my knowledge on Amazon, I'll be making history as the first to review this game. (I also reviewed Arthur and the invisibles for the PS2 as a first ever reviewer)Anyway, let's get to business.Knight's Apprentice Memorick's adventures is a quirky platformer that borrows elements of Celtic mythology and perhaps a little inspiration from The Legend of Zelda. The problem is, this game's a platformer at heart and feels like a rushed effort rather than a well polished product.Onto the review.Graphics-During the beginning of the game, I'd call the graphics about average for the Xbox, but once you progress a few levels, it's evident that some effort was put into the graphics. As a plus note, this game supports 480p which gives it a rather crisp image on an HDTV/LCD. I was particularly impressed with some level design, especially in the lava worlds.While the graphics are crisp and the game's rich with color, I had a few gripes along the lines of the animation being a little on the stiff side as well as character movement that is not rendered smoothly. Your character either moves too fast or the camera is too jerky.In fact, the camera is a significant problem throughout the game being that it's a zoom style camera rather than the standard 360 revolving.The enemies are detailed well enough, but some are rather bland in design.Score- 7/10Sound-The sound is lacking. The music is mostly forgettable; but the voice acting manages to be above average. There are also some interesting environmental sound effects such as reverb/echo. Decent.Score- 5/10Gameplay-The control in this game is decent on foot, but during missions in which you're rafting or horseback riding, it will drive you insane. The control can be unresponsive at times and quite frustrating, while other times, you'll make your horse jump and perhaps the camera will pan your character too left or right causing you to retry a ridiculous amount of times. Trust me when I say I've dealt with bad control before, but this game really ranks amongst the worst.But it's not all bad. Knights Apprentice Memorick's adventures is a platformer that utilizes the "Zelda formula" in which you're to find a certain item that grants you the ability to do "blah blah blah" to get to "blah blah blah". In other words, lots of fetch quests and exploration which is a plus; but this game is totally different from Zelda being that it's very unpolished.You'll control Memorick who's a young adventurer and scholar to Merlin in a series of adventures ranging from Molten Lava worlds to deep forest or perhaps guiding yourself down a huge stream of water to defeating bosses that are elemental.While this game tries to be more than a budget title, unfortunately it is average and plagued with problems be it camera issues or control.Overall.I'd definitely give it a buy, You can find it relatively cheap and if you're able to tolerate some of the quirks I mentioned, then perhaps you can enjoy this adventure. It roughly takes about 10-12 hours to beat or more.

excellent

Good