Game #1297: Malice

 A tramp-stamp has never felt so awkward before. 

 Malice has a bad rep. When people talk about Malice, and considering barely anyone did at the time you can imagine just how little people would talk would talk about Malice now, it's often in a bad light. As for me, I remember playing this game when I was younger but didn't care too much about it, honestly, I was more interested in the story of its development, since as far as I knew it was an Xbox exclusive, and yet, I was playing it on PS2.

 When it comes to stories I tend to like them weird, and Malice is weird alright. It starts off with a giant dog-thing eating Malice's head, and she gets sent straight to hell. And she discovers that she's actually a goddess. It's a weird game alright, and it gets even quirkier, as Malice's weapon of choice is a giant club. I loved how quirky the game and its world are, and this is aided by the silly character models. I really liked it, and I liked Malice, the character, quite a bit. On the other hand, I found the mechanical guide calling Malice 'my dear' all the time was sorta creepy.

 The game is rather simple, as it's divided into very small stages in which you either have to bash every enemy or find every cog or keycard, sometimes both. Of course, there's platforming in-between, but save for a few dedicated instances of platforming challenges, it's usually all about bashing enemies. There are a few sections that are a bit different, like a very tedious stealth stage, and another one in which you must guide a tiny robot, but otherwise, it sticks quite close to its formula. It's a very brief game too, shouldn't take over 3 hours to beat.

 Every level has 5 Crystal hearts to collect, and you should, as there's no backtracking, and by every 10 crystal hearts that you collect you gain an extra hit point. By the end of the game you have about 15, which means the game is quite easy. As you advance through your giant club eventually turns into a giant lance, and you also obtain multiple spells. Some, like gliding, are useful to explore the environment, but you also get a spell for bonus strength, a must to make the boring bosses go by faster.

 I found Malice to be a perfectly palatable adventure romp. There's nothing ground-breaking about it, but I liked Malice, I liked how edgy she was at times, clearly a creature of the 2000's, and the art-style reminded me of Okage, albeit not as charming, but quite close! It was decent, it really doesn't deserve the bad rep it's got.

 6.0