Dark Void on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC was terrible. The only interesting element about it was this, Dark Void Zero. An NES style game that came out on the DSi as a downloadable game. The idea of releasing it on DSi was kinda random, considering the actual game wasn’t on a Nintendo console, and I couldn’t play it since I don’t have a DSi… So when the game finally came out on PC and iPhone I downloaded it as soon as it came out (the PC version that is).

This is going to be quite short as there’s really not too much to say about the game.

So read on, and see if Dark Void Zero is better than its horrible console counterpart!

Developer: Other Ocean Interactive
Publisher: Capcom
Date of Release: April 12th 2010 (came out January 18th on the DS)
Platforms: iPhone, PC and DSiWare

Genre: Beat ‘em up
Players: 1-2 (online compatibility)
Rated E for Everyone

Presentation
The game uses 8-bit style graphics. The look good, but not incredible. Nothing looks out of place, everything is easy to see, bullets don’t blend in to the backgrounds and the areas look pretty nice. The enemy design is fine too, though there’s not a huge variety of enemy types. There’s not much to say about the graphics here. They look like classic NES graphics, but there’s nothing really unique about the game’s look, it’s a bit on the generic side (much like its console counterpart… but better-looking).

The sound though is really good. The music is perfect. Sadly there’s not too many tracks, but each level has amazing music. Mostly reminiscent of the Mega Man games on NES. The music is fast paced and very nicely composed.  The rest of the sounds are 8-bit sounds as well and aren’t too bad, but nothing special.

Story
Okay, I have almost nothing to say about this (heck, I could skip this section and the review wouldn’t change at all). It actually uses pretty much the same storyline as the console version, except this time it’s actually a lot better, because there’s no characters, no plot twists and… pretty much no plot at all! The plot is pretty much all explained in the very beginning: The Watchers opened a portal to our world, and you, as Rusty (a human soldier from the Watchers’ world) is going to pick up the portal codes to close the portal and stop the Watchers’ advance in the human world. And that’s it. It’s simple and to the point, just like a video game story should be.

It’s strange how the more developed story in the console version with tons of cutscenes is worse than this story, which is not developed whatsoever and mostly comprised of a short 2 minute slideshow you see at the beginning of the game. Simple=better.

Gameplay
The controls are incredibly simple. You have one jump button, one attack button and you move with the arrow buttons (or d-pad on the DSiWare version). The attack button shoots, and you can use the d-pad to aim your shot in 8 directions. When standing, aiming diagonally makes you stop moving. In the air, Rusty holds the direction of his shot as long as you don’t move. When you pick up the jetpack item, you can double-tap the jump button to start hovering, and that way you can move however you want in the air, and you can stop hovering by double-tapping the jump button again time. If you’re not hovering, you can also hold the jump button to quickly move vertically with the jetpack.

The level design is sort of reminiscent of Metroid. There are 3 levels, and for each of them you have one big map that you can freely explore. Just like in Metroid, you can only go through certain parts of the map when you get certain items to open doors, or certain weapons to open up areas you couldn’t access before. Each level is fairly simple. You’ll be given the location of a card key, find it, open the corresponding door, rinse and repeat until you find the portal code, go to the end of the level and fight the boss. In addition to key cards, some areas can only be opened by rocket launchers, and other areas can only be accessed using the jetpack.

There’s a few interesting elements here. For one, you don’t always have access to the jetpack, as some barriers destroy it(so you have to pick it up again), and you can’t just waltz through the game constantly using the same powerful weapon as some areas give you your old weapons back before you enter. So this forces you to constantly adapt to the situation at hand. And each level has collectibles to find. Most of which are relatively easy to find since they’re out in the open, but there’s hidden areas that have a few of them, and finding those areas will be pretty tough.

Overall
This is a very fun game. The gameplay is really fun, the controls are solid, the graphics are okay, the music is pure badass.

But the game is needlessly short. It easily could have done with an extra level or 3. 3 levels total is really not a lot, especially when they can be finished in less than 10 minutes each. But at least it offers a good challenge the first time through each level and will most likely last you for a short while. And if you’ve already finished the game, there’s more difficulty levels and maybe you didn’t complete each level 100% by finding the collectibles in it, so there’s at least some replay value here.

Despite the game being short, it’s cheap and fun enough to be worth playing. Not only is it fun, but it’s actually a lot higher-quality that the console version, and is a lot more worth playing.

Pros/Cons
Pros
- Great gameplay
- Awesome music

Cons
- Only 3 levels

The Save Factor
The game is $5 on the PC, while it’s $3 on both the iPhone and DSiWare. If you can get the DSiWare version, definitely get that. It’s cheaper and I’m guessing the controls are very good on it . The iPhone version, like any games that would require buttons and a proper d-pad, probably isn’t worth the money because the controls probably suck on it. So if you can’t get the DSiWare version, the PC version at $5 is the best option. And it’s really not expensive whichever version you get, so it’s worth it either way.

So the Save Factor for this one is $4! Most people will probably find it too short for getting it full price (which is not really high anyways), but 3-4$ is more than fair.

jobocan Console, ds, DSi, Games, Handheld, iPhone/iTouch, PC, Review