The fossils you dig up can be taken to a high tech laboratory on your ship where they can be ‘awoken’, which requires you to sing into the DS’s microphone, turning into fledging Spectrobes.Īfter moving your newly collected monsters over to various incubators, they can be fed the surplus minerals you unearth. Using a range of tools from a heavy weight drill to an air blower, you must quickly uncover the various artefacts without causing them any damage. The excavating itself is quite a tidy little gameplay element, that only loses appeal because you have to return to it with such regularity. Once he has drawn your attention to the ancient treasures of the soil, a mini-game appears that sees you ferociously tapping and scratching at the screen to reveal fossils and minerals and up your various experience points. The first of the initial two Spectrobes that join your side has the ability to scan the ground beneath his feet for buried objects. It is the focus on collecting them all that will no doubt encourage fevered play from children and rather despondent reactions from older gamers. Gradually the plot takes you skipping between the game’s planets, with the vast majority of your time spent fighting the Krawl and digging around to hunt for the Spectrobes that lie beneath the soil in fossilised form. The dazed space man named Aldous gives you a tool called the Prizmod, which can be used to store and transport the obedient Spectrobes. Quickly you are charged with confronting and eventually defeating the Krawl, a vicious alien race intent on the destruction of every new culture they discover.Ĭrash landing on the first of the game’s planets, you discover an unconscious old pilot, who wakes to teach you of the power of the battle hungry pets known as the Spectrobes.
The plot sees you assume the role of Rallen, a roguish young adventurer sent through space with his team mate, the overly cute Jeena, to complete basic tasks for the leader of your home Planet. Spectrobes’ main distinguishing feature comes with its emphasis on excavating fossils to gather your gang of eager pint-sized combatants, as opposed to rifling through the flora of Pokemon’s worlds. The game sees you explore seven planets, collecting, nurturing and fighting various cute alien creatures in what is something like a saccharine version of badger-baiting. Though Spectrobes does everything it can to distinguish itself from its famous rival, it is impossible to play the monster-hunting game without constant reminders that you are playing a Pokemon clone. It is a sad truth that these two shortcomings feed into each other and sadder still that a game with as much potential as Spectrobes is peppered with the same faults that so many inferior children’s games suffer from. Yet at the same time, it is equally common to find evidence of lazy game design in titles aimed at youngsters, who rightly deserve the same standards of quality that their elders take for granted. It is all too easy to stumble across a well made kid’s game given a critical savaging by a reviewer who clearly hasn’t considered the target audience over their own gaming requirements.
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