Scaler is an interesting game. If you don't read the back of the box, the intro cutscene makes no sense to you. Even if you do read the back of the box, it still might not make much sense. You play as Bobby "Scaler" Jenkins, a lizards' rights activist who stumbled upon a world domination plot conducted by his neighbor who is actually a lizard. Bobby is turned into a lizard, known as Scaler, and goes through a portal to the dimension that his neighbor came from. He meets his dad here, although his dad doesn't remember being his dad until most of the way through the game. There's isn't a ton of development there, but the ending is what really struck me as odd about this game. Scaler goes through the portal back to his dimension and his dad barely doesn't make it. Scaler, once again Bobby, yells for his dad as the portal closes and the game fades to the credits. I'm honestly not sure if they were trying to set up for a sequel or what the plan was there, but I was laughing pretty hard at the end.
Gameplay-wise, Scaler is a 3D platformer. You jump around areas, grind on rails, and because all video games need it, there are combat sections where you have to beat waves of enemies. The combat is pretty barebones and kinda sucks. Most of the combat was just spamming X to use the tongue to insta-kill weaker enemies or stun larger enemies so I could spam B and kill the larger enemies while they were stunned. The rail sections work absurdly well considering how fucking awfully they work in every Sonic game that came out around this time. I'm still shocked at how Scaler could pull that off without any issues and SEGA completely missed the ball time after time. The big thing that sets Scaler apart from other platformers of it's era (aside from working rail sections) are the transformations. Scaler can turn into specific enemies you've sort of absorbed after beating enough of them. You can only turn into specific enemies on specific levels, but the game does do some interesting things with this. It allows for more interesting boss fights than would have probably been available as base Scaler. There are unique platforming sections focused around these transformations. For example, when you turn into the ball guy (Krok or something?) there are race sections where you have to complete 4 challenges in order to beat the level. Some of them are races, some are time trials, some are breaking obstacles along the track within a time limit. There is a transformation where you can fly and have to go through rings in a time limit. While you sadly can't use every transformation in every level, limiting it this way did allow the devs to make levels more interesting and enjoyable.
The art looks like you'd expect from a studio that primarily made movie licensed games. Which is to say, it doesn't look that good graphically. The design of everything is fairly interesting and does look like what I'd imagine an evil lizard dimension/planet to look like, although I do wish there were more variety in the environment beyond the occasional color change.
Scaler is surprisingly competent considering I went into this expecting something on the level of what you'd expect from a forgotten 3D platformer in the 6th gen called "Scaler." Definitely worth a shot, and it's fairly short to boot.
Gameplay-wise, Scaler is a 3D platformer. You jump around areas, grind on rails, and because all video games need it, there are combat sections where you have to beat waves of enemies. The combat is pretty barebones and kinda sucks. Most of the combat was just spamming X to use the tongue to insta-kill weaker enemies or stun larger enemies so I could spam B and kill the larger enemies while they were stunned. The rail sections work absurdly well considering how fucking awfully they work in every Sonic game that came out around this time. I'm still shocked at how Scaler could pull that off without any issues and SEGA completely missed the ball time after time. The big thing that sets Scaler apart from other platformers of it's era (aside from working rail sections) are the transformations. Scaler can turn into specific enemies you've sort of absorbed after beating enough of them. You can only turn into specific enemies on specific levels, but the game does do some interesting things with this. It allows for more interesting boss fights than would have probably been available as base Scaler. There are unique platforming sections focused around these transformations. For example, when you turn into the ball guy (Krok or something?) there are race sections where you have to complete 4 challenges in order to beat the level. Some of them are races, some are time trials, some are breaking obstacles along the track within a time limit. There is a transformation where you can fly and have to go through rings in a time limit. While you sadly can't use every transformation in every level, limiting it this way did allow the devs to make levels more interesting and enjoyable.
The art looks like you'd expect from a studio that primarily made movie licensed games. Which is to say, it doesn't look that good graphically. The design of everything is fairly interesting and does look like what I'd imagine an evil lizard dimension/planet to look like, although I do wish there were more variety in the environment beyond the occasional color change.
Scaler is surprisingly competent considering I went into this expecting something on the level of what you'd expect from a forgotten 3D platformer in the 6th gen called "Scaler." Definitely worth a shot, and it's fairly short to boot.
Reviewed on Jul 04, 2022