By Gaetano Prestia
It won’t take you long to realize that Spectrobes: Origins is essentially Pokemon in a different wrapper. What’s great about that is that it’s on the Wii and not a handheld, meaning that Disney have achieved more with this game than what Nintendo have with Pokemon on consoles in the past. Origins is definitely one of the biggest surprise packets of the year, one that should appeal to a younger gaming audience, but also to more mature gamers who want a very solid action/adventure title.
There’s not a strong sense of originality with Spectrobes: Origins: a duo of life-long friends venture on a journey to find and collect creatures from around the world. Yet whatever this title lacks in inventiveness it makes up for in fun gameplay and lovable characters. The gameplay is incredibly deep and the customization options give the game plenty of value while we all wait for a genuine Pokemon adventure on a console.
Our two heroes Rallen and Jeena take on the aggressive Krawl, a species hell bent on the destruction of humans. While the story isn’t incredibly deep or complex, it’s good to have some back-story as to why we’re going around collecting little creatures. As opposed to simply collecting them to compete against others, Rallen and Jeena use Spectrobes to help them out in the heat of battle against their foes.
The transition of the franchise from its beginning on the DS over to the Wii has been a successful one, with developer Genki focusing on co-operative play. While the DS version was more focused on a single-player experience, Spectrobes: Origins is best played with a frien. This title has been built from the ground up specifically for Wii and its quality shines through when playing with someone.
However, the single-player component can still be a lot of fun. While not quite as solid as the co-op experience, Origins does offer a sound offering when you play it on your own, putting more of an emphasis on tactics and patience, as opposed to aggression and team-work during co-op play. You control the Spectrobes with the Wii-mote and your character with the nunchuck, and while there are some minor issues when it comes to the responsiveness of the movements, it’s an accessible set-up for most of the simple encounters.
The biggest problem though falls onto controlling the actual Spectrobes. You send them out by flicking the Wii-mote, but when they’re right in the head of battle, it’s quicker to just send more out than to call the current ones back to your character to heal. This causes you to burn through your resources pretty quickly and eventually leads to a one sided contest in favour of the enemy.
The real disappointing aspect is that the game starts off really easy and it’s not until a few hours in that you’ll start to notice how unresponsive the controls can be during battle. The initial battles don’t really require all that much effort, but once you hit a certain point in the game the difficulty increases tenfold and suddenly you’re struggling to get through an area.
However, if you give the game enough patience and learn to use its manual targeting system as opposed to the slow auto-targeting system you’ll be able to breeze through the hardest of battles. While the learning curve is short at the start, you won’t need to worry about how you play until a few hours in. The game forces you to do pretty much everything on your own accord without any assistance from the AI, so in a sense it’s good that the game forces you into using some tactics. That’s only formality because of the unresponsive controls though, so how far you get into this game in single-player might depend on your patience and dedication to mastering the gameplay.
The co-op experience is completely different though. As you’ve got complete control over the Spectrobes and there are two of you competing against an enemy, moving through a difficult battle is done with a lot more ease. Instead of directing your Spectrobes into battles and hoping the AI does all the work, you can direct them more precisely. Furthermore, the unresponsive nature of the controls will hardly be an issue anymore because you probably won’t have to call back any Spectrobes.
Genki have done a fantastic job with the fossil excavation system, an aspect of the game that lets you “awaken” new Spectrobes. It’s similar to the gameplay in the Trauma Center games on Wii where you have to use a steady hand to cut down certain areas. In this instance it’s rock, and moving too far off the designated area will result in damage to the “sleeping” Spectrobe. Once you’ve cut through the rock and discovered the fossil, a great rhythm game that takes advantage of the Wii-mote lets you wake them from their slumber.
The Final Verdict
Spectrobes: Origins is not so challenging that it won’t appeal to young gamers, but the lacking gameplay in the single-player component ultimately hinders the experience. The game shines considerably during co-op, with smoother gameplay that makes for a really fun experience with a friend. The battles can get pretty intense and it’s actually pretty fun to cut through the rock and wake new Spectrobes.
Gameplay
7.4/10
It has some great hack-and-slash gameplay that shines in co-op. The combat can be just as fun in single-player, but it loses a lot of its charm as you get deeper into the experience. This is definitely the type of game that should be played with a friend.
Graphics
7.0/10
Nothing spectacular about its presentation but it has some nice visuals and creature designs.
Sound
6.5/10
A generic soundtrack coupled with average voice-overs and sound effects.
Value
8.5/10
There are hundreds of Spectrobes, plenty of battles and lots of other stuff to get through. Even in single-player the experience is long if you’ve got the patience. Co-op definitely adds some worth to it and is the main selling point.
Overall
7.4/10