Developer: Renegade Kid
Publisher: Ignition Entertainment
Release Date: July 26, 2012
I bought this game from the eShop when it first came out. It is the eShop’s very first retail game. The developers decided to skip putting the game on cards and went straight to digital to keep things cheap. I was kind of not expecting much from this game except from what was on the trailer, but was surprised to see that kept me entertained more than usual. Did you think the game “crashed”?
Story: 2/5
There’s not much of a story line that goes along with this game. There’s an evil villain which is about to wipe out the sun and you have to travel from planet to planet to find and stop this evil doer. From the looks of it, there are 9 planets. The only way to make it to other planets is to level your character up. I’ve only made it to the second planet so far and there hasn’t been any sort of plot since I traveled from one planet to the other. I guess I’ll find out after the next few planets.
Entertainment: 3.5/5
Planet Crashers is a 3D dungeon RPG game, which reminds me of Final Fantasy in it’s own way. You can customize your character before you even start the game. This gives players a reason to keep on playing, to unlock items in the games to customize your character. You won’t know if you have unlocked items in the game until you exit the game and check the main menu, where you can actually customize your character. There are different weapons that you can unlock (like bananas, pencils, and a frying pan) that go along with certain quests.
There is a quest board that you can check to get quests from each planet, or you can add quests from random characters on the planet. You can have four quests at once on the board, but you can only do one quest at a time. You have to make sure a check mark is next to the quest, so that you know that’s the quest you want to do (something I didn’t realize until later). Also, you can only change your quest once you are outside of a dungeon. After a while, the quests start to feel repetitive on each planet (rescue someone from dungeon, fight someone in a dungeon, deliver a letter/item to someone, or return item to someone).
There’s a store to buy potions, food, or defense items. You can sell the items that you find in the dungeons for some gold. In the main menu of the game, there is Local Play and Online Play. You can play against people online or with friends locally. I tried Online Play but I seemed to only fight people 15 levels ahead of me, so it seems there isn’t some sort of filter to fight people on certain levels. The only thing still keeping me playing is getting the funny different weapons and unlocking the custom parts for my character.
Controls: 5/5
The controls are pretty easy to get used to. During gameplay, pressing X, Y, Start, or Select will open up the menu screen. There are options to view your Quest Log, Skills, Weapon, or Items, and you can also quit your game. Quest Log lets you view and select which quest you want to do. Skills lets you change which skills you want to use for battle. Weapon lets you choose which weapon to use for battle. Items, naturally, lets you use items. Pressing B backs out of each menu screen that you were just in. Pressing A selects the options that you want. During a fight, you will occasionally see the A button flash on the screen. If you don’t press the button when it flashes, you will do less damage to your opponent. When facing another character in the game, pressing A will make you talk to that character.
Presentation: 3.5/5
The 3D in the game is very well done. I found myself not having to adjust the 3D when it was on and never had eye strain when playing the game. When running around, the planet and everything else revolves around you, which is pretty neat looking. When you are in a dungeon, the 3D is okay. The menu screen uses the bottom 3DS screen, which is done pretty well and it’s easy to read. Sadly, there is no voice acting, so everything has to be read.
Final Word: 3.5/5
From the trailer that I saw before Planet Crashers came out, I can say that the trailer really doesn’t do it any justice. Said trailer focuses more on the fighting than anything else. If the game had more of a story line, I would actually give the game a higher rating. I love all of the items that you can customize your character with. You can customize your character’s name, make it male/female, give it 15 different types of hair/body types to choose from and even many different eyes/mouths. You can use a banana as a weapon to hit your opponent in the head with or even a frying pan. Each planet has a different theme and look to it. The controls are super easy to use. Doing the quests and fighting can be a bit repetitive, though. I wish there was a way to change quests while inside of the dungeon so you can do more than one quest at a time.
