Just… wow. How do I begin with this one?

This is without a doubt the worst game I’ve ever played.

Now the game was developed by Travelers Tales. TRAVELERS TALES. The developers of Lego Star Wars, Crash Twinsanity, and this underrated gem on the Genesis called Puggsy. How could one of my favorite development studios end up making a game like… THIS? I’ll tell you. Game director Jon Burton ended up having to shift priorities to another game, and the publisher, Psygnosis… well… they took complete control.

Let’s start with the story and concepts. It’s actually not bad. You play as Callum "Rascal” Clockwise, son of inventor Professor Casper Clockwise. Professor Clockwise has built a time machine but is confronted by Chronon, the Evil Master of Time (honestly Chronon looks like a much, MUCH creepier version of Crash Bandicoot's N. Tropy), because… actually we don’t know what Chronon’s motives are. Red flag! Red flag! Villain's motives aren’t even explained! But he and the Professor activate a time machine that sends them back in time. And it’s up to Rascal to save his dad.

Now the concept of visiting levels in the past, present, AND future sounds awesome. But Psygnosis totally took the coolness out of it all with all the dumb changes they made. They changed the analog movement that was common in 3D platformers to the same movement scheme as Tomb Raider (forward to build momentum, left and right to steer, and down to back up) because they thought it was popular. Yeah, not for platformers, it ain’t. I mean, yes it was used for the Croc games but as imperfect as those were they were still fun, and it was excusable for being one of the first few 3D platformers ever developed. And at least the levels in Croc were BUILT around this control scheme. The same can’t be said for Rascal. This control change also led to problems with the camera - which seems to have a mind of its own, and it seems to just HATE you, and it stabs you in the back every time. It’s made worse by the fact that the levels are a bit cramped. You don’t immediately stop when landing after a running jump, which means you can fall off a platform. Your main weapon is a bubble gun, which sounds stupid. And that’s because it is. It shoots bubbles. You can pick up extra bubble ammo, because when you don’t have any, you can still shoot, but your bubble shots hardly do squat without any ammo. And extra lives? Never found a single one when I played this piece of steaming donkey crap. And that sucks, because getting a game over sends you back to the beginning. So, I guess that’s why you make the smart choice of saving the game. But when you save and restart the game, and load your save file, you retain your amount of lives from beforehand. So if you have only one life left, knowing how unplayable this game is, you’re fucked.
This game had SO MUCH POTENTIAL and the publisher butchered it all. The worst part is that it’s not even Jon Burton’s fault.

Tell you what, if you receive a disc of this game thrown into the case of another game you bought on eBay, same as I did, keep in mind it may be a freebie but it’s worthless. You shouldn’t even bother selling it on eBay. Just destroy it. You’ll thank me.

I’d give it 0 stars out of 5, but half a star is the lowest rating they’ll let me give this piece of shit.

Game feels absolutely sluggish. It's a drag to get through it, by every sense of the word. Camera angles are killing me, the movement is garbage, because it feels like I'm using a pool cue while I'm just trying to turn a little and keep running. Level designs are what they are, and enemies are entirely representative of how unimaginative the levels also are. With that being said, the OST is a banger. I recall loving it ever since my childhood and that hasn't changed. Neither has my distaste for the overall game design! But with a positive and relaxed mindset, knowing what you're getting, I think you can find enjoyment in it!