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GoNintendo 'End of day' thoughts - Cort's NeoPets Puzzle Adventure (DS) Review
Cort has braved the world of the NeoPets to bring us back this thorough review of NeoPets Puzzle Adventure. Could he look past the sugary-sweet characters to find a game worth playing? You’ll have to read on to find out. As for me, I already know how he feels…so I’ll be heading off to bed! See you all in a few, short hours… - RMC
Note: since I got wordier than usual, I’m going to try formatting across a couple pages to break up the wall of text—something GoNintendo hasn’t really done before. Feel free to comment on the review and/or whether this format helps.
During the busy, busy holiday season, so many releases crossed our gaming paths that it’s no wonder reviews are still trickling in. I won’t lie; there are quite a few games I have yet to even crack the seal on. But today I get to share my thoughts about a little DS title from Capcom and Infinite Interactive called NeoPets Puzzle Adventure, an aptly named battle puzzler based on the classic Reversi/Othello board game, but given the Puzzle Quest treatment and infusing the NeoPets universe.
What are NeoPets? Yeah, I had to look it up too. It’s a virtual pet brand nearly ten years old, consisting of mostly anthropomorphic fantasy creatures used for role-playing/sim interactions, and mainly intended for the younger audience. I’m not a Pokemon fan, so the NeoPets combination of goofy names, evokable battle “pets”, character designs and far-reaching merchandising makes it just as uninteresting as the former. However, I am a huge fan of puzzle games, especially on the DS, and since NPPA is clearly targeted at the same group that would watch its television program on Nickelodeon, I’ll try to stick to what matters for them and try to have some fun while I’m at it.
In its single player story mode, there are over 150 “quests”, which is almost marketing jargon for “you get to play the exact same puzzle over and over again, with minor variances and increased opponent difficulty.” Older players will likely get bored quickly, but kids aren’t so phased by repetitive activities. For example, ask anyone with/around small children and a dvd player the date, and they might be inclined to reply not in BC or AD, but “AN”. That is, “After Nemo”, because they and their young’uns will have probably watched that Pixar film ad nauseam until either the disc or the player breaks down. What I’m getting at is there is plenty to keep a player busy, and the younger they are, the more and longer likely they’ll be entertained by it.
As for the game itself, the rules are pretty simple, but the gameplay itself requires some very strategic thinking…perhaps a level or two above that of checkers. Similar to a game of tic-tac-toe, you place adjacent markers on the grid to sandwich an opponent’s piece along a horizontal, vertical or diagonal with another of your own. Anything between your two markers then changes to your colour. Have the most pieces at the end and you win. NPPA’s twists include mixing up the board designs, making a variety of strategies possible between “quests”; and also Pokemon PetPets, which are even smaller fantasy animals you can bring to battle and perform a myriad of special offensive or defensive moves, such as removing an opponent’s markers, changing them to your colour, etc. As you earn experience points through won matches, the number of PetPets you can bring into a match will increase, but of course so does the arsenal of your competitor.
It can be very high-level strategic play, which only gets deeper when having to consider which of your PetPets to choose for a match. Too much for kids? I would never underestimate their abilities, but it may be too steep for some. I played through every single one of the story levels and didn’t have too much trouble, but I’m something of a Fierce Deity at puzzles, so those evil-doers spent more time grovelling than battling me. The ending of the story mode was very brief and lackluster. Not to spoil anything, but all the dialogue up to then? That’s a hint.
If you know the location’s name, are you really lost?
Because each quest is bookended by sequences of storytelling (as written dialogue between characters in a very static, speech bubble exchange) you get a lot of readable content, which depending on your level of interest can be a good or bad thing. It’s not particularly engrossing narrative for me—on par with your average children’s fare book—but it’s perfectly fine for them. Luckily, the dialogue can be cycled through with some Master Higgins-like tapping with the stylus. Even still, there is so much inter-level story that I found myself light-speed tapping through it as I did playing the puzzles themselves. Again, a testament to the amount of content.
One minor gripe though is that to play each level, you must navigate around a large world map, clicking marked locations to engage in battle. Normally this concept isn’t a big deal, but here once you click, your NeoPet auto-walks to it (rather slowly), and there is no way to speed up, skip, or cancel the journey, which is often clear on the opposite end of the sizeable labyrinth of a map. Multiply that with “150 plus quests”, and let me just say I often had enough time to pop onto the boards, check for new posts and occasionally post a reply during all the down time. Fortunately, you’re never waiting for the opponents to make their moves in a battle.
The visual assets match what you’d expect for the target audience: rich, bright colours, wild characters, and hand-rendered 2D art fit the rest of the brand’s style. Some of the world maps seem to have received more attention than others, but none of them look bad by any means. The music/effects vary according to the map/region being played, but generally sound pretty decent. Of course no voice-acting, but I don’t think DS carts were designed to store that amount of data. Plus, having to listen to all that story aloud would take for-bleeding-ever.
I’ve mentioned the sheer quantity of content and play in this title, but it goes much further than the single player story mode. You can go head to head with a friend, explore some tie-ins with the Wii and PC versions, plus unlock codes as you progress and redeem them at neopets.com for unique items and accessories (assuming for your sim NeoPet if you subscribe to the site), as well as a handful of mini-games which I actually found repetitiously enjoyable. I guess I’m not as old as I thought!
Bottom line: it’s a solid puzzler with plenty to do for a youngster into the NeoPets brand, or who is looking to cure some boredom on a long flight or car ride. Not as much to keep grown-ups interested, but should you pang for a little something akin to Puzzle Quest, give it a peek. —cortjezter