Game #1047: Disney's Atlantis - The Lost Empire

   Should've stayed a legend.

 Ugh, coming out of Alienators into yet another maze-like 2-D platformer, Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire is one game I wish I didn't even bother with. I mean, while my sister loved this movie, at the time of its release I didn't care for it... but slowly but surely it kinda grew on me, I learned about the premise, which was very interesting, the highly stylized art looked great and Kida was very sexy(Hey! I was a very hormonal teenager!).

 First impressions are great, as the game opens up using very high quality art assets to convey the story, and then you're dropped into the game and you find out that you are this tiny, slippery Milo sprite and you must avoid obstacles as you try to proceed forward, wherever that is, as levels are mazes. And then it starts getting more and more complex, finding X amount of something, getting somewhere under a time limit, having to deal with teleporter puzzles that drop you back to the beginning of the level...

 Annoying level design is one thing, but controls are weird. Milo slips all over the place, but if you press jump too soon after breaking into a run your jump arc will be reduced. Every single type of weapon runs out, although enemies only start appearing on level 5, but most often than not they are used to solve dumb puzzles or collect crystals. Making the action button the same as the item button wasn't a good idea. Oh, and going down stairs can be a hassle, since if you aren't standing right on top of the stairs Milo will crouch, wasting time. And what's up with the valve doors? Sometimes Milo will spin the valve and just give up, you're supposed to press the action button again and maybe it'll open this time. Why? Why do some valve doors open on the first try and others don't? Just to annoy the player?

 Oh, and the cherry on top is that for a kid's game with bad level design and less than optimal controls the game is quite challenging, a lot of times it's impossible to see some obstacles coming, particularly considering Milo's speed. And they can be hard to dodge even if you know they are coming due to Milo's weird acceleration and slipperiness. To make the entire ordeal even sweeter, the game runs on passwords. For shame, Disney!

 If they wanted a game worse than Alienators... they achieved that. But, at least the art assets are pretty good, I guess...

 2.5