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Scaler Review - PS2

No doubt you've heard of the long-awaited platformers Jak 3 and Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal, both released only recently. But I'm sure only a small number of you have heard of the also recently released Scaler, yet another platformer released, perhaps, at one of the worst times that it possibly could be - among two - or three, including little Clank - of the most well-known game characters' latest adventures. Like all of publisher Global Star Software's games Scaler has been released at a low price, risking the stereotypical notion that games released cheap are bad. Don't underestimate the little blue lizard, though; while his outing is generally inferior to Ratchet and Clank's and Jak's, platforming fans will benefit from picking it up - especially at under forty dollars.

Scaler toys with the notion that the universe that Earth floats within is set within an even larger body of space, named, in the game, the multiverse. Portals connect each planet but are highly unstable, dangerously dying out frequently. Leon, a brilliant scientist, decides to develop a stabilising device - halfway through, however, he is visited by the evil Looger and his henchmen after being sucked into a bizarre universe. Looger swipes the plans for the stabilising device and ends up breaking into Earth, concocting fiendish plans that are soon discovered by a young boy named Bobby Jenkins. After confronting the reptillian beings who have taken on human form after entering Earth, Bobby is, after minutes of commotion, sucked through a portal into Looger's universe, taking on a reptillian form himself, becoming the quick and witty blue lizard Scaler.

Gameplay

As you explore the game's fifteen worlds you'll come across Lizard Eggs from Earth, twenty in all. These form the main collectable in Scaler - they're the puzzle pieces of Banjo-Kazooie on the Nintendo 64. Each world contains either one or two of these eggs, each of which is tucked away in the furthest reaches of the landscape, forcing you to jump platforms, traverse traps, take down enemies and ride long stretches of vine and other thin, long materials in order to reach it.

At the heart of each world is Leon the scientist, whom Scaler meets early on in the game. Here he waits patiently with his repdactyl, waiting for you to return with the Lizard Eggs so that he can take the appropriate action with them, both concocting a portal to take Scaler and himself back to Earth and preventing Looger from hatching the eggs into monsters. After locating all of the Lizard Eggs in each world, Leon boards his flying beast with Scaler and flies him to the next world in order to continue the journey.

Leon also offers a number of upgrades that you can purchase by collecting balls of energy called Klokkies, found within breakable cocoons scattered throughout the world and after defeating enemies. Each upgrade proves useful, allowing you to increase your health bar from the miniscule (continued next page)