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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: RPG Developer: Red Entertainment Publisher: Nintendo |
It is hard to believe that Nintendo published a title like “Fossil Fighters.” For the most part, the company has been a pioneer in the dual
screen handheld, creating concepts and franchises that feel fresh, but their latest release feels like nothing new. The game has a little
bit of charm to it, but the overall design that attempts to be like the Pokémon series is just unfortunate. Go game publisher can get
away with a game like this, not even Nintendo.
The premise of “Fossil Fighters” will attract kids because it allows them to excavate, revive, collect and fight with dinosaurs within an
adventure as well as against other players using the wireless functions of the Nintendo DS. However, this formula has already been
done and may feel a bit old and used.
The excavation part of the game requires players to dig up rocks, break the fossils out with a hammer and use a drill for finer
excavation. Players must then blow on the microphone to blow away dust. The more accurate players are with less damage done to
the fossil, the stronger the dinosaur will be. If this sounds familiar, it would be because of the fact that this game is a lot like the
Spectrobes series, but done better with more detail and fun. This part of the game covers half of the game play, but it gets old since it is
a majority of the game. The designers of the game must have realized how tedious the task can be so they added an automatic
component to the game with a robot. Of course the robot has limited accuracy and can only improve with the player’s experience level.
In the end, the player will do better by doing the task themselves.
When players get into the collecting portion of the game, if players excavate a skull from the rock, they will have access to the specific
dinosaurs. Other body parts will enhance the creatures abilities, but players won’t be able to score a dinosaur without the skull. A few
hours into the game players will be familiar with the game’s “paper-rock-scissors” format. The strengths and weaknesses of each
character come into play during the game’s battle sequences.
The design of the fights is fairly unique to the DS, but for anyone who has ever played a monster fighter arcade machine in Japan will
see where the inspiration came from. Players have access to a four square grid where they are able to put three creatures of their party
to do battle. The front position is the strongest attack, but also where most of the opponent’s damage will land. The two rear positions
are weaker in attacks but can also prevent more damage. The rear position protects the active creature from any attacks but he can’t
attack while sitting in the slot. The fights are turn based and balanced well to ensure that a player can’t simply bring in a group of strong
creatures; weaker opponents always get the first attack.
The battle sequences are a good indication of the games lack of great design. The fights play out on the top screen, just like they do in
“Pokémon Stadium” and “Pokémon Coliseum.” The creatures attack, the defending creature makes a small flinch, but there is never
an actual landed attack for the players to see. The games in the Pokémon series get away with this type of battle style because it is a
game in the Pokémon series. However, it is hard to ignore another game that thinks it can get away with a design shortcut of this type.
It is hard to shake. Even the sprite sliding effects of the bottom screen during a victory show how the development seems to be quite
amateur.
Fights are a lot less frequent than in the Pokémon games since they only happen in either predetermined areas as in the Pokémon
trainer battles or in semi-randomly when players dig up a valuable fossil as well as a fighter who wants to battle for it. Players level up
at specific points in the adventure, similar to the badge system in the Pokémon games.
“Fossil Fighters” is a new franchise, but the designers fall back on borderline visual effects for its storytelling and presentation. Games
in the Pokémon series get away with this because of when it was originally released, but since “Fossil Fighters” has no excuse since
the game is a contemporary experience that is supposed to be a new series and yet the designers offer sloppy animation and limited
character designs. The creature battle animations are a little more impressive than what happens on the exploration portions of the
game, but for the most part this is one of the weakest looking games in the Nintendo DS library to date. The art on the box is a lot more
impressive than what is offered in the game.
Even though the game ends up being unoriginal and underdeveloped, the game does have some charm to it. The battle system is
different and opens up a good amount of strategy and for players who find themselves engaged with the technique will probably want to
continue to search for supplemental fossils to upgrade their creatures or to track down a creature of a specific element type for
strengthen the party.
The fact that the game is aimed towards a younger audience is the games only excuse for the lowered levels of development and
originality. However, there is no reason that kids should get a lower quality game because of their age.
screen handheld, creating concepts and franchises that feel fresh, but their latest release feels like nothing new. The game has a little
bit of charm to it, but the overall design that attempts to be like the Pokémon series is just unfortunate. Go game publisher can get
away with a game like this, not even Nintendo.
The premise of “Fossil Fighters” will attract kids because it allows them to excavate, revive, collect and fight with dinosaurs within an
adventure as well as against other players using the wireless functions of the Nintendo DS. However, this formula has already been
done and may feel a bit old and used.
The excavation part of the game requires players to dig up rocks, break the fossils out with a hammer and use a drill for finer
excavation. Players must then blow on the microphone to blow away dust. The more accurate players are with less damage done to
the fossil, the stronger the dinosaur will be. If this sounds familiar, it would be because of the fact that this game is a lot like the
Spectrobes series, but done better with more detail and fun. This part of the game covers half of the game play, but it gets old since it is
a majority of the game. The designers of the game must have realized how tedious the task can be so they added an automatic
component to the game with a robot. Of course the robot has limited accuracy and can only improve with the player’s experience level.
In the end, the player will do better by doing the task themselves.
When players get into the collecting portion of the game, if players excavate a skull from the rock, they will have access to the specific
dinosaurs. Other body parts will enhance the creatures abilities, but players won’t be able to score a dinosaur without the skull. A few
hours into the game players will be familiar with the game’s “paper-rock-scissors” format. The strengths and weaknesses of each
character come into play during the game’s battle sequences.
The design of the fights is fairly unique to the DS, but for anyone who has ever played a monster fighter arcade machine in Japan will
see where the inspiration came from. Players have access to a four square grid where they are able to put three creatures of their party
to do battle. The front position is the strongest attack, but also where most of the opponent’s damage will land. The two rear positions
are weaker in attacks but can also prevent more damage. The rear position protects the active creature from any attacks but he can’t
attack while sitting in the slot. The fights are turn based and balanced well to ensure that a player can’t simply bring in a group of strong
creatures; weaker opponents always get the first attack.
The battle sequences are a good indication of the games lack of great design. The fights play out on the top screen, just like they do in
“Pokémon Stadium” and “Pokémon Coliseum.” The creatures attack, the defending creature makes a small flinch, but there is never
an actual landed attack for the players to see. The games in the Pokémon series get away with this type of battle style because it is a
game in the Pokémon series. However, it is hard to ignore another game that thinks it can get away with a design shortcut of this type.
It is hard to shake. Even the sprite sliding effects of the bottom screen during a victory show how the development seems to be quite
amateur.
Fights are a lot less frequent than in the Pokémon games since they only happen in either predetermined areas as in the Pokémon
trainer battles or in semi-randomly when players dig up a valuable fossil as well as a fighter who wants to battle for it. Players level up
at specific points in the adventure, similar to the badge system in the Pokémon games.
“Fossil Fighters” is a new franchise, but the designers fall back on borderline visual effects for its storytelling and presentation. Games
in the Pokémon series get away with this because of when it was originally released, but since “Fossil Fighters” has no excuse since
the game is a contemporary experience that is supposed to be a new series and yet the designers offer sloppy animation and limited
character designs. The creature battle animations are a little more impressive than what happens on the exploration portions of the
game, but for the most part this is one of the weakest looking games in the Nintendo DS library to date. The art on the box is a lot more
impressive than what is offered in the game.
Even though the game ends up being unoriginal and underdeveloped, the game does have some charm to it. The battle system is
different and opens up a good amount of strategy and for players who find themselves engaged with the technique will probably want to
continue to search for supplemental fossils to upgrade their creatures or to track down a creature of a specific element type for
strengthen the party.
The fact that the game is aimed towards a younger audience is the games only excuse for the lowered levels of development and
originality. However, there is no reason that kids should get a lower quality game because of their age.
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