POSTED 12/4/12


RHYTHM THIEF & THE EMPEROR'S TREASURE

SEGA
3DS

Fancy a Parisian trip? Yeah, us too, but it’s bloody expensive. Plus you have to make sure they know you’re an Aussie not a Pom or they’ll spit in your food, and we nearly died after eating too much cheese and contracting serious food poisoning last time. Hmm, maybe those last two were linked?

So, this hidden object rhythm adventure amalgam that also absorbs mucho lotso de The Da Vinci Code is a fair substitute. Oh bullmerde – nothing beats tromping la monde around Paris for real, scarfing baguettes avec chocolat because they’re the only foody words you know other than fromage. But this game’s très cool regardless.

You do tromp around a virtual Paris, taking in the Louvre, Notre Dame et al. Sorry, et tous. You’re a male of indeterminate young age named Raphael, who moonlights as the mysterious Phantom R, fine art purloiner and wicked dancer. Or is it the other way around? Mon dieu, nous n'avons aucune idée foutue!

What we do know is that the aforementioned game styles are pureed into a blancmange of questing in search of an errant father also possibly involving a reanimated Napoleon Bonaparte, that’s interspersed with rhythm games and puzzles of varying difficulty degrees and a whole bunch of rather soft hidden object hunting. Soft in that it just involves stabbing randomly at the screen to find stuff like sound effects, bonus points and sheet music fragments.

There’s a tendency too often towards dialogue overload, but the Jackoesque Moonwalker – uh, Lunewalker - segments are usually enough to drag you back just when interest starts flaggenating. It’s no Elite Beat Agents – sadly - but RTATET does got some beat, and has some funk-infested multiplayer modes.

So, look out Paris, vous avez été frappé près, vous avez été frappé par un criminel lisse...

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