Reviewed by Dawn Burnell
I was lucky enough to be invited to a preview of Spectrobes: Beyond The Portals, developed by Jupiter Corp. (of The World Ends With You fame) and published by Disney Interactive Studios one evening recently. While I missed the original Nintendo DS game, Spectrobes, I was highly excited to see what was next from the developer who brought me one of the best DS games I’ve ever played (TWEWY). Spectrobes was Disney Interactive Studio’s first foray into creating original IP games that are not descended from the giant media corporation. The original was one of the top selling third party published titles, and Beyond the Portals follows the previous game closely.
In the original game, an alien race call “The Crawl” have invaded and only a few special people, including the game’s hero Rallen, are able to reawaken the fossilized natural enemies of the Crawl: the Spectrobes. Rallen and his friend Jeena were able to defeat the Crawl on the planet under invasion. In Beyond the Portals, which takes place a few months after the first game ends, the Crawl have invaded several planets throughout the galaxy and Rallen and Jeena, now a playable character, will need to awaken more Spectrobes friends.
The preview I attended was hosted by Tim Fitzrandolph of Disney Interactive, with special guest Kentaro Hisai, producer of Spectrobes out from Kyoto, Japan. Kentaro was a gracious host and demo-er, and his love of the game was clear. I watched as Kentaro took stylus control of Rallen while inside his ship. A cute little Spectrobe was following along behind as they left the ship and headed out into a Danger zone. One there, the baby Spectrobe retreated while Rallen began his fight against the Crawl.
One of the neat things about this game was the two combat types. On the overworld, Rallen fights individual Crawl through the buttons using several varied attacks. However, in order to take down the entrance point of the Crawl, Rallen must use his Spectrobe friends, which takes place on a portal map. Each Spectrobe battle takes place in real time with two Spectrobes (Rallen can carry up to six Adult/Evolved Spectrobes with him, but only two are active in the battle at a given time). During the Spectrobe battle the player directly controls one of the pair while the AI controls the other. However, you can easily switch between the actively controlled Spectrobe to utilize them both effectively. By attacking intelligently, players will be able to active strong Combo Duo attacks, as well as single strong attacks. There are three colors of Spectrobes and Crawl, with a Ro-Sham-Bo like relationship between the three. Spectrobes also have close range, long range, quick attacks and more as their primary attributes. The battle was easily won by the Spectrobes Kentaro had brought and soon the Danger area was safe.
Once the Crawl were all defeated, the child Spectrobe reappeared. Now we could look for more Spectrobe fossils, as well as other buried treasure. The child Spectrobe would react when there was a hidden object nearby and then Rallen would be able to dig. Digging is an easy mini-game and rewards players for quickly and efficiently uncovering Spectrobes and other items without damaging them. Once a Spectrobe fossil is recovered it is sent to the ship. Another important item that can be found is crystals, which are used in the Ship. Fossils will be able to be dug up from soil, lava, ice, water and more.
After digging out a fossil in record time and without damaging it, Kentaro gave me a try. Which I didn’t do too badly, I could have done better and vow to do so when I get a hold of the game for real. Back at the ship, Kentaro showed me how Rallen awakens the Spectrobes: with his (your) voice. Taking full advantage of the DS microphone, Beyond the Portals requires players to command their friends to Wake Up and the pitch determines the color of the resulting Spectrobe. I’m interested to see what my boyfriend’s reaction will be when I ask him to help me wake up my spectrobes so that they aren’t all Green.
After waking up a spectrobe, the child is sent to the incubator. There you can interact with the children and feed them crystals so that they evolve into adults. Adults can join in the battles and require battling and more crystals to become their final evolved state. A few Quick gamers will see a strong parallel to another popular DS title from Nintendo; however I warn that Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals is very different in several ways. The real time aspect of the fights and the ability to synergize your duo during battle lend very interesting mechanics that are innovative and fun. Jupiter has spent a good portion of time improving on the first game to bring this one to life.
The game will feature 4 player Wi-Fi and Local Wireless multiplayer combat (team and free-for-all), as well as trading. One of the really neat things about trading in Spectrobes is the ability to use the official community website to show off and trade/sell Spectrobes with others, without the use of Friend Codes. Disney Interactive Studios, however, has put in their own online safeguards that will help protect children. The sneak peaks I was told about the website & community site show that Disney is committed to creating an exciting and thriving community with this title.
I personally can’t wait to play this on my own and raise my Spectrobes for showing off. Further, the game will come with specific cards that you can use to unlock Spectrobes and items, which can then be traded with friends. Coming to the US October 7, 2008 this DS title promises to keep my handheld busy.
Bio of Kentaro Hisai
Kentaro Hisai is the Tokyo-based producer for Spectrobes: Beyond The Portals, the action/RPG for Nintendo DS from Disney Interactive Studios. In his role, he manages all elements of production, including collaborating with Jupiter Corp., the Kyoto-based developer. Prior to Spectrobes: Beyond The Portals, Mr. Hisai was the producer for Spectrobes, which shipped more than 1 million units worldwide and was one of the top-selling DS games of 2007. Mr. Hisai joined Disney Interactive Studios in 2005 in his current role as a video game producer.
Prior to joining Disney, Mr. Hisai served in the roles of production and art direction for the Konami Corporation, where he worked on more than 20 games. Among the projects he worked on while at Konami were leading the art direction for the Disney Sports video game series, which were a collaboration between Konami and Disney. He also was an art director for Rakugakids, a 1997 action game for Nintendo 64; served as the director for Mystic Ninja Goemon, an action/RPG for PS2; and was a producer on Remote Control Dandy SF, a robotic control action and simulation game for PS.