Wednesday, March 7, 2007

PSP Game Review Neopets: The Wand of Wishing


A lot of people may assume that Neopets is a kid's game. It may be geared towards kids, but adults are very fond of the Neopets games as well. Neopets: The Wand of Wishing is the first installment on the PSP for this series.

The Neopets brand used to be an online site where you could raise and create fantasy pets called "neopets" or "petpets". Once your pet was grown a little, it was able to participate in battles, go on quests, and play mini-games to get things to upgrade their abilities.

The PSP version of this game is similar to the online version. You can choose your clothing and weapons, talk with the villagers to acquire quests to perform, visit the multiple dungeons around the land, and upgrade your pet with training. You can also fight in the battledome against computer characters or via wi-fi with other human players.

The PSP version of this game is a hack and slash type role playing game, which happens to be my favorite kind. The game is a lot like most other role playing games. The map in the game is broken up into sections of settlements, jungles, and dungeons. In the settlements you will find shops to buy weapons and clothing/armor, you will also find other petpets that you can talk to in order to get more of the story. Some of the petpets will give you a quest when you talk to them. In the jungles and dungeons is where you do all of your fighting. There are many fun types of monsters you will be up against. When fighting you will use the X button for melee attacks and the triangle button for wide rage magic attacks. You can also use the select button to access any weapons or spells your petpet is carrying. In this game once you have killed a monster it stays dead, they don't come back to life once you leave the room, I really like this feature as well.

Unfortunately there is a bit of a lag in the game. When you push a button or move the "joystick" it takes a second before the action is actually performed. Sometimes that gets in the way when you are trying to beat a monster. This is only really a problem in the beginning of the game. Once your character becomes more developed and has better weapons the lag doesn't really have much of an effect on your battles, because you can do way more damage and you take much less damage.

Upgrading your character is a little different in this game then in other role playing type games. This is not an experience based leveling system which is more popular in role playing games. In Neopets, when you kill a monster you get neopoints and items. You use the neopoints to enter the battledome. In order to upgrade your petpets attributes you must win in these battledome matches. These can cost anywhere from 250 to 50,000 neopoints. The sad thing is that you don't get the points back if you lose the match.

You can also upgrade your your character by catching and collecting little "petpetpets"...(try to say that 10 times fast). In order to catch them you have to locate them, and then decide what kind of food you think it will eat. You lay the food in front of them, and if it is the right kind of food then your petpetpet will eat it all and get so full that it can't move. Then you pick it up and it is yours. Once you have caught your petpetpet you can equip it just like you would your weapon or clothing. Each petpetpet will give you certain extra attributes. The only thing is that you can only have one equipped at a time.

You will notice that there is a lot of upgrading that needs to be done as you start to explore new areas in this game. When you enter a new area all of the monsters are going to be stronger than your petpet. You have to catch up by visiting the shops for new armor and weapons, visiting the battledome to increase your attributes, and you will also have to visit the local trainer.

The graphics in this game are very fun, it will be very familiar to those who have played with Neopets online. The audio isn't anything to special. I really enjoy the way the enemies interact when you are fighting them. They don't just stand in one place while you hit them, when you hit them they fly backwards, it is actually kind of funny to watch. The only part of the audio that stuck out in my mind is in the jungle part of the game you hear crickets and waterfalls that actually sound realistic.

If you are a role-playing game fanatic this game may not be for you. If you love Neopets then you will love this game. It is also a good PSP title for the younger players. I really enjoyed this game because I love the Neopets website. I think you will enjoy it too. I would give this game 7 out of 10.


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