by NikoRad

Created on: November 06, 2009

At first glance, Dokapon Kingdom may look like just another party game for the Nintendo Wii. Looking at the cover, one may expect to find cutesy characters, an uninspired storyline, and mindless mini-games, as are found on about 30% of the Wii's game library.

But after some research, you might find that this game has earned the nickname of "the friendship killer" (or other similar titles). Perhaps, you wonder, this game has some unique factors that separate it from other party games?

The answer - yes. My goodness this game is fun. That is, assuming, you playing it with a group of friend.

Dokapon Kingdom revolves around an amalgamation of party game style and RPG 'fight and upgrade' gameplay. Fans of the Mario Party series will instantly feel at home with the turn-based system of play between character, and fans of RPG games will appreciate the turn-based battles incorporated into the game (though they are short and rarely require much strategy).

But the main draw of the game, as mentioned above, is simply how weird it is.

There is a lot of Japanese influence, as seen in the cutesy characters and J-RPG elements, and many things seem lost in translation - but to a hilarious end! Sitting with friends playing this, we'd all laugh and tease one another as the most random things happen (the surprises in this game are endless).

Example: You land on a space, and randomly get approached by an old man who asks for a donation. What do you do? On another space, you might get abducted by aliens, or encounter any number of random occurrences.

OK, let's get on to specifics and give this game a critical overview:

Gameplay - 8/10

Firstly - single player isn't even really worth it. It's a party game - c'mon, play it with friends to enjoy the full experience!

The game is a bit confusing at first, I have to admit. The main party-game mentality is easy enough to catch onto, but...what am I supposed to do now? The game starts slow, but begins to gain speed as experience and money is collected, and your characters become more powerful.

At certain spots, you'll enter an RPG-like battle where you can choose between several options (i.e. attack, special attack, defend, counter). These are nice and move quickly, though they lack any real depth. You basically just use attack all the time, special attack in desperate situations. There are slight variations - but mostly, it's a formula (there's a hint mechanism that lets you know the probability of an outcome too - no fun! Don't use

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