The remaster is now the order of the day, but among the many possibilities perhaps Voodoo Vince would not be part of the first row of titles that we would have expected to see in a restructured form, perhaps not even the second. It is likely that Microsoft has wanted to go out to retrieve his old production with some charisma to be re-proposed to the new public, but also looking at the old catalog of the first Xbox perhaps the choice could have fallen on some other title.
The idea, then, is that someone in Redmond would love the Vodoo doll in question so much that they absolutely want to revise it in an updated form, sponsored an operation that at first glance seems to have rather bizarre outlines: in fact, we are faced with a remaster not overly cared for a title not really memorable, yet in all this you can find a sense in the revival of a formula that now seems completely out of time. Given that the recipe for the construction of the
3D platform has always been firmly in the hands of Nintendo alone – and after years this is even more evident – between the end of the 90s and early 2000 emerged a series of alternatives more or less successful, whose best results probably came from those who distanced
themselves further from the “mariesche” formulas of the pure platformer to go and explore areas bordering the adventure. Precisely in these hybrid areas, away from uncomfortable comparisons with plumbers and other well-known titles,
Voodoo Vince: Remastered is a concentrate of magic (black) from the lousiana, between jazz and zombies
A STRANGE WORLD
It is not easy to determine why the 3D platformers are now almost extinct, and on this front Voodoo Vince Remastered, as well as the new but equally nostalgic Yooka-Laylee, can provide some clues about it. Perhaps the continuous search for cinematic visualization and cinematic taste and the need to maintain an extreme coherence between animations and the performance of the action led to the
disappearance of 3D games so adverse to being largely scripted or “adjusted” to favor the graphic compactness and the needs of the script. The new taste has also encouraged the return of the 2D or in any case of the action on the two-dimensional plane, so the platform has found its own way in the classical setting, abandoning in large part the third dimension,
The clumsiness, but also the typical humorous and creative approach to the various game situations that were typical of the 3D platform emerge fully in Voodoo Vince Remastered, essentially reproposing the same game that came out in 2003. It was a rather late title at the time,
joint towards the end of the wave of the early 2000s and for this reason perhaps less impact on the contemporary scene and yet also among the most complex titles in its sub-genre, in some respects. It can not be said that Vodoo Vince sprints an irresistible charisma, yet the world in which he moves has kept intact his particular charm made of voodoo witchcraft, playing on the typical atmosphere of the creole setting of
New Orleans and its surroundings.The story is simple and sees the protagonist, accidentally animated by an accidental spilling of voodoo powder, go in search of this precious Zombie Dust and rescue the creator, Madam Charmaine, from the clutches of the perfidious Kosmo.
The classic adventurous journey with premises perfectly in line with the platform’s canon, but the characterization of places and characters is always very special and gives Voodoo Vince a very marked identity. The same, probably, can not be said of the level design, intricate but little studied and rhythmed compared to other colleagues of the genre.
