Nintendo - DS Solatorobo Red the Hunter

The reason Amazon themselves doesn't ship this game themselves baffles me. Solatorobo: Red the Hunter is an Action Role-Playing Game like no other for the Nintendo DS. It has brilliant music, brilliant in-game cutscenes and Full Motion Video Cutscenes (which is animated by Madhouse, the studio behind some of the best anime such as Death Note, Summer Wars, Paprika and Trigun), easy to pick-up and play and a lot stuff to do from fighting to jobs to collecting to fishing.

This is the spiritual successor to an underrated classic on the original Playstation known as Tail Concerto, a game with a large cult following and is well demanded by collectors and gaming enthusiests. Some of the people on the same team worked really hard on this game, and it is very lucky for us to recieve this game right from Namco Bandai and Nintendo themselves. If you want a fresh, expansive and really fun game, BUY THIS! If it is too pricy here, go to GAME or Gamestation where they sell the game from £25 to £30.

This has to be one of the best games available for the Nintendo DS.

The game tells the exploits of a Hunter named Red Savarin who is just one of a cast of likeable and unique characters. The story of the game is excellent, combined with the very attractive art style and impressive presentation with gorgeous cutscenes, I found myself enthralled until the end.

The game takes place in a floating kingdom called the Shepherd Republic which is populated by both dog people and cat people (Caninu & Felineko), Red himself is a Caninu. the world is expansive with many different islands to visit, each with their own sidequests to complete, however you must play through the story in order to travel to new islands.

The gameplay itself plays similarly to an action RPG, with you exploring an island in search of collectibles and money, while performing quests for the local quest broker. Red pilots a walking robot called the Dahak which you can upgrade by placing different shaped modules on a grid (bigger is better), shifting them around in order to enhance the robot's abilities. in addition, Red himself levels up by gaining experience points from combat, which increases his health meter. Combat itself is fairly simple, Red's primary form of attack it grabbing and throwing his opponents. He can also dash, which is handy for moving quickly or stunning the enemy. The game's graphics are also very impressive for a DS, with vibrant colours and detailed 3D worlds & 2D animations.

There is a LOT to do in this game, the main story is surprisingly lengthy (assuming you complete the sidequests), and there are a few minigames to play too, with their own rewards.

The game also features a multiplayer mode which is essentially Mario Kart with flying robots. It is enjoyable and can also be done as a minigame in single-player.

If I have one complaint about the game, its that its a little on the easy side, however this is a minor complaint and it only bothered me very early in the story.

Overall this comes together to create a very nice package, definitely one of the best on the system and is highly recommended. It really is a shame that the game is destined to sell poorly, mainly due to the lack of advertising and coverage - even on dedicated gaming websites. So I urge you to buy this game, to support the developers who are willing to make such wonderfully unique games.

These days it's hard to find a game that's not set in the real world and not about quick scoping your friends. however CyberConnect2 have decided to make a very imaginative game with a deep storyline, fun original gameplay and stunning visuals and they have named it... Solatorobo.

This is a sequel or spiritual sequel to a 1998 PS1 game called Tail Concerto.

The game is centred around a hunter named Red and his sister, however more characters are introduced throughout the game some starting out as enemies but later becoming allies. similar to the Zelda NDS series you must go from island to island, floating islands mind you, and do quests, these are obtained though a quest broker called Flo this will lead you to quests that involve completing the storyline, each island has it's own theme, water city, training ground, metropolis etc., these total ten in all, your core quest usually takes place on flying ships or inside stone monsters.

The gameplay involves you piloting a mech called DAHAK, you defeat enemies by lifting them up and throwing them, this gets a little more advanced as the game progresses, other segments are piloting planes, this only plays a small role in the storyline but can by done in multiplayer with friends and some others that briefly appear.

The opening animation was done by Madhouse, a famous animation studio, as well as the cutscenes. The graphics have a very hand drawn look to them and the theme in some areas is like that of Okamiden, you will most lily fall in love with the visuals. Cutscnes are scripted but there are voice actors who will say the odd word at the beginning of a sentence, oddly in French, the actors are all Japanese in the EU and JP version.

Overall I can't find many bad things to say about this game, perhaps the cutscnes that can't be skipped and do sometimes go on a bit to much as well as elements like flying being underused. When all said and done though this is still an excellent game and I would strong recommend buying it as most sites sell it for about £25.