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Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Genre: Racing
Region: NTSC
Format:
Release Date: 07 Dec 05
User Rating
9.2 (5 votes)- Preview
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- Riding dragons and racing them against others should have been a fun idea, but here is marred by sloppy controls, dull races and bland visuals.
Overview
Who would have thought at this time in the gaming the Nintendo DS would be doing so much better than the Sony PSP. If you would have told me this was going to be the outcome, I probably would have laughed hysterically. Similar to the original PS2 vs N64 battle, or the recent PS2 vs Xbox, it is the games that drive the consoles, not the machines themselves, no matter how technically advanced they may be. One game that I thought would have some success this past holiday season was a racing game from Konami by the title Dragon Booster. I thought it would be a game that would come under the radar and surprise many. The question is, did this happen? Read our full review of Dragon Booster for the Nintendo DS to find out!
Gameplay
There are a few genres that have had some success on the DS, and there are some that have not. Dragon Booster being a racing game that it is, seemed like it had a better chance of being successful as the genre has not seen that much action on the DS. However one thing that has plagued this genre on the DS is the second screen which thus far hasn't had huge uses other than showing the track. So can Dragon Booster use the DS capabilities to its advantage and be successful?
The one reason I really thought this game had the chance to be successful was that it was different. I mean how many racing games have you seen use dragons as your 'vehicle'. The answer would probably be - not many. There is a story involved in Dragon Booster, but obviously it wasn't very clear because right now I can honestly say that I have no idea what it was. Although I can't really say I was expecting much in terms of a story, it still would have been nice to have some reason to why we are racing dragons around.
The game has a few different modes to choose from, but doesn't really provide anything different than what we have seen in the past. The different modes to help with variety, but in the end those aren't that big of a deal. What is a big deal is the racing itself, which to say the least is disappointing. You can steer you dragon with the D-Pad but everything else you must use the touch pad. Now this may sound like a novel idea, but in all actuality this just doesn't work as well as it sounds. When things get tense or there are a lot of distractions along the way, the touch pad just isn't as capable as you would want it to be to keep up. You do have some offensive and defensive moves at your disposal - these work well but aren't as exciting as they sound.
The big problem I had with Dragon Booster was the racing itself was very uneventful. The whole game is played at a slower the normal pace, and this just makes riding dragons not all that exciting. Also the control scheme, although using the DS capabilities, just isn't as fluid or responseive as I would have liked. In the end there are no game modes, or extra features that could have helped the problems of Dragon Booster along. The developers should have realized early on that this was not a very entertaining racing game and worked to remedy that problem.
Graphics
Visually Dragon Booster doesn't fair any better than the gameplay, and in fact this is another problem that makes the game nowhere near as enjoyable as it could have been. The dragon models themselves were very sloppy and just seemed thrown together. The environments are the biggest miss in the game, with just the most bland locations that have little to no detail at all. I just wonder what was going through the developers mind during the development of this game, because there are so many things that should have been done so much better throughout.
Fun Factor
At the top of the review I mentioned that I thought this game had the potential to be successful, but when I got through my first few races I saw right away that this was not going to be a great outing. The gameplay is slow, uneventful, and to say the least poorly developed. The controls are extremely confusing and don't work near as well as they had the potential to. The game needed a lot more time in development and a lot of reconsideration in the ideas that were given.
Overall
It is unfortunate to see a game like Dragon Booster, which had such an original idea, to fair as poorly as it did. I guess this just goes to show that if you are going to try to do something different you better do it correctly or else you are going to be left with one big jumbled mess. I am sad to say that I can't really recommend Dragon Booster to anyone it has to many problems to make it worth anyone's time.
- Gameplay
5.0 - Graphics
4.0 - Fun Factor
4.0 - Overall
4.0
