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»Winx Club: The Quest for the Codex
"More like, STINX Club."
Winx Club is a reasonably popular television series among preteen girls
about teenage fairies dressing skimpily and using magic to protect the
Realm of Magix. Along with the Game Boy Advance version, Winx Club is a
shmup-style game (a shoot ‘em up). However, throughout the game, you’ll
have to do other mini-games. The Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS
versions share a couple similar levels, but most are unique to each
other.
The main game is shmup-type game, believe it or not - although it’s not
a very good one. The player controls one of the fairies with the d-pad
for movement face buttons for their magic, and shoulder buttons for
turning. While it’s highly tolerable, and the controls are decent,
there are some really annoying flaws. First off is how it zooms in and
out - when there are no enemies near, the screen will be zoomed way in
on the fairy selected, and when they eventually appear, it zooms out
significantly. This can be somewhat disorienting, but is very annoying
as well.
In between these shmup-type levels are a variety of different levels.
The first is a variation of the shmup game, where you simply maneuver
the fairy to hover over a silhouette of a fairy. There are also two
rhythm levels - a Dance Dance Revolution style level and a level where
you touch icons on the touch screen when appropriate. The DDR-style
level uses the d-pad and face buttons exclusively, and plays very
similarly to standard DDR. Arrow and button symbols come from the top
screen to the touch screen, and you must push the respective button
when it is appropriate. This and the schmup-type game are probably the
high point of Winx Club.
Also included are a few other level variations which range from
slightly lame to unbelievably so. Of these few level variations, the
best would probably be the one where you place a path for a piece of
data to reach the “finish line” using predetermined path icons,
defeating viruses as they try to attack it. Another is one where you
simply fire at insects to protect an ever-growing plant. And finally,
the worst of them all - a level where you keep a glowing ball on the
screen by drawing a line to bounce it off of, also with the intention
of having this glowing ball touch the fairies. This is terribly
executed, and the accuracy of it is way off.
The graphics are poor for a Nintendo DS game. They’re 2D visuals and
about the same as the Game Boy Advance version’s, and they look pretty
ugly when your character is zoomed in upon. Also, most levels have
simple visuals (simply bad visuals, amirite?). In between all shmup
levels are a FMV of the selected fairy transforming (which can be
skipped), which looks good.
The sound is about average as well. They don’t interfere with the
levels, but they lack presence as well. And the sound effects are okay,
but nothing more than that. The best aspect of the sound is the DDR
level - not because the songs used are good (they’re not), but because
rhythm games are fun regardless of what song is used, but good because
there is a song to play with.
The game has okay replay value. On one hand, you can play any of the
side games, such as the plant level and the DDR level. On the other
hand, only a couple of them are worth playing at all. So overall,
there’s nothing really warranting the purchase of this title unless
you’re a fan - and if you are, it might actually be fun for you just
because of the brand name. If you had to choose between the Game Boy
Advance version and the Nintendo DS version, go with the DS one - it
looks plenty better than the GBA version.
Article by: Alttp
Posted on: Jul. 6th, 2007 |
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Review Recap |
| Gameplay |
| Eh. It’s not bad, but it isn’t good. The DDR level is okay and the schmup-like games are almost tolerable, but the rest of the game is either meh or just plain bad. |
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Graphics |
| Poor quality for a DS game. |
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Sound |
| Average quality for a DS game; even though the DDR minigame’s music isn’t good, at least the rhythm game is okay. |
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Replay Value |
| All side games can be accessed from the main menu, but only the DDR side game is worth playing (and besides, why bother when you could just go out and buy Elite Beat Agents?). |
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