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From the Manufacturer
It's tough to slap a label on Electroplankton. It's not a game, but you play it on a game device. There's no set purpose to it, but the end result can sweep you up in its charm. Most of all, its innovation sings out loud and true.
Features:
Interacting with each Electroplankton is a bit different, although you'll always use the touch screen, microphone, or both. Some Electroplankton yield percussion sounds, others resemble a piano and still others sound like they've been put through a synthesizer.
Some even come with their own beats. Rec-Rec is an Electroplankton that allows you to record your voice over a track of eight rhythms from house to industrial. You can overlay four of your own additions to these rhythms and slow down or speed up the beat.
Then you have Nanocarp, who are less about making music and more about responding to your sounds. They change formations based on your input into the microphone. Nanocarp reply to clapping, blowing into the mic, and you singing "Do Re Me" to them.
Beatnes replicate the sounds of some classic NES games that struck a cord with Electroplankton creator Toshio Iwai. You can make your own melodies or re-create sounds from Super Mario Bros., Kid Icarus, an NES Collection, and robot sounds.
Electroplankton offers a fun and amazingly creative way to actually put yourself inside the game. You are the conductor, and a new world of musical composition has opened up for you to explore.
The great thing about Electroplankton is it works on a variety of different levels. The precision of the Electroplankton's movements can help you create fantastic compositions, or you can take a more recreational approach and play with the different movements and sounds and just have fun with it. If you're savvy with recording equipment, you can use the DS's headphone jack to output your composition and record it for all the world to hear.
Bottom line: Electroplankton is one of those rare artistic games that should be part of every gamer's collection.
not exactly worth the full price..
I know I won't get many "helpful" votes for this, but this piece of art (as it is not an actual game) isn't worth the current price as of 1/16/06. It's far too limited and option-less; unfortunately, that's probably the point.
In Electroplankton, there are ten different electroplanktons to toy with, all of which create nice, experiemental sounds that are vaguely musical. It's fun for about thirty minutes (not to mention breathtaking) but you'll turn it off with little reason to turn it back on again. When you do, it'll be for five to ten minutes tops, each time.
You won't have a problem with this. It's a program that's designed for minor play, as there's really not much to do.
Fortunately, it sounds amazing and looks really beautiful. Everything is 2D (of course) but it's done in such an artsy, colorful way. It's definitely something for both your eyes and ears.
There will be moments when you'll get a happy accident. Many moments. And every time, you'll wish you had a way to save it on the cartridge. And you simply can't. (Sure, you can save it via output to a computer or a tape/mp3 player, but this seems a bit unnecessary, as the average video gamer probably doesn't have said equipment. Not to mention that something would be "lost" without the visuals).
It's an open-ended experience, and while it's an interesting idea, something inside of me wishes there were simply *more* of it. Specifically, more electroplankton. After playing through all ten, you'll quickly get an understanding of which three or so are your favorite, and the couple that you don't like will probably never be played again. Twenty electroplankton would have been excellent.
But, it is what it is: art. It's futile to attach some ultimate score for something like this; art is subjective, therefore someone can think Electroplankton is absolutely brilliant and someone can think it's absolutely not. I happen to fall somewhere inbetween. It's good, but not good enough for the price. Personally, I think it'd be a good idea for you to wait until it's either cheaper or used copies are available.
A Singing Zen Garden
ElectroPlankton for the Nintendo DS is much more about play, experimentation and discovery than achieving anything. There's nothing to unlock, no goals, no saving of your musical creation. Instead you're supposed to get caught up in the moment - discovering new ways to manipulate the ElectroPlankton. The depth the game has depends entirely on the player and how much time they are willing to give it. The more you play, the more discover, especially if you never read the instruction booklet.
I've shown the game to at least five non-gamers and they all have been immediately transfixed. Smiles spread across their faces and there was much laughing. They basically commandeered my DS and didn't want to let go. Since playing ElectroPlankton two of these guys have decided to buy a DS - their first gaming system ever. It may be interesting for you to know that these guys were aged 35 and 47.
I've played ElectroPlankton just about every day since I imported it in April 2005. One of the things I love about ElectroPlankton is that it's so unlike anything else. Never before has there been anything like it. It's calming and relaxing while at the same time being very exciting and joyful. In fact, I've heard ElectroPlankton called a singing Zen garden and I believe that's right on target. I find it intoxicating and a much welcomed breath of fresh air.
Not just a 'music' game.
Getting back to the analogy of Electroplankton as a visual-musical instrument of sorts, that is almost what you can expect from this game. Some people complain that there is no save feature. If you are ever reading something and someone says that the game should have a save feature, I will bet you $15 [not really] that that person has not played the game. Imagine playing a piano, or any other instrument. There's no sheet music in front of you. You hit a couple of notes, and you think they sound pretty good together. But did anything `save'? Nope. You want to hear those notes again? Go ahead, play them again. And if you can't remember them, then you get to play around with more notes until you find them, by which point you will probably have found another sequence of notes that sound good together. That's the essence of Electroplankton; it's all about experimentation, which in turn can produce pleasing audio and video patterns. Not necessarily music, and not necessarily a movie, but a little of both. And continuing the piano analogy, you could sit down at a piano and spend thirty seconds playing every single note on the piano. I've done it, it can be pretty amusing. But even if you do, you have yet to hear even a tiny fraction of the sound that piano can produce. Only when someone uses those notes in a creative way is anything accomplished.
So let's talk about Electroplankton itself, finally. It probably takes longer to just explain the principle behind it than how the game works. When you start it up, you have three options: Performance mode, Audience mode, and a sound setting (speakers or headphones). If you choose Audience mode, the game will start playing one of the ten plankton species on its own, randomly as far as I can tell. It will play each plankton for a few minutes before moving on to the next, or you can use L and R to switch between plankton. If you remember, I said that without interaction, the game is only two-thirds as good as it really is, and this can be a problem in audience mode. The thing about Electroplankton is that if you're just listening to it, the music really isn't all that great. Even if you're listening and watching, it's not very interesting. Fortunately, while in Audience mode you can also grab the stylus and join in with the computer by manipulating the plankton onscreen, which frequently will inspire you to leave Audience mode and go into Performance mode to create a tune of your own. This brings me to my next point: Performance mode. This is the main part of the game, where you pick which plankton you want to play with, and go for it. Nothing else will do anything to the plankton except your stylus. Your stylus is to Electroplankton what fingers are to a piano, a bow is to a violin, a pick is to a guitar, breath is to a flute, and drumsticks are to a drum.
The bottom screen is, of course, where most of the game takes place. On the top screen, all you see is a magnification of one area of the bottom screen, which generally moves around to focus on the point you last touched. You can use the X and Y buttons to zoom this in and out, but it really doesn't serve much purpose at all. The start button is pause, B returns you to the previous menu, and the D-pad and A button vary depending on the plankton you are playing with. Overall, I have few or no complaints regarding how the gameplay feels. Everything is fluid and easy to adjust to.
Excellent sequel
I was a big fan of the first entry into the series, and this sequel doesn't disappoint. Besides adding 3 new classes, the new FOE behavior makes for a more challenging experience overall, the power curve is very much restructured. There is a wide variety of viability in party compositions now compared to the first game (anyone who played the first knows how necessary Protectors and Medics were).
Like the first it starts off pretty brutally hard, but as you experiment it gets easier. That being said, it just isn't for everybody. If you are not patient, I could see people shutting this game off after 30 minutes and not playing it again. The early game has a lot of fighting 3-4 battles, go back to town, sell, rest, repeat until you get a few decent skills and pick away at the labyrinth. Also it can be rather hard to figure out how classes interact with each other in a party, and the level of synergy can be a bit daunting to newcomers. It also is sparse about holding your hand, which is both good and bad - good if you seek to figure things out as a gamer, bad if you get easily frustrated by any challenge in games.
This is definitely a niche game, but a worthy addition to the DS library. If you are an old school Wizardry kind of player, you'll love it. The map making is to me at least a rather fun feature - I'm unsure about people who claim map making in this series is "tedious". I often map out while in combat after making my selections, and also the addition of auto battle has been a small but great addition making under leveled random encounters a bit less effort to get through.
If nothing else, it's a game that stands on its own merits in the current market. I can't think of any RPG I've played in this generation of gaming which stands out the way this series does (despite admittedly being an update to the truly old school CPRGs).
Glad they made another!
I just finished the first Etrian Odyssey and thought I was going to start a new game on it just so I wouldn't of gone through withdrawals, and then a friend tells me there is an Etrian Odyssey II!!! So I bought it right away.
If you haven't played an Etrian Odyssey game yet, it is a fun RPG that has you take 5 characters out and about fighting monsters, mapping a multi-level labrinth, finding treasures, and fulfilling missions and quests. You don't need to play the first one to enjoy this game, in fact this game gives you more of a tutorial as you go through for new people.
I really like the mapping feature, at first I thought it was dumb but then I found it really keeps me going, I want to keep seeing how the map will turn out on each floor. And the mapping tools are improved on this version, there are now more icons to use, including three different colors of item points (you can chop, mine or take in this game to collect things to sell or use) and there is now a open door and locked door icons, for those special doors that need a key.
Other new features I like - if you forget what you need to do for a quest, you can find out in your quest menu exactly what it is. Also in the store, you can look at your characters as you look at the weapons for sale and see how they would improve with a new weapon without having to go to "eqiup". Probably my favorite new feature is when you go to the custom list - this is how you upgrade your characters whenever you get a new skill point for them - the skills that are not available now show a prerequisite feature on the side, telling you which skills you need to add before you can aquire the skill. In the first game, some of the skills I wanted I could never figure out how to get to them.
There are extra types of players available now, War Magus and Beast, and Ronin and Hexer are available immediatly. Watch out though cause some of the characters that had certain skills do not have them and other characters do. Such as the Protector used to have Stalker, now the Survivalist has it.
The Geomagnetic fields are different now, at first I was thinking they were less convienient but then I discovered they are more helpful. There are poles every few floors now and you can warp to them from town, to the latest one anyway, but not from them to town. Always have a Warp Wire with you! Then there are the fields - you can use them both to the statum and to town, and you access these on the first option at the forest - the labrinth option. These go to the beginning of each stratum. By the way the second Statum is really pretty! I enjoy in this game and the last one seeing what the new stratums will be. Each one has about 5 floors on it, and has a different theme, so the forest looks that way for the 5 floors.
Some things I don't like about the new game - there is no Amrita right away! I found out on a website that you have to wait till floor 15 for it to show up at the store! In the first game it is there right away, and is an essential item as it allows you to replenish your TP, which is magic points that you use to use specialized skills. Also, there is only one file for saving on the game, bummer (was the same for the first game too).
Also, you do not get experience points for fighting FOES! This really bugs me. And they are really hard to fight. There are even some that don't show up on the map.
If you haven't played Etrian Odyssey yet, these are extra bad monsters that stalk a certain area until you kill them, and sometimes they even come back later. They show up on the map as purple arrows.
(Ordinary monsters just randomly show up every so often, and you can use Stalker to help lower the encounter rate.)
This game is more challenging than the first one. I am doing a lot more running around building up my characters than even in Etrian Odyssey. I have some advice. Make sure you have a gunner in your group. He/She can get the skill Haltshot right away if you give it to him/her. Then use it to freeze FOES for a few turns. You will need this on the 2nd and 3rd floor to even get past them in the beginning so you don't get bored on the first floor after you've mapped it.
Also, you can now register up to 30 characters. I registered my main 5 people, then one of each kind at at least (you may need other characters later for certain gameplay and quests) and then I am making additional Survivalists cause they can have all three of the collectings skills, Mine, Chop and Take. Then I take 4 of my main ones and one of the newer ones out to the 4-5 floors to collect stuff, when you take a weaker character out with stronger ones they upgrade in a hurry! So they can do a lot of collecting pretty quick. There is a limit each day so I try to take as many characters out as I can before I sleep. Remember to take strong characters with the weak one or you will die fast. This helps me gain money and also helps upgrade my main characters, and at the Take item points I can collect Sour Fruit or Mugwort, which gives you a little bit of TP. Since there is no Armirita right away, this is important. Also have some of your main party have Take as well so you can collect what you need when out and about doing new mapping.
Hardcore dungeon crawler that improves on the original!
This is definitely a game that does not apply to everyone. It is an old-school style pen and paper dungeon crawling RPG, except in place of the pen and paper you use your DS. You map out the dungeons on your bottom screen while exploring the dungeon on the top. Monsters appear which you have to fight, all of which are creative and very well designed. There are of course bosses, quests, and many many types of character classes to choose from!
If you are looking for an RPG that will last you a long long while, and will keep you hooked the whole time, look no further. If you played the first Etrian Odyssey and liked it at ALL you definitely need to check this one out.
They made quite a few improvements over the previous version, the graphics of course are a little enhanced, they have all new character classes, weapons, items, and more. Of course all new dungeons and monsters. The mapping system now has more icons you can use which come in VERY handy in the more complex dungeons. Many tweaks and various improvements have been made to make it feel great overall.
Lastly, the soundtrack is AMAZING, one of my favorite soundtracks for any hand-held system by far, and even rivaling some of it's larger and more powerful counterpart's soundtracks.
For what this game sets out to do it is AMAZING, and I thank Atlus so much for bringing over and doing a great job with the localization. Definitely give this game a look!
Good idea, but poorly executed.
This system appears great on paper. However in real life you'll soon notice that the screen is very poor and can give you migranes in side-scrolling games. Also, the wireless controllers are inaccurate and has poor connectivity. Last and definetely worst is that the cartridge port loses connectivity with carts very easily if shaken. You might think "well, don't shake it then" but try playing an intense game like any Mega Man and you'll feel my pain when your trying to blast off as many shots you can as fast as possible. I think it's because the cartridge doesn't sit very firmly in the case, so it basically flops around if you don't keep the console perfectly still which is impossible since it's a portable.
If Hyperkin ever makes an FC Mobile 3, they'll HAVE to fix the screen and poor cartridge connectivity because for now it's only good for playing slow pased games like for example Solomon's Key where the action mostly takes place in your head, rather than your hands.
Also, I'd really preffer if they'd just put regular NES controller ports in the console instead of giving you wireless controllers which is an awesome idea but useless when the connection is so poor.
I recommend anyone wanting to buy this to instead play their original NES carts on a real NES.
great idea, poor execution
this product was very exciting and for the most part works, however, playing with the wireless controllers were difficult. it was soon that i realized that they were not fuctioning correctly. the main unit worked great and was really cool, but because the controllers were more or less useless i returned it and amazon was totally awsome about it. in short, if you just want a portable nes and do not care of the functionability of the controller then you are not out much. also, the controllers might have been my bad luck, however they did feel quite light and overall cheap.
Lots of fuN!
I was leery about purchasing this product as a gift after reading some of the reviews. But as soon as I got it i test all four games I'd purchased and I wanted to keep it for myself! Some complained about sound, but i thought it was fine! Granted its no Bose audio system but what are you really expecting from a $40 hand held game? Love this system, totally want to get one for myself. (My sister was highly impressed as well).
A mix of Doom and Elder Scrolls
First thing I'd like to point out is that this game is very remniscent of the first couple elder scrolls games and that is right but essentially this game is smaller in scale. FF:TWoFTM is a dungeon crawler very similar to Elder Scrolls that is based off of the first installment of the book series of fighting Fantasy. In the book, you are a lone adventurer who travels to a mountain with red glowing vegetation on top called Firetop mountain. The mountain was once a Dwarven city but was taken over by a powerful Warlock named Zagor and his many Orc minions. It is said that Zagor has a treasure chest that may only open if you find it's two keys which are spread out very deep in the keep.
In the game, the goal is the same but the story is not nearly as deep as the book itself. You are an adventurer who takes a boat to the port village near Firetop Mountain and from their the quest begins. This game is beautifully detailed for a DS game, perhaps even better detailed than the actual first couple of Elder Scrolls games which many compare this to. This is not one of those games were the developers cheap out and make the environments look the same. The detail in this game is amazing as well with bloodstains on walls, papers littering the floor, pictures on walls, chairs, beds, etc. Everything makes the game feel like you are actually going through a dungeon or underground city rather than an endless maze with nothing interesting like Deep Labyrinth or Moon. The game is also very difficult and changes the enemies as you get stronger I.E. when you backtrack, you are going to see monsters on par with your level rather than really weak monsters that were hard when you originally passed through the area. The game also randomly generates mobs and auto-saves for you when you go through a door so I you don't like the mob you got, you can just respawn, etc. Often, the monsters will seem a step ahead of you and you may feel like you skipped a level when in truth, you are on the right track but you need to reequip or level up.
The game uses a strange control scheme that is basically a two-in-one. You use the bumpers to attack, the d-pad to move, and either the stylus or the face buttons to look. If you'd rather use the face buttons, you get access to the right bumper which does a different attack then the left one but playing this way makes casting spells, hotkey pressing, or healing, or just plain talking and opening doors(all of which uses the touch screen) very difficult. That is why I use the stylus. In this respect, the game resembles Metroid Prime Hunters.
One bad thing people might find is that the monsters and you yourself are sprites. That is true, but it doesn't detract from th game. The sprites are very well detailed and you hardly notice after a while. The sprites are sort of remniscent of Doom enemies. But regardless, this is one good game in terms of adventure and atmosphere because the game is dark and creepy in places and it's really fun to explore in tis game. Also, I'd like to point out the absence of music. The game has no music whatsoever except for the title theme. There is ambience though, but some of it can become annoying. It is also a short game but then again, with the amount of detail in this game, I can understand why the game is so short. I mean, they really went out of their way to make this game detailed because if everything was the same, this game would fail miserably in the hands of reviewers. Even with the detail, the game is failing miserably with reviewers, but then again, reviewers are usually wrong about things so don't listen.
P.S. I'm not sure if this is for preorders or not but you get a free Fighting Fantasy book bundled with the game. Gamestop gave me mine when I bought it and I originally thought that was only if you preorder so either they screwed up or you get it with the game.
Graphics: 10
Controls: 8
Sound: 3
Gameplay: 9
Grade: 9.5(not an average)
The gamebook of the 80's finds a new home on the DS. Results mixed
I was a huge Fighting Fantasy gamebooks fan back in the late 80's and early 90's, so I regarded the release of "The Warlock of Firetop Mountain" with great interest. For those too young to remember, Fighting Fantasy books work like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book crossed with Dungeons & Dragons gameplay, in which you must choose between branching paths that ultimately effect the outcome of the story. You roll dice to determine how enemy fights turn out, and it was great fun that spanned a series of nearly 60 books. I felt that this would be perfect for a handheld video game, and unfortunately, this one is more miss than hit.
What we get here is a standard dungeon-crawling RPG that, in certain parts, is quite fun and challenging. The story is pretty stock by RPG standards; you go through a series of dungeons with the end goal of defeating an evil wizard, but it has (as others here have mentioned) an Elder Scrolls crossed with Doom feel to it. The 3D environments allow for exploration and treasure collecting, and you will encounter monsters and the occasional friendly person throughout your quest. On the positive side, it does have some nostalgic value both for those who enjoyed the gamebotoks back in the day, and for those who like the look and feel of 90's PC games.
The game does have quite a few negative points, however, and these are compelling enough to keep me from whole-heartedly recommending the game. The 3D graphics occasionally look quite nice, but movement and combat reveals many glitches and visual quirks that sometimes hinder gameplay. The combat controls are also clunky and unresponsive, and I found that most battles consisted of mashing the buttons until the enemy dies. The above would all be forgivable if it wasn't for the game's punishing difficulty, which is less of the addictive challenge that motivates you to keep playing and more of the frustrating, "hurl your DS across the room" variety. The difficulty aside, I think the problem stems from the story and gameplay lacking the addictive RPG engagements that suck you in. The story is very linear and, considering that it was taken from a book released in 1982, it has not aged well. Also, the dungeon crawling and enemy fights do not feel rewarding, so I found little incentive to keep playing after 6 hours.
"The Warlock of Firetop Mountain" will no doubt have it's share of fans who scoff at the bad reviews. In truth, this is not a terrible game (I have played much worse), however I think that it's a missed opportunity; this would have been better suited to a Broken Sword "point and click" style or a stylized static 3D style like The Dark Spire. The 3D presentation, with all it's glitches and awkward controls, ultimately lets the game down. If you are a casual RPG fan who is looking for a challenge and can forgive the above, this game is worth at least a rental. For others, I recommend sticking with the Atlus RPGs on the DS.
Fighting Fantasy DS
I would like to say that I really like this game. It is a bit difficult at times, but my advice for to (if you buy it) is to check every room and talk to NPC's for hints/clues and such. I agree with the previous reviewer that it is similar to Elder Scrolls games (which are some of my favorite games). This is a fun sword & sorcery type of game even if you are not a fan of the books. Warning: this game is not for everyone.