Oct 23 2008
River King: Mystic Valley for Nintendo DS Review
The story starts with a girl named Yunna not being able to be woken up. This leads to you going on an adventure to figure out what the mysterious influence in the forest might have to do with Yunna’s strange behavior. Basically the whole point, though, is to fish, which in a way seems kind entirely unrelated to the forest mystery thing.
The whole fishing controls seemed overwhelming at first, as the tutorial covers quite a bit. The actual put it into action, though, is not too hard. You can do it all using the touch screen. You tap and drag to cast in the direction you want. You then tap when a fish pulls your bobber (called floater in game) under. The reeling in part is where it can get tricky, but the on screen commands help make it easier to remember the different things. You do a spinning motion in the middle of the screen to reel it in. You have to watch the tension at times to make sure you do not lose the fish.
The graphics of this game are not that great and seem very Game Boy Colorish. It makes me think that this is maybe the same exact Legend of the River King game that they made for the Game Boy Color with just a few changes to use the touch screen. I have not play it on the Game Boy Color, though, so I am not really sure on this. I will admit that even if they are the same game it is nice to be able to play it on the DS, since the DS does not play Game Boy Color games.
Overall this game can be enjoyable if you are into relaxing games and collect item games. The main goal really is to catch different types of fish, thus it does not lead to much action, however it can still be fun to play. I enjoyed it and I can see it as a fun road trip or plane trip game, but it really does not hook me enough to want to play it at home.
