Dragon Hunters (Nintendo DS) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

Dragon Hunters may mean little to UK gamers but in Europe and the US (where the TV series is shown) it's incredibly popular. The story concerns two hunters who are hired to track down a variety on monsters across a futuristic, medieval world of floating landmasses. This DS game is based on the big screen outing released earlier this year, which, unsurprisingly, didn't get a UK release. Whether it will see the light of day here remains to be seen, but that's not going to stop us reviewing the game.

Gameplay

Possibly one of the first things you'll notice about this game is the amount of text between the characters and you really should spend the time to read it as it not only forms part of the plot but it's also incredibly funny in places. Anyway, on to the game and Dragon Hunters is a platformer with a difference. An alternate gravity means that you could be walking on the floor one moment, on the ceiling the next or even floating thought the air to find your next anchor point. This takes place in three separate locations: Jungle World, Temple World and the Dragon Battleground. Each of these is then split into a variety of challenges so you may have to Collect the Orbs or Gold Nuggets, Kill all the Dragons, or (possibly the best) compete the Dragon Egg Checkpoints. This involves you locating huge eggs and freeing the Dragons with the timer constantly ticking away and only resetting when you find the next egg. All the challenges take place in the same location but they never follow the same route so when you assume you are following a path, you may suddenly be confronted by a solid wooden beam forcing you to re-think your strategy. You may also have to push huge blocks into place and while this may appear to have absolutely no impact initially, it may aid another character further on in the level. It's this overall design, which really elevates this title above similar offerings and it won't take long before you realize just how complex some of the areas are.

You tackle them with three different characters: Lian-Chu (the muscle), Hector (the tunneler) and Gwizdo (the brains). It's only by working together and constantly switching between them, that you'll manage to actually get though the levels and it does take a bit of time to get the hang of who is the best at what. You'll find along the way that you'll take a fair bit of damage to your health either by being careless or in one of the many Dragon battles. This is easily rectified as the hearts you pick up along the way are stored in the middle of the touch screen so topping up a character's health is as simple as dragging a heart over to their picture. The battles unfortunately are rather lame considering this is Dragon Hunters, you would have expected the developers to vary the combat and give the enemies at least a little common sense.

There are even a couple of mini-games and while the Whack-a-Dragon is self-explanatory, Hector's Maze challenges you to navigate around various underground tubes collecting the purple orbs before time is up. This is genuinely challenging and remembering which short cut or direction you last tried really gets the grey matter working overtime. You can also play both of these as a Multiplayer but sadly you'll require two copies of the game to enjoy it.

Controls

It's all stylus driven mini-games so you can forget about your traditional controls cowboy.

Graphics

Dragon Hunters is a visual feast and everything, from your three main leads to the various environments, is incredibly well designed. The developers have used every trick in the book just to bring that extra element to the locations. The end of level bosses are also impressive and because the game keeps altering the scale of things, the monsters here appear genuinely menacing as they tower over you. You also get the added bonus of conceptual artwork from the movie, which is absolutely stunning and well worth unlocking by playing the game to its end. If all that isn't enough there's also a surprisingly easy to use front end that makes tackling the various missions very easy indeed.

Sound

The music is outstanding, so much so, it's actually featured as one of the unlockable 'goodies' in the main menu. The odd thing is you'll probably listen a few times too as the tracks are incredibly well composed and clearly taken from the movie's soundtrack. The sound effects are less impressive and while the three main leads have very different grunts, don't expect any conversation from them. Elsewhere, in the main game, the monsters themselves all appear to squeak with only the end of level bosses sounding anything like something to be afraid of.

Dual screen

You'll only have to use your stylus on the end of level bosses but unfortunately each one is 'taken down' in exactly the same manor. You throw rocks at their head by flipping your stylus upwards, and then use a crossbow to aim at their weakest point. You are hindered during this when the monster pounds the ground releasing rocks that fall from the sky. These are easily avoided as you can see the shadows they cast, seconds before they land. Unfortunately this doesn't make for a very demanding experience and you'll generally beat these bosses on the first or second attempt.

Final comments

I can't remember, certainly recently, when I last enjoyed a movie tie-in quite as much as Dragon Hunters and while it is 'just another platformer' its unique twist does separate it from the pack. The reason for this, of course, is the ever-changing gravity and while the gameplay itself is really quite simple this extra element keeps you coming back for more and the wonderful sound and visuals really show off the graphical capabilities of the DS. It does have its drawbacks and the combat feels like it's been bolted on as an afterthought but the platforming more than makes up for this. If this sounds like your type of thing grab yourself a copy now. You won't regret it.

Pro: Great Sound, Visuals and Animation. Unique Gameplay
Con: Combat is Weak and Dragon Battles are the Same.
Final score: 8.1

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