"The downside of equivalent exchange"

Fullmetal Alchemist is one of the top anime series out there. Some finely crafted twists and turns, along with an interesting premise, made it a hit in Japan, and it has enjoyed similar success in English speaking countries in recent times too. An emphasis is made on the theme of alchemy/science: that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed. That to get something in return, you have to give up something of equal value. This law of equivalent exchange is totally true here: we have a great anime/manga series; we have a poor excuse for a licensed game.

Visuals - 7
Sound & Music - 8
Gameplay - 4
Longevity - C (2-3 hours)
Replayability - C (Different characters, same repetitiveness)
Difficulty - C (Unlimited lives; tougher only when going for rewards)

FMA license - Super!
VERDICT - 4.0/10 - Poor

What's in a name
The best thing this game does is staying true to the FMA style and story. The sprites of the various main characters are big and bold, and the main gist of the plot is told well through the equally good-looking stills interspersed throughout. It can be a bit difficult for newcomers to follow, but those that are familiar with the series will appreciate its authenticity.

Character favourites all appear, from the always bright-faced Alfonse, to big tough guy Louis Armstrong (not the jazz musician), to the badass homunculus Greed. All look great whenever they appear, but for the most part this only occurs during the times when you are NOT battling.

Gung-ho Alchemists
Dual Sympathy a side-scrolling beat 'em up game mainly, and you run through some really brief levels beating up not a lot of generic thugs or beasts; perhaps 5 different enemy types all up. Your character only has a few simple moves (and just 2 different 3-hit combos for Ed?! C'mon!) with which to dish out pain. The trasmutation powers can be used as specials, but they all work the same essentially. If it wasn't for the fact that the levels are so short (over in 5-10 minutes each), you would grow very bored of your limited arsenal very soon.

In between the numerous story sequences and generic gameplay, there are a couple of mini-games to make some use of the touch screen. These include an arm wrestling match where you have to quickly swipe in the marked direction as fast as you can, an Indiana Jones-style "run from the chasing boulder" scene where you have to tap both sides of the screen alternately with your thumbs to 'run' away as fast as you can, and a couple of others which require simple tapping or rubbing. They are actually quite fun and they relate to the current events at the time. You are able to replay a select few of them on completion from the main menu, but while they are novel, they were not built for repeated plays; much like Wario Ware microgames, of which there are 200+ per game as opposed to the paltry figure under 10 here.

You've got a simplified interactive anime here kid
Despite the game being extremely derivative, it still is incredibly short. 2-3 hours is all you will need to get through it, and that's considering that nearly half that time is spent sifting through the dialogue and/or playing minigames. There are couple of times when you will be low on energy and may succumb to a few cheap blows, but you can instantly restart the current screen with full life thereafter. Apart from going death-free in order to unlock some lame pictures (which look nice, but aren't much in the way of a bonus), you may as well "hari-kiri" whenever you enter a scene with low health. Don't know why they didn't just refill you life automatically at key events such as boss battles.

Ah the battles. The main event. Which won't earn any applause from any kind of crowd here. As I mentioned earlier, your arsenal of attacks (no blocks) is extremely limited. The enemies you encounter face a similar problem. What results is lots of single button mashing. Even in the boss battles, most of the time you will just wait for an opening, perhaps performing a set transmutation, before attacking with all you've got. This is bad enough as it is already, but there's more. As you pull off the same combos again and again, you character's momentum will carry them forwards and so there will be many times when you'll just attack right past targeted enemies. The game is forgiving enough to make this not a sticking problem, but it makes fighting all the more lacklustre as it already is.

Watched the anime or read the manga yet? Do so FIRST!
If you are a very big fan of the series, you will want this in your collection for collective purposes only. Presentation wise it does justice to the anime, but as a licensed game, it is as bad as they come. If you haven't caught on with this series (which you should at least read/watch the anime since it's complete now),, then I highly recommend you do so if you even gave this game a look. That way you will appreciate the sad, but funky tale for all that it's worth, and add another anime great to your portfolio. If you do decide to play through this first, you will develop unwarranted negativity to the license, and you will probably find that the basic 20-year old beat 'em up gameplay here will really want to make you beat something up.

4.0/10 - Technically sound, but gameplay as stale as decade-old bread

23/12/06

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 12/26/06