Spectrobes (DS)

Metachronos overall score = 6.4 / 10

Positive
- Hunting around for fossils and minerals is initially kind of fun
- Uses the DS's dual screens to good effect
- Pretty good soundtrack

Negative
- Hunting around for fossils and minerals quickly becomes monotonous
- Brain-dead characters and by-the-numbers storyline
- Overpowered battle mechanic trivializes what little combat there is
- Barren, empty environments

From a company that once prided itself on creative, imaginative characters, Spectrobes packs a remarkably sterile and dispassionate story. You play as Gallen, a young, and therefore brash, space cadet who's apparently a fan of monkey business. Your partner is Jeena, a smart and by-the-book straight shooter who regularly encourages Gallen to refrain from said monkey business. There's also a gruff old commander, who occasionally chastises Gallen for engaging in the monkey business, and a sagacious yet mysterious advisor known as Aldous, who, as it turns out, doesn't seem to have an opinion on Gallen's monkey business. On a routine mission, Gallen and Jenna discover an unconscious Aldous in an escape capsule, and after reviving him, they find out that he is the sole survivor of a long-dead solar system that was destroyed by the planet-devouring Krawl. The Krawl are now knocking down your system's front door, and as fate would have it, Gallen alone is capable of commanding the only creatures able to harm the Krawl, these creatures of course being the spectrobes. Unfortunately, the entire spectrobe race is in a state of fossilized hibernation, buried deep underground in the various planets of your solar system. Thus, it is your mission to find, awaken, and train the spectrobes, and then use them to eradicate the dervish Krawl hordes.



As for the gameplay, well, have you ever gone to the beach and stared at that one guy wearing hiking boots, tube socks pulled up midcalf, 1980s-style jean shorts, and huge, conical headphones, who's carrying a DIY-looking metal detector and tugging a small, red wagon to haul his horde of loot? Well, if you feel some special kinship with that dude, or you are that dude, then the vast majority of Spectrobes' gameplay may appeal to you. Key to the story is that the spectrobe population in its entirety lies dormant and buried, and the only way to defeat the Krawl infestation is to find and awaken these critters and then feed them precious stones, which you also need to find. Only baby spectrobes are able to detect fossilized spectrobes and minerals, and you'll use the one that initially follows you around by pressing on it with your stylus. The rub here is that the circumference on your search is quite small, so as long as you're interested in collecting these items, you have to slowly and methodically work your way across the sparse, empty environments. There's a sense of pleasure that accompanies all treasure-finding expeditions, but the problem here is that it's hard to get excited after unearthing the same fossil or mineral for the umpteenth time.

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Spectrobes feels as if it were devised in a boardroom by people more interested in turning a profit than making a game. From its marketing-centric webisodes to its canned story to its unremarkable gameplay, it's an extremely blasé experience all around and quite noticeably lacks any form of a creative spark, which you'd really expect to be present in this type of game. What you're left with is a game that desperately wants to be your friend, but lacks enough redeeming qualities for you to really take interest.



Cover = http://www.tothegame.com/boxshot.asp?picnum=uk&id=5574

this is a good game indeed