Dokapon Kingdom: Worth The Money, For A Time
The problem with many of the Wii’s better casual games like Mario Party and Wii Sports is that while they’re amusing for a short time, they offer absolutely nothing to keep hardcore gamers entertained. The most well crafted and decisive strategy falls apart when your opponent is a bit luckier than you on die rolls or in mini-games.
While it might have the same cutesy, cartoonish graphic style as many other Wii games, Dokapon Kingdom really does offer a great way to bring the casual and hardcore crowd together. The game is best described as a cross between Mario Party and Final Fantasy. In the story mode players undertake a quest to cleanse the magical realm of Dokapon of the monsters who have invaded it. Whoever ends up with the most money gets the hand of the Princess Penny and thus will become the next king of Dokapon.
Players start off as a basic character class (wizard, fighter, thief) but in time you can unlock other classes which have their own unique powers, benefits and perks. You buy weapons, shields, spells and items at stores along the way, and as with many things in the game they range from the serious to the silly, including toy hammers and mittens.
Combat is something of a rock-paper-scissors setup and is fairly simple to figure out, though even if you always guess right there are times you’ll simply be over your head. At the beginning it’s very easy to be defeated by the monsters you come across. Much of the game is random, which can be frustrating at times, but nothing is more frustrating than dying and being stuck for three turns, unable to move or take any actions.
Unlike games like Mario Party however this is a game that takes a long time to play. You can set a certain number of turns until the end, but a short game will only have you scratching the surface of the many options out there. Playing the full story is long. I’m not talking on the order of an hour or two. Getting to the end might take the better part of a day if you’re playing with four players. One of the most frustrating things is that if you’re playing with computer characters there’s no way to speed up their turns, you have to watch their full choices play out as if they’re live opponents. Unfortunately by the time you’ve played through the story you’re probably going to have done it all. There’s generally little replay value as the setup of the board remains static and the few random events do little to truly shake things up, but with the right friends the first play-through is a great time.