|
|
POINTBLANK DS
I must admit that I have had "Pointblank DS" for a few months now and up until a few days ago it was tucked away in my "dud games" pile. If not for the fact that I recently moved, it would probably still be there.
I bought it having no prior history or background with the franchise which goes back to 1994 when it was released as a coin op arcade shooting game. I was excited with the notion that it would be like my two all time favorite games for the DS "Warioware Touched" and "Warioware Twisted". For those of you out there
In a sense, both "Wario" and "Pointblank" are similar except for one minor detail "Pointblank"s gameplay is geared to have you doing the same thing minigame after minigame, shoot at things! In all fairness that's PB niche, it's what made them successful back in the day, when 90% of the fun was in using laser light gun controllers that you aimed at the screen, now the gun has been replaced with the all mighty stylus.
GAMEPLAY: the minigames are okay but they pretty much all boil down to you tap, tap, tapping on the screen as you aim at shooting gallery type cardboard cut-outs of gangsters, or cowboys, or ninjas, or ducks and so on and so forth. See a repetitive pattern? Yeah, so did I, there just isn't enough variety to make anyone want to keep playing. It lacked the "charm" that the "Wario" minigames gave me, such as urinating on a fire and 5 seconds later helping a girl inhale her snot bubble back up her nose, ahh what fun! I wanted, needed, waited for PB to give me that pure, unadulterated laugh out loud gross wackiness just once! But sadly, there I was tap, tap, tapping away, ho hum.
I will say however that I was mildly entertained at times, maybe because it reminded me how much I enjoy the adrenaline rush you get with rapid fire reflex action missions.
As I stated earlier, your weapon is your stylus instead of a gun, I found this to be difficult to use in a lot of levels. It was hard to tilt the stylus sideways in order to hit the targets at times and worse yet I found my own hand getting in the way of the screen. An utterly frustrating flaw to the game considering that it makes you hit your target with dead on precision for it to count as well as the fact that periodically the game did not recognize my hits. So be prepared to throw your stylus across the room a bunch of times screaming obscenities in a not so girlie fashion!
SOUND- close your eyes and imagine what endless gunshot sound effects mixed with your tap, tap, tapping might sound like. Not exactly music to my ears either.
5 Different Modes:
Arcade- play through 4 different levels and test your shooting abilities.
Wireless VS.- challenge your friends (always fun) using only a single card, so now only one person has to go out and shell out the dough. (even more funner)
Freeplay- pick any stage at any time to challenge your own best score.
Classic Coin-Op- a facelift of sorts for the old arcade version.
Brain Massage-- play through stages while the game analyzes your abilities and scores your performance.
"Brain" games have been popping up lately, but unlike it's counterparts "Brain Age" and "Big Brain Academy" , which pride themselves as being educational and help keep your brain fresh and sharp, "Point Blank" doesn't take itself quite so seriously. You will be rewarded after completing one of these levels with silly titles such as "Professional Bean Counter" or "Pro Sock Washer".
Pointblank fans will surely get giddy and welcome this game with open arms, nostalgia does that to you, but for the rest of us, it feels like nothing more than a bunch of carnival games thrown together. So that's it and now if you'll excuse me I am gonna go play some "Warioware Touched" I kinda miss the chubby little guy, nostalgia does that to you!
Get Point Blank Here |
|  |
Posted by oxyjen on Sep 27, 2006
___________________________________________________
0 Comment(s):Be the first to comment on this post! |
|
 |
|
|
|
Click to enlarge images
|
 |
|
