Electroplankton

I'd like to take a minute of you time, if at all possible, to come back to the reason I started this blog - face first as always - and talk to you about Electroplankton for the Nintendo DS. Yes, shock horror, I'm reviewing a game that isn't on the Xbox 360, well get used to it, I'm expanding my horizons.

To be honest, I had a DS long before I could ever scrounge together the money for a 360 and thought it was great for playing Mario Kart... and little else. So I accidentally traded it momentarily before Nintendo decided to release any other decent games for the blasted thing, and for about a year, I've been left with a DS-shaped hole in my pockets. I'd like you to take note, something very very similar happened with my Wii, with literally a week later, every good idea Nintendo will ever have were announced.

But enough of that and back to reviewing games! Or close enough... I'll explain soon. I believe I'm correct in saying that Electroplankton was a launch title for the DS and as such is now one of the hardest fucking games to get hold of, next to Conker's Bad Fur Day on the N64. After being sat idle in my room, having being banned by doctors and everyone I knew from stepping foot outside for fear of spreading chicken pox to everyone in the known world, I remembered Electroplankton, and set out to find it as soon as I was allowed in public again.

I remember it looking like the weirdest and most intriguing game I'd ever seen, and I was filled with glee when I eventually found it. Although a bit gloomy about the price tag, in comparison to other games that are about 3 years old, but forked out my hard earned student loan to get hold of it. I got home and prepared myself for hours of simple joy, tapping away to the soothing music made by these odd little creatures. I quickly realised it wasn't actually a game at all, but a toy; screw it, we'll roll with it, it's cute.

It's packed - actually, maybe not actually packed - with cool features. By which I mean 2 features. I guess I didn't quite think that through, but shut up they're cool, OK?! First is the simple "audience" mode, which is probably best to see first, i.e., before you buy it, in which the game goes a bit mental, showing you what you can do on Electroplankton. Ignore the Goliath instruction book, it's very simple, and not as much fun as you might think. The other cool feature is how it uses the microphone. Rather than making any random sound to invoke a reaction (like on Phantom Hourglass), it can actually record sounds and play them back with lots of funny and weird effects. The only problem is, you can't really sing into a DS, so I spent a while just swearing into it, which I assure you did not make for funky sounding music.

There are different types of plankton, which I assumed would be mixed together, letting you come up with some sort of super-symphony, but no. You play with each one separately, and as such, most of them actually suck balls. The best ones are the ones that sound like a piano, only not really that great because it's like playing a piano whilst very very drunk. And you can get that for free if you go down to your local during an open mic night. You wont be that popular after you hijack someone's keyboard, but likewise, you wont be that popular playing a DS with the volume up in a pub either.

I guess that leaves Electroplankton with one decent mode, and that's the one where you keep poking the plankton that have spines. By doing so you can easily get some very cool music, despite using an orchestra compiled by the NES. And as such, I'm suffering from buyer's remorse a little, with the biggest comfort being I now have a genuinely cool game/gadget in my collection of crap now. I can't say I recommend you buy it, sadly, you should still give it a go. I'd also like to say, for legal reasons mostly, that I do not condone nor support theft. Especially from your friends who have Electroplankton.

Just because you shouldn't buy it, it doesn't mean you should steal it. Unless you really wanted to, but I can't stop you.