Azurik: Rise of Perathia

The denizens of the planet Perathia are blue-skinned and wear what looks like Aztec warrior garb. To be sure, this is a strange game with an offbeat story line that pits the young warrior Azurik against an enemy who, through a massive battle, has shattered the elements that power the world into tiny gems. Azurik must quest for these gems, fighting evil creatures with his massive two-bladed axe-staff and solving puzzles to achieve his objective and restore the world. The gems represent earth, air, fire, and water; the game's massive and generally well-designed levels follow that theme as well.

The graphics are up to the task and often impress. Specifically the monsters and the game's sense of scale: rooms and some of the boss monsters are enormous. The special effects are good, particularly the weapon effects, but this is also the first Xbox game to feature some minor graphics glitches that indicate the game wasn't as polished as you'd expect from the company that also brought you the console.

The real problems with Azurik involve the unresponsive controls, which suffer from a tiny but noticeable amount of lag. Azurik looks cool while swinging his weapon, but you'll never feel in complete control. Since combat is 90 percent of this game, poor combat control is a serious flaw. Also the controls aren't customizable at all. You'd think with the hard drive space they could easily offer this option, but instead you're stuck with the default controls: A for jab, B for a sweep attack, and Y for jump. The trigger is used for special magical attacks involving the gems you'll pick up.

Azurik isn't a bad game, but it's a shame that its main flaws (control and options) are due to problems that could have been corrected with a little more development time. --Bob Andrews

Pros:

• A unique, blue hero
• Quirky story
• Great level design

• Poor controls
• Some graphics glitches