Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand

"Finally, something REALLY innonative!"

Games have become very redundant lately... So it's about time a game came along that REALLY is ground breaking! That game is Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand. Created by the director of Metal Gear Solid, and Zone of the Enders. Both of those popular game series have all had some kind innovativeness to them. Boktai is no exception. Quite possibly one of the most innovative games ever, Boktai is more than just a simple solar powered cartridge that slides into your Gameboy Advance.

Whip out the sunscreen...

Boktai's obvious big gimmick AND selling point is it's solar powered gameplay. You can't just play this without sunlight, it's REQUIRED. Your main character, Django, the Solar Boy vampire hunter, is armed with a gun custom made for fighting the undead. When running around outside, or find windows or sky lights in a dungeon that light shines through, these are the spots you can refill the ammo for your solar powered gun. Put the game under REAL sunlight, and let the gun absorb the sun to refill ammo! When taking on a boss, sunlight is essential! Drag his casket out to the Pile Driver (a machine used to awake undead) and power the Pile Driver with REAL sunlight! Then take on the boss!

It's like a painting!

Boktai is easily one drop (un)dead beautiful game! The lush, water color backgrounds, make a perfect fit for the many sprites in the game. Enemy, boss, and character sprites alike all look and move incredibly smooth and solid. The special effects are also top of the line that really seem to push the Gameboy Advance's power.

I'm gonna be a snake when I grow up!

Whether you hate stealth based gameplay or not, Boktai is full of it! Some of the enemies will rip you apart three ways from Sunday if you aren't careful. Django can hug walls and slide against them silently, and knock on them to distract and trick enemies. For a Gameboy Advance game, the AI wasn't too bad. However, if you take away the sun gimmick, Boktai isn't a very deep game. A customizable gun, sun banking, fruit growing, and the stealth based and coffin dragging gameplay don't leave much else other than the sun. While this may SOUND like a lot, in the long run, it really isn't.

I'm gonna breakdance!

Okay, the music isn't THAT good, but from the speakers of that little GBA, it sounds pretty damn good. Catchy tunes, enemy sound effects, and quite a wide array of voice overs really make a near perfect presentation. When I say voice overs, I don't mean just grunts and hisses, I'm talking ACTUALLY spoken dialogue. Despite how little text is spoken, I found it a real feat for a portable console. Boktai's sound effects such as tip toes, opening doors, birds, bats, sword swings, all sound crisp and clear.

I'm gonna do THAT again!

Despite Boktai's short length (5-10 hours), you WILL want to come back to it for multiple playthroughs! The sunlight feature can make for different experiences for each play through. Plus the task of S ranking missions and multiple difficulties will make this game ATLEAST last a a week or two. Then there's the multiplayer! While I haven't played this myself, I imagine it's good! trade items, or verse a couple of friends!

Wow! Impressive!

A perfect presentation, excellent eye candy, appealing, stand out box art, stylish intsructions, major replay, spoken voice overs... only the reduntant level design and lack of anymore depth rag this beauty down! A must own if you've got the climate!

Graphics: 9
Sound: 9
Gameplay: 9
Replay: 9
Presentaion: 10
Plot: 6
Overall: 9.1

A VERY worthy purchase!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/24/03