Blood Lines (Playstation)

 Everyone loves to read about Japan-exclusive Playstation games, but Blood Lines is part of a much rarer breed: PAL-exclusive Playstation games! Despite that, someone at Sony Europe must have had some faith in it, as I remember playing it on a magazine demo disc back at the time. I especially remember the line "LOSING BECOMES YOU!" that one of the characters shouts after winning a round, in an exagerrated posh accent.

 

But after winning a round of what? A combination of tig, and a four corners strap wrestling match. Also, it's set in some kind of dystopian future. How it works is that you and your opponent start in the middle of a small 3D platform stage, at strategic points of which are a bunch of energy field things. These fields start off green (neutral), until the first player touches one. Then, that field changes to be their colour, and they become the active player, so they can touch the others to make them their colour. Turn all except one of the things to your colour to win the match.

 

If you're not the active player, you've got to chase them, and when you catch them, you'll do a wrestling move to them and become the active player yourself. All the while, both players can keep tapping square to shoot little homing projectiles at each other, the effect of which isn't exactly clear, but I think the active player getting hit brings them a tiny amount closer to their opponent, and the passive player getting hit sends them a tiny amount further away.

 

It's an interesting idea to make a gritty sci-fi version of a game most people left behind in primary school, and it kind of pays off? Like, this is a pretty fun game! I imagine, if you could somehow convince someone to play it with you, you'd both have a good time. And, in an even more far-fetched scenario, you might even set up a multi-tap and get three other people to play with you, in the four player party mode. In this mode, there are obviously four characters in play at the same time, and two can be active at any times. THe aim is still to turn all but one of the fields your colour, though. It really seems like this could be a nice bit of chaotic fun if you could get it running with the right group of people. I do wonder if it's ever actually been played with a full cohort outside of the developer's offices, though. 

 

Blood Lines is a fun game! It's decent enough as a solo player and though I can only speak on multiplayer from a theoretical standpoint, like I said: if you've got a group that's willing to try out something a little strange and different, I think you'll get a lot out of it.