Overall:
On the surface, Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of Ancient Arts can give nothing more than the title implies. The question the reviewer had to ask myself after playing the game: is that a bad thing? Not necessarily; with proper execution, a little bit of fun, if pointless, dungeon-crawling button-mashing can really bring some joy to a gamer's life. Granted, Dungeon Explorer lacks some of that proper execution, particularly with the graphics and the storytelling, but overall, it's not a bad game. If you want to add something fun and lighthearted to your DS library, don't pass up Hudson's handheld treat.
Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of Ancient Arts is Hudson Software's new release, which has strong similarities to a Diablo type game. Dungeon Explorer is set in ancient times when evil monsters terrorized the lands by coming up through dungeons. The inhabitants of the land banded together to fight off the demons, but after all the demons had disappeared they had to fight with something more powerful than demons. Hatred, greed and anger threatened to break the people apart. While everyone was fighting each other, the monsters below were feeding off this hatred and began multiplying so that one day they could come back and threaten the people once more…
If you've ever played Diablo before you'll know the concept of this game. You begin by creating a character, everything from his name to the color of the outfit and of course attributes. Once your character has been created you go on to begin your first quest, creating a seal between the dungeon and the above ground.
CheatCC writes: "RPGs are certainly one of the most venerable video game genres ever. And with something so old, you've really got to work hard toward ensuring it doesn't die. Thankfully, RPGs have had some pretty excellent taking-care-of from various different franchises who are excellent at developing the genre to give players what they really want. Other titles in the genre, however, kind of seem to be stuck in the past. "
Graphics are decent, but the sound is obnoxious... No significant voice acting, either, which could've livened things up a bit. Co-op games are great, but Dungeon Explorer failed to excite GamePro.
