Brave: The Search for Spirit Dancer (PlayStation 2, 2007)

This game initially appeared to be a little too simple, but after the initial introduction to the controls and environment interaction, it quickly became clear that it was going to be at least a good play.

As the levels progressed, I became more absorbed into the game storyline and the increasingly challenging battles (well, some were a little repetitive, but there was enough variety and unique boss battles to hold my interest and qualify as really fun).

For a PS2 game, the graphics were suprisingly well done, downright beautiful, and PS2 usually looks a little dull and flat when it comes to color textures and shading.

There were a few parts of the game that were reminiscent of other great 3D platform games I have loved,- like the Tak series, Pitfall: The Lost Expedition, among others,-.. in fact, there were some levels that had specific game challenges with tools/items/control that I would swear were done by the coders for those games, if not directly taken from those games (which wasn't a bad thing, as those were a big part of the greatness of this and those games).

I usually prefer playing platform games on GameCube, as it does far better color depth, texture and shading,- but whenever the same games look to be virtually identical on the PS2, I always choose it by default.- because in in-game quick button press challenges,- circle, square, triangle, X is instantly reacted to,- as oppossed to red, green, shoulder button presses on GameCube. Also, the dualshock controller (PS1/PS2/PS3) is more resonsive than that of the GameCube,- not to mention that I have worn out the jump button on GameCube controllers by playing long platform games (the buttons silicon reflex material under the buttons wore out and the jump button would stick down, not return to up position). I have a friend who works in Nintendo's tech dept who sent me a bunch of replacement silicone reflex parts, but they are a little hassle to change out. I also have adapters that permit me to play my GameCube using wired or wireless dualshock controllers, unfortunately, other than for games like Resident Evil, the dualshock controller doesn't allow the camera angle viewpoint control to pan up and dowwn as far as necessary, for some reason, whereas the GameCube controller has extreme up/down panning ability,.. go figure?