Mini Game Reviews 2: Army of Dokapon

I know, I know, this comes pretty quickly off the heels of the last set of reviews, but… I’ve been playing a lot of games lately. Gimme a break!

Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360)
My opinion of this first-person shooter would probably change drastically if I had an Xbox Live account, since the developers locked half the game’s content for paid subscribers only. Jerks. What’s left is a very short offline campaign that, fortunately, does support two-player splitscreen. You absolutely have to play this game with at least one other person, otherwise your AI teammates will drive you crazy. They always want to be a hero and won’t retreat to the safe house. I could see this being really fun with four human players, though. Even with just two humans, there were some great moments where we were holed up in the bathroom of a farmhouse, too afraid to go out and face the big monster zombie downstairs. If you thought you knew what zombies were like in games… you don’t. Unlike the slow, staggering zombies of Resident Evil fame, the zombies in Left 4 Dead are fast, crazy, and travel in huge numbers. Watching a crowd of them pile over a fence is pretty intense, four players or not.

Army of Two (Xbox 360)
At a glance, Army of Two seems like it’s just trying to rip off Gears of War. But then you play it for a few hours and start to understand what separates the two games. For starters, Army of Two is a lot clunkier. The characters, especially when interacting with objects or each other, are sluggish, and the button layout is unnecessarily convoluted. But that lovable “duck and cover” gameplay is back in full force, and it’s harder and more brutal here than in Gears. Even on the easiest difficulty, the AI’s aim is spot-on. It’s frustrating at first, until you learn how to work with your teammate (AI or human, but please choose human). It gets intense when the two of you are on opposite sides of a room filled with bad guys, taking turns getting their attention so the other can sneak up from behind. And because the AI is so good, each terrorist you kill makes a huge difference and feels that much more rewarding. Gears is still better, but I do like killing terrorists.

Jetpac Refuelled (Xbox Live Arcade)
All you need to do is spend two minutes with the original Jetpac to realize it wasn’t a good game. So why did it even garner such a polished remake? Refuelled looks really good, sounds really good, and plays really good. It’s a really good game… at first. You start out flying around a small 2D level, collecting parts to make a spaceship, then collecting fuel so you can blast off that wretched planet called Level 1. But then Level 2 comes around, and all you do is collect more fuel. Then Level 128 comes around, and you’re still collecting fuel! So… yeah, it tends to be a bit repetitive. The changes in the gameplay come from the enemies that swap out every level. It’s really great for the first 20 levels, because you are constantly seeing new types of enemies. But the developers quickly ran out of ideas and just started throwing more of the same at you. Onwards and upwards to Level 128! It’s still fun in short bursts, though, and has a nice two-player mode, which makes it worth the $5 asking price.

Dokapon Kingdom (Wii)
It’s about time somebody figured out how to do the party board game genre right. Dokapon Kingdom is one part RPG, though, making it a little harder for the whole family to jump right in. But the mechanics are easy to figure out, and, like Mario Party, much of the game is based on luck, anyway. It’s all about rolling the right numbers and being able to spot the best route to take. The battle system is just rock, paper, scissors, too, which, against the computer, is a matter of blind guessing. When you add in other players, though, Dokapon suddenly becomes really engaging and fun. There are so many opportunities to sabotage each other, whether it’s poisoning them with a spell, stealing ownership of one of their towns, or killing them in battle and changing their screen name to “ButtWipe.” What’s not to love?! Well, it is just a board game, so there’s a lot of waiting between turns. You definitely need to play with a group of people you get along with and who have a natural patience for RPGs.

2 March 2010 | Video Games | Comments | Home
tags: reviews

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