Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand

"Getting gamers out into the sun..."

Boktai is another one of Hideo Kojima's (the man who made Metal Gear) creations. To get the basic idea, think Metal Gear combined with Castlevania. The main selling point of this game (other than the ''MADE BY HIDEO KOJIMA'' on the box) is the idea of the Sunlight Sensor. Basically, it's a UV sensor attached to the cartridge, the use of which will be explained later.

Gameplay:
Boktai is basically Metal Gear Solid with Castlevania mixed in. You play as Django, the son of a vampire hunter. Using a solar-powered gun, you go around and defeat Immortals (Demons) using the gun. Like Metal Gear Solid, you can do things like flatten against walls, knock on walls to distract enemies, and sneak up behind them and blast them in the back with your sun gun. While stealth isn't really NEEDED anywhere (besides a couple of special challenge stages, things like ''Kill everything without being spotted''), it's still fun to sneak by all the undead enemies.

Now, onto the real meat of this game- the Sun Sensor. Basically, the game has a Sun Meter in it. Depending on how much light there is, you can charge your gun faster, and do a couple other things. However, there's one thing I find quite annoying about this game. To beat a boss, you have to kill it's body, then drag it's coffin through either the entire stage, or part of it, and place it on ''The Pile Driver'', a huge solar-powered mirror system that is used to finish off the Immortals. However, the Pile Driver's strength is dependent on, you guessed it, the strength of the sun coming into the sensor. If you have no sun, you can't even attempt to fight the boss (the Pile Driver won't work), and you have to save and try again later. The other problem with the idea of sunlight is the immense amount of glare caused by bringing the GBA out into the sun. When I went to fight the 3rd or fourth boss, the glare was so bad that I couldn't see anymore, and had to find some shade to play in.

Another problem is the way the gun overheats. Basically, if you're playing in direct sunlight too long, the gun overheats, to prevent you from getting heatstroke or whatever from standing in direct sun too long. The only problem I have with this is that the frequency with which the gun overheats varies, even if you're in the same sunlight. I stood in direct sunlight for about a half-hour and played. For a while, the gun started overheating after ONE SHOT, but then never overheated again for the remainder of the half-hour. So basically, if you're unlucky, you could be stuck for a good long while waiting for the gun to quit overheating.

Boktai is also a very short game (if you're decent at it, you can play through in less than a day on normal mode).

Graphics:
This is the part that really amazes me. The graphics are some of the best I've ever seen on the GBA. Django's whole body actually has detail on it (including the face, which many other games fail to put detail into). The enemies ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE ZOMBIES. I was especially wowed by the fire effects seen in one of the dungeons. And the way that Django actually pulls a chain while dragging the Immortal's coffin.

Sound:
I'm usually not impressed by the sounds on any GBA game, but this changed my whole perspective. Boktai's music is like that of Metal Gear, it stays in the background, where it belongs, and doesn't get annoying while fighting a boss. Overall, some of the best sound.

Controls:
The controls for this game are pretty decent. The main controls (Shoot, Grenade, Action) aren't customizable, but serve their purpose (besides, there are only so many possible control schemes on a GBA). The only part I found slightly annoying was the controls for moving while flattened to a wall (these you can change to make it easier to move).

Replay Value:
Boktai's replay value is like that of Chrono Trigger. When you beat the game, you get the option to play through again, but this time you start with everything you earned from the first time you played. There are also gun upgrades you can only get the second or third time (the 3 parts in the last dungeon, and a couple special ones).

Overall: 7/10. The game was quite good, but the mass amount of glare, and the annoying ness of the random gun overheats really hit this game's rating hard. Boktai was a halfway decent game while it lasted, so I'm giving it a 7.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/28/03