Go West: A Lucky Luke Adventure (Nintendo DS) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

Although not particularly well known in the UK, the adventures of Lucky Luke date back as far as 1946 when his original Belgian creator, Morris, first drew him. Since then the comic book series has passed though the hands of Rene Goscinny, amongst others. It then, of course, made the obvious jump to television where it reached a far wider audience and Lucky Luke became a household name. Go West though, is not actually based on the TV series but rather the first (animated) big screen outing and some of the better-known books. Atari have previously brought Luke to the GameBoy Color and Advance but does the laid-back cowboy have what it takes for the DS?

Gameplay

This could easily have been just another movie tie-in platformer but instead the developers have decided to go the mini-game route with all of the games being stylus driven. The Story Mode is the only thing open to single players initially and this challenges you to lead a 'wagon train' across the United States in 80 days. This involves undertaking a number of mini-games and it must be pointed out that, while you can take short cuts, a day will elapse whether you complete a task or not. The mini-games themselves are represented by red dots on the map which zigzag across the various states and range from the incredibly simple to the completely frustrating. On the simple side of things you have 'Jolly Jumper Races' which simply challenges you to get from 'a to b', whilst ducking, jumping and shooting, using the stylus as a controller. This could have easily been done with traditional controls but even here it's easy to pass on the first attempt. Another game, which begins easily enough, is 'Ugly Barrow's Cusses'. This involves you simply tracing over patterns in speech bubbles, with your stylus switching from one wagon to another. Unfortunately once you reach mid-way in your journey you have so little time to actually achieve each tracing that the whole thing becomes very frustrating. There are also cooking, riding and shooting challenges but what really let's the game down is the fact that they are all repeated so many times.

Every so often you'll also be challenged to a special mini-game and while these are generally rhythm games such as Rain Dancing or Saloon Dancing you may also have to shoot crocodiles it order to allow the Wagon Train to pass through the river or even navigate a Tram across New York City. There's also a Multiplayer option, which surprisingly even has a single cart function, but the game is so dull there's little point in playing it. While this all seems like a lot of gameplay the 80 days travel does mean that games are played repeatedly so a few more games and a little more variety would have been very welcome.

Controls

The developers have dumped the traditional controls completely in favor of stylus driven mini-games so no need for the d-pad, shoulder or other buttons for that matter.

Graphics

With the visuals and animation lifted directly from the movie, which Xilam produced, you'd expect things to look pretty good and they do. The overall presentation is wonderful and easy to navigate, with a generous amount of FMV taken from the movie itself. What is most apparent though is that the tiny visuals still manage to capture the emotions of the various characters. so the dancers, for example, look genuinely uneasy as they dance in the saloon in order to keep the peace. Elsewhere the animation is fluid and the environments detailed and colorful and the intro deserves a mention, not only because of its obvious nod to Saul Bass, but also for its sheer style. What more could you ask for?

Sound

As with the visuals, the music is outstanding with each section accompanied by a suitably Western themed soundtrack. The sound effects are also pretty good but don't expect any voice action, as in Go West nobody has anything to say.

Dual screen

Both the touch-screen and microphone are fully integrated into the game play in a number of different ways but if you've read the 'gameplay' section, you probably already know that.

Final comments

Go West starts out with a reasonable amount of promise: it looks and sounds great and the mini-games are engaging (initially at least). Unfortunately it is a little too repetitive and the increasing difficulty level will grind your gaming to a halt. Even if you do manage to complete the game, there's little incentive to go back and the Multiplayer is not one of the best we've ever encountered. Lucky Luke has already had a more successful outing on the GameBoy Advance so if you really need a fix of decent cowboy action, go and seek that out

Pro: Looks and Sounds Great, Some Entertaining Games Included
Con: Gets Very Difficult, Some Less Than Entertaining Games Included.
Final score: 5

Share on Twitter or Facebook

Comments