Labyrinth (Nintendo DS) - Review by skarma

Introduction

Once more we're hot on the heels on another 505Games release, developed by Taito. Labyrinth is a bit of an oddity. For those of you old enough to remember Taito's arcade classic - Cameltry, will know exactly what this game is. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the game really doesn't differ largely from the classic formula of rotating the screen to guide a ball through a maze to the finish.

Gameplay

Okay, I've pretty much explained it in the opening introduction. You guide a ball through a maze by rotating the screen, and basically ensure the ball is going through a smooth downwards path towards the goal. Throughout the mazes, there are various power ups and power downs such as increasing your time limit to complete the level, as well as decreasing it. Often there are grey blocks that you will have to bash through by building up enough pressure to smash through it using the 'gyro' technique - which consists of pressing X to slam the ball hard on whatever obstacle you face. Thats the entirety of the game really, with options to increase the weight of your ball as well as decorating it.

There are 4 difficulty modes, each offering more complex and tricker mazes than the last... or so you would think. A minor problem but a problem all the same. The difficulty is all over the place. Some of the easy levels are fiendishly hard, where as some of the 'insane' levels are in fact - quite tame. These oddities are far and few between, but you may often find yourself confused at the placing of some of the levels inside the difficulty categories. The mazes never really get truly hard, and although the game's title would like you to think this - it isn't really a labyrinth. The mazes are generally one direction only, and the only thing that alters the difficulty dramatically is the annoying placement of '-5 seconds' blocks, which if you touch, deduct 5 seconds from your time.

Controls

The entire game works by spinning the maze map on the bottom screen to alter the position of north. This can provide quite a nuisance as the area for spinning is quite small, as only the outside of the map can be spun, and if you go too far out (or your hands slip), the world will stop rotating the way you want it to. Thankfully there is a saviour, in the form of the L and R buttons (or the Left + Right, or the Y + A), which provides a much easier way of control. Not too complex, nice and simple.

Graphics

Slick menu presentations aid the experience, as well as a distinct 'puzzle' feel towards the retro fonts. The background is basically a large photograph or a weird pattern. Most of the graphics are distinct from each other, and you can easily see where your going. Nothing really pushing the DS at all, but thats hardly hindering the gameplay here.

Sound

Catchy tunes will happily bounce along to your ball-rolling antics, as well as Japanese voices telling you to 'Hurry Upu' and minor things like that.

Dual screen

Very minimal, most of the stats are tracked via the bottom screen, so is the map. Where as the top screen contains the all-important timer and of course the actual gameplay. Again, not really utilizing the DS's potential but just provides a slight convenience.

Final comments

Not a bad game by any means, but the never-changing gameplay means we can only give this game an average ranking as it is not succeeding anywhere except classic gameplay. Sure, it will pass away the hours, but I'd only recommend picking this one up if it was in a bargain bin.

Pro: Same gameplay as over two decades ago - love it or hate it.
Con: Same gameplay as over two decades ago - love it or hate it. Rough physics.
Final score: 6.5

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