Official Electroplankton Review
Published by: Nintendo
Developed by: Nintendo
System: DS
Genre: Music
Release Dates:
US: January 9, 2006
Japan: April 7, 2005
Europe: July 7, 2006
Wifi Capability: No
Number of Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E
Price: $50.00Official Electroplankton Review
Published by: Nintendo
Developed by: Nintendo
System: DS
Genre: Music
Release Dates:
US: January 9, 2006
Japan: April 7, 2005
Europe: July 7, 2006
Wifi Capability: No
Number of Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E
Price: $50.00
Introduction
In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, do you know what game the stage called "Hanenbow" comes from. Well this is that very exact game. In "Electroplankton their are various stages and different events you could say. And get this, you play in an underwater world. How cool is that!
Gameplay
To say the least Electroplankton has very unique gameplay modes. To start off, the big parts of these modes are split into two bigger modes which are Performance and Audience modes.As Wikipedia says"Performance mode is to be the more significant portion of
Electroplankton."You will see why, later in this section of the review. To play Electroplankton you need a stylus, touchscreen, and a microphone. All of these accesories should come with your DS or DS Lite. Now let's start out with Performance mode.
Performance Mode is the biggest mode of Electroplankton. In performance mode you have up to 10 events(called Plankton Control) which are:
Hanenbow-in this event you need to drag leaves into the water where the Hanenbow launch. As the Hanenbow continue the leaves constantly the leaves will start turning these threew different colors which are red,yellow,and orange.You can also drag other leaves to change the direction.Once the leaves are full of hit from many, many Hanenbow, a beautiful flower(s) will appear.
Tracy-There are six Tracies. Drawing a triangle on the touch screen will attract Tracies. Doing this process making wonderful sounds, can be soothing. Each and every Tracy sound is different and unique in its own special way. Right increases the tempo of the Tracies. Left decreases the tempo of these Tracies. And clicking the select button on your DS can completely stop the tempo of each and every Tracy.
Rec-Rec-Their are four rec-recs. These guys swim from left to right across the touch screen. As you progress through levels and keep doing good then the Rec-Recs will swim faster and faster making it harder to capture them. When you capture them you must tap one of them to have them eat 4 seconds of sound coming from your DS microphone.Pressing up or down changes the background beat. Pressing Select empties all of the Rec-Rec at once.
VolVoice-in this mode called Volvoice it is just a simple sound manipulation mode.You can speak into the microphone, then it plays tons of different style sounds and such. Kind of like the record player in the Nintendogs games if you have ever played those.
Marine-Snow-There are no fewer than 35 Marine-Snow.Each Marin-Snow sound different. Tapping on every one of them gives them each a different sound/noise.Not only does each Marine-Snow make a unique noise/sound when you tap on it, but it will also replace the former Marine-Snow with the newer one tapped. So in certain words you could say that they're replacing each other by sound.
Nanocarp-There are 16 Nanocarps.When repeatedly touching Nanocarps on the touch screen of your DS or DS Lite, it makes the make a vertical ripple.Every time you touch a Nanocarp and its touched by a wave it makes a unique noise. Each noise is different. It depends on how high or low the the Nanocarp is on the screen for the noise.The Nanocarps will swim slowly around. To recognize them you must use a form of sound such as clapping, whisteling, blowing, or singins into the DS microphone.
Luminaria-Their are 4 Luminarias. To make a Luminaria move you must poke it, which means to tap it on the Touch Screen with your DS Stylus.The red Luminaria sounds like a piano and is super fast. The yellow Luminara sounds like a vibraphone and is slightly slower than the red. The green Luminaria sounds like a music box and moves slowly. The blue Luminaria sounds like a celesta and moves slowest of all. Luminaria exist on an arrowed grid and always follow the arrows.When a Luminaria crosses an arrow it will follow that arrow(I know, kind of odd). Once a Luminaria has been started, it can never be stopped, but the grid can be reset and all Luminaria stopped simultaneously by pressing Select.
Sun-Animalcule-Generally in this event you tap the field setting that you have to place a seed at the point where you tap your stylus.Putting/planting a seed on spots of the field will turn into a Sun-Animalcule that will shine and make a beautiful noise.In the morning or noon the seed planting will turn into the sun. At night a moon.This is the only event thats not dealing really with underwater as the setting.
Lumiloop-There are five Lumiloops. Spinning the Stylus all around them causes them to make a nice smoothing sound and tone and has them producing a ring of light. The the name kind of speaks for itself. You make a loop around the lumiloops and it makes a soothing , unique noise and produces a nice ring of light.
Beatness-Their are five Beatnesses. Each Beatness contains eight parts.One head, headdiamond shaped spinal portions and one bigger diamond for a tail.Tapping a part of the Beatness with your DS Stylus has the Beatness emit a sound.A song from an NES/Famicon game plays in the background. It is a beautiful song.
In Audience Mode you doing the same 10 events as in Performance Mode.Except one difference, which is a pretty big difference.That one difference is that it is more of a demo mode. Where you do the same 10 events,but they are not as long or as much detailed. I know, kind of odd.You could kinda compare this mode of like a download mode for the Nintendo DS.
Graphics
The graphics for this game are ok. It's practically the same graphics as most of the DS games today.Very deatialed, very nice colored scheme graphics.I also really liked the way they detailed and the way they made the graphics in the background. Crystal clear just like you were playing games of music right in the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean or just in your local pool at home.Either way, not bad graphics especially for the Nintendo DS.
Audio
The audio for Electroplankton is amazing. It's exatic and makes you feel like you arei n the game. It brings a fresh appeal to the older way of gaming and makes you feel passionate and can even help you perform better overall!
The background audio is great too. With the sounds of the soothing,cool background music it makes this game even better to play than if it were silent. In other words it can get you more into the game.Now the sounds can be even more amazing than the music. This can be by the exotic, awesome sounds when you tap a Lumiloop or anything else.Plus the sounds of when clapping or singing into the mic. in the Nanocarp event.The devlopers of the game cleverly used things like this, and I thought it was truly amazing and helped to probably revolutionize the music videogame community for the DS and who knows what else.
Replay Value
This game doesn't do the best in the replay value division.True after one time it's still very entertaining to do the events and such, but say after the ywentieth time, this can get very boring. Most likely because this game was out in 2005 in Japan and their was no Wifi in the world yet.Wifi definitely would have helped the replay value of this game and not let this game be that boring. Plus, if you could save your music then you could listen to it, then it might not be as boring as playing the game over and over again.But after the 20th. time, this game gets boring.Sorry,but it's most likely true.
Conclusion
As you've seen Electroplankton has many events and tons of unique music features.If you've always wanted a unique music game with cool new features then Electroplankton is the perfect game for you. With great gameplay, good graphics, awesome music/sound, and not the best replay value I will have to give Electroplankton a low 4. So its a great game, but not the best game. Now here are some pictures and videos of this great game.
