Genre: Platformer
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Tiwak
Release Date: January 12, 2005

What is there to say about Tork: Prehistoric Punk? It was announced in 2002, canned by Microsoft in 2003, and resurrected by Ubisoft in 2004. Now in 2005, we have developer Tiwak's final product, and you have to wonder what they've been doing over the past three years. Tork is a bland, repetitive platformer that feels like an unfinished game. The control is mostly fine, the graphics are passable, and the game becomes more enjoyable as you progress, but there's simply not much to it. Considering Tiwak is made up of Rayman 2 team veterans, it's an unpleasant surprise that Tork turned out so utterly "blah."

You play as Tork, a young caveman (erm…caveboy?) whose father has been kidnapped. Although Tork is from prehistoric times, his adventure progresses into medieval and modern times. You'll find that the caveboy with the 'tude has the ability to transform into different beasts, which allows for more powerful attacks and access to otherwise unreachable areas. Tork's character was probably intended to be some sassy, edgy mascot type, but he's turned out to be a generic, uninteresting protagonist.

Starting off the game will give you some definite flashbacks to Crash Bandicoot. It's too bad that Tork never reaches the level of excitement and fun of that game. Much of the game is spent moving forward, towards the horizon, in a fashion very similar to Crash. The camera angle often becomes an issue, especially when you're not moving forward. You can't swing it around 360 degrees, or even 180 degrees, which means that when you're backtracking, there's a decent chance that you'll lose a life or some energy by running into an off-screen drop-off or enemy.

The camera also causes problems when you're moving forward, primarily when it comes to depth perception. This has been a problem since the advent of 3D platforming, but is usually addressed by having the camera automatically swing into an optimal perspective. In Tork, again, you don't have as much control over the camera as you should, resulting in unnecessary difficulty. For example, the distance between a ledge and a floating platform is hard to judge because the camera stays behind your character. This vantage point makes guesswork of some of the more precision-intensive platforming. The camera should've had the ability to view the jump from the side, leaving no question about how far you have to jump.

The attack system in Tork is very basic and becomes boring quickly. Your cavepunk has two main attacks that make use of a bolo-like weapon. You're able to slash enemies up close, or throw your weapon like a boomerang for ranged attacks. These two moves sum up the large majority of the gameplay. If Tiwak had implemented some interesting combo attacks in the vein of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (perhaps with less gore, of course), progressing through the game would have been much more bearable. However, as it exists, you press a button for slash attacks, and another for distance attacks. At least the enemies and environments vary as you go from level to level.

The morphing and time travel aspects of the game add a bit of variation. By dispatching enemies, you fill a rage meter which, when full, grants you the ability to change into one of three different creatures. Tork can change into a yeti-type creature during the prehistoric era, an armadillo during the medieval era, and a flying squirrel in modern times. While changing into an animal does allow for different, more powerful attacks, you'll find that you can make your way through much of the game in your normal, human form.

Time travel isn't as interesting as it sounds, and really only offers an aesthetic variation in the environments and enemies. It would have been nice if Tork could manipulate or travel through time at his discretion. Oh well, maybe that'll happen in a sequel.

Tork implements a scoring system that rewards you with points for defeating enemies and finding items. Once you complete a level, you are taken back to a kind of warp area where you can choose to play one of a few other levels. It's nice that you have this option, because if you get sick of one level, you have other choices.

Keep in mind that as you get further into the game, it does get better. Enemies become a bit more challenging, and levels have more interesting action sequences. Still, this doesn't change the fact that the attack system is entirely too basic to make any huge gains in the fun department.

Graphically, Tork is average. The animation and design of enemies evokes a fun, cartoonish vibe. Tork himself looks a little cheesy, however, with his horned leather mask and loincloth. The textures look pretty nice, and the framerate runs at a solid 30 frames per second. Things look fairly barren at the beginning of the game, but action fills the screen as the game progresses. Cut scenes occur during and at the end of levels, giving you an overview of what's coming up ahead, or helping to move the "plot" along. These sequences are visually passable, but are also cheesy and generally pointless.

The sound palette is sparse. Background music plays quietly, and the game lacks hard-hitting bursts of sound when it feels like there should be. During cut scenes, Tork usually grunts or makes other caveboy sounds. Like some of the game's visuals, the sound is quite barren.

Hopefully, platformer fans haven't been holding their collective breath since this game's announcement in 2002. There hasn't been any reason for asphyxiation, because some great platforming experiences have already been released, in the form of Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, and Prince of Persia, to name a few. Then again, three of those franchises are only on PS2, so Xbox-only platformer fans' choices are limited (if you're a huge platformer fan and only have an Xbox, you have the wrong system). Tork is a great game for younger kids, with its easy gameplay and difficulty, but for more seasoned gamers, save the $20, unless you're absolutely dying for a new Xbox platformer experience.

Score: 6.0/10