Microsoft is looking to change that this fall with Voodoo Vince, a humorous platformer in which players take the role of a one-eyed voodoo doll who’s been Pinocchio’d by zombie dust and has to find his master before she’s tossed in the bayou. Along the way Vince will encounter all forms of swamp-inspired creatures who’ve also been brought to life by zombie dust: flying frogs, gas-breathing dragonflies, exploding cicadas and more. We’ve spent a solid week with the most recent build of Voodoo Vince, and I can tell you that if the final product is anything like what we’ve played, then Voodoo Vince is the single platformer every Xbox gamer will want to own.

Before you think I’m a complete fanboy, recall my impressions of the game from E3. At the time, I insisted that the "combat" was overly simplistic and the game didn’t engross me in the least. Basically, I was underwhelmed with darn near everything about the game except its stylized graphics. Turns out, that was only the first level, I had been playing with the sound completely off, and we hadn’t had the time to explore the game’s nooks and crannies.

I still stand by my E3 impression that the combat is quite simple, but it’s simple in a classic sort of way. Although you’ll have both a punch and spin attack, the best in most cases is the spin, which harkens back to the days of Super Mario Bros. 3 and the magic feather. When you had that little token you weren’t invincible, but it made life infinitely easier. Unlike that classic platformer, though, Voodoo Vince varies its rewards for different attacks, be it earning more Mardi Gras beads for a punch than for a spin, or taking fewer hits to kill an enemy with your fist than with your flailing ragdoll arms.

As a voodoo doll, Vince also has at his disposal wacky powers that kill all the enemies within a given radius. Hop into a blender, get squashed by a giant cow, poke yourself with needles or call down a UFO to abduct you, and your enemies will be vanquished in the same manner. These attacks vary in style and presentation, but they all have the same effect: "killing" Vince in order to dispatch his enemies. Although these attacks are randomly selected from the powers you’ve accumulated, they’re all extremely funny and show the developers’ equally "random" humor. Naturally, having only played the first level at E3, I didn’t truly get a taste of the hilarity of the game, even in combat.

Nor did I truly grasp the impeccable level design. If the combat in Voodoo Vince is elementary, then its level design is pure PhD. The first level has you exploring Bourbon Street, a straightforward task in which you walk through alleys and hop from awning to awning. Yet poke around a bit more, and you’ll find a completely separate underworld in which you can meander through drainpipes and into otherwise unreachable areas. It’s more than just decoration, though, with hidden items and entertaining sights to see for your exploratory efforts. In later levels, the creative design expands further, taking you on adventures from treetop swinging via ziplines to catapulting your flaming self through a library via crossbows. These levels generally include the requisite lever-pulling and jumping, but they do so in such a creative manner that each new "mission" feels fresh. Even the vehicle-based levels (which include rat-riding and hovercraft-piloting) provide a new challenge each time around. Truly, Voodoo Vince has the best platforming levels I’ve seen since Sly Cooper, and that’s a platformer I believe no PS2 owner should live without.

Platformers since the days of Mario have relied heavily upon collecting items, and Microsoft’s upcoming game is no different. From Mardi Gras beads and extra voodoo powers to skull-adorned papers and life-giving crystals, Voodoo Vince implores you to collect things throughout its varied levels. Collecting these items is a matter of both gathering the items fallen enemies leave behind and exploring every possible inch of a level. Pause the game, and you can see a menu of the items available and those you’ve missed. Using the toy-train transportation system, it’s easy to go back to preceding levels and find the goodies you missed the first time around.

Level design aside, one of the best parts of Voodoo Vince has got to be the game’s humor. Like "Shrek" the movie and the classic "Looney Toons" cartoons, Voodoo Vince is at its core a kid-friendly product with enough subtle (and not-so-subtle) humor that an adult audience will enjoy watching (in this case, playing) as much as their children. From snide comments directed toward enemies to sarcastic remarks made toward the player, Vince has a wit about him that’s a nice break from the standard platforming fare. Not that Vince is brash or crude, mind you, but he’s just edgy enough to feel like "one of the guys."

Voodoo Vince failed to impress me at E3, and I was worried that this most recent build would prove my concern true: that Voodoo Vince would suffer the next Blinx-like fate of an eye-candy-gone-tedious game. Well give me a fork and napkin, because I’m about to eat my words. Even in its not-quite-complete state, Voodoo Vince delivers solid level design and some surprisingly original gameplay, and I can now officially say that I’m looking forward to the game’s release. Before you dismiss Voodoo Vince altogether as a simple game for simple minds, remember that not only do Xbox owners need a good platformer, but they’re about to get one of the best ones the next-gen consoles have seen.