Some kingdoms should stay lost…
The Invizimals series has always been tied to the PS Eye and augmented reality, The Lost Kingdom strips this away for a platformer that is incredibly basic and archaic in its design. The game begins with a full motion cutscene that has all the bad acting of a kids’ TV show before being thrown into the game as Hiro, a player who can absorb the power of the Invizimals and essentially transform into them. Sounds a lot like a certain Xbox 360 launch title by Rare to me, only difference is that Kameo was decent, The Lost Kingdom is anything but.
I know it’s obviously designed for younger gamers, but the game does treat them like morons. At the beginning you are told on no less than 3 times that you can smash specific objects for items to upgrade your Invizimals, even though it’s painfully obvious that these objects can be smashed as they glow bright orange! The platforming elements are passable, the combat is average and repetitive, the difficulty level is next to none and the camera is dreadful, turning on a whim and making life difficult for the player.
Not even the legendary Brian Blessed’s voice-acting can redeem the flaws of The Lost Kingdom, in fact Blessed’s work is the only saving grace of the game. The rest of the voice cast are cheesy and really need to take some acting lessons, they aren’t believable in the slightest. You’ll breeze through the game in no time and there’s little reason to come back for anything other than cleaning up the trophies, which is a nice easy list for Platinum enthusiasts.
Visually, the game looks like it belongs to the previous generation. It’s dated and disappointing in every aspect, there’s no redeeming quality to the animation, the levels or the characters.
The Verdict
Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom is a major disappointment for the series. Taking away the augmented reality has exposed it to nothing more than an average platformer with bad actors, dated gameplay and visuals, not to mention the lack of any real challenge. It may prove enjoyable for kids for a short time and that’s if they can stomach the awful camera, but for everyone else I’d steer clear.
