Sabre Wulf (Game Boy Advance) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

Sabre Wolf represents one of a trilogy of titles developed by Rare whilst still under the Nintendo umbrella but because of circumstances beyond everyone's control they never saw the light of day. Fast forward some two years and Microsoft (Rare's new owners) strike up a deal with THQ to finally release these lost gems. We've already had Banjo-Kazooie and Diddy Kong Pilot (now retitled Banjo Pilot) should be with us by the years end. The game itself first surfaced in the early days of computers on 8 Bit systems such as the Spectrum and Commodore 64 and while this re-introduces us to the two leading characters it's actually a completely original game. The GBA however has had its fair share of retro collections and conversions and some are highly critical of this repackaging of old titles. We had the pleasure to play Sabre Wolf at a Nintendo event almost three years ago now and it will be interesting to see if the finished product has retained the same level of gameplay and visual polish we encountered some time ago.

Gameplay

Firstly I have to say that categorizing this game was incredibly difficult and so we came down to a simple and rather non-committal 'various' tag. Initially Sabre Wolf is an exploration game wrapped around a rather immersive and enjoyable plot. That is until you stumble upon the Wolf's many lairs which open up as the game progresses because this is where the gameplay style changes to a frantic side on platformer with the object being to snatch a piece of treasure from the Wolf and escape to the exit before he catches you. This is reasonably simple to begin with and you'll find yourself wanting to repeat the earlier levels in order to improve your best time and so earn a greater reward. Later on in the game though the landscape is far less friendly to potential escapees from the lair and not only will you be slowed down by some rather steep cliffs you'll also have to figure out how to land without injuring yourself from the odd drop. This is before you even consider the 'Bad Creatures' that seem to pop out of nowhere just before you're to safety forcing you to restart the level. Fortunately there is a solution and this is where you collection of 'Good Creatures' comes in handy but working out the most effective way to use them is another challenge entirely.

These 'Good Creatures' are sometimes presented to you on an entirely random basis although some can be acquired with a little exploration around the levels. You can also purchase them but we'll come to that later. Each of these has vary different properties and regardless of what the manual tells you it's always best to have a little dry run with each of them to see just what they can do. Some block, others make great platforms whilst others can be used to bounce on and so reach a far greater height. As the game progresses though you'll find the ones that 'clear' your path a great deal more useful even though the amount of these you can possess at any one time is severely restricted. Once you've amassed enough wealth it's probably a good idea to seek out Cookies Emporium, which as with most things in this game seems to appear in the most unexpected places. This allows you to purchase health, equipment and, of course, the all-important creatures. Finally the save and there are so many stats and scores in this game that a password system would probably be around 20 digits long. Fortunately it's a battery back up but with only two slots you're going to have to use them wisely.

Controls

It's incredibly simple, thanks in part to the regular pop-ups in the early part of the game making the manual somewhat redundant. It's a shame all games don't employ this on screen user assistance actually as it does make the overall enjoyment far greater whilst making the learning curve almost nonexistent. The actual control itself is just about as responsive as it gets whether you're in the side on sections or wandering around the various areas, which is essential in a game of this nature. The fact is Rare have always been pretty good at this clearly setting a significant amount of development time to one side for testing. On the other hand their rather sparse output is one of the reasons they eventually parted company with Nintendo.

Graphics

The minute you start this game up it has Rare written all over it and if you're a fan of this type of visual style then you'll be delighted with Sabre Wolf. This is most evident in the detailed and incredibly well animated sprites that are probably Rare's most famous trademark and now a process most other developers have adopted. First used in Donkey Kong Country the notion that leading characters could be rendered on a more powerful machine then ported to the GBA's development system is something you'll see in almost all modern platformers but it was done here first. There are also the wonderfully detailed landscapes, which here, as in Banjo-Kazooie are viewed from a kind of three-quarter perspective. All this is then topped off with some very user-friendly menu systems and a killer front end.

Sound

If you've played Rare's last GBA title Banjo-Kazooie you'll know exactly what to expect and audio is clearly as important to Rare as it is to gamers. For starters you'll get the majority of the main characters spouting out all descriptions of gibberish rather than cramming the cart with lines of recorded dialogue. This is all accompanied by subtitles of course but listen to it long enough and you may even start to understand it.

Final comments

Probably Sabre Wolf's biggest selling point is the fact that it's so accessible and every time we picked it up for a quick five-minute session an hour had passed by. The learning curve is perfectly pitched introducing new concepts as the player becomes more confident with the gameplay. This means you'll never hit the type of brick wall that some platform puzzlers throw up in the first ten minutes of play. That's not to say that the whole thing is plain sailing and some of the later puzzles may keep you occupied for some considerable time. Our only criticism really is the fact that the whole thing feels a little short and even the various Challenge Modes wont keep you going forever. Overall though Sabre Wolf has certainly been a long time coming but it was certainly worth the wait. Now the question is how much longer will it be before Banjo Pilot lands (pardon the pun there) on our desk?

Pro: Varied and Entertaining
Con: A Little Too Short
Final score: 7.9

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