Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals

"Playing on Spec -- or how to mess up twice"

Spectrobes is Disney's attempt at having a share in the Pokemon market, with web episodes, collecting cards and an interactive online community. Although the series was designed by a Japanese team, the game is far from having the quality or success of something like Pokemon, but Disney has the money to keep the failed series alive and going. The first Spectrobes game was very mediocre, and although it was sort of fun, I was surprised to see a second one, but also somewhat eager as the series had a lot of potential if only the concept of the game was improved upon. Unfortunately, the new Spectrobes is not really any better.

Instead of adjusting the concept behind the game and taking it a step ahead, only a few minor things were corrected. As a result, we get the exact same game we got last time, but with a couple of things fixed, like the battle system. The new Spectrobes game doesn't really feel much like a whole new game, but rather a patched up remake of the first. It's what we should have gotten last time around, and not as a supposed sequel. Even with the few improvements, don't expect anything new or better. You'll revisit a lot of areas from the first game, train the same Spectrobes, and do the exact same things you did before all over again. It was so-so the first time, and still is. Nothing really changed.

In the first Spectrobes, the storyline was extremely basic, but the main characters, Rallen and Jeena, were fun and engaging. If it wasn't of them, the game would have had absolutely no personality. In their newest adventure, Rallen and Jeena lost a bit of their appeal as the dialogues are very recycled, but the storyline is a little more complex this time. Just a little. We're still talking about saving the world from the bad guy and collecting this and that in the process, while we try not to fall asleep on it, but there are more characters involved in the storyline now. Obviously the dialogues are nothing very deep -- it's all very morning cartoon-ish, but since the game is aimed mostly at young lads this does the job.

Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals still has Rallen and Jeena traveling aboard their spaceship, visiting various planets of the stellar system in order to find and collect minerals and fossils hidden underground. While in the first game there was only one galaxy to visit, in the second one you can travel to others by going through portals in space (hence the title). Nothing to get too excited about though, as there only are a handful of new planets behind these portals. Most of the other locations are places that were already in the other game or that look very similar.

So what's new, really? You can now customize your spaceship with parts that can be made with the minerals you collect. That's nice, but the spaceship is pretty much only used as a cursor on the map, so it's futile. The game was said to be too repetitive, so two mini-games were added into the gameplay, one where you control the spaceship, and one where you control Jeena. The spaceship mini-game is pretty much worthless, all you do is press left or right to avoid meteors as you speed through a vortex everytime you cross a portal. Thankfully you can skip this boring mini-game once you've done it at least one time. The Jeena mini-game is more fun, but a poor excuse for Jeena to serve a purpose. Once in a while during the quest you'll be asked to investigate ruins as Jeena where you must examine pillars that start a puzzle mini-game in which you must tap panels with the stylus to match colors together. It's all good, but not so much the fifth time as the mini-game never changes throughout the course of the game. Way to diversify the monotony...

The only worthy addition is rather an improvement; the battle system was finally fixed. This was the one true terrible flaw in the first game. While previously Rallen was handling the fights with two Spectrobes that you would command to attack by pressing L or R (which was horribly executed and pretty much a blind hit or miss), you now control the Spectrobes directly yourself and press A, B or Y to attack and use special moves. Two Spectrobes can be in a fight at the same time, and you can switch between the two using X; while you control one Spectrobes, the other is controlled by AI. The system is better than in the first game, but it's still nothing all that great as all Spectrobes only have one attack each (usually a projectile attack or headbutt), plus one super move. They all control pretty much the same too, except that some are slower and some are faster.

Rallen isn't part of the fights anymore, but he now fights separately. While you explore the areas, you'll see Krawls (the enemies) which you must defeat to clear the locations. Those fights take you to a different screen where you battle with the Spectrobes, but you can also avoid them. However, the Krawls will release smaller enemies which can be defeated with Rallen while you explore. Defeating those will give you items or replenish your health. You can equip different weapons and armor to Rallen, but this seemed more like an excuse for Rallen to use his sword, as those "mini fights" are unnecessary most of the time. Especially since Rallen reaches his max level half-way through the game.

And that's all for the novelty. Everything else is still the same as in the last installment, just as half-borring half-entertaining. It's still fun to feed the Spectrobes and see their evolutions, but it's still boring to walk around the bare and empty, bland-looking planets, battling the Krawls over and over again, and scanning the areas for minerals and fossils. If the areas were aesthetically more eye-catching and inspired, it would be more pleasant to look around them, but everything in the game just looks so dull and unoriginal that it becomes tiresome to walk around with nothing to change the pace of the game. Basically, on each planet you: 1. Defeat all Krawls, 2. Search for minerals and fossils, 3. Dig them up until you're bored, 4. Defeat the boss, 5. Return to the ship, and then repeat the same process on the next few planets, with never anything new. It's the same old thing we already did enough in the first Spectrobes.

Digging up the minerals is still kinda addictive, but still here lies the same problem; it gets repetitive after a while, considering you'll be doing this a lot. Once you find a mineral or fossil, you're taken to a different screen where you can take the dust off with the stylus, then use various tools to dig up the artefacts the best you can without breaking them. A little something new from the other game is that there are now different types of grounds (water, lava, sand, mud...) which require you to use specific tools and different digging methods. Although this is kind of a neat idea, it makes the digging longer and more annoying. The whole mini-game is overused, and it's a shame because it's the only way to get the minerals and it gets irksome too quickly.

The Spectrobes themselves can be obtained from fossils, and must then be awakened at the lab in your ship. To do so, you must speak into the microphone (moreso yell), and depending on your pitch, the Spectrobes will come out in three different colors. Oh fun times. Make sure you're by yourself when you do this and have a glass of water nearby. Afterwards, you must place the Spectrobes in the incubator and feed them minerals until they reach a certain level. After which, a few battles must be won against Krawls and they will finally evolve once all requirements have been met. Each Spectrobes has three different forms, and most look pretty good. That is the game's only strength. However, this time around there are twice as many Spectrobes as last time, and they take longer to train, so the feature is becoming somewhat of a borefest. Will you really spend all the necessary time into evolving each critter knowing you must spend more time excavating hundreds of minerals and battling Krawls in the same fights over again? Maybe not.

Regardless of the few improvements, there are also a few downgrades as well. The first Spectrobes game had big expansive worlds to explore, and it was displayed on both screens of the DS. Now the worlds are divided into several small enclosed areas, which are displayed on only one screen, while the other shows the area map and some stats. This makes the planets feel much linear and not suited to exploration. Actually, there is almost no sense of exploration in this one. Even graphically, the game disappoints. Spectrobes looked great last time, and it still does, with solid 3D, but it's the exact same engine so nothing you haven't seen before. Same with the music, which remained almost unchanged and still as forgottable.

In all honestly, I had more fun with the first Spectrobes game that I had with that one, even with the slight enhancements made to it. Sure the combat system is better, but since the game is practically unchanged, I feel like I've played it already. It just felt like accidentally replaying a bad game that I had no intentions of replaying. I literally forced myself to finish the game, and stopped caring about the ridiculous amount of Spectrobes after a while. The game does more than the first, but it can also be a bad thing. It's longer, so it feels like it drags on and is even more repetitive. There are more Spectrobes, but it's discouraging to get all the evolutions this time around. The first game was smaller and shorter, thus the flaws didn't come across so much. If you've never played Spectrobes, you might have some fun with this, but otherwise it's a disappointment and loss of time.


Breakdown

Presentation The storyline has more elements to it compared to last time but it's still generic and dull; plus Rallen and Jeena lost some of their charm. There are some improvements over the first game but not much. It's almost the same. 5/10

Gameplay Lots of potential in the Spectrobes concept, but it's been wasted twice in boring games that don't do it justice. The gameplay is just as boring and monotonous as last time, plus there is almost no exploration, more battling, more digging and some added pointless mini-games. Raising the Spectrobes is still fun, but that's the only good thing about the game. The input cards that come with the game are an interesting idea as well. 6/10

Graphics The 3D looks great, but unfortunately the environments look bare and uninspired. Not much to look at. The Spectrobes models are the only really good thing. 7/10

Music/Sounds The are a few catchy theme songs thrown here and there along the quest, but for the most part there is nothing very memorable. 7/10

Replay Value The game is a little longer, and there are a lot more Spectrobes to collect. You could be playing this for a while, but it's tedious. 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/07/09

Game Release: Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals (US, 10/07/08)