I wasn’t
familiar with Code Lyoko the television series
before I received Code Lyoko: Fall of X.A.N.A NDS
for review. I read up on the series, and learned that it is an animated series
from France that has been featured on The Cartoon Network for the last several
years. The last and fourth episode hasn’t actually been shown on TV in its
entirety, I’m not sure why. The series features a computerized world where evil
viruses run rampant. A super virulent virus, X.A.N.A., is really behind all the
trouble, and the Lyoko Team is prepared to defend
their world by fighting X.A.N.A. They discover that William (?) has disappeared
and apparently has been turned into a X.A.N.A. clone
of the real William. The game centers on their search to find the real William
and destroy X.A.N.A. in the process.
Unfortunately,
this information still didn’t really tell me much about the game or the series
behind it. The manual gives a sketch of the past history of the story to this
point, but not with a whole lot of detail. To make things more confusing, the
game doesn’t elaborate on the story behind the Team Lyoko,
either, but fans of the show will already know the story. Everyone else will
just be in the dark. Lots of games either have silly
stories, or hardly any at all, but manage to pull players in by the
strength of the gaming elements. Unfortunately, this RPG is bland table fare,
and doesn’t offer any compelling reason to pick this RPG over any other.
Our game
begins with a nice animated introduction to the world of X.A.N.A. At the end of
it, we still don’t know anything about Lyoko or
X.A.N.A., but we do know that it will be our job to travel around this computer
world and kick some virus booty. And rescue this William person, whoever he is.
The cartoon sure looks good, though!
Once the movie
is over, it’s time to start playing. There are several locations in the real
world to visit before heading off for transportation to the digital sea, but it
won’t take long to find out all the pertinent information from the few people
scattered around the localities. Once everyone has been interviewed, players can
equip their characters in the lab, and then head out to the digital sea by
becoming “virtualized.” The team member that stays in the laboratory and manages
their travels is Jeremy. He serves the purpose of communicating the game’s
progress.
At first,
players won’t have many items in the laboratory to equip their team, but as
points are earned during battles, there will be more. Many items will also be
found lying around the levels. These items are for health, strength and fighting
powerups. Assigning these items is a piece of cake
with the easy and intuitive interface that is provided in this game. The menu
can be pulled down from the top and pushed up with a simple touch on the arrow
icon on the touch screen. These items can also be chosen during battles, a
feature which I didn’t realize until a bit into the game, as the manual only
explained the battle moves very cursorily. Another interesting feature is the
ability to rejuvenate the team instantly by traveling back to the lab and
becoming “devirtualized”. The team will all have
full health points upon returning to the virtual world. This also wasn’t
mentioned in the manual. This comes in handy as there are only a few save slots,
and if players save a game with a weakened team right before a boss battle, they
would be in trouble if not for this feature.
The battles
are somewhat Pokemon in style, but have a real-time
flavor, as well. While the combatants are taking turns for attacks, they will
only wait a certain amount of time before attacking again. Players can assign
attacks to their team one right after the other quickly, but the team won’t be
able to attack again until they regain some rest. The basic battle moves are
either attacks or using the items. There is also an added mini-game feature
which happens if a team member has been attacked several times. This will add
increased power to their attack. These mini-games are simple in the extreme,
though.
At first,
these battles are engaging and fun to play. Fans of Pokemon
will enjoy them in the beginning, especially the cool battle animations.
However, the enemies aren’t nearly as varied as in Pokemon,
and the team members never change. It’s almost impossible to avoid these
battles, too, as the creatures are right in the paths. There are things to
collect and switches to pull, but these aren’t hard to find nor are they very
interesting.
The animated
movies of the team Code Lyoko are attractive and the
battle animations are nice, as well. Therefore, it is strange that the
characters that players will actually be moving around are ugly and odd-looking.
They are short and squat, and just look funny. The environments are dull and
boring, too. Each world is very like another, with only a different colored
landscape to tell the difference.
There is a
multi-player mode that allows for two teams to play against each other. This
kind of battle is more interesting than against the computer critters. There are
three modes of play, but they are just slight variations.
While there
isn’t a whole lot that is above average in this game other than the good
interface and nicely drawn movies, there is one thing that I found a definite
detriment, and that was the mode of movement. Players are forced to use the
stylus to direct the team’s leader around the screen. This is highly annoying.
Why on earth can’t players choose to use the buttons to move? To keep having to
pick up and replace the stylus on the screen to just move around is not fun.
Coke
Lyoko isn’t a bad game, but it is not a good game,
either. There are many other RPG’s that do this type of thing better. The
battles by themselves can’t carry the entire game. Wandering around the
environments isn’t a whole lot of fun, because they are so empty and boring. The
little characters are funny looking. The animated movies are good, and the
interface is easy to use. But, unless players are huge Code
Lyoko fans, there isn’t much reason to play this game.
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Gameplay: 6.0
This
game just isn’t much fun. The battles are fun at first, but become stale soon.
The other game elements of collections and switch throwing aren’t very
interesting.
Graphics: 7.0
The
animations are nice, but the characters and levels are dull and uninteresting in
their appearance.
Sound: 6.0
The
music is nice, but there aren’t many sound effects.
Difficulty:
Medium
The
gameplay isn’t very difficult. The lack of save
spots can be detrimental, but players only need to travel back to the lab and
rejuvenate their health points to get past the bosses.
Concept: 6.0
The
battle system of real-time incorporated with turn-based play is a little
different, but it doesn’t add that much to the game.
Multiplayer: 7.0
Overall: 6.5
This
game just isn’t very enjoyable. The story is weak, the
gameplay isn’t varied enough, and the visuals aren’t very attractive.
Only Lyoko fans will be interested.
