Stormbreaker
Teenagers make good secret agents, right? I mean, better than adults?
Tags: Stormbreaker Categories: DS Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Michael Hanning on Nov 2nd, 2006
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Stormbreaker (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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Alex Rider: Stormbreaker comes on the heels of the popular movie about a teenage secret agent. Loaded up with gadgets and some karate lessons, you go forth to sneak about stages and beat up one person at a time in this teen-friendly mashup of James Bond and Metal Gear Solid.
If nothing else, the DS version of the game serves as a good example of what the DS can do visually. Stages are a little small, but textures and character models look great. Some of the items laying around the level are a bit pixellated but nothing worse than you would expect from the N64 days – in general, the look and sound of the game is on par with that system. There’s nothing skimped on the character models, either – the thugs you fight actually look different, and the playable character template actually changes. Games on current-gen systems still insist that a character never changes his shirt after a month or so of fighting, so that’s actually a surprisingly neat touch.
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For most of the game stealth and exploration are your bywords. The camera is behind Alex as he runs around stages looking for the exit and whatever is in the way that you must do before the game lets you take the exit, including dispatching thugs, picking up items and looking for…really, whatever. The problem is that you aren’t always made aware of this until you’ve already made it to the end when you’re informed the door is opened by a terminal somewhere way behind you, or you can’t leave until you’ve smashed enough listening devices. Sometimes these items don’t even show up until they’re spawned in the level behind you, leaving you to run back through and check every corner. There’s a stamina meter that means you can’t run the entire way or Alex has to stop and catch his breath, too – why they thought this would be a good idea, I don’t know. It means you can’t run all the way when you have to check the level again and that if you don’t watch it Alex will stop mid-fight to get pummeled. It worked alright in Metal Gear Solid 3, but making it too short means that it just makes you stop moving every once in awhile.
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Combat in Alex Rider is a little clunky. When you move close enough to an enemy the camera will rotate a bit to show the both of you and then you can pummel him with a kick, a punch or combinations thereof. It’s a little awkward getting the right timing, but the average enemy does so little damage that trial and error will get you through the stage. Fortunately exploration and combat aren’t the only missions types in the game. You’ll mix it up with a series of minigame-esque missions, such as trailing a suspect, playing a game of snooker with the touchscreen or escaping on motorcycle. None of these are really robust enough to make a game on their own, but as breaks they keep the game from growing monotonous. They also serve as your extras – you can go back and replay the minigames anytime you want, which is neat with the snooker part.
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Another nice point to the minigames are the extra spy gadgets you can buy with points you earn. The gadgets and items are mostly of the healing/stamina boost variety, with a few extras like glasses that show you the enemy’s field of vision. These are all done with a Nintendo DS fitted with…you know, spy stuff. It’s product placement that you need the product to see in the first place, a sort of M.C. Escher advertisement. Fans of irony may break into spontaneous applause.
This dose of Metal Gear Lite may not appeal to most gamers, though a younger crowd will certainly enjoy it. It plays well enough and looks better than most movie licensed games have a right to expect, making it an altogether pleasant surprise. Fans of the movie who want to play it on the go might give this a shot, or even gamers looking for an action fix for the DS.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Looks amazing. + Minigames are great way to keep main action from growing repetitive. + Blatant DS advertisements on a DS game are hilarious. |
7.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Stamina meter is just an annoying hindrance - Controls occasionally feel clunky. |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| A superlative use of the DS's capacity. Kids who like the movie are bound to love it, but the movie license may turn off gamers who would otherwise enjoy it. | |
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Tags: Stormbreaker
Posted by Michael Hanning on Nov 2nd, 2006 and is filed under DS Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
