Sigh…this game I wished would score higher than what was given…Sure, it’s not the best DS game by any means, but from the short time I spent with the game at a demo booth in Best Buy the other day, I felt it was more polished and much more interesting than Spore Creatures…
The arena battles are the feature that makes the game stand out the most, so there’s a lot riding on the quality of the combat system. As in sumo wrestling, the idea is to knock your opponent out of the arena. Whenever you land a blow, you decrease your foe’s energy, making him easier to move with future blows. As for controls, unless you switch to the traditional D-pad-and-buttons setup (which we recommend), you move with the stylus and perform various attacks with the D-pad (if you’re left-handed, you can use the stylus and action buttons instead). You can charge attacks by holding the button, and once you gain enough power from hitting your opponent, you can unleash special attacks by holding the L or R button and selecting a move from the menu that comes up on the touch-screen.