X-Factor

By Jason Carl

The Xbox library of platformers gains another artful entry with the time-stopping arrival of Blinx 2: Masters of Time & Space. The game's premise is simple: Time as we know it is disappearing, and it's up to Blinx to track down the culprits and halt the disaster before it gets out of hand.

This is a game for action junkies, with huge variety of gameplay that includes exploring big levels, solving puzzles, performing jumping maneuvers, and manipulating time. One of its most impressive features—the user-friendly Space Controls that give the pig gang temporal mastery—are possible only thanks to the remarkable memory management capabilities of the Xbox console and the creative programmers at Artoon.

Time stands still for Blinx.

Time to Move!
In each of the big mission-based, beautifully-rendered levels, you'll encounter a variety of obstacles, enemies, and challenges that can be best overcome with your Space Controls. These controls are fluid and responsive, so the ins and outs of altering time are easier than sweeping up a time crystal.

You're running and jumping your feline heart out, headed across a massive map in search of your latest objective, when an enemy submarine raises its ugly turret above a nearby shoreline. Without warning, the sub's cannon unleashes a devastating salvo—straight at your head! Quick: What do you do?

A good time to use those Space Controls …

If you're anybody else, you suffer a grisly and possibly level-ending demise. But, you're Blinx, and that means you're cool under fire. Take control of time itself to avoid the cannon carnage. Press the D-pad to pause time temporarily, and the entire world will slow down to the speed of a turtle crawling through cold syrup—and that includes the incoming cannon fire. You can then choose to either move or dodge.

Thumb your nose at the sinister submarine by moving behind cover, up to higher ground, or anywhere else that's out of the line of fire. When time resumes its normal speed again, you'll be safely out of harm's way. This technique works pretty well when you're about to be crushed by debris from a falling building or smashed into tiny time-sweeping pieces by a horde of monsters.

And, what if there's no safe haven within jumping distance? No problem! Just run forward and use your trusty Time Sweeper to bash a clear path through those pesky projectiles.

Strike a Pose
Another option is to stand your ground and make like an action hero. Interrupting the natural flow of time lets you enter slow-motion "bullet time." Using the example of the submarine again, you can make like Neo from The Matrix, leaning and twisting to avoid the missiles.

Visual cues help you predict which way to move. If you perform the maneuver quickly and correctly, you'll dodge the incoming barrage. This works especially well when you don't have much room to move, or when it's important not to leave the path you're following.

Pausing time also enables you to take extra care in choosing critical targets, clearing water from submerged keypads, or grabbing a couple of extra seconds to reload your trusty Time Sweeper.

Solve puzzles without getting your paws wet.

Do-Over!
Are you cannon fodder? Did you lean left when you should have leaned right or fall from a ridiculously high cliff to become a wet smudge on the pavement? No worries. While you don't get nine lives in Blinx 2, you do gain the ability to rewind time, reversing the ill-effects of your unfortunate mishap, giving you another crack at getting it right … and proving once again that you just can't keep a cool cat down.

Check back with us soon for more time-spanning tips!