Spectrobes: Origins

Spectrobes: Origins

Disney’s answer to Pokémon makes the leap to Nintendo’s trailblazing home console after successful outings on the DS handheld.

Bearing in mind the kiddie audience we feel Disney once again hits the nail square on the head with this Spectrobes debut for Nintendo Wii. The series is always going to trail behind Pokémon for sheer imaginative scope, but the sci-fi theme and mature visual style deserves its many fans. All Disney needed to do was to bring familiar gameplay routines over from DS and make everything look amazing. Specially recruited development team Genki answers those basic requirements and more.

Central to the new appeal is that Nanairo Planetary Patrol Officers, Rallen and Jeena, can battle alongside their mysterious creature buddies in co-op mode. We took this as the first sign that Wii Spectrobes is on the right track for youngsters. Also immediately pleasing is how the Wii remote is integrated into the gameplay as much as possible without feeling shoehorned in.

As with Pokémon, Spectrobes are exotic creatures that are captured (in this case excavated) and then trained to fight. Combat eats up a lot of gameplay hours in Spectrobes, something you need to know if you’re expecting a laid-back RPG. Yes it is repetitive. As with Pokémon this is in fact part of the appeal – the only way your Spectrobes can become stronger is through experience in lots of battles.

Fights are handled in real-time, as opposed to turn based, and seeing your heroes battling alongside Spectrobes is dramatically more involving. During fights the Wii remote plus Nunchuck enable gesture-controlled special attacks, and these take practice to perform. Players can also direct the hero separately using the analogue stick on the Nunchuck, waving the remote to instruct the Spectrobe. In co-op each Spectrobe can be more effective in battle with a human on the reigns.

Where Spectrobes has the edge over Pokémon is in providing a fascinating method of unearthing new creatures. Instead of just, you know, bashing or bamboozling them into submission, the idea is that they’re excavated and on the Wii this becomes a cool mini-game, requiring a steady hand and some patience. It’s great for kids, because as the fossilised creature is gradually revealed the excitement is very real. You might even find that your little one wants to know more about archaeology after this.

Kids also love competition, and Wii Spectrobes allows players to post their best excavation times online to compare with fellow Nanairo Planetary Patrol Officers around the world. There’s a combat mini-game too, in which 100 of the enemy ‘Krawl’ creatures are defeated against the clock. To become good at this requires more than just button mashing.

Spectrobes: Origins looks superb with its magical, Disney-land style ancient temples to navigate and overall intensely colourful and stylised world. We dare say this is exactly what your kids will be expecting from the franchise, though not quite a classic to stand the test of all time.

4 out of 5