PS2 Underrated Gem: Disney's Treasure Planet -No Commentary-

Описание: This is a series of videos I am doing to highlight overlooked games for the PS2.

Normally, I avoid the vast majority of Disney games, however, with Bizarre Creations at the helm of Treasure planet, the developer best known for Project Gotham Racing, this one actually turned out to be a solid platformer title. One I have been enjoying, despite never seeing the actual movie it is based off of.

I remember playing this game on a demo years ago, and while, at the time I dismissed it as a pretty blatant Jak and Daxter clone at the time, I decided to give this one a try after remembering it's existence. Off to Amazon I went, and for around $5 with shipping got a factory sealed copy of the game.

At first glance, there is definitely a large Jak and Daxter influence on Treasure Planet, however, be that as it may, this is still a solid platformer title. Will it make you forget about either Jak or Ratchet? Not at all, hoever, if you are a fan of the genre who is looking for another good buy, then Treasure Planet is more than worth it's cheap price.

There are two main types of levels in Treasure Planet. You have the on-foot levels, and the Solar Surfing levels, both of which see Jim completing tasks to unlock ancient beacons in order to lead him and his cohorts to the famed treasure planet.

As you can see from the footage, unlocking a beacon is very reminiscent of of collecting a power cell in Jak and Daxter, prompting an auto save, and a short cutscene showing the beacon being unlocked.

The on-foot levels are solid platformer fare, and always feature two of the same objectives, collecting all the coins in the levels, and finding 10 green energies. The other three objectives reamin level-specific. My only complain comes with the fact that the green energies reset if you die, so even if you have 9 in your possession, and miss the jump for the tenth, plummeting to your death, then you have to go through and re-collect all of them again. Not a huge annoyance, but it can still be a little frustrating. Jim also uses his buddy morph to get special abilities for a set time to help with puzzle solving. Morph will morph into cyber arms, a jetpack, speedy boots, a helping hand, and even glider wings.

The solar surfing levels take up a large portion of the game, if you aren't really a fan of these kinds of levels in platformers, then you may not like this game, seeing as almost every other level is a solar surfing level. I, myself, am generally not a fan of these kinds of levels, however, I found myself enjoying these levels. A large part of why these levels did not ruin the game for me is the fact that the controls of Jim's solar surfer are really well done. And the fact that not every level of this type requires a checkpoint race. Even the ones that do, upon competing the race, you are free to explore the rest of the level on your solar surfer afterward. There are even a couple of scenes that require some extreme sport's style points gathering.

Graphically, the game is solid as well, not the best looking platformer, but certainly not the ugliest. The camera control mimics Jak and Daxter with dual analog camera control, and does a good job of letting you see where you are going, with some occasional hiccups here and there. Jim's attacks are a bit lacking, but the controls themselves are spot on as well. The music is also well done.

The Bottom Line: Admittedly, I have not fully completed this game yet, but my save is already about 5 hours into the game, so save some game-ruining glitch in the later levels, I can safely suggest Disney's Treasure planet as a solid platformer title for fans of the ganre. It won't make you forget about other great platformers on the PS2, but is still a great buy for it's very cheep price. This is one that really slipped under the radar.