Code Lyoko: Fall of X.A.N.A

I wasn’t familiar with Code Lyoko the television series before I received Code Lyoko: Fall of X.A.N.A NDS for review. I read up on the series, and learned that it is an animated series from France that has been featured on The Cartoon Network for the last several years. The last and fourth episode hasn’t actually been shown on TV in its entirety, I’m not sure why. The series features a computerized world where evil viruses run rampant. A super virulent virus, X.A.N.A., is really behind all the trouble, and the Lyoko Team is prepared to defend their world by fighting X.A.N.A. They discover that William (?) has disappeared and apparently has been turned into a X.A.N.A. clone of the real William. The game centers on their search to find the real William and destroy X.A.N.A. in the process.

Unfortunately, this information still didn’t really tell me much about the game or the series behind it. The manual gives a sketch of the past history of the story to this point, but not with a whole lot of detail. To make things more confusing, the game doesn’t elaborate on the story behind the Team Lyoko, either, but fans of the show will already know the story. Everyone else will just be in the dark. Lots of games either have silly stories, or hardly any at all, but manage to pull players in by the strength of the gaming elements. Unfortunately, this RPG is bland table fare, and doesn’t offer any compelling reason to pick this RPG over any other.

Our game begins with a nice animated introduction to the world of X.A.N.A. At the end of it, we still don’t know anything about Lyoko or X.A.N.A., but we do know that it will be our job to travel around this computer world and kick some virus booty. And rescue this William person, whoever he is. The cartoon sure looks good, though!

Once the movie is over, it’s time to start playing. There are several locations in the real world to visit before heading off for transportation to the digital sea, but it won’t take long to find out all the pertinent information from the few people scattered around the localities. Once everyone has been interviewed, players can equip their characters in the lab, and then head out to the digital sea by becoming “virtualized.” The team member that stays in the laboratory and manages their travels is Jeremy. He serves the purpose of communicating the game’s progress.

At first, players won’t have many items in the laboratory to equip their team, but as points are earned during battles, there will be more. Many items will also be found lying around the levels. These items are for health, strength and fighting powerups. Assigning these items is a piece of cake with the easy and intuitive interface that is provided in this game. The menu can be pulled down from the top and pushed up with a simple touch on the arrow icon on the touch screen. These items can also be chosen during battles, a feature which I didn’t realize until a bit into the game, as the manual only explained the battle moves very cursorily. Another interesting feature is the ability to rejuvenate the team instantly by traveling back to the lab and becoming “devirtualized”. The team will all have full health points upon returning to the virtual world. This also wasn’t mentioned in the manual. This comes in handy as there are only a few save slots, and if players save a game with a weakened team right before a boss battle, they would be in trouble if not for this feature.

The battles are somewhat Pokemon in style, but have a real-time flavor, as well. While the combatants are taking turns for attacks, they will only wait a certain amount of time before attacking again. Players can assign attacks to their team one right after the other quickly, but the team won’t be able to attack again until they regain some rest. The basic battle moves are either attacks or using the items. There is also an added mini-game feature which happens if a team member has been attacked several times. This will add increased power to their attack. These mini-games are simple in the extreme, though.

At first, these battles are engaging and fun to play. Fans of Pokemon will enjoy them in the beginning, especially the cool battle animations. However, the enemies aren’t nearly as varied as in Pokemon, and the team members never change. It’s almost impossible to avoid these battles, too, as the creatures are right in the paths. There are things to collect and switches to pull, but these aren’t hard to find nor are they very interesting.

The animated movies of the team Code Lyoko are attractive and the battle animations are nice, as well. Therefore, it is strange that the characters that players will actually be moving around are ugly and odd-looking. They are short and squat, and just look funny. The environments are dull and boring, too. Each world is very like another, with only a different colored landscape to tell the difference.

There is a multi-player mode that allows for two teams to play against each other. This kind of battle is more interesting than against the computer critters. There are three modes of play, but they are just slight variations.

While there isn’t a whole lot that is above average in this game other than the good interface and nicely drawn movies, there is one thing that I found a definite detriment, and that was the mode of movement. Players are forced to use the stylus to direct the team’s leader around the screen. This is highly annoying. Why on earth can’t players choose to use the buttons to move? To keep having to pick up and replace the stylus on the screen to just move around is not fun.

Coke Lyoko isn’t a bad game, but it is not a good game, either. There are many other RPG’s that do this type of thing better. The battles by themselves can’t carry the entire game. Wandering around the environments isn’t a whole lot of fun, because they are so empty and boring. The little characters are funny looking. The animated movies are good, and the interface is easy to use. But, unless players are huge Code Lyoko fans, there isn’t much reason to play this game.

Gameplay: 6.0
This game just isn’t much fun. The battles are fun at first, but become stale soon. The other game elements of collections and switch throwing aren’t very interesting.

Graphics: 7.0
The animations are nice, but the characters and levels are dull and uninteresting in their appearance.

Sound: 6.0
The music is nice, but there aren’t many sound effects.

Difficulty: Medium
The gameplay isn’t very difficult. The lack of save spots can be detrimental, but players only need to travel back to the lab and rejuvenate their health points to get past the bosses.

Concept: 6.0
The battle system of real-time incorporated with turn-based play is a little different, but it doesn’t add that much to the game.

Multiplayer: 7.0

Overall: 6.5
This game just isn’t very enjoyable. The story is weak, the gameplay isn’t varied enough, and the visuals aren’t very attractive. Only Lyoko fans will be interested.