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Spectrobes Review
Chris Leyton
21/03/2007
"You gotta excavate em all" in Disney Interactive Studios first original title...
The first original title to come from the recently re-branded Disney Interactive Studios, Spectrobes has been the subject of a major push as the mouse-house attempts to become a significant player in the videogames industry once again. Coming from Jupiter, the Japanese developer behind Square-Enix' Kingdom Hearts: Chains of Memories, the Pokemon influence running behind Spectrobes is hard to miss and it's just as hard not to take the cynical view that it's little more than a formulaic attempt to grab hold of a lucrative younger market. Nevertheless, on a number of counts Disney Interactive's attempt throws a number of new ideas into the equation that The Pokemon Company would be well advised to take note off.
Set in a fictional universe, the prologue behind Spectrobes has been the subject of a recent series of webisodes, chronicling the discovery of a wrecked transport capsule during a routine mission by Planetary Patrol Officers Rallen and Jeena. Containing an old man who has been in cryogenic sleep, Rallen and Jeanna manage to wake him and learn of his tale of how an alien race known as the Krawl had threatened his planet many year's previously. Asleep for longer then he imagined, Aldous discovers that his efforts to save his home planet are in vane, but that his knowledge could yet save the Nanairo system home to Rallen and Jeaena. Mortal enemies to the Krawl, it's up to Rallen, Jeanna, and Aldous to discover and awaken the Spectrobes, ancient mysterious beings that harness light energy to unleash devastating powers. As the only creatures capable of standing up against the evil threat posed by the Krawl, Aldous created a device known as the Prizmod, which only Rallen seems capable of operating to bring the long-extinct Spectrobes species back for one final fight.
Equipped with the Prizmod, discovering new types of Spectrobes involves using a Child form to scan the land and identify areas that have hidden fossils, minerals, or other goodies to discover. Each of the Child Spectrobes offers varying items that they can successfully detect along with the range at which they can scan. Unfortunately, for Rallen, Child Spectrobes are not particularly strong in a fight, so you'll need to evolve those you discover. Split between Corona, Aurora, and Flash classes that serve as a primary Rock-Scissors-Paper dynamic, the Spectrobes progress through three stages of evolution: Child, Adult and Evolved. With 76 different species to discover, each offering 128 levels of evolution, Spectrobes has plenty to offer for fans of collect-em-up action.
Excavating Spectrobes fossils plays a large role in the overall balance of gameplay, perhaps a little too much throughout the course of events. Using the touch-screen the challenge is to break through the encompassing stone with a variety of drills and other tools, whilst making sure not to put the fossil under enough strain to break. Completing the excavation quickly and without damage brings the benefit of Custom Parts or bonus Minergy for the resulting Spectrobe, along with points to increase Rallen's excavation experience. Awakening Spectrobes from their fossil encasement initially involves blowing into the DS microphone or, as the game instructs talking to your Spectrobes with the right tone, and sustaining this for three seconds. Dependant on the quality with which the fossil was initially excavated, the placement of the segment that you must reach changes; it's easy to reach the high levels with a sharp blast, but a short, softer, tone to reach is an entirely different prospect. Although talking delicately to your DS may raise one or two eyebrows on the 17:15 from London Paddington, the younger target audience of Spectrobes will likely take more favourably to the feature in the playgrounds.
Combat in Spectrobes offers something a little different to what's typically come before. Taking place in enclosed circular arenas, Rallen has two Spectrobes fighting alongside him that correspond to the respective shoulder button. Suggestive of the degree of tactics involved, four additional Spectrobes can occupy support slots each of which provide bonuses to Speed, Attack, Defence and CH speed. With varying attack forms, there is a sufficient level of variety and depth to the overall combat system, although the real-time action does tend to feel a little unresponsive and occasionally as though you're skating around an ice-rink! The biggest issue facing the combat system however is the cheap CH special attacks. Each Spectrobe has a different special move, which requires various amounts of CH energy that is acquired by holding onto the A button. Unfortunately the super special move that requires a complete CH gauge and brings both Spectrobes together for a devastating chain attack, is a little too effective and a little too cheap, rendering the tactics and strategy from other aspects largely useless.
Away from the strong use of the touch and dual screens, Spectrobes continues to take full advantage of the DS capabilities, offering local Wireless play to compete against your friends or trade Spectrobes. The game also features Wi-Fi Connection support, although this doesn't allow for full worldwide Spectrobes battling action. Instead, scores from tournaments in the game can be sent to the Spectrobes online leaderboards and to download new content to the game with a weekly points allowance. A further neat/gimmicky touch dependant on your level of cynicism is the game's support for cards to unlock extra content. Taking the popularity of the Pokemon trading cards, Spectrobes allows players to buy cards, line them up against the bottom screen, and tap through the punched holes on each card to unlock a wealth of content, including rare Spectrobes and Minerals. The idea is a novel touch and seems like a natural evolution of the Pokemon model; it's success however very much depends on whether Disney can reach the same level of popularity with the Spectrobes brand.
With a host of innovative features and the appearance of a substantial game by handheld standards, Spectrobes is ultimately let down by the sheer amount of aimless wandering involved without a sense of direction from the plot. There's far too much emphasis on scanning every inch of the ground, without any push from the storyline or main mission objectives. Too often, the challenge of the main game fails to provide any impetus to progress with the game and one of the biggest stumbling blocks is its failure to engage the player with a captivating storyline or charismatic cast of characters. This all seems a little more surprising given that the game comes from Disney, surely out of anybody, these guys should know how to tell an enthralling story.
A multitude of smart DS touches.
Unashamedly copies the Pokemon formula.
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