Brave: The Search for Spirit Dancer

Pelit (Finland)

A well-made action-adventure. Beautiful graphics, good gameplay and a bunch of fresh ideas offer pleasant times for adventurers. [Sept. 05]

Play Magazine

The ironic thing is that the game's flow and lack of superfluidity, which makes it so fun, may inevitably be its Achilles' heel. [Aug 2006, p.60]

Pelaaja (Finland)

Amongst the minigames there’s plenty of traditional platforming gameplay. You can see that the developers have played plenty of "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker." This is not a complaint, on the contrary. The only real niggles are the lacking save points towards the end of the adventure and some of the bosses come up way too often. [July 2005, p.66]

1UP

It skews a bit young with its cartoonish characters, but the storyline is surprisingly dark, and the experience is more challenging than you might think. It's a perfect game to play through with your kid or younger sibling, and it's meaty enough for full-grown platforming fans to enjoy on their own.

Worth Playing

If you are a fan of Native American heritage or mythological events, or if you are looking for an excellent 3D platformer, this title certainly delivers. However, if you are looking for a long game with any replay value at all, or some modicum of difficulty, then Brave: The Search for Spirit Dancer certainly isn't for you.

GameBiz

This game will entertain the children but doesn’t bring anything new to the plat former genre.

Games Radar (in-house)

The story is entertaining enough, but gameplay's as linear as a ruler, and random exploration is basically out of the question.

Armchair Empire

Overall, it’s short but its fun. It’s also a decent price and it looks like it may be one of the last original platforming games we’re going to see on the PS2. Go on, be ‘Brave’.

Gamers' Temple

If Brave showed some bravery in its level design, it could have been a lot better game than it is.

GameSpot

Brave finds some decent variety with its standard action adventure format, but it's neither a particularly challenging nor ambitious game.

PSX Extreme

An amusing game that loses its appeal all too quickly. The adventure is mostly fluid, as is the combat and platforming elements, and the storyline isn't too bad, but the rest is just generic, cut-and-paste design.

Cheat Code Central

Since the market is flooded with games that are mainly focused on a specific age demographic, it is nice to see and play a game that could easily be called a family game.

PSM Magazine

Brave: The Search for Spirit Dancer is the type of game that's geared for a very specific market: kids. [May 2007, p.84]

Sydney Morning Herald

Spectacular sequences include bombing foes as an eagle and battling in the midst of a buffalo stampede. Some tasks feel like players are being asked to jump through arbitrary hoops, but it is the occasionally wayward camera that will cause the most grumbles.

GameZone

This is a clone that's only worth renting if you've yet to tire of the genre's many stereotypes.

PALGN

It's a mediocre N64 game in Dreamcast clothing on the PS2. It'll do OK for kids, but even platformer-loving adults should think twice before buying this. Play "Rayman 3" or "Mario Sunshine" again instead.

IGN

Brave starts off on the right foot, but stumbles through just about every other section in the game. The whole experience is about wasted opportunity, platforming clichés, and a camera that won't quit in its attempts to make you want to plant your controller in your TV.

Official U.S. Playstation Magazine

Generic and ultimately forgettable. [Sept 2006, p.81]

AceGamez

Certain later levels are enjoyable, as is the final boss fight. Diehard fans of the platforming genre will undoubtedly enjoy Brave more than the rest of us, but even for them, a shoddy camera and frustratingly designed levels near the end will put a damper on the overall experience.

GameCritics

It's well presented and Brave's misshapen but personable face and tape-like hair make him an oddly likeable hero (that one wouldn't necessarily mind seeing again), but for the most part his showcase adventure ranks as an inescapably hollow and forgettable experience.