Metacritic Games

Brave: The Search for Spirit Dancer (Playstation 2)

Brave is the sole escapee of an attack by the vicious Wendigo spirit. His tribe enslaved, their only hope is that Brave can find Spirit Dancer, the greatest shaman to ever live. Only Spirit Dancer has the power to defeat the Wendigo and release them. So starts Brave's epic journey... Brave takes you on a journey through beautifully rich and interactive scenery. Hunt wolves in the depths of the forest, face stampedes of buffalo and canoe down crashing rapids in the search for Sprit Dancer. Master a range of talents from combat with a tomahawk and bow, to animal tracking and mimicry. Your hunting skills are surpassed only by initiation into the ways of the shaman. Overcome bizarre creatures and terrifying foes, learning to work alongside and possess animal spirits as you progress. Take on the shape of the smallest rabbit to escape down burrows or the form of a mighty bear spirit to battle your foes. [SCEE]

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe / SouthPeak Interactive
Action, Adventure
Players: 1
E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older)
Developer: VIS Entertainment
Released April 2, 2007

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

65 / 100

Critic Reviews

85 Pelit (Finland)
A well-made action-adventure. Beautiful graphics, good gameplay and a bunch of fresh ideas offer pleasant times for adventurers. [Sept. 05]
85 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]
80 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]
75 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.
74 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.
70 GameBiz
This game will entertain the children but doesn’t bring anything new to the plat former genre.
70 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.
70 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’.
68 Gamers' Temple
If Brave showed some bravery in its level design, it could have been a lot better game than it is.
66 GameSpot
Brave finds some decent variety with its standard action adventure format, but it's neither a particularly challenging nor ambitious game.
62 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.
60 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.
60 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]
60 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.
57 GameZone
This is a clone that's only worth renting if you've yet to tire of the genre's many stereotypes.
55 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.
51 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.
50 Official U.S. Playstation Magazine
Generic and ultimately forgettable. [Sept 2006, p.81]
50 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.
45 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.

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