Nintendo DS

Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of Ancient Arts

While there is nothing particularly exceptional about Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of Ancient Arts, there's also no major flaws. If you're a self-proclaimed old school gamer who isn't looking for something that will change your life, you will most likely enjoy this title. Hudson Soft sets out to deliver an updated version of the 1989 TurboGrafx-16 action RPG; that's exactly what they do.

On the surface, Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of Ancient Arts can give nothing more than the title implies. The question I had to ask myself after playing the game: is that a bad thing? Not necessarily; with proper execution, a little bit of fun, if pointless, dungeon-crawling button-mashing can really bring some joy to a gamer's life. Granted, Dungeon Explorer lacks some of that proper execution, particularly with the graphics and the storytelling, but overall, it's not a bad game. If you want to add something fun and lighthearted to your DS library, don't pass up Hudson's handheld treat.

For fans of the Gauntlet franchise, Dungeon Explorer may be worth a shot. If you can find some people to play it with, you can have some fun with it. However, I doubt you'll want to play the game three times over in order to create a useful party for the multiplayer dungeon. For everyone else, Dungeon Explorer will be far too repetitive to hold interest, and even fans of the hack-and-slash genre will be bored by the lack of originality.

A deep crafting system and decent multiplayer (you and two others can crawl through dungeons together, though you all need your own copies of the game…and you can only gain items, not experience points, through multiplayer sessions) round out Warriors of the Ancient Arts. It’s nothing revolutionary or even particularly interesting or compelling, but it’s not broken either. Those bored and desperate for an RPG fix can give this title a shot.

You get exactly what you pay for with Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of Ancient Arts. There are dungeons, and players explore them as warriors, using Arts. It's just that basic, and that only lasts so long. The game is fun for a while, but becomes somewhat tedious later on and just doesn't do much of anything that's new or interesting (besides the flesh cubes). Multiplayer is definitely the highlight of the game, like all multi-person RPGs, but is unfortunately short. Fans of Gauntlet or Diablo that have been itching to relive the experience will probably have some fun with this for a while, but Dungeon Explorer doesn’t do anything to persuade new players to investigate its corridors.

Dungeon Explorer est l'exemple parfait du jeu qu'on ne conseillera qu'à un public très précis : celui des amateurs de hack'n slash en recherche d'un titre de ce type sur DS, et prêts à faire le deuil d'une réalisation décente pour retrouver l'aspect addictif propre au genre. Si vous êtes dans ce cas, foncez, sinon vous feriez bien de passer votre chemin.

And that can be said for the entire game -- if you really love diving into Byzantine corridors armed to the teeth with weapons and magic, Dungeon Explorer provides a passable handheld equivalent of this. It probably won't keep you coming back for more, though. It's got a solid, enjoyable core experience, but Hudson isn't able to deliver enough quality content for the context.

Overall, though, that's just not enough to keep Dungeon Explorer from tripping itself up with its own mediocrity. While no particular aspect of the game is downright terrible, there's just nothing I can really point to and say, "See, this part of the game is awesome!" If you're a fan of old-school action RPGs, then you might consider renting this title, but even to such people I wouldn't recommend a 30 dollar purchase. But the game has some real potential, and I for one am pulling for a more fleshed-out, smarter-developed sequel sometime in the future.

Même si le titre du jeu annonce la couleur de façon très explicite, difficile de ne pas s'étonner devant le manque de consistance de Dungeon Explorer en dehors de ses donjons classiques remplis de monstres banals. Au moment où l'intrigue prend de plus en plus de place dans les jeux de rôle et où les jeux vidéo jouent de plus en plus la carte de l'originalité, l'approche très traditionnelle de cet Action-RPG accuse de nombreuses années de retard : un scénario en retrait, peu de surprise et de nombreux clichés, une action répétitive, ainsi qu'une réalisation technique vraiment médiocre. A côté de cet aspect old school qui aurait pu séduire s'il avait été mieux maîtrisé, le titre utilise judicieusement le double écran et propose des combats défoulants. Les joueurs qui auront bouclé l'aventure principale pourront toujours tenter l'aventure à plusieurs en local ou en ligne, histoire d'explorer encore un peu quelques donjons mal famés.

On n’a rien contre les jeux old-school lorsque ceux-ci font preuve d’un savoir-faire certain. Mais Dungeon Explorer n’a rien pour lui. La réalisation d’ensemble est incroyablement datée, le scénario est quelconque et le gameplay n’a rien de transcendant. On aimerait l’aimer mais les développeurs ont semble-t-il récupéré le code informatique du jeu d’origine pour le mettre (à peine) au goût du jour. A 40 € le titre, ça fait cher.