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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: Action Developer: Success Publisher: Ignition Entertainment |
When the average person thinks of tornados, there are normally thoughts of destruction from destroying homes, hurling cows in the air
and appearing as a huge disaster in other games like “SimCity.” In Ignition Entertainment’s “Tornado” for the Nintendo DS, players
use the destructive weather phenomenon to restore order to Earth. With a design similar to “Katamari Damacy,” the game sounds like
it would be strangely addictive, but because of a few major issues with the game, “Tornado” ends up being very frustrating and, like the
real thing, potentially disastrous.
In this game, players will find out that a character known only as The Prince has sucked up Earth’s countries into his own realm for
safekeeping, and it is up to the player to take on the role of one of several anthropomorphic felines known as Cosmic Cleaners to put all
of them back in place. The cleaners can spin themselves into large tornados that are able to transport any item they come in contact
with. Each successful transport causes the player’s tornado to grow in size, giving them the ability to transport even larger objects.
There are also special items thrown about in each level that will help players gather up more object, such as the power up that
temporarily sends three tornados in different directions to do the bidding of the player, if players meet certain conditions and apply the
correct touch screen technique.
The most noticeable issue in the game can be found almost instantly when players begin to play the first level of the game. The
camera, which gives players an isometric perspective of the polygonal playing field, is too close to everything to allow full view of the
playing field. Even as their tornado grows and the camera pans out, players will never be able to see as much as they would want to.
Learning where landmarks are on a given level becomes more of a chore than it should be and this is especially irritating when players
are presented with goals such as “find five batteries before the time limit is up.”
By pairing together to goals in the game with a time limit turns out to be a huge issue with the overall game. Throughout the course of
the Story Mode, players must find fellow Cosmic Cleaners to use during game play. However, they are sometimes hidden within
random structures throughout the level, and there is no indication where to start looking for them. By themselves, these goals aren’t so
much an issue, but trying to find a randomly hidden character within a five minute time limit, not to mention having to spend time to
enlarge the tornado to an effective size, can be extremely frustrating. The game is overly difficult and it would not be an exaggeration to
say that players might need to retry some levels 15 or more times in order to pass them, far more than should be necessary for a game
of this type.
Even if players are able to come to grips with the issues with the goal structure, there is still an aching stylus hand that will need to be
dealt with. The player’s tornado can grow in size only if they energize them by drawing on the touch screen in a circular motion. As
players transport items, a five level meter begins to materialize. The stylus serves to fill those meters with energy and with each full
level; the player’s tornado grows a set amount. The issue is that as the tornado touches the object it is trying to transport, it loses
energy. This leaves players constantly scribbling on the screen as they frantically try to pick up everything in sight before time runs out.
As players complete each of the 10 stages in the game, the levels become available in the Arcade and Versus modes. Part of the allure
of games like this one is that the players are encouraged to pick up the controller and accumulate to their heart’s content, and the
secondary modes in the game get this partially right where the main Story mode doesn’t. The close camera, scribbling on the screen
and time limit are still present, but at least they are not tied to the mandatory goals, so players are free to see how much of each level
they can clean up in a relatively stress free atmosphere. Players will also get a log of all of the crazy items that they have transported
and the game keeps track of how much of a level, in percentage points, players have cleaned up so there is an incentive to go back to a
level in order to grab that one extra percentage point.
The presentation in “Tornado” is somewhat entertaining. The game’s blocky humanoid characters, random objects and goofy sound
effects are stylistically reminiscent of the Katamari series. Even when players are trying to complete the game’s frustrating sixth level
that takes place in the United States, transporting bluntly named Bikini Women and hearing their comical screams will make players
crack a slight smile.
“Tornado” has its mind in the right place and the overall game play design is easy to understand and get into and at its core the idea of
swallowing things up into a controllable tornado is fun at times. All it takes are a few significant problems to bring down the fun
experience and unfortunately “Tornado” has too many issues to make the game an overall positive experience.
and appearing as a huge disaster in other games like “SimCity.” In Ignition Entertainment’s “Tornado” for the Nintendo DS, players
use the destructive weather phenomenon to restore order to Earth. With a design similar to “Katamari Damacy,” the game sounds like
it would be strangely addictive, but because of a few major issues with the game, “Tornado” ends up being very frustrating and, like the
real thing, potentially disastrous.
In this game, players will find out that a character known only as The Prince has sucked up Earth’s countries into his own realm for
safekeeping, and it is up to the player to take on the role of one of several anthropomorphic felines known as Cosmic Cleaners to put all
of them back in place. The cleaners can spin themselves into large tornados that are able to transport any item they come in contact
with. Each successful transport causes the player’s tornado to grow in size, giving them the ability to transport even larger objects.
There are also special items thrown about in each level that will help players gather up more object, such as the power up that
temporarily sends three tornados in different directions to do the bidding of the player, if players meet certain conditions and apply the
correct touch screen technique.
The most noticeable issue in the game can be found almost instantly when players begin to play the first level of the game. The
camera, which gives players an isometric perspective of the polygonal playing field, is too close to everything to allow full view of the
playing field. Even as their tornado grows and the camera pans out, players will never be able to see as much as they would want to.
Learning where landmarks are on a given level becomes more of a chore than it should be and this is especially irritating when players
are presented with goals such as “find five batteries before the time limit is up.”
By pairing together to goals in the game with a time limit turns out to be a huge issue with the overall game. Throughout the course of
the Story Mode, players must find fellow Cosmic Cleaners to use during game play. However, they are sometimes hidden within
random structures throughout the level, and there is no indication where to start looking for them. By themselves, these goals aren’t so
much an issue, but trying to find a randomly hidden character within a five minute time limit, not to mention having to spend time to
enlarge the tornado to an effective size, can be extremely frustrating. The game is overly difficult and it would not be an exaggeration to
say that players might need to retry some levels 15 or more times in order to pass them, far more than should be necessary for a game
of this type.
Even if players are able to come to grips with the issues with the goal structure, there is still an aching stylus hand that will need to be
dealt with. The player’s tornado can grow in size only if they energize them by drawing on the touch screen in a circular motion. As
players transport items, a five level meter begins to materialize. The stylus serves to fill those meters with energy and with each full
level; the player’s tornado grows a set amount. The issue is that as the tornado touches the object it is trying to transport, it loses
energy. This leaves players constantly scribbling on the screen as they frantically try to pick up everything in sight before time runs out.
As players complete each of the 10 stages in the game, the levels become available in the Arcade and Versus modes. Part of the allure
of games like this one is that the players are encouraged to pick up the controller and accumulate to their heart’s content, and the
secondary modes in the game get this partially right where the main Story mode doesn’t. The close camera, scribbling on the screen
and time limit are still present, but at least they are not tied to the mandatory goals, so players are free to see how much of each level
they can clean up in a relatively stress free atmosphere. Players will also get a log of all of the crazy items that they have transported
and the game keeps track of how much of a level, in percentage points, players have cleaned up so there is an incentive to go back to a
level in order to grab that one extra percentage point.
The presentation in “Tornado” is somewhat entertaining. The game’s blocky humanoid characters, random objects and goofy sound
effects are stylistically reminiscent of the Katamari series. Even when players are trying to complete the game’s frustrating sixth level
that takes place in the United States, transporting bluntly named Bikini Women and hearing their comical screams will make players
crack a slight smile.
“Tornado” has its mind in the right place and the overall game play design is easy to understand and get into and at its core the idea of
swallowing things up into a controllable tornado is fun at times. All it takes are a few significant problems to bring down the fun
experience and unfortunately “Tornado” has too many issues to make the game an overall positive experience.
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