Digimon World DS

"Digimon - A great comeback!"

Digimon World DS is the first Digimon game for DS, created by Bandai. It finally breaks the tradition of dull games that only fans of the series would love.

Graphics - 7/10

Fairly dull for the DS, considering what the system can do, however, they do their job. In cities, dungeons and the Digi-Farm, the game has an isometric view, with small sprites representing the Digimon and your character. They're fairly clear, and the colours are bright, making it easy to see where you are and where you're able to go. The top screen shows your Digi-Farm and any action taking place there, such as your Digimon using the training items, using the same graphical style.

The battle screen takes a different approach. The bottom screen shows the Digimon you're battling against on a 1x5 grid, face on. The sprites of the Digimon are fairly large and show a lot of detail, and they're nicely made. They have 3 basic positions - stood, attacking, or being attacked. I would have liked to have more, but with the sheer amount of Digimon in the game, that is unrealistic. In the bottom left corner, it has the active Digimon, blue for your own, red for the opponent. You don't actually see your Digimon when battling, which may make some Pokemon fans mark it down slightly, but there simply isn't room for them. The top screen has the order that Digimon will take their moves in, similar to Final Fantasy 10's CTB bar. It shows a cut of the sprite, and their current HP and MP levels, all easily distinguishable. When choosing a move, the area to the right of the top screen shows a description of the move, it's power levels and any other information. All in all, the battle screen is well designed and gives you a large amount of information, while managing to look uncluttered.

Sound - 5/10

The sound is largely uninspiring. Whilst there is a large range of tunes, you'll be hard pressed to remember any of them when you turn the game off. It's good enough to be background noise as you play through the game, and although some tunes will have you reaching for the mute button, for the most part it won't bother you. Sound effects also do their job, but you won't be writing home about them.

Story - 5/10

Simply put, the story with not win any prizes. Your character starts off in the real world, wondering what these monsters he's been hearing about are. He walks into his school, and with no-one around, decides to log into his computer and search for them, on what I only presume is their equivalent of Google. A Digimon site appears, he gets a quick view of a Digi-Farm, then gets given the choice of being able to 'log in' to the Digital World, or just walk away. The hero, being as naive as all video game characters are, clicks 'Yes'. He's then sucked into the computer.

For a while, he's confused, until he meets the leader of the Digimon who tells him that he has potential to become a great tamer. So he gets given a Digimon and starts his journey to become Tamer King. Heard it before? Of course you have. It's in the book of generic stories put into games where it's secondary.

Gameplay - 8/10

Gameplay is where Digimon World DS shines. When given your starter Digimon (either Koromon, Tsunomon, or Tanemon), you're able to battle. At the start of every battle, your Digivice scans the Digimon you've encountered. Once it's scanned a Digimon enough (100% or more), you're able to make one of your own. This means that you'll be spending extra time in areas which hold Digimon, fighting, gaining experience and scan data, so you can make more powerful versions of Digimon, which you get with more than 100% scan data. It's nice to have a way of gaining monsters which doesn't depend on luck, as most monster-raising games do.

Battling is easy to navigate, and you're given the option to choose whether to use the touch screen to pick actions, or whether to use the buttons. For the most part, I believe it's easier to use the buttons, so you don't have to switch control styles every time a battle occurs. On that note, the rate at which battles occur is lovely. You can go through a screen with only 1 or 2 battles, something which, if there were any more, would be a chore. (I'm looking at you, Final Fantasy.) However, if you want to battle, just wandering around a little should provide you with as many as you need.

Digivolving is also a wonderful addition to the game. It's a way to make your Digimon stronger. To digivolve, your Digimon has to meet certain requirements, such as a certain level or amount of EXP. Most Digimon have more than one way to Digivolve, and you'll often find yourself degenerating (de-digivolving, basically) just to try a different route of Digivolution. Which brings me to my next point.

There are over 250 Digimon in the game to aquire, most only gained by Digivolution. For someone looking to 100% a game, it's a dream come true. For Digimon fans, most of their favourites will be in the game somewhere, and looking for them is an absolute joy. Digimon World DS makes collecting and battling fun. It's exciting to see what Digimon you'll be able to Digivolve into next, and that will push you into finding every single one of them. Unfortunately, a dozen you're unable to get without connecting to someone over Wi-Fi, which is sometimes a difficult feat, as you need specific Digimon to breed the ones you want. Hopefully you'll have a friend nearby with the game, but if not, you'll need an internet connection so you can find someone online.

Replay Value - 8/10

Digimon World DS will likely last you a long time as you slowly gather all of the Digimon, and complete both the storyline and all of the sidequests that your Digimon give you. However, once you've done this, the will to play the game slowly wanes, as, with a lack of online battling, there's little to push you to keep improving your Digimon. There is also little reason to start the game over with a different Digimon, unless you just love the game that much.

Total - 33/50

End Score - 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/28/07