IGN Review of Spectrobes: Origins

Believe it or not, Disney has just done console Pokemon better than Nintendo. Go ahead… rub your eyes, F5 this screen a couple times, get your hate mail ready if you must, and then read on.



It's impossible to talk about Disney's Spectrobes franchise without bringing up a few obvious inspirations (which Disney itself has mentioned) to the series. Take a boy and a girl, mix them up in a classic Japanese anime world, give them a cute and cuddly quadruped animal a la Pikachu, and send them on a quest to find and collect monsters. Spectrobes is an insanely deep game, filled with more customization and options than most of its target audience will ever fully understand, but amidst the fossil excavation, online connectivity, action-RPG system, well presented story snippets and "gotta catch em all" attitude is a game that surprisingly strong, and one that takes inspiration from just about every major monster battle game out there from Pokemon to Dino King, Monster Rancher and Dragon Quest Monsters.



First off, let's talk style for a minute. I've got no problem stating that the bland character designs, obviously kid-directed world, and somewhat sloppy visual offerings in Spectrobes is a downer, and one that could easily keep this from being a hardcore RPG fan's type of game. The camera can be a mess when inside labyrinths, the game follows a lot of anime formula style tactics (such as catch phrases for the lead characters), and if I had to give a straight-up "take it" or "leave it" decision on the overall world of Spectrobes it'd be a "leave it" in the end. Yes there are some great concepts, the collection aspects are there, and in the end – as you'll see – gameplay and depth win out, but unless you're a eight – 14 year old kid I don't see many people going nuts for the Spectrobes world/style in general. It's just a bit too "every anime" for its own good.



The age-old philosophy of not judging a book by its cover speaks volumes here though, as this obvious "me too" franchise has trumped just about every recent collection and battle game out there; Pokemon included. On handhelds Pokemon has become a repetitious offering that –while still undeniably awesome – isn't evolving much from game to game. That's fine though; Pokemon is still fun. What we haven't seen yet as Nintendo fans, however, is a Pokemon branded game on consoles that resembles any of the depth or expansion that a move to the big leagues could do for the series, and that's where Spectrobes comes in. Disney literally beat Nintendo to the punch, even though we've had a decade of potential in the Big N's monster collection series. The comparison between the franchises isn't direct, but if you're anything like me you'll soon be pulled in by a design that by all means could have been done so much sooner. Remove any Pokemon vs. Spectrobes mentality to it all, however, and you're left with the bottom line, which is that Spectrobes is fun to play. Pure and simple.



And in the end, it all comes down to gameplay. Spectrobes mixes monster battling with a real-time action RPG experience, so you'll not only be managing which critter is out on the field and attacking, but also running your main character around and participating in combat the feels like a mix between classic action battle mechanics and something like Monster Hunter lite. Different weapons allow the human leads to change up styles and elemental attacks, so you can have a leaf-based blade, an electric gauntlet, ranged cannon weapons and heavier bashing melee attacks. As you progress through the game not only will your Spectrobes gain levels, but your humans will as well. It's a constant balance of progressing not only your main character, but also all of your monsters too. Tie in a search and excavate system for finding new fossils with new Spectrobes and you've got a mechanic that is addicting enough to keep the experience moving; even if the levels themselves aren't always the most inspired areas to trek through.



Combat is as simple as hitting A to attack, and then shaking vertically to send your otherwise-AI Spectrobe in to attack, A swipe vertically recalls them back to your current position, the C button brings up a cursor-based targeting system that lets you specifiy which enemy your critter should be attacking at all times, Z lets you switch Spectrobes on the fly (making battles hectic), and combos can be chained between Spectrobe and human lead characters. Kick enough butt and you'll charge up special attacks which can either be used immediately with motion-based charge and release – and it works great, by the way – or banked for later. It's actually possible to save up charge attacks for every Spectrobe on your team, and then swap them in one-by-one and unleash stacked supers for insane combos. There's a lot to manage as you play, but it's also a battle mechanic that actually had me wishing for less story, less exploration, and less towns… battling is fun enough on its own, and that means you're headed in the right direction. Just look at Pokemon as evidence of that. If the grind is fun, the game is limitless.



On the depth and customization front there's a near-infinite amount of options for users to keep track of. On the field different Spectrobes can perform different attacks, but they can also be of other "real world" use based on their evolutionary form. They can dig up new fossils, tiny stage one Spectrobes can fit into small areas and retrieve specific items, and larger ones use their strength and elemental power to unlock new areas. The idea of using your monsters around the world is another Poke-inspired idea (cut, fly, strength), though it doesn't go quite as far as it could.



And then there's the actual excavation system. Items can be found all around the world (in some areas every few steps) and have many different purposes. With a keen eye players can find support items, gems that actually level up and progress their Spectrobes' levels outside of battle in a sort of Spectrobes garden, and of course fossilized Spectrobes. The fossil system is great, and again another inspired aspect from other games before Disney's property. Still, it works great, and is again above and beyond what most games attempt to do. Expanding your library of monsters comes with finding these fossils and then bringing them to the excavation lab. From there players will need to use their IR cursor in a sort of Trauma Center-inspired excavation system with multiple tools. The laser simply cuts through anything, the drill chips away at the surface, mines blow out gigantic chunks, the hammer cracks away a large sections, and the air blower will actually pull off tiny pieces still left on the specimen.



A scanner is also included, letting you actually scan the rock and see the tiny Spectrobes creature inside. This is a vital part of the process, since any damage you do to the Spectrobe during excavation actually impacts the creature's starting stats and level, making for a very skill-based monster collection system. Each of these mini-games is timed, and it's a unique and entertaining way of collecting creatures. Once you actually bring the Spectrobes into your garden area you can feed them items to help them level up outside of battle (lessening the need to grind weaker creatures over and over when exploring the world), take photos and upload them to a Spectrobes-specific photobucket page, and watch them evolve through forms.



The visual style found in Spectrobes isn't one I'm particularly fond of – it's just so generic – but the visuals aren't bad on their own. With more than 100+ creatures in the game there's plenty to see, and while the game has a very PS2-like look at times it's also understandable considering the sheer amount of characters and content. The game also goes from voiceover work to straight-up text based on the importance of the scene, but with the majority of games on Wii leaning towards casual, quick-fix play it's still unique to see a title with full cinematic, voice work, and an open-world feel. Oh, and to add to the experience there's also plenty of content for those that are true Spectrobes fanatics. For starters, two player co-op is included, allowing one person to control the human and one person to control the Spectrobe. It's a bit too simple and thin when running around with effectively half of your move set, but it's also a quick way of having drop-in/drop-out co-op. As with the DS version of Spectrobes a card series is also launching with the game, allowing those dedicated enough to buy trading cards with unlockable content housed on each. Simply check out the pattern on the back of each card, connect stars to form the constellation in the game, and you'll unlock new colored Spectrobes or even exclusive beasts. It isn't as innovative as the DS game, which actually had players tracing the card as it sat on the touch screen, but they did what they could with it on Wii. For those into more traditional (and free) offerings you can also go into a training room and play survival mode. In this combat-only arena all experience can actually carry over to the main game, so if you want to grind a bit and don't want to run around looking for random battles it's a great place to do it. All in all it's a pretty beefy offering to say the least.



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