"I would much rather have Animal Crossing!"

Introduction
Nintendo is well known for its wacky, innovotive ideas. Here is another Doshin the Giant. Doshin the Giant is a game which was released in Japan a couple of months ago, and has since been released in Europe but not USA. This is the second installment of the game. The first was only released in Japan and recieved lots of praise. But what about the second one.......

Graphics
The first thing you'll see is the most colourful menu screen ever. But the graphics in the game are quite special. Villages and people are well detailed and Doshin and Jashin are superbly done. The islands are also very good. Trees are bright and colourful. Not only that but the sun, especially when it's setting, and the sky and birds are some of the best graphics I have seen on a Gamecube. If there was one critism, it would be the fact that some of the lands textures are a bit poor, but overall the graphics are very good.
9/10

Sound
unlike the graphics, the sound isn't great. Firstly there is no ingame music. This is a letdown because even if there was just something soft in the background it would make a big difference. The sound affects are top drawer though. Birds and humans have good sound effects as does a strange character who acts like a guide for you.
6/10

Gameplay
This is where the game suffers. The game has good gameplay and ideas and a great concept. Basically, you have to help humans make villages in order to make monuments. Get 16 monuments and you complete the game. Do this by helping them plant trees and levelling ground. However, there are two major problems. Firstly, the villages are far too far away from each other, especially if you have a village on a small island away from the main island. This means that if you are at one village and need to get to another one quickly, it can't be done, which is the second main problem. Doshin is slow. Not slow as in slug slowness, but as in snail slowness. Even if you turn into Jashin and glide somewhere he moves very slowly which makes the dull and boring. This needs to be addressed in the next version by maybe putting in some kind of teleportation device.
4/10

Lifespan
This can go one of two ways. Either you love this game and play it continuasly until you complete it. Or, you find it is too slow and repetetive and take it back to the shop you bought it for a refund.

Rent or Buy
Rent. A great idea and concept but not enough lasting appeal and gets boring and dull too quickly.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/28/02, Updated 09/28/02