Fossil Fighters
Review
Pick up your pickaxes and head to Vivosaur Island
by Professor Layton
reviewed on NDS
Vivosaurs
Everyone knows dinosaurs are long gone from the earth. But the folks at Red Entertainment have been working non-stop with Nintendo to allow Nintendo DS owners to pick up their trusty pickaxes and shovels and head to Vivosaur Island to learn more about a mysterious race of creatures known as vivosaurs. On their journey, players will not only unearth mysterious fossils hidden within the layers of sedimentary rock that make up the earth, but also be presented with the challenge of cleaning their newly-found artifacts and leveling them up to engage in combat with other vivosaurs.
Fossil Fighters puts players into the shoes of a young boy who is on his way to a resort location funded by a wealthy old man. This exotic location plays home to not only a ravine, but also a large bay and a red-hot volcano. The biggest attraction of this vast island resort is the fossil stadium, a place where people can enjoy watching ferocious dinosaur-like creatures known as vivosaurs battle it out in turn-based battles. Anyone can jump in on these battles, but they have to work their way up the chain in order to become a fighter that others will acknowledge. With that in mind, our determined and motivated protagonist sets out to become a respected fossil fighter and above all, one of the best the land has ever seen.
Fossils
In order to obtain vivosaurs to put into battles, players must first find fossils hidden within the layers of the earth. With a wide array of tools at their disposal, finding fossils couldn’t be any easier. Using a Fossil Sonar, which can be found on the touch screen, players navigate the land until a little dot begins to light up on the radar. This dot shows the location of a fossil, so by using a pickax, the artifact can be recovered for examination and cleaning.
After successfully obtaining a fossil from the earth, it is time to head to the Fossil Center and attempt to restore a vivosaur to its former glory. To clean the fossil, players must first use X-rays to get an approximation of the shape of the bone located within the location. Once they have a rough idea of what they are dealing with, they can haul out their hammer and start pounding the outer layers of the fossil away. Some fossil rock is hard and needs some extra pounding, whereas other parts are very fragile and need to be cleaned more carefully. The hammer can be considered one man’s best friend when cleaning fossils as it will quickly remove the coating of rock. But use it too frequently and it could become one’s worst nightmare as it can easily destroy the fossil.
Once the fossil starts to peak its way through the rock, players can then switch to the drill to remove the rest of the rock without damaging the fossil. The drill leaves shavings all over the workspace, but blowing into the microphone easily removes them from the screen.
Cleaning
During the entire cleaning process – which may seem a little simple – a meter is constantly moving on the top screen. This meter not only shows how much time players have left to clean their fossil, but also whether or not they’re doing a good job cleaning. The bluer that appears on the top screen, the stronger the vivosaur will become when resurrected. Naturally, you want to keep the red at the bottom of the screen as it means that you are damaging the fossil.
After the rock has been removed and the tools have been safely stored away, the remains of a vivosaur will be revealed. If your chunk of rock contained the head of a vivosaur, then the monster resurrects and joins your roster. Of course, not every fossil contains a head - some may contain another body part such as an arm or leg. When these fossils are revealed, players can combine them with existing vivosaurs to make them even stronger.
8.3
fun score
Pros
Packed with charm.
Cons
No online play.
