The Overlord series is finally making its debut on the Nintendo DS. Much like the on the Wii, the series is taking a slightly different direction than the Xbox 360/PS3 games. This time, rather than focusing the story on the Overlord himself, the DS game centers on those loveable, mischievous Minions. Does the handheld title live up to its console big brothers’ legacy? Can the Minions steal the spotlight from the series’ main man?


Gameplay

The game begins with Gnarl, the head minion, introducing you to the elite minions in your army. During the course of six fairly large levels, you will be using these minions and their special abilities to progress through levels. The storyline itself is of the take it or leave it variety and doesn’t really hold a candle to other games in the series. Overall, it gets the job done, but  it seems to be lacking the same sly wit that has become synonyomous with other Overlord titles. The jokes are mildly amusing at best, and cringe inducing at worst. Normally, that wouldn’t be a huge deal, but the series has made a name for itself with its off-kilter humour and without it, it just doesn’t pack the same punch. That’s not to say the story won’t be engaging to everyone, but without the dry British humour driving it, it’s not nearly as interesting or endearing.

In bringing the Overlord series to the DS, there were other design choices that Climax studios and Codemasters really had to think about. With the focus being on providing an entirely fresh experience, making the Minions the forefront of the game required a change from that which the series is known for. Rather than making the game an all out action fest, Minions leans more towards the action/puzzler with more emphasis placed on the puzzle side of things. For the most part, the puzzles are cleverly done, and there are quite a few of them on offer. However, there are a few problems that need to be addressed.

The basic mechanics make use of touchpad only controls. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as leading your team of Minions (up to 4), is a fairly simple task. You lead your team by simply dragging the stylus along the touchpad. For combat you simply swipe the stylus across enemies to unleash a melee attacks, which again is simple and works well. It’s not until you bring in certain special abilities that things get to be problematic.

Each level has various puzzles that you’ll need one specific minion to conquer. For example, if you come across a fire blocking the only available exit point, you’ll need Blaze, (your red minion), to pass through as one of his abilities is to be able to pass through fire unscathed and find another exit point for your other minions. Were you only having to lead one minion, this wouldn’t be much of a problem. However, as you’ll be leading a group of minions, things get difficult to manage quickly. You have the ability to break your group up and let Blaze pass through these hazards, but unfortunately, this sometimes leads to your group inadvertently trying to follow him, resulting in their deaths.


Even in the event that they don’t follow him, your minions will sometimes wander off into other hazards or engage enemies, which again results in a swift death if you aren’t able to micro-manage your team quickly enough. Thankfully, the game is merciful enough to give you spawn pits, where you can resurrect any minions that do wander off and get themselves killed, but it’s still frustrating to have to keep track of where everyone is at all times. If only the problems ended there. Puzzles are often made frustrating due to the extremely unresponsive controls. Most puzzles will require you to fetch items, and while picking them up is easy enough: encountering enemies will often result in death. It’s almost as if the game gets confused and attempts to compensate by doing anything other than the action that you’re actually trying to perform.

This will become most evident during boss battles. In the first one, for example, simply picking up and throwing items becomes a chore. Picking up an item is a simple affair, as you merely drag the stylus across it. Getting it to go where it belongs, however, is a whole different story. Being that you’re in control of two minions during this fight, the controls have a hard time figuring out what they should be doing. Rather than throwing the item in hand, for instance, the game will often direct your other minion to unleash his attacks, or wander straight into the enemy’s attacks. This turns what should be a fairly simple affair into an extremely frustrating disaster.

That’s not to say the game in its entirety is bad. The actual puzzles themselves, while not overly difficult, are decidedly clever, and players will still get a feeling of great satisfaction from completing them. The level designs are a series of twists and turns, with each area wielding a new challenge. Were it not for the control issues, this actually could have been one of the better action/puzzlers on the market based on the level design. This is especially evident later in the game, which is unfortunate, as most likely won’t hang around long enough to see the game through to the end.

Graphics & Sound

The one area that seems to have been given the most attention is the visuals. The action is smoothly animated, and the levels are nicely detailed for a DS title. Cut-scenes are mostly handled by still images, but the cartoon-ish look adds a bit more style to the game.

The music and sound effects present are generally good, but not all that varied. Kids will get a kick out of the constant burping and farting found in the game, but other than that, there’s not all that much to it.


Value

The campaign itself is short. There are six worlds to explore, and barring the issues with controls, none should take you all that long to go through. Once you’re done the game, there’s very little reason to actually replay the title, as there’s little to really entice you back for another round, unless you’re a masochist, and love the utter frustration of unworkable controls.

Conclusion

It’s hard to recommend Overlord: Minions in its current state. The frustration factor is too high, thanks in part to the broken controls. Those with a high patience level will find a few great ideas here, but unfortunately, the majority will likely be unable to make it that far.