After we'd dodged his stomps and swipes and whipped him a few times with the flaming stick, the grizzly ran off, leading us straight to Gray Bear's cave. Here, we earned our first real weapon, a tomahawk, and set out to destroy a few golden beetles, the glowing blood of which was apparently necessary to read a few cave paintings. We also had a chance to possess and control a skunk, which was awesome.
Unfortunately for Brave, though, the cheery, kid-friendly atmosphere wasn't enough to keep things from turning sour for him. Once he'd finished the lengthy tutorial, the Grand Theft Auto-style map and "mobile stone" he'd used to talk to Gray Bear went dead, and flames rose up on the horizon. The Wendigo, a mythical monster represented here as a sort of gigantic red floating cow skeleton, was attacking the village and turning its residents into mindless zombies.
Brave looks weird and silly, and at first blush it seems like just another Tak- or Jak-style platformer. Even so, we have to admit we're impressed with how smoothly the game plays so far. The PS2 isn't exactly starved for decent platform-hopping adventures, but there's a lot of potential here. If the rest of the game is as interesting as what we've seen so far, then this might actually be worth a look when it ships in August.
