Overlord Minions (Nintendo DS) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

Codemasters have been plugging their Overlord franchise for some months now, indeed initial screens of the game in action appeared very promising and the various gameplay details were better still. Minions was to be a squad-based action puzzler, a little like the classic Lost Vikings, where each member of the team has a separate ability but success relies on them all working together. It certainly seemed more interesting that the usual titles DS owners get served up but what are the results like?

Gameplay

We won't focus too much on the plot as you'll be treated to hours of this should you take the plunge and decide to purchase this game. Let's just say that all is not well in the Withering Woods of Greenvale; Strange Creatures are on the rampage. It's up to you to sort things out as you control a group of Minions (Giblet, Blaze, Stench and Zap) through a variety of locations, seeking out and destroying anything and everything in your path. It starts out easily enough. You'll only be given two Minions to deal with initially, which is a blessing as they can become a bit of a handful. You'll quickly notice that each one has very different abilities so while one might have brute strength and is rather good in combat situations, others can navigate the waterways and are able to heal. The trick is to use their differences to complete the levels and this will require you to constantly separate your Minions (to open doors or flip switches) and then quickly to bring them together for combat. You'll also discover just how easy it is for one of your group to die but it's only by staying as a unit you'll be able to complete each level. Thankfully, one fallen comrade doesn't mean restarting the whole section as each level has a number of 'Spawn Pits' that allow you to bring back the missing members of your group.

Each section ends with a 'boss' and while it is occasionally a bit difficult to defeat them there's always help at hand, thanks to Gnarl (at some kind of HQ) who gives you hints and tips. In fact this 'on-line' help is available at all times and while it's generally easy to understand, it's not always simple to execute. Sadly though, once you have completed the game, there's little incentive to go back and with the absence of a Multiplayer you may never step foot into the Minions world again.

Controls

It's all touch-screen which, unfortunately, is the game's main undoing.

Graphics

Climax have managed to pull off an impressive 3D engine which allows for some rich textures even on the DS's tiny screen. There's also a fair amount of detail in the various environments, more than enough to please the average gamer as you move from dimly lit dungeons to blustery snow topped mountains. The animation is pretty good too, with your Minions clearly hunched over as they battle though the various levels. The various cut screens are less impressive as, while these would have been fine as part of the box art, they are simply not visually pleasing enough for in-game graphics.

Sound

The score is suitably epic with a mixture of choral, orchestral and some more unique pieces accompanying the action. The sound effects aren't bad either with more than enough medieval clangs, bangs and crashes to keep most gamers happy.

Dual screen

In theory, the touch-screen control should work fine: move the stylus around the bottom screen in oder to move your team around and select objects to interact with them. This works OK with one character but controlling a few shows just how dumb your team is, as they regularly get stuck behind objects or simply stand around as they are attacked off-screen. There are also problems with some of the interactions where simple acts, such as pressing a button or even picking up an object, become impossible and therefore incredibly frustrating. Clearly, with the mix of combat and puzzles, you need the control system to be flawless but there are too many faults here which really should have been picked up in testing.

Final comments

This squad based puzzler is certainly a new direction for the DS in a world where the handheld is saturated with racing games, mini-game collections and movie tie-in titles. The result is an engaging and thought-provoking puzzler, which features some wonderfully rendered environments but unfortunately it is not without flaws. It works very well until you have to control too many characters and then it gets simply too frustrating to really enjoy. It's still a solid and lengthy challenge and had the touch-screen control been tidied up it would have scored much higher, but as it stands we couldn't really award it much more than this.

Pro: Well Designed, Some Great Puzzles, Looks Great.
Con: Sloppy, Frustrating Touch-screen Interface
Final score: 6.9

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