Prey the Stars: Gabu Gabu Planet DS

Clare Sharpe's review of Prey the Stars: Gabu Gabu Planet. Subscribe to this column via RSS or Newsletter.

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Column:
Eclectic Gamer

Format:
DS

Genre:
Strategy

Written on:
17/04/2009

Prey the Stars: Gabu Gabu Planet is Pacman on steroids! It's a weird and wacky take on a basic concept, and once you get into it, especially in multiplayer mode, you won't be able to put it down. It's a bit frantic, very odd, but altogether playable.

The game revolves around your character eating stuff, in different themed 3D worlds. We think that the characters are dogs, but we're not entirely sure - they're fairly strange looking but very cute at the same time - the cartoon presentation of them is funny, anyway, you are smiling before you've even played this game.

Your dog can bite, chew and lick different items, with various results - we laughed like crazy when he ate one electrical item and received an electric shock with every chew! You start with small items and build up - your character grows as you eat and then he can eat bigger items as well. If you eat the right combination of items then you can use special power ups to inflict various injuries on your opponents, which makes the game really fun.

There are loads of unlockables along the way, from extra characters to play with, different abilities/powers for your character. As you progress through the game you have to be more skilled with timing and which sort of action to take for each item, as well as completing specific missions in some levels before you can go on to the next one. There is plenty of challenge here for an older/more proficient gamer, if you can get past the quirky presentation.

However, the game's strength, we think, is in multiplayer mode, where up to 4 players can join in one game and pit their eating powers against one another. With one cartridge it's a limited game, but this is still where our family had the most fun with it. In the same way that Mario Kart is accessible and playable by all ages and abilities, so is this game - admittedly someone who's played the single player levels may have a slight advantage, but you can still lose to a novice pretty easily!

This game will probably be lost on the average games store shelves because it's a bit odd and lots of people won't have heard of it, but if you see it and fancy a giggle with your friends or your children, then pick it up, you are sure to enjoy it.

Written by Clare Sharpe

Clare Sharpe writes the Eclectic Gamer column. "I think it's probably true that most of us have grown up with computer games - I have a dark and distant memory of some sort of black box with two controllers that allowed us to play an extremely primitive and pixelated game of tennis - from there I moved onto Battle Chess on the PC, Dizzy Egg on the Commodore 64 and Sonic on the Sega MegaDrive. I don't think I could ever be classed as a 'serious gamer'; I can't quite get my fingers around the controls on a joypad!"

Clare Sharpe's recent reviews:

• Animal Crossing 04: A new bridge
• Animal Crossing 03: Perfect Town
• Animal Crossing 02: A bit of hard graft
• Jewel Quest Mysteries Curse of the Emerald

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