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Dungeon Maker
Dungeon Maker allows gamers to create their own anime-inspired dungeon adventures
that begins with the player "Owen" meeting a "talking" shovel and from their,
your little town is soon to be overrun by a vast range of strange monsters.
Features:
- Design your own
battleground
- Choose where distinct monsters spawn
- Set traps and attract rare beasts
- Kill monsters in order to create recipes with their meat
- Gain strength from recipes derived from fallen foes
- Different meals have different effects on your strength
Thankfully the Mayor of your town has offered its townsfolk a reward for
removing these creatures and this is where you come into play. Armed
with your shovel, the only way to help these creatures "move" on is to
create a dungeon that they will migrate too and of course you can
explore these environments and destroy these nefarious creatures.
Although Dungeon Maker may have elements of Sim City and Dungeon Keeper,
the game itself is quite lightweight as you can only create ten squares
of dungeons before getting too tired and you must return home.
Thankfully, the rooms or squares that you dig allow you to add a
selection of different dungeon rooms, ensuring for some interesting and
at times challenging gameplay as you progress.
Interesting enough,
Dungeon Maker does not really use the innovative control system of the
Nintendo DS which means don't expect to use the stylus to create some
interesting level designs, rather, all you really need to use are the A
and B buttons.
The combat system of Dungeon Keeper is actually quite
interesting as features a wide range of opponents from Goblins to more
powerful "boss" inspired creatures. You can also explore the "dungeons"
that you create to find items which have been dropped by the characters
you defeat. These can then be either used or taken back to the town to
be sold.
The core of Dungeon
Keeper unfortunately becomes a little too repetitive because every
morning you enter the dungeon, defeat your enemies and of course make
your dungeon bigger. For more mature gamers, this may become a little
old too fast, however for the younger games, this will definitely keep
their interest.
Where the title does
shine is through its basic RPG system and the two characters who
accompany you on your adventures that include a jelly like blob called
"Slime" and your school friend Kate. Once you have defeated your
enemies, you can cook their "meat" to assist in increasing your
statistics.
Graphically, Dungeon Keeper is visually colourful on the Nintendo
DS with anime type graphics that actually match that lightweight
storyline. It is also at times reminiscent of those old Ultimate and
Wizardry games with the 3D maze battles. The characters are well animated and at times
quite detailed for
their small size that when matched with the gaming environment makes for
a fun graphical experience.
In conclusion, Dungeon
Maker is probably a good game for the younger player, however older
gamers will find this title quite substandard at times. However if you
are after a user inspired Dungeons & Dragons inspired game where you can
to some extent control the gaming environment, than this is the game for
you. And as Dungeon "Maker", you get to control how difficult your
creations are, it's RPG-lite for kids! |
