Pop Island (Nintendo DS) Review

Nowadays, the phrase 'less is more' is often banded about, usually by public relations folk who are looking for an excuse as to why the game they are promoting lacks the majority of features that players were hoping for. The coined term was actually initially used for projects that removed excess baggage and gave users a high quality, 'pure' gaming experience. Pop Island harks back to those good old days, and is one of the purest forms of fun you could possibly imagine having on your DSi system.

Rather than tying players down to a lengthy adventure, filling up space with a stretched out storyline and offering up numerous quests to undertake, odenis studio has made Pop Island all about frantic multiplayer gaming within a highly colourful, and quirky, world. It is also full to the brim with lively music, very impressive 3D locations and characters that fly around stages at break-neck speed as they attempt to capture various flags found across the level, and then return them to base before being blasted by their opponents.

Pop Island can be enjoyed perfectly well by players on their own, since you merely pick a team to join and race around with your computer-controlled team-mates, running, jumping, and skiing about the island locations, picking up special items along the way to help give even the slightest of advantage and eventually end up with more captured flags than the opposing team. However, the real fun arrives when some of your DS and DSi-owning friends join in the action via DS Download Play. You only require one person to own Pop Island on a DSi and then it can be shared with friends and family either in the form of a demo for them to try out, or for eight-player multiplayer mayhem.

Anyone that knows the overwhelming sense of elation when a they have aimed a Green Shell in Mario Kart accurately enough to take down someone in front of them will be overjoyed at the fact they can take out opponents in a similar fashion using their character's standard weapon fire. There are plenty of other items to boost your arsenal though, such as one that creates a blast radius that sends people flying far from where they were. Choosing different animal characters will also play a major part in the overall tactics, with the surfing penguin and water-skiing crocodile allowing for quick access across watery bodies, whilst the wheel-based lion will be able to zip across land far faster. Therefore, learning the layout of an area and choosing the appropriate character for that terrain is imperative to victory at times. There are numerous weird and wacky animals to unlock, as well as eight different planets to visit as you aim to build up the highest score possible. The only potential drawback is that ODenis Studio chose not to add some online multiplayer fun. This is explained by their preference that Pop Island should be played face-to-face only, but it is a shame there are not at least some worldwide leaderboards for players to show off their score totals. However, for 500 Points you really cannot complain about value for money in the highly entertaining Pop Island!