Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space (released in Japan as Blinx 2: Battle of Time and Space) is a 3D third-person platform game developed by Artoon and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released for the Xbox in 2004 and is the sequel to Blinx: The Time Sweeper.

Overview

​Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space is the second addition to the series. The game allows the player to create their own Time Sweeper and Tom Tom, and switch between them throughout the game's Story Mode; both the Time Sweeper and Tom Tom campaigns must be played through in order to finish the game.

Plot

Benito accidentally destroys the legendary Big Crystal upon discovering it, scattering it into eight fragments across many various worlds. The Time Sweepers and the Tom-Toms must fight the manifested time monsters and each other to collect all the fragments.

At the game's final battle, the player’s team of Time Sweepers are sent to an alternate universe known as A-000 to defeat the Scissor Demon, a mission from which they cannot return to the Time Factory if unsuccessful. The player’s Tom Tom leader arrives with his team and gives the Time Sweeper protagonist the other half of the Big Crystal and a multi-lock-on system which enables the player to destroy the monster. Once the Scissor Demon is defeated, Mina appears in front of the restored Big Crystal thanks the Tom Toms for their efforts.

Reception

This game received a large amount of harsh criticism for being marketed as a direct sequel to the first game, which implied that Blinx had a major role in the game. Other than appearing in cutscenes and talking to the player in some of the Time Sweeper levels, Blinx played virtually no role in the plot, nor is he playable. In fact, the game seemed to feature an entire storyline worth of original characters, none of whom are ever directly introduced. All cutscenes seemed to revolve around these mysterious cats and pigs, yet none make any contribution to the gameplay.

​There are significant additions of violence from its predecessor, particularly when playing as the Tom-Toms due to their weapons. Many players complained about the constant help messages ruining the game's puzzle aspects. Puzzles can be solved effortlessly because the Operator's help messages directly spell out how to solve them, rather than allowing the players to think for themselves.

The game received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of one eight, one nine, and two eights for a total of 33 out of 40.

Trivia

  • A demo was featured in the 34th issue of the Official UK XBOX Magazine.
  • If the Time Sweeper protagonist is wearing accessory goggles, the NPCs in the Theatre will wear the same accessory and not their own.

Gallery

References

Last updated on 14 Jan 2023