"Rule your own island."

Ever wanted to be 200 foot tall and rule an island? Well now you can in Nintendo’s Doshin the Giant. The premise is simple, you are a huge giant who has arrived on Bard Island to find a group of villagers you must coexist with on the island. The villagers need help with certain tasks and you can oblige and help, or, if you feel the need to, hurt and punish them for being so small and pathetic. Doshin was originally born on the 64DD (a Nintendo 64 add-on) but after this unit failed to reach the market in Japan the game was shifted onto the GameCube. Unfortunately it didn't get many technical tweaks in the move and looks quite dated up against other next-generation titles.

There are a variety of tasks Doshin can do and the most fun seem to be moving objects around for the villagers. The more you do for the villagers the more you grow, and by getting bigger you can carry heavier objects and have a greater effect on the landscape on Bard Island. In a sense Doshin The Giant is like a stone age version of Sim City played at a slower pace and in a more relaxing environment.

As well as changing the island’s layout you can also hunt down the villagers enemies and destroy them encouraging warfare between the various people on the island. To do this players must become an evil giant, Jashin, (with the simple press of the L button). Once you are morphed into Jashin you make the villagers life a misery by destroying as much as you can. The more evil you are the more powerful you become and the more destroying you can do! As the evil giant you can also move a lot faster with a larger jump and this helps to get around the island a bit quicker. The game is quite slow and it takes a bit of patience but it's great for just kicking back and relaxing with your local village crew.

In Doshin, the island is yours and you can do exactly what you want with it which makes it a lot of fun. The graphics are nice and simple but detailed enough to keep players interested in the scenery on the island. As I said earlier it was released in Japan and there was a European release a few months back but its seems this game hit American shelves and then quickly disappeared. This was probably due to lack of supply but hopefully it will make its return as it is a game that all Cube fans should experience at some time. Fact is I didn't even know the game was out until it was too late and have only been able to enjoy it on a friends GameCube - thanks mate.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/12/03