Light gun games have been around for a long time. Dating back to the NES, gamers have always enjoyed shooting on-screen targets with plastic guns. This type of simulation is often best mimicked in the arcade, but home console versions can be quite entertaining as well. The arcade port of the PSOne version has now been transferred over the DS surprisingly well.
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The Point Blank series has always been quite memorable. If you never played one of these titles before, think WarioWare but with light guns. The player plays through a series of wacky fast paced shoot’em up action stages, transitioned with stereotypical crazy Japanese goodness. The two main characters, which have a striking resemblance to Mario and Luigi, are wacky in their own way and bring comic relief to the title.
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Using the touch screen, the player “shoots” the on-screen targets by tapping them with the stylus, a concept so simple I am surprised other companies have not jumped on this bandwagon (where is Duck Hunt, Nintendo?). Because of the small sized screen and highly accurate stylus, playing this game would be assumed to be easy. However, this is definitely not the case. Many games require rapid taps or pinpoint accuracy to complete missions. There is even an “Insane” mode where every thing has been turbo-fied.
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Besides from the typical Arcade mode, Namco has somewhat jumped on the recently popular Brain Training session. Here, players partake in mini games that will test a certain aspect, or skill of your brain. Some games might be built on speed while others on accuracy. After a series of these mini games have been completed, the game will spit out a score and give you a specific name/title to reflect your performance. There are about 100 names to unlock, giving the game a slightly higher replay value.
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With the use of only one card, two players can compete wirelessly. The load times might be a little long, but playing with a buddy is a great way to enjoy an arcade style shooter. Once the game initially sends the data over to the stand-by DS, there is literally no lag as your opponents shots appear on your own screen.
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Point Blank has always been about fast paced action. Because of this, the graphical quality has never really taken top priority, as it shouldn’t. The arcade versions pretty much used 2D pixel art in each installment of the series, something that the DS can emulate very well. Once in a rare instance will the player see 3D polygons in this DS version. But even though it looks very similar to the arcade version, a sprite upgrade would have highly benefited this port. Most targets look awfully muddy and bland texturing is spread all over the place. It sometimes can even be difficult to determine which target to blast during gameplay. Is that a hostage or a bad guy? As fast paced as the action is in this game, this question should never have to be asked.
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The audio effects are quite… crazy. Beside from the outlandish Japanese soundtrack, each screen is often transitioned with some type of scream. This sounds a little strange, but it adds a whole extra level of quirkiness. In fact, these sound effects generate the type of atmosphere the game is trying to produce. Without them, it just would not be Point Blank.
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This game is entertaining, but only in short bursts. There really is not enough here to keep this game inside your DS for very long. However, this game deserves a high point of recognition because it works so well for the DS. A game like this just could not have the same entertainment value, if say, you used an analog stick to aim and used the “A” button to shoot. Although using a stylus just is not as much fun as using a plastic toy gun with force feedback, it still works well and manages to hold the player’s interest. Despite a player’s short potential interest in the game, it is still worth to check out, especially if you are a fan of the series. With this game now under its belt, let see if Namco will port over some more of their entertaining arcade style shooters like Time Crisis or Ninja Assault.