Rewind, we're back in April. Just weeks away from E3, expectations of the show are growing fast and Microsoft has unveiled their key titles for the reminder of the year.

Shown purely in screenshot form with little to no text to back up the accomplished yet aesthetically retarded graphics, predictably, Blinx gets a universal mauling. At E3, Microsoft show the world what the game is all about. People begin to take note, Blinx will change things.

The concept behind Blinx is something that is, at this time, difficult to comprehend. Not complicated, but exciting, beautiful, shocking; frightening almost. When you first hear what Blinx is all about, you can't help but raise a smile. Microsoft along side Artoon have thought up an idea that is so brilliantly clever that it almost defies description; the ramifications of what this title will bring to the industry are just too wild to sensibly predict. This is just what we need, a revolution.

Cleverly recording your every move onto the Xbox hard drive, Blinx will allow you to manipulate time on the fly. Rather than struggle up a fast flowing river, just pause time and walk up the stopped current without any effort. You stumble across a downed bridge, but rewinding time reveals the structure gloriously rebuild itself allowing safe passage.

Think about it, think of the possibilities.

3-2-1, late October. Blinx has been released and amazingly, remains virtually unnoticed. Reviews have been wildly inconsistent and sales nothing to shout about. People expect platforming; they get slow, frustrating gameplay, a hideous lead character and surprisingly, very few platforms. They give up, they return the game.

They miss the point.

No, Blinx is more of a puzzle game, or at most, a thinking mans platformer. The idea is to clean up the environment using your Luigi's Mansion inspired vacuum, ridding each level of all Time Monsters. After they've all been dispatched, you must reach the exit before the 10 minute time limit runs out. Along the way, various hazards, such as a fast moving pendulum that requires time to be stopped, or slowed, to safely pass. Better still, when two switches at opposite sides of a room need to be pressed simultaneously, by recording Blinx standing on one switch you can then wonder over to the second and press it at your leisure. The recorded image of Blinx will press the first button, while you press the second and the door opens.

Rather than having the power to manipulate time whenever you want, various time crystals must be collected and stored. For example, collect three orange crystals and you get one use of a Fast Forward. However, collect two orange and two blue, for a Pause, and all the crystals are wasted. Limiting the time control this way is immensely frustrating, not only because it ramps up the difficulty, but because the concept deserves so much more. Leave the game for a few seconds at the title screen and you are treated to a demo showing off how the game works and one of the sections, displaying pause, shows Blinx about to be killed by a Time Monster. Cleverly, he pauses time just moments before death and avoids his fate. Now, this is all extremely promising for the title, and indeed during the earlier levels such free gameplay is possible, but on the later levels, at around world four, the game shifts from being intelligently designed into something else, frivolously challenging.

You see, later on the game gets extremely tight. Collect just one crystal out of place and the entire level could be impossible to complete. Such is the linear design, when the game requires a rewind, it demands a rewind. Fail to carry enough of what the game wants and you must start from the beginning. This mean there is no time for reactions; no time to skilfully pause and dodge. If you are going to die, you will die; a massive oversight for a game which does so much to convince that you have power of time control. Although, thankfully, the levels will last a maximum of only 10 minutes, you can expect excessive trial and error gameplay for large sections of the game.

Blinx is absolutely punishing in its design, sometimes this is welcome, other times it just frustrates. To destroy the monsters you must suck up rubbish (bins, barrels, stones etc) and blow them back into the enemy. For some unknown reason, when the game is proudly displaying levels in three dimensions, Blinx can only fire on a flat 2D plane. Find an enemy above or below you and you will have to reach their level before attacking, risking a life. Worse still, stand on the edge of a platform when attacking and often the rubbish will simply get stuck at your feet.

A hideous lead character, dreadfully designed enemies, poorly judged difficulty, immensely frustrating gameplay – perhaps people aren't missing the point, perhaps Blinx is in fact a complete disaster? Wrong. When it works, Blinx almost has majestic qualities, the feeling of correctly solving a problem purely through time manipulation is indescribable; something totally new in the gaming industry. It has absolutely no time for people who are unwilling to learn, practice and master each and every level and, arguably, the rewards for doing so aren't particularly great when it's all finished. Blinx is full of flaws that should render the whole thing obsolete, and to many the title will merely be a successful yet unplayable technical demo. To others though, not necessarily those with patience, but those able to forgive, Blinx will remain an exciting challenge throughout.

None of this matters. For many, at this time, it will; but a look towards the future suggests otherwise. People will soon forget the flaws, the poor reviews, the unhealthy sales and simply remember that Blinx offered something rarely felt in the videogame industry, something so rare that the newest generation of gamers probably can't even feel it.

Blinx offers hope; hope that there is a better videogaming tomorrow.