Beyond Good and Evil

No matter where your loyalty lies today, it's difficult to argue that Nintendo is the best at what they do. Side scrollers, platformers, kart racers, dungeon crawlers, you name it, if Nintendo's made one, it's unmatched. That having been said, I still enjoy many of those games types made by developers other than Nintendo. Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World 1 and 2 are the best that sidscrolling platformers have to offer. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy the Genesis era Sonic the Hedgehogs. Mario Kart 64 is the kart racer that all others strive to be, that includes the Mario Karts that have been released since. That doesn't mean ModNation Racers isn't excellent. Some may argue this next one with me, but I say that there is no on-rails shooter like Star Fox 64. Yet, I still enjoy many other similar titles like Afterburner.

But, there's one game type that I've never found a non-Nintendo offering that I enjoyed. The Legend of Zelda, whether it be the top-down style of A Link to the Past or the 3D style of Ocarina of Time, has no equal. Second place, whatever that may be, is so far behind it's not worth my time to find out what that game is. This isn't some fanboy rant, either. I've played many of the best dungeon crawlers the industry has to offer and none of them are ever good enough for me to bother finishing.

This is because all of these other games are not actually like The Legend of Zelda in every way. Jak and Daxter has the quest, exploration, and puzzle elements, but it's focus on platforming makes it a lot more like Super Mario 64 than Ocarina of Time. Secret of Mana borrows A Link to the Past's top-down view and style combat, but it's linearity and lack of puzzle solving puts it more in line with traditional RPGs such as Final Fantasy. No developer has ever been able to truly capture what makes TLoZ special.

At least that's what I thought until a mere week ago.

On November 11, 2003, Ubisoft Montpelier released Beyond Good and Evil to all the major platforms at the time. I had heard of it, but due to a lack of marketing on Ubisoft's part (Ubisoft spent far more time marketing Prince of Persia: Sand of Time, which was released less than two weeks later) it flew under my radar. Despite critical acclaim from both reviewers and it's small following, the game was largely regarded as being a commercial failure. The planned two sequels were put on hold indefinitely.

 The above image is from the original release. It's visual appeal is just one of the many

reasons that Beyond Good and Evil can tango with The Legend of Zelda.

More than seven years have passed since Jade first set off on her journey, and Ubisoft has decided to give Beyond Good and Evil another chance. On March 2, 2011, Ubisoft released Beyond Good and Evil HD for Xbox LIVE Arcade. So, I downloaded it. So far, I'm very pleased with my purchase.

If ever there were direct competition to The Legend of Zelda, it's Beyond Good Evil. The best part about it is that it nailed almost everything. The characters are interesting. The world is mysterious. The dungeons are challenging. The pace is consistent. The environments are lush. The sound is engaging. There are plenty of extra goodies and rewards for those who dare to venture off the beaten path and explore. Overall, this game is every bit as solid as it's Hylian influence. What's even better is that Beyond Good and Evil manages to show where it's influenced by the tale of Link, Zelda, and Gannondorf without it feeling like your just playing a good TLoZ knockoff.

 Much like Perfect Dark, Beyond Good and Evil merely had it's resolution increased and

it's textures redrawn. Many will argue that that was more than enough.

I do have single complaint with this otherwise masterpiece. One thing that can nearly break an otherwise perfect game is the controls. Jade handles very fluidly. Not as fluidly as Link, but what game not made by Nintendo does? Beyond Good and Evil suffers from a horrible camera. I've died on more than one occasion because of faulty camera placement. The right analog stick is used to adjust the camera, but it's broken at best. If I'm moving forward with the camera behind Jade, moving the right analog stick to the right should move the position of the camera left, causing Jade to turn right.  You can argue that the stick is controlling the camera and not Jade, but this is my preference, and I should be able to adjust the behavior of the camera stick accordingly. And yes, I can customize that stick to do just that, but by doing so, I sacrifice my look inversion. For this type of game, I've decided that inverting the camera's movement on the horizontal axis is more useful than inverting it on the vertical axis. But, because of this limitation, when I'm in a bind and need to quickly move the camera, I am met with frustration and often times death. I don't mind being defeated when it's my fault. I hate being defeated because I simply can't see what I'm doing or where I'm going. What's especially disappointing is that this was a complaint of many when the game was initially released and Ubisoft did not correct this issue during it's HD overhaul of the XBLA version.

I've managed to be able to look the other way when it comes to the poor camera design, and I think most people will. This game is fantastic. It's got polish in areas that is only outmatched by the game it draws its influence from. Xbox 360 users can snag this one for 800 Microsoft Points. Once the timed exclusive period is up, PlayStation 3 users should be able to trade $10 for it. Sorry, Wii users. This game is a pretty big file and easily goes over Nintendo's file size limit for WiiWare. Hopefully as Nintendo learns from the mistakes of their broken online strategy this will change.

One last thing. Ubisoft has announced that they plan to finish this trilogy, so if you haven't yet, buy this game and show that you support Ubisoft's risk taking. Because if you don't, we'll all be doomed to play many, many more Call of Duty sequels.