Collateral Thinking Review

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You know how you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover? Well this isn’t a book, it’s a game. I’m pretty sure that with games first impressions should be everything. After looking at screen shots and reading the description I thought yea sure why not! There is not much to this game. It’s bright, pixelated, and very simple. It does have a story though. And there is some humor involved. The levels are have different ways to beat them and they are very straight forward. There is also a co-op mode which I will talk about more later.

The story is simple and funny! Super rich business man wants to make a super big tower with 200 stories. Every contractor he has talked to keeps telling him that he is basically ridiculous. As no one can build such a big building with many stories on a low-budget and all have told him there is too much safety risk involved. Then a commercial comes on the tv and he finds his answer. Super big business man gets a hold of the contractors and they say yea we can do that! The contractors are a man and his nephew, you play as the nephew.

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Big business man wants to put his super tower right on top of an ancient burial ground. Thus the game begins! You have 30 seconds to complete each “job”. Each level has a certain way to clear it. For instance one level you will have to “avoid” to clear it. Another you will have to “bust” to clear it. And the last way is to “collect”. With “avoid” you just need to survive the level for 30 seconds. “Bust” means you have to defeat the alien ghosts. Then “collect” you just go around and retrieve all the blueprints in the level.

Now remember you have 30 seconds to beat each level. In the levels you have where you must “bust” you must first find a tool box, which has your “weapon” it. You can definitely feel the pressure of that 30 seconds in those types of levels. “Collect” levels were easy enough, just avoid the alien ghosts and again, beat the timer. The “avoid” levels were almost pointless I felt. You could just stand in one place and wait for the timer to run out. Now, I did like the idea of having a certain way to beat the level but after restarting over and over again, I just got annoyed.

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Speaking of annoyances! You can fail 3 times, and then the game starts all the way over. No check points! If there is 200 levels to match the tall tower super business man wants, that’s a lot of restarting. The controls don’t make it any easier. They are simple but I didn’t feel like jump was very responsive. Also the combat, not so good. It’s pretty slow compared to how the enemy moves. So that didn’t really seem to work together. I’d find myself tapping the attack button and feeling the delay, resulting in a lot of my many deaths.

I tried the co-op with my fiance, and it doesn’t really add or subtract from the game. The second co-op character is Uncle contractors under age niece. She helps out with the family business every now and then. To be honest, I just didn’t have fun playing this game. It does have funny moments when explaining the game’s story, and at least it explains why you are doing what you are doing. The alien ghosts are kind of adorable, although they remind me of a more square, green Q-Bert. Personally I don’t see myself playing this game again anytime soon.

Bonus Stage Rating - Poor 3/10

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Nintendo Wii U code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.

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