Virtually every popular Disney movie, character or TV show personality has made an appearance in a video game at some point, from The Lion King to Mickey Mouse to Hilary “Lizzie McGuire” Duff, before she started sexing it up in elevators in her music videos. Tart.
So if Disney decides to apply its creative and financial might to approaching video games from the other direction -- making a game that can be spun off into TV shows and other properties -- it should be a slam-dunk.
Especially when they hire a well-respected Japanese development studio to do it, and the game loosely patterns itself on the critter-collecting craze that still fuels the Pokemon franchise to the tune of umpteen million dollars each year.
So why is it, then, that Spectrobes just never really clicks?
Designed by Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories creators Jupiter Corporation under the guidance of Disney, Spectrobes casts you as Rallen, a brash young space patrol pilot who gets tangled up in a quest to save the universe from a malevolent species of aliens known as the Krawl.
To do this, Rallen must travel from planet to planet across the galaxy, searching for, unearthing and raising good-guy aliens called Spectrobes, a pair of which he can take into battle with him whenever he confronts Krawl minions and their fearsome overlords.
Spectrobes will probably appeal to hardcore fans of Japanese-style role-playing or monster-collecting games, and the deep and complex system of feeding, customizing and evolving your alien companions into combat powerhouses will keep brainy tweens occupied for weeks.
Unfortunately, the game relies too heavily on the searching and excavating process, which forces you to scour the landscape of each planet and manually excavate Spectrobe fossils, minerals and other goodies through novel use of the DS’s touch-sensitive lower screen.
It’s a lot of fun -- at first. But after you’ve unearthed your 100th fossil, you’ll feel less like an intergalactic Indiana Jones and more like archaeology’s version of a civil servant. And after you’ve unearthed your 300th fossil, you’ll likely be bored out of your tree.
The constant care and feeding of Spectrobes would be fine if it was either a lot more intuitive (the game’s manual is 80 pages long, and with good reason), or if the story and characters were especially memorable. Sadly, this just isn’t the case.
Spectrobes seems like it was designed from a checklist of features rather than an overall vision of what the game should be. It also feels like it was developed in step with Disney’s very specific strategies to market the game to the teen and tween audience.
From the online “webisodes” to the cool trading cards that unlock new Spectrobes in the game to the way you can upload your stats directly to a personalized Spectrobes web page, it seems like every angle was covered. What’s missing is a genuine sense of fun and wonder, two of the things we usually associate with the Disney brand.
Dig a little deeper for the sequel, OK Mickey?
Bottom line: Although it’s got some novel gameplay elements and is stuffed with tons of things to do, Spectrobes ultimately ends up being just so-so in the fun department. Definitely not the Pokemon killer we were expecting.
WHAM! Rating: |
6 out of 10 |
ESRB Rating: |
E (Everyone) |
Official Web Site: |
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Steve Tilley’s Cheat Sheet
This Blows: Waking up your excavated Spectrobes requires you to speak loudly into DS microphone for three seconds, which can be embarrassing if you’re playing in public and/or are over the age of 12. Luckily, getting up close to the microphone and blowing also does the trick. It still looks dumb, but at least it’s quiet.
Heads Upsilon: If you want to use the Spectrobes trading cards to unlock new critters and parts, you’ll need to unearth the Upsilon Cube first. From the headquarters on Kollin, head east and then south, till you pass through a glass tunnel. Then go east until you see a grassy patch with a tree, and scan beneath the tree. There she be!
Angry Boss: If you’re up against one of those Krawl bosses that can wipe out you and your Spectrobes with just a couple of attacks, run in circles around the perimeter of the battlefield and use your charge attack over and over to smite him from afar. It’s very slow and cheap, but at least you’ll survive.
