Buena Vista Games invited N-Sider to a conference yesterday to discuss their upcoming original Nintendo DS title Spectrobes. Those with long memories will recall the original announcement last year, just prior to E3, where we were surprised to learn that the company was actually behind a new IP.
At the time, we learned the title revolved around finding and fighting with creatures that you, as the player, found. The twist was in the excavation of the fossils of the titular Spectrobes (using DS features such as the touch screen), which you would then grow in a lab, "awaken" using your voice, and then send out to battle. Despite the new additions, it sounded very much like Nintendo's own Pokémon franchise—and BVG told us last night that while it was indeed in the same genre, it was definitely striving to be its own game.
Since the original announcement, more information has come out on the title. It will join the still relatively small pool of Nintendo DS titles that come with support for Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection online service. With the service, BVG will offer game content downloads as well as what sounds like extensive player profiles and rankings on the Spectrobes site. Going online regularly gives you points to spend on additional content.
Another expansion avenue is through an innovative card which is placed over the touch screen and tapped through holes punched in the card. BVG hopes players will trade cards to unlock additional features for themselves. Some cards will be packages with the game and others will be made available at a later date. Interestingly, BVG said they currently have no plans to actually sell cards.
The title will have a strong story element to it (backed by "blog entries" and video from the Spectrobes website) that BVG says will take 15-20 hours to just play straight through, though players can certainly spend more time excavating, evolving, and training if they wish.
Spectrobes is being developed by Japanese studio Jupiter Corp., whose notable credits include titles such as Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Mario's Picross, and work on the Game Boy Camera. Spectrobes is one of their first batch of DS titles, alongside this month's Japanese release Picross DS (with Nintendo) and sometime-this-year Japanese release It's A Wonderful World (with Square-Enix). BVG is bringing the title to American retail March 13.
Battling in the Spectrobes universe
Since the original announcement, more information has come out on the title. It will join the still relatively small pool of Nintendo DS titles that come with support for Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection online service. With the service, BVG will offer game content downloads as well as what sounds like extensive player profiles and rankings on the Spectrobes site. Going online regularly gives you points to spend on additional content.
A Spectrobes card being used to unlock game content
The title will have a strong story element to it (backed by "blog entries" and video from the Spectrobes website) that BVG says will take 15-20 hours to just play straight through, though players can certainly spend more time excavating, evolving, and training if they wish.
Spectrobes is being developed by Japanese studio Jupiter Corp., whose notable credits include titles such as Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Mario's Picross, and work on the Game Boy Camera. Spectrobes is one of their first batch of DS titles, alongside this month's Japanese release Picross DS (with Nintendo) and sometime-this-year Japanese release It's A Wonderful World (with Square-Enix). BVG is bringing the title to American retail March 13.