This page was last modified 2007-05-14 23:55:56 by Puchu.Net user Choco. (Show history)

Electroplankton is more of a music synthesizer than a game.

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Developer	Nintendo
Web site	http://electroplankton.nintendods.com/
Platform	Nintendo DS
Cost	$34.99
ESRB Rating	EVERYONE

This game gives you the opportunity to play with various types of electroplanktons. They react to different input from you and create sounds that often mimic music or some kind of rhythm.

There are 10 levels, or environment with different electroplanktons and rules. Touch screen is used to interact with the environment or the electroplanktons. My favorite levels are Hanenbow and Luminaria.

In Hanenbow, electroplanktons are launched at a plant with leaves. You can adjust the angle of the launch and leaves in such ways that as electroplanktons come in contact with the leaves they bounce and generate a voice in that process. Then as they bounce from leaf to leaf an interesting sound sequence is produced.

Luminaria is in my opinion the easiest level to understand and achieve interesting results with the least amount of efforts. This level has a field of dots with arrows. The arrows point at the next dot towards which the electroplanktons travel. There are four electroplanktons and they produce sound in different tone or instrument. They also travel at different speeds so to generate different layers of sound. As they go from dot to dot, the position of the dot in the field also influence the sound by changing the pitch.

I like these two levels because they do not require constant work from me, and after fiddling with the electroplanktons for a while and achieve something cool I can just relax and listen. Now whether a player will find this entertaining or not depends on how easily amused they are, and how much time they invest in experimenting with the game and its interface. So this game (software?) is definitely not for everyone who wants to play games, but I think everybody can get something interesting out of it.

It's great to see these kind of unique software available. It shows off game as a medium for artistic expressions not possible before, at the same time providing full interactivity and entertainment.

Game Mechanics and Controls

• While the control is fairly intuitive, the full function and purpose of each electroplankton is not easy to figure out. I found the manual interesting, helpful, and just entertaining to read. Love those illustrations. See below for a link.

Excellent Ideas

• Maybe some of the scenarios can be used to generate music dynamically, adding variety to certain types of games?
• On one of the levels you can actually record your own voice or other sounds to remix into sequences. This has to be one of the better uses of microphone in a game.

Annoyance

• This game is difficult to find. Probably because it deviates too much from mainstream game play. You can still import it as the interface has some English, and the manual is available online. See below.

Other Notes

• You can download the game manual from Nintendo and see for yourself what the game is like. The official web site also has a lot of game play video available.