Pros:Sold platforming with unique Cryptic puzzle mechanisms
Cons: Indifferent combat
I’ve never heard of the Cartoon Network series The Secret Saturdays, but it appears whoever created the show has strange, esoteric interests. How else to explain why the series is built around cryptozoology, which is the study of creatures like the Yeti and the Loch Ness monster who may or may not exist, or why the video game based on that series, The Secret Saturdays: Beasts of the 5th Sun, centers on the belief of the Aztecs that this world has gone through four suns and is on its fifth and last one.
The Basics: Creature Hunters Try to Save the World
The game features a family of cryptozoologists, Doc and Drew Saturday and their boy Zak, who spend their time tracking down cryptids, the name for creatures whose existence is questionable. In the game, the Saturdays must prevent a bad guy from acquiring eight cryptids that will allow him to destroy our fifth sun, which for some reason he considers desirable.
Zak is the game’s protagonist, and during the game he explores ancient, treacherous ruins and battles hostile cryptids. Zak’s parents, it seems, put far less effort into keeping him out of harm’s way than mine did.
The game is a mix of 2D platforming and 3D combat. Platforming is a typical mix of jumping, climbing, swinging via a grappling hook and puzzle solving. Combat involves a little punching and a little jumping.
Gameplay: A Platformer with a Cryptid Twist
What makes the game interesting are those cryptids. While some cryptids are simply dangerous wild creatures Zak must fend off, others have special capabilities Zak can make use of. Cryptids are seemingly everywhere, just waiting for someone to trip over them, making Cryptozoology look like the world’s easiest job.
Zak is able to control some cryptids by scanning them with some special cryptid-scanning device. If Zack needs a grappling point, he can move a hovering cryptid to a better location. There are cryptids that can ferry Zak across molten lava or under water, cryptids that can explode to destroy barriers and cryptids with the ability to create force fields. Some cryptids are used in clever mini-games, as when you must synchronize the movements of two snakelike creatures or get a tunneling cryptid to create a passageway through stone.
Combat is less interesting, although not bad. Sometimes you battle the evil guy’s henchmen, while other times you battle cryptids. Beat a cryptid and you can use it as a proxy in battle. Sometimes Zak’s parents take over for him. Each combatant has different attacks; Zack’s dad can fire a gun, while one cryptid shoots out some sort of toxic gas.
Game Design: Much Better Than Expected
I really enjoyed this game, which reminded me of old-school 2D platforming classics like Commander Keen and Duke Nukem. Some people experience nostalgia by replaying games from their past, but I find it much more enjoyable to play modern games that remind me of my past but include the slicker graphics of my present.
I am often annoyed when substandard games sell well simply because they have a TV series or movie in their title, but I have the reverse concern with Beasts; I worry that people will dismiss what is a surprisingly well made platformer simply because it’s a licensed title.
Beasts is a very well-behaved game. It avoids a lot of issues that bug me in other games. If Zack dies, he is generally placed right at the beginning of the section where he had the problem, so you don’t have to redo a huge chunk of the game. You can turn off subtitles (games that don’t allow that are a pet peeve of mine). The challenge of puzzles, platforming and combat ramps up smoothly; the game gets very difficult towards the end, but there is never a point where it suddenly becomes much harder. Controls work well, although double jumping to a platform is a little wonky.
The game also just has a good sense of fun, as on a level where Zack slides down inclines until he finds dinosaur-like cryptids that flip him up to higher places. This has a Sonic the Hedgehog feel to it. The game is mildly humorous and offers an interesting, optional set of mini-challenges in which you must gather fireflies along tricky paths within a time limit.
Conclusion: Loved it from Beginning to Almost the End
Even though I enjoyed the game, I didn’t quite finish it, giving up on the final boss battle after about half an hour. This was entirely due to a very unfair moment in which it seems to be impossible not to find yourself losing 80% of your health while standing on a floor of molten lava. I’m sure I could have done it eventually, but ultimately I decided to just hope the Aztecs were wrong and we’ve got at least one more sun coming to us.
