Power Gig: Rise of the SixString

 PlayStation 3
Metascore
36

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 10
  3. Negative: 9 out of 10
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  1. Worth Playing
    Dec 17, 2010
    50
    If you're looking at this as a music game, stick with either Rock Band or Guitar Hero. They might not feature real guitars that you can plug into an amp, but at least you'll get a better gaming experience and more players with whom to share the experience.

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User Score
2.4

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 4 out of 5
  1. AlbertoBuzz
    Nov 3, 2018
    10
    The game's core gimmick seems quite promising - it's a 2D platformer in which you can flit "in" and "out" of the screen between 3 differentThe game's core gimmick seems quite promising - it's a 2D platformer in which you can flit "in" and "out" of the screen between 3 different parallax layers of scenery - but unfortunately the design and execution are both lousy. Seriously, I haven't seen a platformer where you can get trapped in an "infinite death loop" since Jet Set Willy on the ZX Spectrum ... but it happened 3 times in my first hour of play.

    OK, the game gives you infinite lives, and there is seemingly no penalty for dying - and you can pause the game and quit back to the level selection screen at any time - but these are just desperate attempts to paper over the cracks in the game's broken coding.

    The "layers" idea is fundamentally flawed in its execution. You frequently can't see where you are, due to foreground layers obscuring your view, and it's ultimately just plain NOT FUN. The game's exploration relies on coloured keys, bought in a "shop", to gate your progress ... meaning you spend time navigating its convoluted levels only to reach a brick wall - a gate, requiring a key you don't have - with no way of knowing in advance which colour key you were going to need. You then you have no choice but to quit out of the level or backtrack laboriously, get the colour of key you need, and then backtrack again. Does that sound like fun to you? If navigating the levels was fun, it wouldn't be so bad, but it's not. It's a grinding chore.

    Other problems include the on-screen text (character speech bubbles) being ridiculously small; the "in" and "out" buttons being inexplicably mapped to "L1" and "R1" (buttons placed to the left and right of each other, when it would be far more intuitive to map them to "L1" and "L2" or "R1" and "R2" - y'know, buttons where the placement actually corresponds to the direction of travel!); glitchy scenery that (ironically) can't decide what's in front of what, leading to bits of scenery flickering in and out of existence as you move; leaps of faith where you can't see what's below you (you can pan the scenery left and right a bit, but not up and down); foreground layers obscuring your view ... the list just goes on and on. Even the way the character interacts with something as simple as a slope is semi-broken, with your character inexplicably sliding down to the height of the next scenery "block" - amateur coding.

    It all just feels shoddy and unfinished, and - most damningly - the game's core "gimmick" just doesn't work in practice. I paid less than £2 for this in a sale, and - being a long-time fan of 2D platform games - I thought I could overlook a few flaws and get some enjoyment out of it, especially at that price. After an hour of being repeatedly disgusted with the poor design and execrable coding, I deleted it, knowing I'd never return.    … Full Review »
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