Dokapon Kingdom - a Review

If you're a fan of quirky Japanese games, then Dokapon Kingdom is for you! Though it doesn't use the motion control feature of a Wii-mote, Dokapon Kingdom is a game for the Nintendo Wii. It was also released for the PlayStation 2. You can play with four players, and it's a board-game style RPG. It begins with the King calling heroes to him to defeat the Bad Guys, and to win the Princess's hand in marriage. As with most quirky Japanese RPGs, the game doesn't necessarily make sense, but it's fun with a few friends. Be warned, if you play against the computer, you'll have to team up against it, or it will kill you all very quickly, and steal all your money - and sometimes it sure seems like the AI is cheating.

You don't have to have any skill with the Wiimote to play Dokapon Kingdom - it's not htat kind of game. You'll hit a button to spin and see how many places you move, and you will push a button to select actions. It's a good one for people who know they're not particularly good at controller-weilding.

You can get Dokapon Kingdom new or used; the Wii version costs a little bit more than the PS2 version. Both are available at Amazon with a link from its official website.

In shirt, gameplay is random. You might win, you might lose, your friend might walk past you and steal the shirt off your back. That's kind of what this game is about. You can rob shops, but if you lose the challenge (rock, paper, scissors), then you'll be wanted for a while and not be able to buy things. This is a game good for all ages above 10, according to its rating, and I think that's only because of the large amount of reading involved. The translation is a little strange at times, much like with We Love Katamari - but not as bad as Katamari Damacy by far! Your characters, if you're female, won't be wearing a whole lot depending on the class you choose, which kind of bothered me, since the characters are kind of chibi, or childlike in appearance.

All in all, this is a great game for 3-4 people to play at a party; there's teamwork, there's "cheating" and there's backstabbing, but it's all in the name of fun! So fight those imps, those demons, win you some towns, and marry that princess!