He can't run as fast as Sonic and he can't jump as high as Mario, but he can manipulate the flow of time. Destined to become the new mascot for Xbox, please welcome the first truly next-generation console character, Blinx.

Blinx is one of those games that hooks you instantly and keeps you playing for hours at a time, but can also be dipped into for a quick session. Everything about it shouts quality, from the menus and loading screens to the game itself. When you start the game don't skip the introductory sequence, it's magic - beautiful graphics, a cool design that is reminiscent of the Monsters Inc. factory and the cats are cute with their futuristic togs and funny cat language. Blinx works for the time factory that sends time to other planets and he's one of the timesweepers - it's his job to clear up any glitches that turn into time monsters. However, the greedy Tom-Tom Gang has used a planet to create masses of time crystals and sell them on at a handsome profit. Many of the crystals have mutated into monsters, overloading the system and causing it to begin a shutdown. Heroically Blinx charges in, determined to destroy all of the monsters, return the planet to normal and rescue the princess that the gang's leader has kidnapped.

As with all quality platform games, the first few levels train you in the necessary skills without boring you. Your timesweeper can suck up junk that is lying around and blast it out at the monsters to shatter them into time crystals. You can then collect the crystals to get time controls. You have four slots that the crystals fit into, but at least three must be the same type for you to earn a control. If you manage to pick up four of the same type, you earn two controls. Each time control and their corresponding crystal are a different colour and shape, making it very easy to spot the ones you need.

As the timesweeper, you are the only thing not affected by time controls, creating a distinct tactical advantage. Pause and slow either pause the world entirely or slow it down to a crawl for a few seconds. During this time you are free to run around at normal speed, so you can blast defenseless monsters or run past obstacles such as swinging blades. Rewind can be used to prevent a monster attacking you or to reconstruct collapsed scenery - if the bridge in front of you collapses, just rewind and watch the pieces fly back together. Or if a big statue topples over, stand on a piece and rewind to end up stood on top of the rebuilt statue, where a secret often awaits. Fast forward is the only control that affects you as well - it speeds up everything including you, but gives you a protective shield. Each level has a time limit of 10 minutes but the timer still passes at a normal rate, meaning that fast forward allows you to gain a few extra seconds. Finally, record is the most ingenious of them all. It makes you invincible and then records what you do for the next few seconds. During this time you can blast monsters, lead them off somewhere or jump on a seesaw. At the end of the record, time rewinds and begins again. This time your recording repeats what you just did, leaving the real you to do something different. This is very useful for double teaming a group of monsters or decoying them away whilst you suck up some trash. In the case of seesaws, you can stand on one end whilst your recording jumps on the other and launches you into the air.

The graphics and animation of Blinx and all the bizarre monsters are excellent and very colourful. The way the trash distorts and shrinks as you suck it into the vacuum cleaner is very cartoonish and quite funny with the bigger items such as logs, boulders, old cars and the enormous 16-ton weights! The way the enemies react when blasted is also amusing. The scenery is very stylish, with much of it twisted due to the time distortions. There are many different areas that you visit including towns, caves, factories, ice floes, temples and mines, but the Hourglass Caves are particularly impressive with multi-coloured lights shimmering on the walls. Best of all are the time control effects. When they occur everything is tinted a certain colour and with the rewind and fast forward lines come down the screen just like with a videotape! The sound effects are excellent too, making the rewind noise or slowing down all the effects. The rest of the sound effects are lighthearted and fun, from the boing of jump pads to Blinx's miaowing when gets hit by an enemy. The music is awesome, each area has a different but equally catchy theme a, couple of which are almost cheekily reminiscent of Sonic.

The levels are split into rounds, each one a little tougher than the last. Each round features three levels, a boss level and a shop. The levels themselves are very well designed, with plenty of obstacles, floating blocks, swinging axes and jump pads to negotiate. There are a couple of things that really stand out about the game design where most other platform games fall down (no pun intended). You cannot die from falling but are just stunned for a moment - Blinx is one cat who doesn't always fall on his feet. But best of all is the way you die. Don't you just hate games that transport you back to a checkpoint (or even worse) the start of the level? Blinx's method is unique and truly ingenious. You can collect up retry hearts as they appear with the time crystals. When you get hit by an enemy or fall into oblivion, the action stops and then rewinds until a few seconds before you got hit or fell. You get to replay from where you left off and avoid the mistake you just made. It is only when you lose all of your retries that it's game over and you have to restart the level. It really is the best life system I've ever seen in a game.

There is lots of replay value from the way the levels have been designed. At the end of each level stats are presented for how long you took (including a ranking for time), how many secret cat symbols you found and how much gold you earned. This means that you are encouraged to go back to the levels to search for secret cat symbols, collect more gold or improve upon your time. The best thing is that you can focus on one task at a time. You can go back and just rush through the level, kill all the monsters as quickly as possible and get to the end to beat your best time. Or you can take nearly the whole 10 minutes searching for secrets and gold. Some secrets can only be found using different types of timesweeper and this is where the gold comes in. Each shop stocks various items including retries, bombs, extra retry holders and time control holders for your sweeper. The range of different timesweepers can suck up huge objects, sand, water and fire amongst other things. There are a number of groovy outfits for Blinx to buy too, they're expensive, but hey, if you're saving the world you might as well do it in style!

There are a couple of tiny niggles - the time limit can be a pain on the tougher levels and creates a feeling of pressure that will sometimes cause you to mess up a jump or miss a secret because you are hurrying. Also, all of the peripheral scenery looks 3D but you can't jump on it, meaning that you hit a lot of invisible barriers. The most frustrating part of all is that sometimes the retry rewinds the action either too far or not far enough, meaning that you die again from the same mistake without getting the chance to correct it. This happens more on the later levels and will have you shouting at the screen in frustration, although the levels are so tough that you'll be shouting regardless! These points are all so minor that they really don't take much away from the experience.

Blinx the Timesweeper is a groundbreaking platform game with wonderful graphics, sound and music and is no doubt the beginning of the 4D game genre. Rivaling Super Mario Sunshine for fun, feel good factor, innovation and originality, this is one game that is a must-have for all Xbox owners.

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).