Hands on with Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals on DS

Like second albums, game sequels can be tricky things to get right. Thing is, when people say second albums are tricky, it's only for bands who have had massive success with their debuts, and they just end up writing about how tough fame is. For those bands whose first albums flopped, they get the opportunity for another go, proving - if you twist the words of F Scott Fitzgerald - that there's nothing but second acts in post-modern life.

So where does that leave Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals? Spectrobes was Disney's first original game on DS and did moderately well - perhaps selling (or at least shipping) a million copies worldwide. It must have been expensive to make, so Disney's bean-counters will have needed some justification to sign on for the sequel.

The problem, if our recent hands on is anything to go by, is that any updates to the game and gameplay don't appear to be radical enough to drag what undoubtably will be another solid experience into the sort of critical and sales territory commanded by its titan rival, the Pokémon franchise.

Some of the tweaks are necessary though. For one thing, as well as playing main character Rallen you now get to run around as his spaceship sidekick Jeena - something that will no doubt increase the appeal with female players. Another obvious change are the battles. In the original, Rallen, together with your two selected spectrobes, moved a little headlessly around an arena, frantically hitting the DS's shoulder buttons to trigger the spectrobes - respectively on your right and left - to attack.

Now, you battle only with the two spectrobes, one of which is under your direct control, while the other is controlled by artificial intelligence. You can switch between them at any point using the X button, while A triggers a physical attack and B a charge attack. As before, once your charge meter is full you can pull off a big combo attack using Y.

As for the human characters, they're much more useful when it comes to a fight this time around. Hitting the right shoulder will lock you onto the nearest enemy - you can tap to cycle - while A is a sword attack, B a stun punch and Y your blaster.

However, where the game doesn't appear to have been updated is the endless wandering around the pseudo-3D environments, where you're constantly getting lost or trying to find the right door to find the right person to trigger the next mission. The mini-cutscenes where you have to select planets and locations to fly to - another potential cause of confusion - also remain.

Of course, having only played the game for around 30 minutes, it could be argued our unfamiliarity with the environments were the root cause of this attitude, but to us, the game's pace felt overly reminiscent to the 15 or so hours we spend playing the overly pedestrian original.

Still, we'll find out soon enough whether it's a Favourite Worst Nightmare or a Room on Fire, as Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals is due out in October, at least in the US.