Spectrobes (DS) Review
In Spectrobes you take on a character by the name of Rallen, a junior officer of the Planetary Patrol. Your Commander orders you to investigate a strange distress signal on another planet. Upon discovering an old man in a cryogenic capsule, you are attacked by what looks like a purple tornado, The Krawl. The Krawl are the natural enemies in Spectrobes, and are jumping from planet to planet and destroying everything in sight.
Since day one critics looked down on this game as just a Pokemon clone, how wrong they were. The only similarity to Pokemon is that you train and fight monsters. What makes this game so unique and like none other is how you catch your Spectrobes, well you dont catch them at all! You dig them up! Spectrobes have been extinct for many years and you must locate and excavate their fossils. Excavating the fossils is not as straight forward as you think, you start off with 3 drill sizes and a blower, you drill by selecting what size drill then you just simply use the stylus as it where a drill, and drill away the dirt around the fossil. The blower is used to remove any loose dirt on the fossil this can be used just by blowing into the mic. Once you have uncovered 95% of the fossil you can then pick it up. You get experience points based on how much damage you caused the fossil and time spent to excavate it. If done well your fossil will also come with a custom part that can be used later to customize your adult Spectrobe.
Once you have your fossil its time to wake it up. This is done using the Lab system on your spacecraft. To wake it you have to yell Wake Up for a certain time depending on the type of Spectrobe (Thankfully just blowing into the mic works just as well) Once your Spectrobe is awake you must then place it in the incubator and feed it minerals (that you also excavate) each mineral has its own properties, some may increase your Spectrobes HP but also decrease your Spectrobes ATK. Spectrobes level up very differently to Pokemon as well, instead of having one experience bar they have 3, one each for HP, Attack and Defence, and once one of these levels up so does your Spectrobe. A Spectrobe has 3 stages in its life Child, Adult, and Evolved. A Spectrobe can only fight at Adult and Evolved stages. A Child Spectrobe is used to locate Fossils, Minerals, and Cubes in the ground.
The battle system again is very different to Pokemon, mostly because its not turn based and you your self can get into the action with your sword or blaster (both upgradeable). Learning how to fight is not easy, for one you control the movement of both yourself and your 2 Spectrobes at the same time, although this sounds awkward its a system that works. The L button gives commands to the Spectrobe on your left and vice versa with the R button. There is always a lot going on during a battle, its always 3 Krawl against you and two Spectrobes so for a beginner this can get confusing. The graphics in the game are pretty sweet so you can always make out who is who. There are only 3 power types of Spectrobes, Corona, Aurora, and Flash. Each is stronger than another but weaker than the other. But there are about 500 different Spectrobes, so although there are only the 3 types dont let that fool you. Once at the Evolved stage of a Spectrobes life, 2 Spectrobes can combine their attack, giving more damage to your enemy.
The game in general looks great. Large open colourful planets for you to explore and the graphics are quite nice for the DS hardware. The touch screen is used for excavation and going through menus. Another unique part of this game is the code input cards; these cards are placed over the touch screen to unlock minerals, items, and Spectrobes to name a few. Each card has a series of numbered holes in it; you simply place it over the touch screen and poke your stylus through each hole in order and viola! You get 4 cards with the game and in the future you will be able to get them from retail stores.
Spectrobes also takes advantage of the Nintendo Wifi service, but dont get overly excited, you cannot battle online. Using the Wifi service you can download special parts, Spectrobes and items. Each Friday you get 10 DL points these are used to download your items, but make sure you log on each Friday as if you do not collect them then they will be forfeited. The Wifi also allows you to upload your scores to the Spectrobes web site where you are ranked against everyone else. Thankfully you can fight and trade with your mates via local wireless and you can also have up to 16 people in a tournament, which would have been great over Wifi. Disappointing to some, both the wireless and Wifi functions must both be unlocked in the game by finding a certain cube. But for me that wasnt much of an issue as you find them quite early in the game.
I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys the Pokemon, Digimon or even Yu-gi-oh games. It falls under the same genre of games but is very unique and it will keep you entertained till Diamond and Pearl are launched.
