A pretty fun prequel to the original show. I’ll have a review for it when the series finishes. Overall 6/10
I had high hopes for this manga one shot because it was based off of the greatest Pokemon film of all time. That’s a pretty big feat and it’s one that will probably never be surpassed. It would only make sense for this manga to be the greatest Pokemon film adaption and it would definitely rise up to great things during its journey through the years. Was it as good as I had hoped? No, it was even better!
The plot is essentially the same as in the movie, but I shall recap the plot in case you somehow missed out on it. Genesect has been awakened after millions of years and he wants to return to his home. Since it is no longer there, he decides that he shall just conquer an area and make it his! There are a few other Genesect who are with him and are ready to help…willingly or not! Ash and friends don’t realize the gravity of the situation as they have fun at a local area. While they’re playing with the Pokemon, Genesect viciously attacks and even defeats the All Powerful, Invincible, Indestructible, Immortal, Light Speed, Universe Buster Legendary Pikachu! Ash doesn’t take this very well and he gets pretty emotional. Since Ash is no longer a threat, the Genesect only have one Pokemon to contend with….Mewtwo!
It’s a pretty awesome plot and an even better manga! Genesect is easily one of the greatest Pokemon of all time and his personality is pretty intense. This guy will remind you of a classic Shonen Jump villain and he definitely knows how to fire a nice blast. The other Genesect are around, but not really likable. One of them gets his own subplot, but it was mainly just to make Ash and friends seem useful. The main Genesect was the only truly awesome character and his speed/power are at incredible levels. This is one guy that could hold his own against fighters like Goku.
Mewtwo is also pretty awesome and I dare say that the manga made her even cooler than in the movie. She actually tells Genesect that she is faster than him and that’s something that you will usually find in DBZ or Bleach. The line was extremely hardcore and just so epic that you really had to stop and think about it. Not bad….not bad at all! Mewtwo did pretty good in her base form, but when she went Mega, it was a whole new ball game. Mewtwo was able to fight all of the Genesect while they were teaming up and it was definitely a testament to her incredible power. She has a variety of attacks and her high level of speed means that she is the perfect fighter to battle any opponent. Mewtwo has no weaknesses and she can even use her mind abilities if she needs too.
Unfortunately, Ash doesn’t look very good. Ash’s role just isn’t as good as it should be and he doesn’t seem like he has the amount of experience that he should have developed by this point. Ash has fought opponents like Gary and Paul in the past and he’s even went up against foes like Team Rocket and Team Magma in the past. He should have taken the whole Genesect battle in stride, but that’s not what happened. Pikachu looked good since he was able to block Genesect’s strongest attack and he probably would have defeated him if he was not double teamed. Pikachu did his part and even though he did not fight for the rest of the volume, it was a decent attempt.
Ash just didn’t have Pikachu’s courage or finesse. He couldn’t bear to see the Pokemon fighting so he tried to end it all by becoming a martyr as he jumped in the middle of the blasts. Mewtwo was around to bail him out, but I didn’t see anything heroic or epic in that scene. It was just Ash making a pretty bad call and I can’t even say that I was really surprised. It’s too bad because Ash used to be such an intense main character. I’m sure that he’ll go back to his roots, but it’s definitely sad that he couldn’t really help against the villains. At one point, he tells the main worker that he has to go to the park to see what’s happening, but it sounded more like a question than a demand and Ash looked a little too emotional at that point.
The art for the volume is pretty clear, but I don’t think that the artist is great at facial expressions. They actually remind me a lot of the Maximum Ride volumes and that’s not really a good thing. It just doesn’t translate that well, but the rest of the art is solid. The fight scenes show us that Pokemon are pretty high tier when they want to be and the art is solid for these scenes. The battle art reminds me of Bleach and that is certainly a good thing. The fact that you can completely understand every panel is a sign that the art is good and it’s easy on the eyes. It’s fun art and it fits perfectly for Pokemon. The writing is also a step up from the previous film adaptions and it has a more serious feel to it. This definitely isn’t the classic days! They’re actually going all out!
Overall, this manga was extremely good. This is how you write a successful Pokemon manga and it would have made an awesome ongoing series. Mewtwo is a solid fighter and he has a pretty cool demeanor. Genesect was an awesome villain and he may have been the first Pokemon villain to be truly evil…at first anyway. You could also argue that he was just misunderstood. I still liked the ending because it was essentially a parody of Man of Steel and showed what Superman should have done. At least Mewtwo didn’t erase their memories at the end which is always a good thing. I highly recommend this volume and it may be the perfect jumping on point for new Pokemon fans except for the fact that Ash doesn’t look so good. Get ready for some intense action!
Overall 8/10
Stats time!
Play Time 7h 45m
Times Played 14
Average Play Time 33m
77/117 Challenges Completed
64 DP
Stage Hi Scores
Stage 1 54500
Stage 2 52200
Stage 3 44100
Stage 4 77300
Stage 5 70200
Stage 6 53200
Stage 7 44100
Stage 8 57200
Stage 9 94200
Stage 10 89400
Stage 11 55000
Stage 12 64300
Stage 13 72900
Stage 14 110300
Stage 15 136200
Stage 16 62200
Stage 17 55700
Stage 18 53100
Stage 19 116600
Stage 20 95600
Stage 21 54000
Stage 22 65800
Stage 23 66400
Stage 24 106300
Stage 25 88700
Stage 26 44100
Stage 27 49100
Stage 28 79500
Stage 29 86000
Stage 30 95500
Stage 31 44400
Stage 32 51000
Stage 33 57400
Stage 34 82200
Stage 35 104000
Stage 36 54000
Stage 37 54100
Stage 38 48100
Stage 39 76800
Stage 40 84700
Stage 41 40300
Stage 42 55500
Stage 43 61000
Stage 44 65300
Stage 45 84400
Stage 46 59400
Stage 47 72100
Stage 48 71700
Stage 49 100600
Stage 50 95200
Stage 51 77200
Stage 52 83500
Stage 53 95300
Stage 54 75300
Stage 55 78900
Time Attack Mode
Stage 1 51s
Dream Trigger is a game that I wanted to get for a very long time. It just looked like it would be a blast! It had the right mix of action, scenery, and overall epicness. There was no way that such a game wouldn’t be an instant hit right? It was one of the first 3DS games after all. Well, let’s see if my gut instinct was right on the money!
The gameplay is pretty unique since it’s overhead like Marvel Alliance, but it is a shooter. It’s a shooter that is unlike anything that you have ever played because you don’t have guns and you don’t actually shoot anything. See, you Are the bullet in this game. You use the stylus to set off musical bombs that force the villains to turn tangible and that is when you strike. The more of your musical bombs that uncover the enemies, the more that your energy meter builds up. When you have enough meter, then you use the L or R button to get your character over the enemy and incinerate him. That’s the whole gameplay in a nutshell so you’ll really want to enjoy it.
Dream Trigger has 55 levels and they’re only a few minutes each so it shouldn’t take you very long, but they artificially extend the game through the challenges. You have to beat challenges to unlock more stages and to unlock the final boss, you’ll need around 65-70 challenges completed. That may not sound bad and it could definitely be worse, but I felt that it was unnecessary. A lot of the challenges aren’t hard, but they are guaranteed to take you a long time. (Ex: Defeat 10000 enemies. To put that into perspective, each level only has 100-200 enemies and a lot of levels don’t have quite that many anyway. I unlocked this one after the final boss I believe)
There is also an enemy who can make things difficult for you. The Tracker is a being of limitless power who can take away all of your life points if you get caught by him and then lose the challenge. I forgot to mention that your life points/DP Points are the only thing that allows you to move. When you run out of them, you must play the stage that you are standing on. It may be an old stage, but it doesn’t matter. You need DP Points to move and the only way to get more of them is to replay a stage. I’ll admit that it can definitely be disappointing when you have a bunch of points and then you lose them all in one shot.
I can’t really say much for the soundtrack because the sound effects are sooooo loud. You won’t really hear the soundtrack at all when you’re blasting enemies by the dozens. You can probably lower the sound effect volume, but I don’t count that since it isn’t the game’s default setting. So, the soundtrack is pretty underwhelming in this game.
The graphics in the game also leave much to be desired. There are a lot of colorful effects and things happening on screen, but it’s more chaotic than graphically intense. The graphics aren’t really bad, but they aren’t memorable either. It’s just the way that the game is set up, but you could find better graphics on the N64.
There is a lot of replay value or a little depending on how much you like the gameplay. Keep in mind that even though there are 55 stages, there are really only 2 stages. The Boss Battle stage and the regular stage that contains a mini boss. The rest of the stages keep the same formula and they don’t try to change it at all. The bosses and enemies may change shape as your avatar does throughout the levels, but nothing changes. The Final Boss didn’t even have a super gimmick that makes him a lot different than the other big bosses. That was a little disappointing. The gameplay just isn’t made to be played for very long periods of time and you may get tired of it. If you reeeeally like the gameplay, then you should have fun with the game. There are plenty of challenges to try and complete and you will definitely need to spend a lot of time on the game if you wish to complete them all. If you do not like the gameplay, then the challenges are going to seem unbearable at times.
Overall, this is definitely not one of the better games out there. 55 levels is pretty decent considering that this was one of the first 3DS game and that it’s not known as one of the big games. That being said, the lack of graphics and animation will probably start to let you down and after replaying the same level 40 times over…you may decide that beating the game isn’t worth it. I barely made it to the end of the game because the challenges were just so tedious. It certainly took me a while to unlock the final boss and it’s a little sad since the actual game is pretty easy. If you’ve played enough games in the past then your reflexes will be up for the job. I can’t really recommend the game that much since it’s so repetitive. On the other hand, it’s only 5 dollars at your average game store so it’s not that much money. It can be fun to play when you want to eliminate some time, but I don’t recommend it as you main time consumer. It just doesn’t have the replay value that other games have. Seriously, I cannot stress enough that you will be playing the same stage over several times and the “new” stages that you unlock as just recolored versions of the same stage as well. You can make customizations to the enemies and the effects, but they just change the design and nothing else. The game may not have been quite as impressive as I thought it would be, but considering the 5 dollar price tag, I think that the score is pretty appropriate.
Overall 5/10
DReager1.com 