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Spectrobes (DS)

• Developer:
• Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios
• Genre:
• Official Website: http://adisney.go.com
• Score: 1 of 5: Save Your Cash

On the surface, Spectrobes appears to be nothing more than Disney does Pokémon. Players capture, train, and breed creatures to fight in their stead. In doing so, players must explore a bland overworld to get to the good part: the battles, and the game definitely takes standard RPG mechanisms and waters them down for a younger audience, just like its powerhouse brother Pokémon.

Where Spectrobes tries to set itself apart is the story. See, Pokémon trainers just want to be the very best and defeat the Elite Four. Rallen, the main character of Spectrobes is trying to save the world from vicious creatures known as the Krawl.

In keeping with the story, spectrobes don't battle one another; they battle the Krawl. Since the battles take place between Rallen's spectrobes and the Krawl, the way in which the player finds additional spectrobes is detached from battle. The Krawl don't use spectrobes; they fight all by themselves. In order to find more spectrobes, Rallen must dig up every patch of dirt he comes across, and he comes across a lot. Nearly every planet visited is comprised primarily of diggable areas, and any of your child spectrobes can act as a fossil detector. When one is found, you enter an archaeological mini-game that makes use of the stylus. It's not as simple as you might think though; excavation is a delicate process. Dig too hard and you'll break the fossil, but dig too slow and you don't earn enough experience to stay ahead of the archaeological curve. The mini-game is novel at first, but like so many others, (breeding mazes in Viva Pińata, I'm looking at you) it quickly becomes both tedious and unavoidable.

Once fossilized spectrobes are retrieved from the dirt, they need to be reanimated in Rallen's space ship. Fortunately, reanimation isn't a mini-game. Unfortunately, it involves singing to the DS. In order to revive a spectrobe, you need to maintain a set pitch for three seconds. Thankfully, for whatever reason, simply blowing on the DS has the same effect, so those of you that play the DS on your commute to work can avoid the embarrassment that comes with singing to fictional alien monsters.

All of these things are secondary to one thing: the battle system. It's neat to collect all 22 breeds of spectrobe, but the reason for doing so is to assemble the best fighting force possible. What's the point of collecting, training, and evolving a stable of vicious-looking monsters if you can't have fun whooping some alien butt with them? It's obvious that this is what the developers had in mind when they designed the battle system, but it falls short on two fronts. The battle system is too simple, and Rallen is too vulnerable to be of any use. In battle, the spectrobes have only one attack each. The spectrobe on Rallen's left is controlled via the left trigger and the spectrobe on the right is controlled via the right trigger. Rallen, useless as he is, is moved with the d-pad and can attack for minimal damage with the face buttons. Rallen's vulnerability was probably designed to create a sense of tension and urgency. What it creates, however, is a sense of tedium. The majority of the any battle is spent keeping Rallen out of danger instead of positioning spectrobes to beat up on the Krawl. It's frustrating to see a realtime combat system defeated by the main character so efficiently because the potential for fun is there, waiting for Rallen to sit down and let it shine.

Disney has set out to take on Pokémon. Spectrobes is different enough to differentiate itself from its competitor, but in seeking out ways to be different, the fun has been lost somewhere. There's a strategy in creating a team of six pocket monsters, designing their move sets, and taking down rival trainers. Spectrobes tries, but it just doesn't replicate the "just one more battle" feeling that Pokémon does. If you're looking to sate your strategic monster fighting and collecting fix, wait for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.

Mar 26, 2007 | 0 comments
Justin Last