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> Results: Neopets Petpet Adventures: The Wand of Wishing
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What started off as an online virtual pet game has grown with its millions of users into a toy and stuffed plush line, a collectible card game, and even a breakfast cereal! Now the neopets are ready to step out for their own adventure on the PlayStation Portable.
In the land of Petaria is a mysterious Wand of Wishing that can grant any wish of whoever owns it. A kind gypsy familiar with the location of the wand rushes off to find it with her faithful neopet in tow. Evil forces are also after this fabled wand. Just as the gypsy reaches it, a Werhound hench-pet snatches the wand from her and enters an open warp hole. Without hesitation, the gypsy's loyal neopet dives into the warp hole after the enemy and ends up in a strange new land. Now it's up to you to guide the good neopet on an adventure to save the land and retrieve the Wand of Wishing. Gameplay is typical hack and slash role-playing. First choose one of four neopets to play as, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. You begin with a short yet thorough tutorial or skip it and go onto the main game. In town, talk with other neopets and do fetch quests and favors for them. Usually the longer, more time consuming quests move the story along. Find neopoints (they look like gold coins), in treasure chests and dropped by defeated enemies and spend them to outfit your pet with weapons, armor, clothes, and other goodies. When you are good to go, venture out of the town and explore dark mines, fierce jungles, and other fantasy locations. Battle your foes in real time as you swing weapons and cast spells.  In many other RPGs, you increase your level and skills by defeating enemies. But here, to level up you must first enter the Battledrome found in towns and fight a big monster in an arena. If you defeat it, you earn a special token used to level up one of your battle stats. Entering the Battledrome costs neopoints. Using the PSP's wireless features, you can also battle a friend's neopet as well. If you can find one, your neopet can also have a pet of their own, called a petpetpet, and when you equip them they follow you around and boost certain stats as well. Defeated enemies stay defeated even if you come back to an area, which makes it hard to earn neopoints since you can't pound on reappearing foes. The game is viewed from a top-down perspective, like a Zelda game. The 3D graphics are crisp and colorful with lots of little details in the background. The neopets utter plenty of grunts and squawks, but the medieval fantasy music is rather forgettable. Thanks to the helpful tutorial, controls are easy to figure out. Block with circle, attack with X, interact with the environment with square, and the triangle button lets you use items from your quick item belt. Healing items and spell scrolls are good things to equip on your quick item belt. Unfortunately, control is still a little slow and clunky because of the battle animations. An enemy can get a good swing at you while you are casting a spell, swinging your weapon, or just turning around. Even though there are plenty of places to save, the learning curve is a bit high at first because long range attacking enemies have impeccable aim. Seemingly common in PSP games, the loading times are atrocious. Only neopet nuts and hack and slash RPG fans should begin this adventure.  
With a toy line, card game, and breakfast cereal, it's pretty clear that kids love neopets, and there is plenty to see and do in this PSP game. It's odd to find it on the PSP, the least kid-friendly of the handheld game consoles. Violence is cartoon-like and defeated foes just fall on their backs. However, their unconscious carcasses stay on the ground the whole game instead of the more standard disappearance in a puff of smoke. That makes things seem a bit more violent.
Strong reading skills are required as the neopets only speak in grunts and mutters, with text following behind. The difficulty may frustrate younger neopets fans, but older kid gamers will find some enjoyment in these Petpet Adventures. This review edited by Dave Long Comments? Chat about it in our forums! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Browse Amazon.com's selection of "neopets" themed games Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Neopets Petpet Adventures: The Wand of Wishing |
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