With arguably the best line up of current console-exclusive games and future releases, easily accessible online play and downloadable content, it would seem that the Xbox has it all. But there is at least one thing missing - a mascot. Sega has Sonic, Nintendo has Mario, PSOne has Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter have firmly established themselves as the mascot for PlayStation 2 after the release of the fantastic Jak II: Renegade. The nearest we've had to a mascot on Xbox is Blinx, however he didn't quite have the personality to do it (the fact that he doesn't speak English probably didn't help matters). But fear not Xbox lovers, Voodoo Vince is here and although he's the most unlikely mascot you could ever imagine, he's got the style, panache and personality to do the job.

Voodoo Vince used to be an inanimate voodoo doll, the third best voodoo doll of Madame Charmaine. However, after geeky wannabe villain Cosmo the Inscrutable kidnaps Madame Charmaine and steals her large shipment of zombie dust, all chaos breaks loose. You see, the dopey villain's even dopier henchmen let all the dust leak out, warping reality and bringing to life inanimate objects, which is where Vince comes in. Suddenly alive, he is the world's only hope of rescuing Madame Charmaine so she can lift the effects of the zombie dust and restore things to their natural balance once more.

It is very quickly established that Voodoo Vince is a full on comedy platformer. I'm not sure if such a genre exists yet, but the whole game is so packed-full of humour and wonderful touches that it will have you laughing out loud from start to finish. In fact, if Vince's reluctant manner, dry humour and Jon Lovitz style voice isn't enough to give this away, the first cut scene definitely is, where the menacing vision of Cosmo giving his grand speech is interrupted by one of his henchman asking where the ham is, so he can make a sandwich!! It is classic comedy and the humour element remains strong throughout the game.

The voice acting for all the main characters and bad guys is excellent, with Madame Charmaine's African accent being surprisingly convincing and Cosmo's creaky voice suiting his character perfectly, but it's definitely Vince that steals the show. The comments he makes on occasion whilst collecting objects ("Who leaves all this crap lying around anyway?") and killing enemies ("We could have been friends!") are most amusing and the cut scenes are even better. Vince pokes fun at the enemies and portrays a great range of emotions considering how cartoonish his character looks, even poking fun at the platform genre itself ("Great, here comes the obligatory boss battle!")

But enough of all this humour, what is Vince actually like as a game? The answer is simple - it couldn't be any better than it is. Voodoo Vince is classic "old-school" platforming at its absolute finest and shows there is still some mileage left in the genre. Whilst games like Jak II push the boundaries with grand stories and a range of gameplay styles, Vince does what platform games do best - loads of collectibles sneakily hidden around the place, fun tasks and puzzles, masses of ways to kill your enemies and some fiendishly created platform sections to negotiate.

The difficulty curve of the game is pitched perfectly, in that the first couple of levels don't tax you too much but do provide a significant challenge whilst teaching you the basics. You have a telepathic connection to Madame Charmaine, who guides you around from time to time and tells you what to do in each level (but not to the point where you don't have to figure things out for yourself) whilst little portraits tell you all the controls that you'll need to master. Vince is a versatile little fella and he can do a very high double jump and then float down slowly using voodoo magic. He can punch, do a spin attack (which can also be pulled off in mid air to get you that bit further on a long jump) and dive down to head butt an enemy below him. Most important of all are Vince's voodoo attacks, which I'll come onto shortly.

Although the settings for most of the game are quite dark and dingy (shadowy streets, cemeteries, crypts, swamps and mansions) the graphics are so super stylish and detailed that they are some of the best I've seen. Sure, they're not out and out spectacular but the cartoon style is so effective that it creates a very vivid and fascinating warped version of reality to explore. There are very few straight edges, almost everything has been warped and twisted a little by the zombie dust - buildings are crooked and at odd angles, streets wind around in funny ways, huge cavernous cracks break up the ground, even lampposts and trees look a bit unusual. Every level looks gorgeous with detailed textures and loads of lovely touches to the scenery. The enemies are equally quirky and bizarre, whilst being slightly limited in their variety they are all highly amusing - flying roaches that drop spiky bombs, prancing psycho rabbits, mutant frogs, giant vicious moles that erupt from the ground, dragonflies with laser cannons and more. The enemies are not very hard to kill but when there are lots of them ganging up on you things can become tricky.

It's at times like those, when there are plenty of enemies around, that it's most satisfying to unleash a voodoo attack. In the best twist to the genre I've seen since Blinx's time shifting, Vince can carry out fatal attacks on himself in order to kill his enemies! That's right, by mauling Vince in any number of horrible and fatal ways, the power of his voodoo transfers this attack to all enemies in range (and the range is quite large too) and they suffer Vince's fate whilst he is restored to his former self! When you activate the voodoo attack, all of the enemies stop and quiver with terror, watching to see the fate you are about to unleash on them. Then something fatal happens to Vince and a wave of energy comes out, with sparks of the energy flying to all nearby enemies. The voodoo powers, of which there are over 30 to collect as you progress through the game, are nothing short of hilarious.

The first you get causes Vince's three pins to fly out of his head and then back into him, the third one piercing him through the eye! Clearly dead, the voodoo transfers to the enemies, who wriggle and wail as if they are being stuck with pins before exploding into voodoo beads, which you must collect to replenish your voodoo power bar so you can unleash more attacks. But the range of attacks are divine and each is as hilarious as the last; a big chainsaw appears and cuts Vince in half; a wrecking ball flies across the screen which Vince deftly sidesteps only to be hit by it when it swings back; a bathtub with a shark's fin in it appears and Vince jumps in to be dragged around and then down into the water; a giant foot of the Gods, a truck and a space station are just three of the things that can land on him from above, then there's the acid attack, alien attack, tornado and far too many more to list. There is even one where laxatives are used to fatal effect!! The animation of every attack and the subsequent effects on enemies (seeing an enemy's surprise when it realises it's just been chopped in half) is all so well done. In fact, the whole thing is a little reminiscent of the style and quality of that unsung Xbox Live classic Whacked!, making me wonder if some of the developers of that game went on to design this one.

It could have been the case that the developers just came up with a gimmick (killing yourself to kill your enemies) and rolled out standard platform fare, but as much thought has gone into every aspect of the design of the game as it has into Vince and his powers. Every level is big, full of all manner of platforms to negotiate, nooks, crannies and tunnels to explore, generally with a range of tasks to perform as well.

One of the best levels comes up fairly early, where Vince must get hold of a trumpet to jam with a skeleton jazz player guarding a gate that Vince needs to pass. There are several shops and businesses but each is open for a different three-hour slot of the day. There is a huge clock tower that you must climb up (through some adept platform jumping) and once you reach the top you can change the time of the clock by running on a rotating platform. Little animals with gong beaters periodically rush out and try to whack you, in fact you must let them hit you when you get into the right time zone as it's the only way to get off the platform! Although you have to do this several times, if you're canny enough to feed the apple you find at the top of the tower to the horse statue at the bottom, from then on it'll kick you up to top of the tower with one swipe of its hind legs! Once you change the time you can go into a costume contest to win some cash, which you can spend going to the cinema (two kung fu movies for the price of three!) or a ladies show, or go to the pawnshop to buy a trumpet. Then you've got to head into a jazz club for a jam to get your mojo working (you come out wearing oversized sunglasses and beret!!) and then you can finally jam with the musician to get through the gate. It's perhaps a lengthy example, but this sort of innovation and variety is present on every level, so no sense of repetition sets in.

There are a number of items to collect around the levels but other than those pertaining to tasks, none are vital, meaning that if you can't locate every bag of zombie dust or reach every skull card you can just move on. There is a brilliant little travel system of train crossings that call up a train to take you to any previous level if you want to go back and collect everything. Plus, halfway through the game you get the All-Seeing Eye, which allows you to see every collectable in the level through the walls, a dead handy extra for completists like myself. The zombie dust bags increase your health bar (every 100 collected gives you a boost) whilst the hearts you find give you an extra life. The voodoo beads from the enemies boost your voodoo meter, which is represented with skulls. By collecting all the skull cards in a level you cause a skull to appear, which you must then chase and catch during the couple of seconds it stops, to give you an extra skull on your voodoo bar. So they make you work to improve your powers and this to me is a very good thing.

If all this wasn't already enough, there are a number of bizarre vehicles to ride in and these break up the gameplay a little. Such "vehicles" as a laundry basket, rocket plane, minisub, toy fanboat and bumper car are for use in levels that provide a few extra challenges. There are also levels that restrict your movement, such as an ingenious one where you must carry a large canister of explosive gas up and down a series of lifts, unable to jump or drop even the smallest distance. In other levels you must follow a ghost across a vast open pit (below which death is waiting) and run along the ghostly clouds that billow behind him but quickly fade away. There really is such a tremendous range of tasks and challenges and it's all such good fun that this is one of the most enjoyable and satisfying games I've played all year (and believe me, I've played a lot!)

The difficulty is pitched perfectly and the frustration factor kept down to a minimum thanks to the very responsive controls. Also, as Vince can float with the press of a trigger, precision jumping can be done with care and caution, gently floating down until you can see your tiny shadow on the ground below you. This takes the pressure off a bit, allowing you to take your time if you wish. The boss encounters are some of the most amusing and original ones I've ever seen too - the first is in a museum where a dinosaur skeleton comes alive and you must dodge it whilst flicking all the switches necessary to give yourself a massive electric shock (and thus fry the dinosaur) and they keep on getting better.

What perfectly rounds off the whole experience is the music, which is the most original, inventive and perfectly complementing soundtrack since Halo (and that's saying something). Instead of your usual platform jangly themes, Voodoo Vince goes for a distinctive style of New Orleans jazz and it works beautifully. Every level has a highly catchy, authentic sounding theme that's like nothing you've ever heard in a game before and from the slow bluesy numbers to the more upbeat jazz and the mellower tunes that are at times reminiscent of the great Pink Floyd, this is the best platform game soundtrack I've had the pleasure of listening to in a very long time and almost as innovative as Vince's powers in its own right. The only downer about this game is that it ends. It's a big game and you'll do well to fully complete it in under 10 hours, but it's not the biggest ever platformer and thus the only count on which it slightly suffers is its lifespan. Still, this is one game I'd definitely go back to and play through again just for the humour and enjoyment factor.

Voodoo Vince is undoubtedly one of the best surprises of the year - it practically snuck onto the shelves without any sort of hype and yet is not only one of the best platform games ever, but also one of the funniest. An ingenious blend of humour, challenging platform action, engaging puzzles and Vince's quirky voodoo powers combine with superbly stylish videos and an incredible soundtrack to create the quintessential platform experience on Xbox.

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