Spectrobes: Origins

Review from Anna - Tuesday, 30 March 2010 @ 11:38am

So apparently this game comes from some Disney show that is a blatant rip off of all that is Pokemon, Digimon, Beyblades, Yu Gi Oh! and whatever else they're serving up to kids these days on Saturday mornings. It has the preteen protagonist that is able to control 'monsters' (or Spectrobes, as they are known in this particular instance) but somehow, despite lack of Rattatas, this game manages to be fun without the boring repetitiveness I've come to expect from this sort of game.

As it came from Disney and was developed for the Wii, I expected the worst - a waggle fest of proportions that would have gaggle of pubescent boys looking worried. But I was proved wrong, somehow, and I began to enjoy myself strangely enough. Despite it being a clone, despite the fact that yet again, it is presenting the basics of animal fighting to youngsters, it gets to me and I feel myself sucked into the JRPG Pokemon model. Collecting, training, fighting and meeting people you don't really care about.

Lots of bright colours, recognisable shapes and simple interface for the kiddies.

The story begins with two space pilots, Jeena and Rallen who end up way off course and in this strange place where their Spectrobes don't work properly! After a bit of tutorial they get them back up and running and you're ready for your adventures - saving the planet and it's native people from the evil Krawl. The Krawl are pretty cool evildoers. They pop up out of the ground like those horrid blow up stick men that hang around second hand car dealerships and factory outlets for furniture and flap at you menacingly.

Graphics in the game are pretty average even for the Wii platform with characters appearing blocky and more at home on the Gamecube system than the current gen. Environments and surrounds have been well done however and really, the character builds could be said to add some flair to the game and encourages imagination to fill the gaps. Throughout the game, I didn't really get that bothered by the minimum specs and can't remember any specific flaws for the graphics but then it is a Wii game. You almost have to give it a handicap before you start playing to take the flawed graphics into account. It was below average for the Wii, but not cripplingly so. Not so much that I would notice it and blame it for a lackluster experience.

Awesome combos that you can do together with your Spectrobe when you do it right.

The soundtrack is adequate - there was nothing that really stood out to me. Though I'm still confused whether I should be happy games like his warn me something bad is going to happen by changing the music with a few seconds to spare before the baddies to turn up so I can prepare for them. Voice was worse than average - I can't handle the way Westerners interpret Eastern character voices. Even those these characters are identified as most Western, they still get that squeaky, whiny, struggling-to-hit-puberty pitch that puts me on edge.

There are different types of these 'monsters' that you handle - there are older Spectrobes, baby ones and ones that are still fossilised (you bring them to life like a regular Dr Frankenstein). The baby ones are handy in finding power ups and the like, as well as finding the fossils that naturally are buried in the ground. The older ones are handy in a fight and can be called to serve whenever you're in a tight spot. It was interesting that with the limited controls, summoning them required you to be in the correct mode - so the bad music had to start playing or the game specifically wanted you to bring it out which while useful at times was also annoying as if you are suddenly ambushed, resurrecting your Spectrobe out of hibernation (or where ever it's hiding) takes enough time to have you worried. There is a cycle to maintain, that of collecting fossils and then using the baby Spectrobes for finding crap. Using them caused them to grow into adults and in doing so, keep up a variety of Spectrobes at your disposal and have a steady supply to back you up should they fall. I found it surprisingly well balanced for what it was and although there were some spots where I was running low on baby Spectrobes to find buried treasure for me, I was rewarded when I worked out some better planning.

Peek a boo - I see you!

There's this really cool excavation mini game where you extract a fossil from a rock that you turn into your Spectrobe. They give you the tools which vary in strength and size so you start off blowing away huge chunks and get down to the fossil itself where you have a tiny drill to chip away and slowly let the fossil emerge. The only annoying (yet satisfyingly realistic) part in this mini game is the vulnerability of the fossil. Damage it too much and you lose the potential Spectrobe it was hiding. This is what made this game not only bearable but also enjoyable. Maybe there's a sadist in me that somehow takes pleasure in these inane tricksy mini games... but there was something that really redeemed the whole game for me in this one mini game despite it being timed.

Reading over my notes, I find that there is the overwhelming sense of being underwhelmed, but pleasantly so if that makes any sense at all. It's no amazing million-dollar budgeted game (at least I hope not!) and it's franchised too but dammit, when a formula works so well - working out when the formula will break is like asking how long is a piece of string. In the foreseeable future I see that there is very little that could stop these clones from existing and, if they follow the formula correctly, achieving moderate success.

Pros

Fossil mini game is pretty neat! Former knowledge of tv show unnecessary. Good pick up and play mechanics.

Cons

Squeaky, painful voices. Another Pokemon clone. One of those Western-Eastern hybrids.