12DOVE Verdict
Pros
- +
Unique art design
- +
Gun controls are slick
- +
If you love the source material
Cons
- -
Clunky hints and camera
- -
Simple visuals
- -
clunky framerate?
- -
Melee combat obnoxiously buggy
Why you can trust 12DOVE Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.
Nov 15, 2007
Kids today clearly have a greater capacity for absorbing information from their Saturday morning TV - Code Lyoko is confusing as hell. Data clusters, sentient viruses, X.A.N.A., replica sectors - heaven knows what any of it means. And while the game is too mean to ease you in, its greater crime is betraying what is clearly a dense mythology with generic game design.
Strip away baffling terminology and you're left with a third-person action platformer that nabs liberally from the Metroid school of area backtracking. Only where Metroid at least tries to disguise how future exploring will unfold, Lyoko has a little face pop up to say "hey, come back later" every time you brush by a locked door or impossible leap.
Similarly clumsy is a camera designed to show off the refreshingly colourful, angular worlds of Lyoko, but which pays little heed to where you actually need to be looking. We thought trying to blast enemies tucked away off-screen went out of fashion on the N64. Still, the pointer-controlled blasting is otherwise Meet the Robinsons slick.
More info
| Genre | Action |
| Description | We may not know our 'digital sea' from our 'Skidblanir,' but we know a dud when we see one. |
| Platform | Wii, PSP, PS2, DS |
| US censor rating | Everyone 10+ |
| UK censor rating | 7+ |
| Release date | 16 November 2007 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK) |
"Souls-like meets Fable" is all this indie RPG needed to say to meet its Kickstarter goal, but it added in a Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood nod just for good measure
Gorgeous JRPG homage Clair Obscur sells out its collector's edition months before launch, dev says it didn't think "the demand for our physical editions would be so high"
Turn-based RPG Clair Obscur dev says all-star voice actor lineup includes people like Andy Serkis and Baldur’s Gate 3 alumni by accident: "He was like, 'Isn't that Clive from Final Fantasy?'"
