When the above game arrived at Fanboy HQ, we hastily opened it to see if Namco's budget title would be worth its weight in gold, so to speak. Then, some stuff happened and we never got around to playing it enough for a review, that is until now. With time finally allowing us to take the game for a prolonged spin round the block, we've done our fair share of "quickspotting" and are ready to review the game.
It's fairly evident from the beginning that the game isn't going to give you much bang for your buck, considering that some of the spot challenges repeat as frequently as in the very next challenge. For example, our first play through had us going into the game's Rapid Play mode, asking us to go through several different pictures of escalating difficulty and spot the difference. The problem was, though, that one challenge where we were shown two different cars, which took up a bit of the screen and was very obvious to the player, had repeated 3 times in a row, through challenge level one, two and three.
After about 45 minutes, you'll find yourself done with this mode and, should you have had fun, wishing for some more from this game. That will undoubtedly bring you to the game's concentration mode, which charges you with spotting ten differences in a pair of images. It's a bit more thorough than the Rapid Play mode, but in the end just as shallow of an experience. Shame really, because the fan service of including images from Namco Bandai games such as Katamari Damacy and Mr. Driller will surely bring a smile to your face initially.
From a presentation standpoint, the use of the publisher's other franchises in the game lends a lot of value to the game visually and some of the differences are fairly hard to spot. The music itself keeps your heart pumping as the timer ticks down and you desperately search for that small difference. So, in combining it all together, the game does an excellent job from a presentation standpoint.
The overall package, however, isn't enough to validate its existence. The problem isn't the game. The game itself is fun and often times you will not find yourself wondering why you're playing it. No, instead the problem is the people who made the game, the problem is Namco Bandai. The problem is that someone, somewhere in a board room or some such other kind of room used to collaborate, decided to come up with this game and then another person decided that it should be made. The problem is that a game like this is worthless outside of its first play and has no replay value.
Final Score: 6/10
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-26-2007 @ 4:12PM
Gil said...
Use the macro function on your camera.. it's the setting that looks like a tulip.
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3-26-2007 @ 5:40PM
David Hinkle said...
Thanks for the tip Gil! I am really not that great at photography at all.
Thanks for reading!
Dave
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3-26-2007 @ 11:47PM
Xian! said...
Good review. It may help, when writing about "bang for your buck," to include the price of the product. I remember activities like these in my local newspaper, and they were fun--when I was eight. So I could see a parent buying this for their child, but not paying more than $15 for it. (I'm sure there's a slew of activity books that offer the same thing, and for much less the cost.)
I really hope to see more DSFanboy reviews in the future. Seriously, review anything you can get your hands on. I'll read it.
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3-30-2007 @ 7:12PM
Arsonist18 said...
The fact that you were expecting more from a Spot-the-difference game is kind of laughable. The number of images is not going to be infinite, so of course you're never going to get any replay value out of it, especially if you play it intensively like you did for this review.
All I have to say is that my wife, who barely plays any games, likes to play the versus mode with me, and that makes this game more than worth the $20 bill needed to pick this up. Playing this for 15 - 20 minutes every few days will give you your value.
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