Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand

"Another amazing game from Hideo Kojima!"

This is a rare and fantastic game. It deserves the 9/10 I gave it. Hideo Kojima has delivered again.
Background Info: You are Django, the son of the legendary Vampire Hunter. He was recently killed by the Count. Your mission starts at the Fog Castle of the Count. You defeat him only to find that you fought a dummy. You now head to the Bloodrust Mansion after finding he has captured the Maiden of the Solar Tree. After defeating him, Lita (The Maiden of the Solar Tree) tells you that at Istrakan (The City of The Dead), the Immortals (more on that later) are planning something. And then your quest begins... The basic idea is that you have a Solar Gun, which is powered by the Sun. So when you play outside, the Solar Sensor picks up UV rays. In the game, you have a total of three bars in the lower right corner, the top, hooking off of a gun indicates how much sun your battery has left in it. The second, which comprises of 8 squares indicates how many UV rays the game is collecting. It will only work with the sun and black lights (They use UV Rays). The more squares are filled up, the more sun you are getting. The more sun you are getting, the faster your gun recharges (Press A to do so). Your gun also slowly recharges when not being used if you are under the sunlight. The third bar, comprising of batteries (Depends which battery you have equipped) tells you how many more batteries your solar gun has left charged. If they have power left, they are lighted up, if not, they are black. In the top-left corner is your health bar. When you have a lot left the remaining health is green, when you have an average amount, it is yellow, and when you have very little, it is red. Every time you are hit the health bar decreases depending on what hit you. Your gun comprises of 4 parts. Lens (Decides what type of energy comes out ex. Sun, Lunar, Fire, Ice, Earth, Wind, Darkness) which as you use it can level up. You start with Sol I which means it is Sol Level 1. It can go up to Level 3 (Any lens can). There is a secret meter that when full, your lens will level up. This meter can not be found. The higher the level, the bigger it gets when looking at it on the customization screen and the more damage it does. The second part of your gun is Battery, which you can collect. There is a Single battery, Double, etc. It just means it has more capacity. Next is frame, which is the gun itself. It is fired using B. There are two stats for each frame, Atk and Stun. The lowest rank is E, the highest S. They range from Spread shots to swords (Which I use the most), rotating spreads, very short range and awesome stats (The Javelin frames has S in Attack and A in Stun), Automatic guns, and special kinds. The fourth part of your gun is... Grenades (Yes, they hook up to your gun)! These are fired by hitting L and have various special effects. These you can carry up to 20 of each except for the Pineapple which you have an unlimited supply of. You have many items, from apples which restore your health to types of Nuts and fruits that do various things to you. Immortals, are a tricky thing to fight. They are the area bosses. After beating them, they withdraw to their coffins. You must procede to drag their coffin to a Piledriver. At the Pile driver you can really kill them. If you drop the coffin for a while, it will slowly try to crawl its way back to the room it started in. Blast it with Sun to stop it. Now, onto Gameplay.

Gameplay: Wow, An awesome game. A ton of dungeons and bosses to fight. It provides a challenge, but makes it so it so fun. Hideo Kojima made this game with stealth involved. You can drop against a wall to avoid being heard or seen. For example, mummies can not see, but if they hear you, they will relentlessly chase you until they are killed, so you must walk along the wall to avoid being caught. It never gets dull, as you are always getting cool new parts. There is even an interesting optional little side story thing that involves the Solar Tree. When you go to the Solar Tree, you can plant things in its roots to gain new fruits and the Pineapple grenade. Also, while you quest, when you return the dead solar tree will slowly regain back its original glory. If you fix it all the way, Lita becomes very happy. You also gain items when you continue a beaten file. I have had this game for 6 months and I am still looking for some of the cooler parts. The bosses provide a good challenge and there are some tough puzzles. The dungeons range from Sol City to the Abyss. There is a secret dungeon called Azure Sky Tower which requires a lot of skill to complete with all the emblems twice. I would tell more, but it would be a major spoiler. The creativity and fun of the Gameplay gets Boktai a 9.5.

Story: The story starts out with the whole avenge your father thing, but instantly gets much deeper. You only have a red scarf dyed with your father's blood to remember him by. Your mission is to kill the Count and all the Immortals so that the human race can thrive once again. You meet a character named Sabata right away in the game, he wields the Dark Gun, which is the opposite of the Solar Gun. He is part of one of the biggest plot twists in the game (No, it does not involve him being Django's father...). The story picks up a ton as you listen to conversations between the Immortals and Sabata, and as you learn about your mother near the end. The story picks up very well, and there are no real plotholes. Your companion, a messenger of the Sun, also helps a lot with the progression of the story. Because of the good pickup of the plot and how it is displayed Boktai gets a 9 for story.

Graphics: The graphics in this game are very well displayed. When you are outside, there are colorful backgrounds, with flowers, beautiful water, well drawn trees, and dead bodies (Ok, so the dead bodies part isn't true, whatever).The Immortals are well drawn and animated as well. There are beautiful displays of the snow in one battle. The rest of the characters have an interesting type of display. Their legs are very skinny and stick-figure like. Django is displayed with his red scarf blowing in the wind, his cargo pants, and his blonde on the top, brown on the lower part hair waving in the wind. The gun is shown very well in the part select screen. It simply looks awesome. The beam of a sword coming out of your gun looks great, shooting several shots into the background of space looks great (I'm not telling why you are there...). Then there is Sabata in his black Goth style clothes, with his black hair. The golems look fantastic. The mummies exploding when they die, its all so great. The graphics for Boktai earn a 10.

Replay: Replay in this game is surprisingly fun. After you beat this game you get the option to use your emblems to get uber-powerful guns in the Azure Sky Tower. You can gain the Chaos Battery, complete your own Dark Gun (!), and Visit the secret chamber by the Solar Tree. That isn't all of it either. You can have fun romping through dungeons gunning down enemies with grenades, shooting them with your new guns, and so on. This game will have you coming back for more over and over again. Just try the hardest mode.... Its not very easy... The replay of Boktai earns a 8.5.

Control: The controls of Boktai are very responsive, easy to learn and make the game that much easier to enjoy. Due to responsiveness and easy controls, Boktai gets a 10/10 in control.

Sound: The songs in this game are not orchestra masterpieces, but they are very good in my opinion. They represent the area you are in very well. For the Solar Tree, a serene song plays in the background, for a boss battle, the intense pieces. The sound effects are good too. From Django's "Aah!" to a mummie's groans to the explosion of a grenade, the sound effects are very good. They represent what they are supposed to very well. Although it was pushing the GBA to the limit in any way, they did a very good job on the sound. For its fantastic sound effects and great songs, Boktai earns a 9 in sound.

Gameplay: 9.5
Story:9
Graphics: 10
Replay: 8.5
Control: 10
Sound: 9
So overall,
9.275, which is about right in my opinion.

Rent or Buy? Buy! You will not regret it, this game is one of my favorite GBA games ever. Its a great game and well worth the $20.00 - $30.00. It is rare, however, and I have only seen it in a few places.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/04