- Planet 51 DS
- pda-video-games
- Sushi Go Round DS
- 90040
Product Description
Planet 51 is a galactic sized alien adventure comedy from the writer of “Shrek” and “Shrek 2″, the story revolves around American astronaut Captain Charles “Chuck” Baker who lands on Planet 51 thinking he’s the first person to step foot there. To his surprise he finds that this planet is inhabited by little green people who are happily living in a white picket fence world, reminiscent of a cheerfully innocent 1950s America, and whose only fear is that it will be o… More >>
So far, the game is all about driving different types of alien vehicles, sometimes chasing aliens. Mostly just driving around on a pre-determined course. The description doesn’t say anything about it being a primary driving type game. It is fun for what it is, but not what the description would have you think.
Rating: 3 / 5
Planet 51 for the Nintendo DS is, as the title of this review says, “Grand Theft Auto for Kids.”
The game play it’s self, is mostly a racing game; Get from start point ‘A’ to end point ‘B.’ Although I’m impressed by the graphic capability of the DS version, there’s very little variety within the game play as with the console versions. You can’t do anything on foot, and other than races and timed challenges, the only other interesting missions are what amount to newspaper delivery quests.
The game plays exactly like GTA, where you can explore an open world map, except you can’t steal cars, run people over, shoot them or get into fights. However, smashing into other cars will damage yours and doing it in front of the cops will get you into trouble and result in an attempt to out race and lose the fuzz. It’s also quite possible parents may have fun playing this game as well.
The controls are fairly normal for the game, you have basic button commands, nothing to complicated, although the missions that require switching between the direction pad and the stylus stick can be a challenge for some people. The cars all have their faults and strengths, and the race courses that you’ll most likely be following are challenging enough without making it punishingly difficult.
The one of the major faults with this game is that there’s not the huge variety of mini games to be found like there is in the console versions. You’ll be racing, racing against time, or engaged in demolition dirbys; don’t get me wrong, it’s not that it isn’t fun, it’s just that it can fell repetitive some of the time. Finally, while I found the story more interesting and the jokes more funnier than the actual movie it was based off, it can become confusing to those who haven’t yet seen it. The game expects you to have seen the movie first hand, as some of the story takes odd angles and doesn’t make any sense. This is what happened to me. I got the game first, THEN saw the movie.
Over all, Planet 51 for the DS is fun, competent, and will keep you coming back for more. There’s still lots of unlockables in the game, including Eckle’s ‘Humaniacs’ comic from the movie, along with production stills and concept art work. Over all, fun for kids, and possibly older ones too.
Rating: 3 / 5
Santa bought this game for my 8 year old. He loves this game and plays it as much as his all time favorite, Mario Kart. He was scared of the police chase at first and would put the game down and turn away (it was the funniest thing ever). He’s moved past that now.
Rating: 5 / 5