Digimon World DS (DS) (gamespy)

- gamespy -

I feel kind of bad for the Digimon franchise. It originally began as sort of a "boy's version" of the Tamagotchi virtual pet almost ten years ago, but once the series began to spin off into video games and anime, it developed this reputation as a Pokémon rip-off. Of course, it's not too hard to see why people might think that way -- both series do feature humans collecting, training and fighting hundreds of monsters.

The latest Digimon game, Digimon World DS, isn't doing anything to help matters, either. Not only does this title give off a heavy Poké-vibe, it also seems to draw inspiration from the Mega Man Battle Network and Dragon Quest series.

Your adventure begins with your character surfing the Internet, looking for information about some mysterious "digital monsters" that the kids seem to be talking about lately. Suddenly, he (or she, depending on what gender you choose) is zapped, Tron-style, into the computer. Once inside the Digital World, you meet the elusive creatures for yourself and discover that they require human trainers to realize their full potential. Despite having been just, you know, sucked into a PC, our hero remains curiously calm and decides that training Digimon might be the thing to do for the foreseeable future.

Change into Digital Champions

Throughout the course of the game, you'll encounter and, ideally, collect about 250 of the beasties. As you raise smaller critters, they can be "digivolved" (prepare to see that "digi-" prefix a lot) into more powerful forms. There's your Pokémon connection. The bulk of the game has you wandering around an isometric representation of a virtual world and chatting with other people and creatures that inhabit it. These parts feel an awful lot like the Battle Network games. The actual combat is more like a traditional RPG, a la the Dragon Quest games. Even though it's pretty derivative, I found myself actually enjoying my journey. There are a few standout features that keep things fresh even when everything else feels so familiar.

Capturing Digimon is handled rather differently from the Pokémon games. Every time you encounter a creature in the wild, you collect a certain percentage of scan data from it. Once you collect 100% or more of a monster's data (at first, this takes about ten or so battles), you can "Digiconvert" the data to form your own version of the beast. Also keep in mind that most of the early Digimon you collect can be digivolved into multiple types of creatures, so it's worth snagging multiple copies of them so that you can, ahem, catch 'em all.

To make the raising of your newly formed friends easier, you can drop them off at a Digi-Farm. Here, the little guys can freely run around while you and the Digimon in your party continue with your quest. As you earn money, you can use it to purchase training equipment for the farm that will help make them stronger in less time. The DS's top screen usually shows the current goings-on at your farms, so you'll always be aware of what your Digi-buddies are doing. Be sure to visit the farms and chat with the Digimon there on occasion -- they'll sometimes offer you side quests to tackle.

Farm It Out

Monster-collecting games like this are usually generous with multiplayer features, and Digimon World doesn't disappoint here. With the DS's wireless capabilities, you can link up to trade and battle your Digimon with a friend. You can even send one of your monsters over to a friend's Digi-Farm for some training away from home. The creatures grow even stronger while at a friend's farm, so it's certainly worth the effort. The game even has a bit of support for the DS's Wi-Fi. Swap friend codes with a buddy and link up to perform Digimon Matching, where you both choose critters to, erm, partner up, with the result being a brand new Digi-egg. Hatching Digi-eggs is the only way to find certain rare monsters. It's too bad that you can't battle or trade over Wi-Fi, though.

Sure, Digimon World DS isn't the most original game out there, but it's still a pretty fun title. And with the only "real" Pokémon titles (Diamond and Pearl) hitting the DS sometime around who-knows-when, this is your best bet for monster collecting by default. Sure, there may be no Pikachu here, but I'm sure you'll find Agumon just as adorable.