If I told you we'll be talking about a game where a young boy finds creatures, evolves them, and battles with them against other creatures, what game do you think we're talking about? If you thought Pokemon, good for you, but sadly no. Though inspired a great deal by the Pokemon franchise, this madam and sir, is no Pokemon. With so many interesting ideas, how did the game ultimately go so wrong?

THE STORY SO FAR
You play as Rallen, a young boy, who with his partner and friend Jeena work for the Nanairo Planetary Patrol. One day the young pair are sent to a planet where an unclassified object crashed and you need to go figure out what it was. Upon landing and discovering the planet, you'll find a sleeping man in suspended animation. He has come to your galaxy on a mission – to warn you of the Krawl.

The Krawl appear in swirling tornadoes and have already started their invasion plans. Can the Krawl be stopped? Luckily, you've discovered a bracelet that lets you control Spectrobes, ancient creatures long dead, who only exist now as fossilized forms. However, you'll need to awaken and utilize their powers if you have any hope of stopping the Krawl.

The problems with Spectrobes begins right here with the story – simply put there isn't much of one. Generally you are given one thing to do on a planet, you go do it, and that is it. You'll run across several NPC characters, but you don't run across many, and when you do they are mostly copycat clones. There are only a few characters you'll ever really socialize with and see images of in spoken cutscenes. But even if there weren't many characters to interact with, it wouldn't be a problem as long as the narrative was at least there, but even that is barely present. Overall, the story of Spectrobes is just a waste of space, filled with partially formed ideas.

SINGLE PLAYER: GAMEPLAY
From beginning to end Spectrobes follows the same gameplay formula: go to planets, run around (being mindful every few steps to search the ground for fossils, minerals, and cubes), complete the story while doing battle with the Krawl. Tada – that's it.

Before anything can happen, you'll first need to find Spectrobes in their fossilized form (to do this you must have a child Spectrobe you can use as a searcher). To search, simply run to a spot, and then hold the R button down or tap on your Spectrobe with your stylus. If nothing appears in your search radius then you can move on and search elsewhere. However, if you find a blue crystal (mineral), yellow (fossil) or glowing (cube) then it's time to get excavating.

When you first start digging up the object, you'll have to use your stylus to tap through several layers of dirt till you see a hint of your object. Then you must use your various tools to dig away at the object until it is 95% uncovered, and only then may you remove. One problem you must be aware of is doing damage to the artifact, which happens when you use a tool and do direct damage to the object. Now, there is some skill here, trying to be careful as you uncover it slowly and then work around it – of course, then you learn tricks, and now I can remove every object with my large drill and don't have to worry about doing enough damage to completely lose the object. So what started out interesting, slowly becomes dull once you learn some easy tweaks (literally, just do quick and breezy stylus brushes across the top of the screen).

Once your fossil is unearthed, it's off to your ship to awaken it. To awaken the Spectrobe, you must first flick it down a ramp (why you have to actually do this, who knows) and then you must use your voice at certain decibel levels to awake it (or blow in it will work too – just change how far away and strong your blow is). Yet again, another idea interesting in theory, but a failure in execution.

You then must take your Spectrobe to the incubators or else it will only ever be a child. In order for Spectrobes to become adults, they must be in the incubator for specific amounts of time, and meet requirements like being level 10 or having a specific number in regards to health, attack, or defense. These adult Spectrobes can then be leveled up to even more powerful evolved forms by meeting requirements in much the same way, such as getting a certain level requirement. You can also attach custom parts to the Spectrobes that aren't children.

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