Fossil Fighters

Gameplay

The game starts with a young boy arriving on Vivosaur Island, a place where dinosaur fossils can be dug up. These fossils are encased in stone, and must be taken to a lab to be cleaned on the touch-screen, using drills, hammers, and x-ray. The player must be careful not to damage the fossils, or they will be destroyed. Once successfully cleaned, the dinosaur DNA can be revived into powerful dinosaur-like creatures called "Vivosaurs". The game revolves around hunting for fossils, reviving Vivosaurs, and using them to battle other Fossil Fighters to raise their rank, therefore gaining access to more areas to dig up fossils, and learning more about the mysteries of Vivosaur Island.

Plot

The game begins with the Hero on a boat with its captain, Travers. He'll ask a series of questions of which determines the color of the Hero's apparel. Once he arrives at his destination, the Hero visits the local hotel on Vivosaur Island, where the manager gives him instructions on how to work the basic game mechanics. Soon after the manager finishes delivering her instructions, she sends the Hero to a trial Dig Site for first-hand practice. Such practice includes a Fossil Battle against a young boy named Holt. Once he completes the required training, he gains access to his first official Dig Site, the Greenhorn Plains. Upon arriving at said location, a man called Medal-Dealer Joe steals everyone's Dino Medals. The Hero encounters a young girl named Rosie, who's medals have also been stolen. She informs him that his medals are still safe, and that he must fight the criminal in a Fossil Battle. A victory results in Medal-Dealer Joe being arrested, and everyone's Dino Medals being returned safely. Rosie takes interest in the Hero, and decides to accompany him on his journey. Once the duo return to the Island, it is announced that Level-Up Battles have begun. Both Rosie and the Hero successfully complete their battles, bringing them one step closer to becoming a Master.

Soon after they level up, a new Dig Site, known as Knotwood Forest, becomes available. This particular location is home to a tribe called the Digadigs. They plea that the Hero must defend their treasures from the wretched BB Bandits. When investigating the Digadigmid, the Hero encounters a woman by the name of Nevada Montecarlo (a reference to Indiana Jones). The two later team up and take on Vivian, the leader of the BB Bandit Trio. In the meantime, Rosie becomes cursed and is only able to speak in a similar manner to those of the Digadigs. This curse will last throughout the majority of the game. Once the villains flee and peace is restored, Nevada and the Hero part ways. He and Rosie then head back to the Island to compete in their second Level-Up Battle, in which both emerge victoriously. Even a very familiar character is cast under this spell, forcing the character to say "digadig" in every sentence.

Characters

Development

The director Azusa Tajima and Genki Yokota from Nintendo SPD along with their entire sound staff from Nintendo worked together with Artdink, M2 and Red Entertainment in the development of this game. In an interview with the 4-team development group, Nintendo's Hitoshi Yamagami describes the game's conception around 2004, when Red Entertainment proposed the idea of a game involving dinosaurs.

Manga

The official manga currently has 15 "episodes" as stated on the Fossil Fighters official website, each of which has 16 pages.

Hunter, the main character of the manga has revived the following vivosaurs:

Reception

Fossil Fighters received a score of 32 out of 40 by the Japanese magazine Famitsu. The game was the third best-selling game in Japan the week of its release at 35,000 copies sold. By the end of 2008, Fossil Fighters had sold 240,176 copies, making it the 15th best-selling DS game of the year in the region. In the United States, it sold 92,000 units in August 2009, making it the 10th best selling game for that month.

In America, Fossil Fighters scores averaged between 7 and 8. Reviewers generally praised the game for being fun, having simple yet surprisingly addictive cleaning while having battles that were somewhat enjoyable. While most reviewers compared it to the Pokémon video game series, some reviewers like GameSpot didn't mind, saying that they might as well borrow from the best, while others didn't bring it up much. However, reviewers found game elements like graphics and music overall lacking, and some reviewers, like IGN (who gave the game a 5.3), knocked the game for being repetitive and too Pokémon-like.