the year 2000, a time of boy bands, evolving technology, and a desperate need for entertainment! Among the myriad of games vying for your attention on the PlayStation, there comes the lesser-known spark of heroism: 'Animorphs: Shattered Reality'. Based on the beloved children’s book series, this game dares to ask: what if you could morph into an animal, and what if that was the entirety of your gameplay? Spoiler alert: it does not end well.
Step into the shoes of Jake, Rachel, Marco, and Cassie as they take on the ultimate bad guy, Visser Three, who has somehow acquired a machine that can disturb reality itself. You’d think someone would give him a talking to about responsible sci-fi technology! The core of the game consists of platforming through eight levels, each filled with obstacles that would make a ninja cry. These include the kind of gears and air blasters that seem designed to specifically ruin your day. Imagine Mario, but instead of hopping on foes, you're just trying not to get blasted into last week. And just when you think that’s enough, expect bouts of automatic animal transformation when foes approach. You’ll take turns mashing buttons as each character morphs into something fluffy, fuzzy, or ferocious—with combat feeling more like a strategic nap than a fight for your life. Sorry, fans of actual action! Each character can only unleash a singular attack, making combat as exciting as watching paint dry, if the paint were painted by a toddler. Your shifts are timed, ensuring that any enjoyment you might have gotten will be quickly snatched away. Token collecting is mandatory here, with a hundred “A” tokens granting extra lives, reminiscent of collecting pennies from the sofa. If you manage to collect your way through the insanity, congratulations! You’ll eventually learn that jumping is the key, as all other moves or abilities are cursed to remain lost in a random bit of forgotten code. It's essentially the video game equivalent of a hamster in a wheel—lots of running, very little progress.
Now, onto the graphical aspects, the visuals aim high but hit... well, an emotional grounder. The backgrounds shine as vibrant sights akin to a playground after a very moist rainfall, but the character models look like they’ve been crafted with all the enthusiasm of a damp sponge. You'll notice a surprising lack of variety as our lead morphers travel the realm—it's as if each character got dressed from the exact same closet. The animation is at least smooth enough to keep things from resembling a kindergarten project gone haywire, but don't expect anything that would blow your mind in 2023 (or even back in 2000…).
In the end, 'Animorphs: Shattered Reality' stands as a shining example of how not to bring an iconic franchise to the gaming world. With mediocre gameplay, cliché platforming, and graphical design that inspires cross-eyed facial expressions, it’s a title best left to nostalgia-fueled discussions rather than genuine recommendation. The credits could roll sooner than you'd like, but hey, you could always be doing literally anything else! Grab your favorite animal and run away... from this game.
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