Dark Arena

"Mutant slaying on the go!"

The introduction to Dark Arena is a bit misleading. With all the talk of rivers of bloodshed you would think the gore factor would be really high. The truth is, this game is pretty much devoid of blood. The only exception is one type of enemy that lies in a pool of his blood and guts, and this image displays every time you kill one of them. Other than that, the game is practically blood free. For a first-person shooter with such toned down violence, I'm sure the question on all of your minds is: can this game compete? Read on...

Gameplay: Dark Arena is a first-person shooter so I don't think I really have to explain any further. You see the action through the eyes of the main character, and run around killing things. Expect lots of shooting, some key and switch finding, door opening, and of course, more shooting. The interesting thing is unlike the recently released Ecks vs. Sever, Dark Arena is more in the vein of classic first-person shooters. Meaning you can't crouch, jump, look up or aim up for that matter, and the levels for the most part are mazes, with a few areas higher you can access sprinkled here and there.

If you have recently completed Doom on GBA you will feel a case of Deju Vu, since this game follows Doom's design quite faithfully. The frame-rate is very smooth for the most part, with occasional slowdown when the enemies get a little too numerous. The Enemy artificial intelligence is definitely worth mentioning. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but it seems like every enemy has it's own little brain. Sometimes one enemy will sit back and wait for you in hiding, but then another of the same type will open doors and hunt you down. Weapons range from the pistol, best weapon in any situation in my opinion, to the rocket launcher, to the night-vision sniper rifle. With lots of monsters and lots of weapons there's lots of carnage and fun to be had.

Personally I don't mind a few games being released for GBA in the same vein as Doom because, while limiting in gameplay, games of this ilk present their own charms. Case in point: games like Dark Arena or Doom focus more on the shooting then strategy, and it's always nice to have games like that to pop in your GameBoy whenever you want a quick dose of action. A couple of other reasons I enjoy Dark Arena is the game is challenging, the 1-Player game is quite long (20 stages), and the control scheme works quite well. The game also has a death-match mode for 2-4 Players, and although I haven't tried it personally I have heard good things about it. So not bad, gameplay wise, I must say.

Graphics: Simply wonderful! Enemies are well detailed and diverse, the walls actually have texture to them such as brick, some lighting and shadow effects are thrown into the mix, and some stages feature either rain or snow effects. Explosions are good too, as are the gun effects. However, there is some bad to come with all the good. While the walls are textured, the floors and ceiling are not. Also enemies turn in to a mess of pixels whenever they get real close, if you have ever played Doom you'll know what I mean. While alive, the enemies are well animated, but they die in a pitiful two-frame death animation and then simply disappear . All and all though the graphics impressed me, who says Gameboy Advance can't do 3D?

Sound: There are a few tunes in this game but only in menus. Gameplay music is non-existent. The only thing you'll hear are sound effects from enemies or gunshots when you send a genetic beast to his maker. Who said killing doesn't have it's advantages?

Control: In the words of Microsoft reps protecting the X-Box controller, the control in Dark Arena may have been ''focus tested.'' Mainly because the control scheme feels both logical and well thought out. The L shoulder button strafes to the left, the R shoulder button strafes to the right, A button shoots, B button opens closed doors and pulls switches, select toggles through the weapons you have, the D-pad is used for movement, and start, of course, pauses the action. Occasionally during gameplay you'll get stuck on objects, and the only way you can free yourself is by rocking the d-pad back and forth. Thankfully this collision quirk doesn't happen too often.

This is one well rounded cart, with a lengthy 1-player game and death-match for up to 4-players it's a game worth playing by anybody with a Gameboy Advance. Also since I've seen this game at several large chains such as Wal-mart and Fred Meyer for only $30, you can hardly pass up adding this one to your collection.

Closing Quote: What was that sound? I think they know where I'm hiding!

Score:8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/28/02, Updated 07/28/02