Blinx
A cat with a vacuum that controls time.
The game was released in the US on October 7, 2002, marketed as "The First 4-D Action Game Ever".[1] By 2004, the game had sold over 600,000 copies worldwide.[2] In the action-platformer Blinx: The Time Sweeper, players take on the role of a cat character who wields a vacuum and can manipulate time.[3][1]
Quick Facts
- Release year
- 2002
- Developer
- Artoon
- Publisher
- Microsoft Game Studios
- Platform
- Xbox
- Composer
- Mariko Nanba and Keiichi Sugiyama (WaveMaster Inc.)
- Metacritic rating
- mixed or average
Facts from the source article.
Biology and range
Time controls allow reversing, speeding up, slowing down, pausing time, or recording movements to create a clone.[4] The game's plot involves the Tom-Tom Gang stealing time from World B1Q64, making it temporally unstable.[5] The character that the player controls is named Blinx.[3][5] At the start, Blinx has the TS-1000 Vacuum Cleaner, which picks up trash, gold crystals, cat medals, and time crystals.[3]
Trash that has been collected can be fired out, and gold can be used to buy upgraded vacuums that handle bigger objects.[3] While a time control is active, the player remains unaffected and can continue moving through the stage.[4] To finish a stage, the player must defeat every enemy and reach the goal gate, all within a 10-minute limit.[3] Throughout the world, Blinx battles time monsters and retrieves crystals.[5]
What the specialist sources record
The Gamesradar+ account states that Blinx was developed under the codename Pelon, which later became the name for a female Time Sweeper.[1] The time control mechanic required the Xbox's large hard drive, which was a unique feature of the console.[1] Fries explained that Blinx was in development long before Nintendo's similar time-control game, and he considers it a precursor to Braid.[1] Microsoft abandoned the Blinx trademark in 2015, effectively ending the series.[1]
Ed Fries, who was vice president of game publishing at Microsoft and an executive producer on Blinx, described the game as "the most promising game we were developing."[1] Metacritic indicates the game got "mixed or average" reviews, and in 2004 GameSpy ranked it 6th in its "Most Overrated Games Ever" feature.[6] Greg Kasavin of GameSpot assigned a 6.3 out of 10 score, observing that players feel relief upon finishing a level instead of enjoyment.[7]
References
- "Be Kind, Rewind: The Real Story Behind Blinx, Xbox's Mediocre Mascot", Gamesradar+, 2017-04-04. facts only, no text reused. gamesradar.com
- Wikipedia, "Blinx: The Time Sweeper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kent, "Xbox: Cool Despite the Games (Page 2)", GameSpy, May 9, 2003; Bando, "『ブリンクス２：バトル・オブ・タイム＆スペース』開発者インタビュー 前編 ("Blinx 2: Battle of Time & Space" Developer Interview Part 1)", Xbox.jp (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Blinx: The Time Sweeper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Blinx: The Time Sweeper (Game manual)", Microsoft Game Studios, October 8, 2002 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Blinx: The Time Sweeper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Welcome to the "Blinx" World!", Antoon.jp, 2008-03-28 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Blinx: The Time Sweeper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Goldstein, "Blinx: The Time Sweeper Review", IGN, 2002-09-27 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Blinx: The Time Sweeper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Blinx: The Time Sweeper for Xbox Reviews", Metacritic; GameSpy staff, "25 Most Overrated Games of All Time (#6: Blinx (Xbox) Artoon/Microsoft)", GameSpy, September 15, 2003 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Blinx: The Time Sweeper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kasavin, "Blinx: The Time Sweeper Review", GameSpot, October 4, 2002; GameSpot Staff, "GameSpot s Best and Worst of 2002", GameSpot, December 30, 2002; EGM staff, "Blinx: The Time Sweeper", December 2002, p. 248; "Xbox - ブリンクス・ザ・タイムスイーパー", June 30, 2006, p. 108 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Blinx: The Time Sweeper (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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