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Posted on December 31st, 2006 - 3148 Reads

Rated Everyone Back to Stone Game Boy Review

-- Written by Clark Nielsen



 I once had a rock collection, but I gave up on it when my mother pointed out that most of my rocks were coming from the driveway. I still have an affinity for rocks and collecting in general, though, so a video game about rocks (or stones, if you will) is a welcome opportunity. But while Back to Stone rocks in some respects, the game, like the geological formations it's based on, feels a little old.

Pathetic jokes aside, Back to Stone is not the kind of game I would expect this late into the Game Boy Advance lifecycle. The graphics have a drab, ugly, grainy finish about them, and the whole presentation doesn't even come close to the level of quality seen in Sigma Star Saga and Mario & Luigi. Back to Stone also takes place in an isometric world. I've been hesitant to play isometric games ever since Banjo Kazooie for the GBA, since it was so hard to gauge where ledges were in that game. Fortunately, Back to Stone doesn't suffer the same fate. Everything is very readable, and you'll never get confused as to what is what. You just won't be overly impressed by anything you see.

When it comes to the core of the game, if you are at all familiar with the old adage "Sticks and stones may break my bones..." then you should know what to expect. Back to Stone is little on dialogue and big on thrusting you into the action, even from the start. This is an action/adventure game that focuses very heavily on your character and what he can do. The hero is the leftovers of some bizarre experiment, an experiment which granted him the ability to turn monsters into stone. With this power, when you defeat a monster, it becomes a rock. And before the rock crumbles, you can use it to reach higher ledges, slam it into other enemies, or slide it onto a switch. Several stone-based puzzles abound, and most of it is pretty clever and entertaining. It's just a little disappointing the rock idea wasn't taken a step further to allow you to pick up, carry, and throw stones or even to use them in more elaborate situations like catapulting yourself somewhere.

Another offset of the experiment has turned this hero into a demon hybrid. If his health reaches a certain point, he will transform into his own monster. However, there isn't any significant difference between being human and being demon. They play the same. Only seldom are you required to be a human to talk to another human. But since you have demon roots, you can call on a powerful spell to help wipe out bigger enemies. Filling this magic meter requires collecting gems. Gems aren't just lying around willy-nilly, though. They only appear when you've placed a stone on a green switch. It sounds like it would be a hassle to fill your meter, then, but it actually only takes a couple gems to do so, and having to solve mini-puzzles to get it is more rewarding than just fighting monsters and hoping one of them drops something useful.

Back to Stone sticks to the isometric view rather rigidly, though. Pushing up on the D-pad actually moves you up and to the right. Pushing right moves you down and right. It's disorienting and very difficult to get used to. Why they couldn't just map the movement to the buttons directly, I don't know. It isn't like they have eliminated the option to move straight up or down, either, because all you have to do is hold two buttons to get this result. It doesn't make any sense.

The isometric control is annoying, but it doesn't necessarily make the game frustrating. In fact, Back to Stone seems like one of those rare games that manages to balance frustration and challenge quite well. Monsters are always in abundance, and they can easily wipe you out, but they all have patterns and weaknesses which can be exploited. Save points and health (in the form of innocent, purple monsters) are spaced far enough apart to force you to be careful in getting between points yet don't seriously penalize you if you do happen to die. I can't count how many times I've gotten Game Over, but knowing it only set me back about 1-2 minutes each time wasn't such a big deal.

What really hurts this game is its reliance on passwords. Save points are merely placeholders while the game is still on. Their main function is to give you a password for when you turn the game off and want to come back. But saving your progress through "pass codes" is such an archaic and inconvenient setup. I'm surprised we're still seeing games use this cheap trick, because it's a hassle to repeatedly write down and type in a complicated series of letters and numbers. It makes Back to Stone harder to enjoy in small increments. Call me spoiled and a hater of the old-school way, but any game that uses passwords to save your progress gets an immediate thumbs down from me. It's inexcusable and doesn't belong in a game released in late 2006. A save file--even just one--would have upped the score of this game by a full point, at least.

You may think it possible to beat the game in one sitting, thus eliminating the need for passwords, but Back to Stone is a surprisingly long adventure. It'll take 8-10 hours total to see it from beginning to end. But is there any need to keep playing after that? Besides a few health-increasing crescents you may have missed along the way, there's really nothing to look for or do to keep you going. Back to Stone is very linear and isn't the kind of game I would recommend playing multiple times. It had its fun and clever moments, but most of its novelty wore off about halfway through the first run.

Final Comments:
I hope this isn't the only time we see Back to Stone, because its basis would definitely benefit from a bigger production on the DS or even as a 3D adventure on a home console. I like that you can turn enemies to stone and use them to solve puzzles. I like that your character slowly transforms into a demon the more he is hurt. I even like the way collecting gems is set up. But none of this fully takes off. It's a GBA game that feels like it's just trying to make ends meet. However, it's still a lengthy and enjoyable experience, and I would have given it a higher score (and higher recommendation) if it weren't for the fact that Back to Stone uses passwords--of all things--to save your progress. If that doesn't bother you, then you've got a decent game waiting for you on Amazon.

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