I first started writing video game reviews way back in 1996 for The Dallas Morning News (yeah, newspapers, remember those?), and it was around the same time that the N64 was released.  So I got to review a lot of N64 games then.  But surprisingly, Glover wasn’t one of them.  Which is strange because I remember Hasbro Interactive, the publishers of that game at the time, being one of my first PR contacts.  Since then I’ve read and watched a lot of stories about how Glover was a memorable game to people as a kid, for better or for worse.  So I’m glad that I’m finally able to review the game with QByte Classics re-release of Glover.  It’s available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.

In the game, a wizard in a tower is brewing a potion when an accident happens and he’s blown away and crashes through the floor below.  His magic gloves fall off, one flying out the window and one falling into the potion, turning evil.  Outside, the good glove Glover sees magical crystals being blown out the tower as well.  Using quick thinking, Glover zaps the crystals with magic, turning them into bouncy balls so they don’t break.  Now he must guide the bouncy balls back to the tower and save the day.

Glover is a 3D platformer where your goal is to make it to the goal with the ball intact.  You can run and double jump without the ball, and when you have the ball, you can guide it around with your hand.  You can also dribble the ball to help reach higher areas, as well as throw it, ride it across water, and change it into different balls with various properties and weights, like a bowling ball.  Scattered about the levels are cards you can collect for points, too.

As an early 3D platformer, Glover may seem basic at first but getting that ball to the goal is the main gimmick.  But boy is this game rough.  The controls are especially bad.  When you roll the ball on water, your controls are reversed, simulating how you have to walk backwards on a ball to make it go forward.  Sure it’s realistic, but not very intuitive here.  And other actions like throwing and dribbling aren’t easy to pull off either.  Even the practice level is hard.  Because of the bad controls, I lost interest in this one pretty quickly.  Maybe it’s good I didn’t review this one back in the day after all.

Kid Factor:

Glover is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Fantasy Violence.  If you get hit by cartoony enemies, you just flash and get knocked back and that’s it.  Reading skill is helpful for the text, and younger gamers may get frustrated at the difficulty and controls.  Seriously, I don’t know how kids played this back in the day and enjoyed it.  I guess it was just all we had and didn’t know any better.

Tags: Game Reviews