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Posted on June 7th, 2005 - 5722 Reads

Rated Everyone Electroplankton Nintendo DS Review

-- Written by Marc-André Sarrazin



 Electroplankton is the kind of game that rarely sees the light of day, since it is targeted only at a really small audience. In fact, one would wonder why any publisher would agree to pick up this game since it is nearly assured to fail no matter what. That's why we have to thank Nintendo for releasing this game as it is, since it's not the kind of software you would see big names like Electronic Arts or Ubisoft publish.

The game received quite a bit of advertising in Japan but it didn't sell very well. It isn't really a game anyway, more of a musical experience than anything else. You have 10 different mini-games in which you have to do different things with the electroplanktons to make them react and create sounds. These sounds will then become music, and what's most surprising is that it can be really good even tough you wouldn't expect that much out of the DS.

There isn't any story to the game or any goal for that matter. The game starts directly at the title screen where you have 2 options. One of them is the audience mode where the game plays random music for you in one of the 10 modes of play. So instead of bringing your MP3 player with you can just bring your DS and a copy of Electroplankton and it'll play endlessly until your battery runs out or until you're tired of it.

The other mode is performance mode. In this one you will be interacting with the Electroplanktons and making music. The music you create is interactive in that it constantly changes no matter whether you are making changes or not. In one of the scenarios, for example, you have to place electroplanktons on the screen and there are bubbles that scroll from the bottom to the top of the screen and as they touch the electroplanktons those will emit sounds. The more bubbles that touch them, the bigger they will become and make different sounds.

All of the mini-games have something like that which makes the gameplay nearly limitless since the music you create will never be the same and I think this is what makes this game so incredible and so charming. No matter who plays, whether that person is good at games or not doesn't matter, as everyone will be able to create something that sounds good and you'll want to come back and play the game more and more. You can pick it up anytime and play with it, even if it's only for 5 minutes. This game was definitely designed to be played on a handheld as it's a pick up and play experience that could only be done on a handheld console.

For those of you who are interested in knowing exactly what this game offers, here's a list of all 10 mini-games and how each one works.

01 - Tracy: In this one you control 6 electroplanktons. What you do is trace lines on the screen which will then become paths for your electroplanktons to follow. Those lines are made of arrows and each one of those arrows is meant to be a sound that the electroplanktons will produce. The faster you make the lines the bigger the arrows will be and the less sounds your electroplanktons will produce. On the opposite side, if you trace your line slowly, the arrows will be really small and close to one another and it will produce a lot more sounds. Also to note is that each electroplankton makes different noises. So you just make drawings on the screen and that will create music!

02 - Hanenbow: This one is really simple. You have a leaf on the screen from where electroplanktons are shot. On the other side you have a tree branch with 6 leaves. What you have to do is change the angle of the leaves so that the electroplanktons will bounce off the leaves differently each time and make noises. The more they hit the leaves the more it will become red and change the sounds it makes.

03 - Luminaria: Again, another simple but effective mini-game. You have 4 electroplanktons in the corners of the screen. Once you hit them they will start moving. There are also arrows scattered everywhere on the screen. Each arrow will produce a different sound and so will each electroplankton. They also all move at different speeds. So what you do is hit them so they start moving and then you change the direction in which the arrows are pointing so that the electroplanktons follow a different path each, creating some sort of interactive melody.

04 - Sun-Animalcule: This is the game I described earlier in my text. You place a number of electroplanktons on the screen and when they get touched by bubbles they will emit sounds. The more they get touched, the louder the noises they'll make. You can also move them around on the screen if you'd like to create different sounds.

05 - Rec Rec: This is the one everyone has heard about. You have 4 fishes on the screen and you have to touch them and then speak into the microphone. The fish will then repeat it endlessly and so you can create loops with anything that you can think of. Make you dog bark in the microphone and it will be repeated in the DS until you decide to change it. It kind of reminded me of techno music where you have these loops that get repeated and then change at certain points in the songs, except this time around you decide when you want it to change. The sound recorded is of surprisingly good quality and I was quite impressed by it.

06 - Nanocarp: Here you have 15 electroplanktons on screen. What you have to do is touch the screen anywhere to create a sound wave that will cover a certain area of the screen. All of the electroplanktons in this area will then make a sound as soon as they are touched by the sound wave. Each of them is constantly moving and they will also make sounds on their own when they feel like it. I didn't really like this one as I thought it was too simple and didn't make good music in my opinion.

07 - Lumiloop: In lumiloop you have 5 electroplanktons that are in the shape of a circle and you have to rub your finger around it making circles and the faster you do it the faster the electroplanktons will turn making a really relaxing melody. This is definitely the simplest one out of the bunch and it didn't seem to have that much replayability.

08 - Marine-Snow: In this one the electroplanktons are in the shape of snowflakes and you kind of make them dance around the screen by touching them and having them change places with other electroplanktons. They play piano notes so this is also another one of those really relaxing games.

09 - Beatnes: Here you have Mario music playing in the background and you have to hit the different shapes on the screen to create a loop, much like Rec-rec except it is done directly in the game. After a few times the loop will erase itself and you will have to restart. There are also some fun sounds from the Mario games added in the mix.

10 - Volvoice: Finally, one of my favorites, volvoice. You have 16 different shapes of balloons. Once you touch them you start recording sound using the DS's microphone. When you are done you touch the balloon again and it will start repeating what it just heard by deforming it. Each one of the balloons will deform the sounds differently and some of them are quite funny. I had a really great time with this mini-game.

So there you have it folks! I know it doesn't seem like that big of a game, and when you consider that you have to pay nearly 50$ for this import (though it will be coming stateside), it's kind of expensive, especially since it's only something that most people will play with for a few minutes and then get tired of. Even I am kind of disappointed as I think it would have been better if it had all been implemented in a real game with some goals. As it is right now it only seems like a big demo that's fun for awhile but gets old quickly. Sure, it's innovative and you'll probably want to play with it from time to time, and I also have to admit that it's quite imaginative, but I don't think it is as impressive as Nintendo wants us to believe. It would also have been very cool if you could have saved some setups and then mix the music from different mini-games to make some big melodies. This is definitely a love it or hate it situation, and I really think that for most people, especially hardcore gamers, it won't be enough.

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