It's 2011. It's just been announced a new season will mix 3D and live action and auditions are underway, and the series is experiencing a boom in popularity in Spain, where it regularly features in a children's magazine and the list of official merchandise continues to grow.
Though this new popularity opened the doors for long-awaited merchandise such as the season 4 action figures (which clearly would never have been created if not for this new buzz), other merchandise such as beach balls, sandals and questionable sweets were an unexpected and underwhelming addition. However, among the slew of unexciting merchandise was a rather unusual device that has our attention today.
If we say "Code Lyoko video games," you'll probably think of Code Lyoko for Nintendo DS, Wii or even the newer Facebook social game, or the IFSCL fangame that had just started (and which spoiler alert is still being developed to this day). But if I told you there's a Code Lyoko game console, would you be surprised? Behind this clickbaity name hides a cheap console the likes of which we haven't seen very often since the 2000s.
Yes, that's right!
This sort of handheld console costs just a few tens of Euros and promises you dozens of classic sprite games such as breakout, racing games or even Tetris (under a different name of course, so you don't need to pay the rights to use the official game...).
It's the type of console that unwitting parents buy their children for Christmas thinking they'd found a good bargain, only for their child to cry "But I wanted a Nintendo DS!!!!"
And it's this console (thanks to an enormous amount of help from KaruzoHikari) which we've managed to procure the data from in order to take a closer look at the contents of this curious machine.
Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome the Code Lyoko - Sprite Console (since we couldn't think of a better-sounding name).
Technical information
Released by Ingo Devices (specialising in this type of console for kids, went out of business in 2016), this console was sold in packaging that advertised its 2.7" screen (about 7cm diagonally).
It promises 25 video games as well as a TV output that doesn't seem very useful (we highly doubt you could use just any TV with this 16-bit 30 Euro console).
The console itself has a directional pad and two buttons, A and B, on the front. Two L and R buttons on the corners for the Reset and Start functions, as well as + and - volume buttons and an On/Off switch.
Also, it has 3 ports: AV out (for the TV, perhaps?), an audio jack for headphones and a DC IN 5V port. For charging it, you say? Well no, because as you'll see from the back, it runs on 3 AAA batteries.
Apart from that, the console is simply madeof blue plastic with a sticker showing the Digital Sea.
Interface and secondary games
Let's get back to the main subject: Does this console really contain 25 games? The answer is "Yes, but..."
25 games yes, but not 25 Code Lyoko games. It's pretty common with these cheap consoles for the company to buy random game software and stick the appropriate branding on top of it, then sell it as the spectacular new console for your favourite TV show! And that's what happened here. Once the console is booted, a Code Lyoko background appears before taking you to a main menu with 5 categories of games: Puzzle, Action, Sport, Race and Code Lyoko, all decorated with the XANA logo.
Let's take a quick look at the first 4 categories, as they have nothing to do with the series. Breakout, Tetris, Puzzle Bubble, flying or racing games, bowling, tennis or baseball and more: everything this 16-bit console and its MIDI music can give you. (And we're talking generic music, nothing from the series.)
Now let's get to the interesting bit and the main topic of this file: the Code Lyoko games. It's pretty rare for this sort of console but the developers went to the effort of making 5 Code Lyoko minigames for us to now analyse:
- Aelita Space War
- Ulrich Adventures
- Yumi move Box
- Fighter Odd
- Code Lyoko Memory
Right, as you can probably guess, some of these games aren't exactly masterpieces. And none of the others are either.
Aelita Space War
Let's start with our first game, featuring Aelita. This game consists of shooting balls thrown by a boss by firing what appears to be a grappling gun up into the air. When shot, the balls split into two smaller balls. Once all of them have been destroyed, the boss is killed. If a ball hits Aelita, she loses one of her 5 lives.
Here's the skin showing Aelita with her wings out on Lyoko, as well as the virtual monsters used as bosses (Hornet, Manta and Konger). The first 4 levels take you to different Sectors of Lyoko: Mountain, Desert, Forest and the Digital Sea. The next 4 levels use the same Sectors and bosses but the difficulty increases. The game ends after 8 levels.
Ulrich Adventures
By far and away the game with the most effort put into it. Here you play as Ulrich on Lyoko and you need to survive against the monsters of the virtual world. It's a basic platforming game where the player needs to get to the end of the level to get to the next one, without getting hit by the monsters or falling down holes. To fight, say goodbye to your sabres and hello to projectiles: Ulrich throws balls at the monsters to immobilise them and deactivate their hitbox. After a few seconds, the monsters recover and resume their movement pattern. Different bonuses allow Ulrich to gain points, recover lives or become invincible for a short time.
The game has 4 levels: like for the first game you go through the Mountain, Desert, Forest and Digital Sea. As for monsters, you'll find Tarantulas, Hornets, Kalamars, Kankrelats, Krabs and Creepers.
If you're skilled enough to make it to the end of the last level, you'll face off aginst XANA-William as the final boss.
Yumi move Box
It's a top-down puzzle game where you use Yumi to move the blocks to particular spots. The level is completed once all blocks are in place.
The game contains 33 levels. The first 30 can be selected from the menu. The difficulty increases with each one. The only references to Code Lyoko are in the Yumi skin, as well as the walls and floors decorated with the eye of XANA.
Fighter Odd
A top-down shooting game where Odd fights enemies with his laser arrows. Odd has a limited number of lives against an increasing number of enemies.
Odd faces off against a number of monsters including Bloks, Kalamars, Krabs and the Black Manta, as well as a bunch of random droids all out for the hero's skin.
Code Lyoko Memory
A very basic memory game where the goal is to find every pair of cards without running out of life points. There are 20 levels in total with increasing difficulty as there are more types of cards to memories in each round.
The only reference to Code Lyoko is the renders used on each card. They include the Lyoko Warriors (no William), all the monsters from the Digital Sea, a Kankrelat, a Krab, a Blok, the Scyphozoa and the Kolossus.
