"Flawed and annoying, yet, for some extremely odd reason... Very addictive... Well, it was."

I borrowed this game from my friend to try it out. I found it flawed and annoying, yet somehow addictive (again, it was), like I said in the tagline. He says he'll sell it to me for 7$. I didn't want to waste my money, so I asked him if I could borrow it. I also want to note that the overall score is an average. I'm not exactly bashing the game, because I'm doing it in a fair way. Just wanted to get that clear, 'cuz there's a lot of bashing out there, and I don't want people thinkin' I'm doing it. Anyway... Yeah, Let's get started.

Story: 2/10
"Daddy's in trouble! I have to save him!" Yep, that's the story. Lame, huh? "Daddy's" been kidnapped looking for a book. That's just plain weird. "Don't worry Daddy! I'll save from the mean people with my magic stick!" Really, man. That doesn't sound like Nintendo at all... Someone must have been impersonating the Nintendo company and they...! Never mind.

Controls: 6/10
Controls are basic and easy to remember. Sadly, as you go deeper in the game, it gets pretty annoying. Basically, you press the C buttons all over the place. The C buttons are the buttons that cast spells, you see.
Up C - Fire.
Down C - Water.
Left C - Earth.
Right C - Wind.
A is for opening treasure chests, talking to people, opening doors, it's kinda like the action button for the game. B and Z are attack buttons. When you get close to the enemy, a weapon icon appears above you or your enemy's head. Controls are pretty bad, and defitently aren't perfect.

Sound/Music: 3/10
The sounds in the battle system are the weirdest sounds in the game. Cast fire. Now, listen to the sound it makes... Thump. Since when does fire make a thumping noise? The music... Sucks too. It's so annoying and constantly plays the same thing over and over again. The music in towns is upbeat... Too upbeat... Way too freaking upbeat. It's like little kids picked out the music for the towns. The music for the dungeons is annoying as well, in the same way as town music except it's not upbeat. Just plain annoying. Horrible music+sound for a horrible game.

Graphics: 3/10
The characters look like lego people and dolls. Brian's hair sticks up like... I don't know. It's just disturbing. The overworld and enemies look pretty good, but still have that N64 feeling to it. Polygons galore. The camera views completely suck. You can't change the view, you can't see a large majority around your character, and in a battle, you must move a lot, so when you finish the battle, you forget where you were. Very annoying.

Gameplay: 1/10
Okay, you leave a town. You're entering some plains. Suddenly... ENEMIES! You swiftly avoid their attacks and kill them. Whew! Close call, huh? You walk 4 steps. Suddenly... ENEMIES! That's how battling works here. That's right. Enemies come along more often than anything in this game. And if that's not enough, the way you must battle sucks, too. You and your enemies are in a big circle. You are also in a small circle in that circle. You can barely move in a battle. To reach your enemies, you have to waste a turn to move closer to your enemy/enemies.

You only have one character and it's a little kid named Brian. You get no extra weapons. Just you and a stick. Wow. That'll send the bad boys running. You'd expect a bunch of playable characters, correct? That's what perplexes me. I wouldn't call this a real RPG. An action game with a crappy story, crappy sound, and camera views is a possibility, though...

Challenge: 0/10
This is a weak point of the game. It's a cheap challenge. Nintendo made quite a few major mistakes here and there, but the challenge brings it all way down. Enemies get tougher as you go deeper in the game, and you have a scarce amount of supplies. It's not a good old fashioned challenge. It's a challenge only from being cheap, IMHO.

Replayability: 0/10
Playing through it once was enough for me, but playing it again? Yeah, right. The quest is annoying, the gameplay, everything else: Sucks freakin' noodles.

Buy or Rent?
Rent it, if anything. Buying it is a waste of money. It lasts, like, 14-15 hours, depending on your gaming level. Unless you have an addictive personality, then don't bother with this. I have one, and I can't put the controller down (well I couldn't), unless I get insane from the nonstop battles that come way too often. Overall, this game is crap. Yeah. Crap.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 09/25/06, Updated 10/30/06