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February 24th, 2007, 02:56 Posted By: wraggster
via ign
Playing something like Spectrobes just serves to highlight how incredibly boring real-life pets are. Rabbits can't find ancient magical fossils hidden deep in the ground. A parrot is unlikely to be able to stop an alien invasion. And, last time we checked at least, a hamster couldn't unleash powerful lightning attacks that shake the ground and send bolts of electricity crashing down from the sky. But, in Spectrobes, the animals you collect and train can do all this and more - something that will no doubt be familiar to anyone that's ever tried the Pokémon games.
It almost goes without saying, some might find it easy to dismiss Spectrobes as yet another Pokémon clone. After all, it's possible to see the creature collecting and monster fighting Poké-DNA running right through the game. You almost expect some of the cuter critters to say "pika". However, after just a few hours' play, it's clear that the Pokémon comparison is relatively unjust. Spectrobes takes the "gotta catch 'em all" ethic of Pokémon and runs with it. Even if the direction it runs isn't always the best.
For the majority of the game it runs - with teeth bared and claws extended - into scrap after scrap. Thankfully, Spectrobes loses the frustrating random-battle mechanics of Pokémon titles. Enemies appear as black swirling whirlwinds on the map, which it's possible to run past instead of fighting, if your Spectrobe is low on health. When you enter the eye of the storm, you're faced with three aggressive alien invaders known as Krawls. Normal weapons are useless against the Krawl and the only way to kill them off is by using an assembled team of - gasp - Spectrobes.
It's only possible to take a pair of creatures into battle, so it's essential that you've formed a decent team. Once the fight begins, orders are given to your Spectrobes in real-time while running around the battle arena. Pressing either L or R tells a particular Spectrobe to attack. Once they've attacked, it'll take a few moments before they're ready to strike again. Some Spectrobes even have more complicated moves, such as the samurai-like critter that's able to guard and distract enemies, alongside its standard attack. This adds extra depth to tussles because, in this instance, it's possible to have your samurai distract enemies while his partner readies for another round.
What's more, as Spectrobes fight alongside each other, they actually develop bonds. So, the more they engage in a bit of rough and tumble, the more powerful their combined attacks become. Combined attacks are essentially "special moves" that can be charged up and unleashed during a fight. Depending upon the element of your combatant creatures, combined attacks can see lightning shoot down from the sky, meteors shower towards enemies or massive shards of ice pierce through the ground. They're certainly spectacular to look at. However, the fact that your combined attacks are limited only by how quickly you can recharge means that Krawl encounters can be over within a few special moves. We're hoping the difficulty ramps up when coming across more powerful Krawl because what we've played so far has been a breeze.
As well as fighting with your Spectrobes, you also have to collect them. Unfortunately it's quite a long and complicated process. First, using a young Spectrobe's ability to sniff out fossils, you must locate a dormant creature. This involves standing still, tapping an accompanying Spectrobe, waiting for it to scan the area and then jumping for joy when flashes appear on the ground to indicate something's waiting to be unearthed. The fossil locating process has to be repeated a lot because it's also used to find special minerals that Spectrobes eat to level-up. The novelty tends to wear off after about the 40th time.
However, your quest for new Spectrobes isn't over once you've managed to locate the fossil… oh no. Now it's necessary to excavate it by using the touch screen. Rather like an extreme version of Time Team you take to the soil armed with a series of drills. "Digs" last a few seconds as you chip away at the ground with a large drill until the fossil is exposed, then use a slightly smaller drill to carefully extract the fossil. It's no good just wildly scratching at the touch screen either because the fossils are quite delicate and it's possible to break them. This makes the whole process quite tedious and, although we've managed to snag a device that automatically excavates minerals, we've yet to acquire a similar tool to retrieve fossils.
So with fossil in hand it might seem like your Spectrobe gathering quest is over. Well, not quite. Next, it's necessary to head back to your spaceship and "awaken" the Spectrobe with a special machine. Developer Jupiter seems to have taken the idea of awakening something fairly literally, requiring that you bellow into the DS's mic to rouse the fossilised Spectrobes. Depending upon the Spectrobe that's being awakened, you're required to keep shouting at a particular volume for three seconds. This makes the process of getting Spectrobes with sensitive ears extremely difficult if you're on a train or bus because the background noise sends the microphone into overdrive.
Spectrobes is doing some interesting things and we still stand by our comment that it's not just another Pokémon rip-off. Jupiter has clearly invested a lot of time into the game and there are some aspects where the attention to detail shines through. However, we're still concerned by some of the game's more cumbersome mechanics, as well as that non-existent difficulty curve. Although, we concede that's probably down to Spectrobes target audience of kids brought up on a steady diet of quick-fix TV and additive-packed turkey twizzlies, who can't stand anything remotely challenging. At the moment though, we're just not sure there's a great deal of depth for anyone over the age of eight - with or without a casual interest in Time Team.
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