Monster Racers (DS)

Parts of Monster Racers look like a Pokemon game

Pokemon with 2D racing. That's how upcoming DS title Monster Racers is being sold by publisher Koei. It's not a surprising comparison. In it you track down various monsters, just like in Pokemon. The difference though is in the catching. Instead of engaging in turn-based battles where you chuck little orbs onto the ground and watch brightly coloured creatures electrocute the crap out of each other, you race them. Win the race and the monster is yours.

Apart from this key difference, there's not much to separate Monster Racers with Nintendo's all-conquering beast. Monster Racers' "collect 'em, raise 'em and race 'em" concept, and cute and bright art style are strikingly similar. The point of the whole thing is to build up your collection of monsters by beating them in races and breeding them. Strategy comes in the form of using creatures where they're most appropriate. The game's various real-world locations provide specific challenges, icy areas, for example, will be better suited to certain monsters.

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The type of monster you'll catch will be determined by the area you're hunting in. The fiery Furion, for example, can only be found in Europe. The same goes for Cirrus, the unicorn-esque monster. Seismik, an armadillo type creature, can only be found in South America, and the small dragon type monster Leefee can only be found on Star Island (the game's name for Japan, puzzlingly).

The races themselves are side-scrolling affairs with bright, cute graphics. Things nip on at a fair old pace, and the levels have an impressive sense of verticality to them that do challenge your platform game skills. Apart from simply moving forward as fast as you can with the d-pad (there's no need for the stylus with Monster Racers), you can jump (B) to avoid pits, collect power ups (speed boosts, health regen and invincibility), attack your rival racers with a view to lowering their health, which in turn slows them down, and trigger your monster's turbo ability, which will vary depending on what beast you're using.

Other sections see players taking part in side-scrolling races

When you're not racing you're exploring via the town world view that's reminiscent of the classic role-playing games found on the SNES. You begin the game by picking from two main characters, a boy and a girl, and then setting out into the big wide world to prove yourself the best monster racer. The ultimate goal is to win the greatest race in the world, the "Super Cup".

You can be challenged by other real world monster racers, too. Up to four players can race against each other competitively over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, and, usefully, the game will support single card and multi-card play - something that kids the world over are bound to make the most of. While not likely to appeal to DS gamers fed on a steady stream of hardcore JRPGs, we can see Monster Racers finding a healthy young audience later this year.

Monster Racers is due out for the Nintendo DS in June.