
	Platform DS Genre Role-Playing Publisher Nintendo Developer Camelot ESRB E +10 (Everyone) Released November 29, 2010

- In-depth RPG - Hours of gameplay - Holds true to the original and adds a few new twists

- Not quite as charming as the original - Slow start, the story drags in the beginning - The game still feels like it’s on the GBA at times

Review: Golden Sun (GBA) Review: Magical Starsign (DS) Review: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
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Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

Score: 7.5 / 10

It’s a good year to be an RPG fan because there are certainly a lot of them coming out on the Nintendo DS as the system reaches its maturity. That’s not necessarily a good thing for Golden Sun: Dark Dawn as it attempts to stand out from the crowd in a certainly over crowded market.

Taking place 30 years after the first set of games on the GBA (circa 2003) the world is once again in danger and you have to take on the legacy left by your parents. I’m

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not going to say much else about it because I don’t want to spoil it, but suffice it to say there will be a lot of dialogue to explain what is going on (and in some cases, I almost felt like it was too much – for a handheld game anyways).

With your party you are of course going to encounter battles. It’s pretty standard fare here, with turn based battles that let you attack with your weapons or

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magic (which here is called Psynergy). You’ll also collect cool little creatures called Dijinn. Honestly, they are a little bit like Pokemon.

This is probably the best part of the game, in my opinion. The Dijinn can be used to summon bigger creatures to help in battles (and they have their own cutscenes). It adds an element of excitement to an otherwise standard rare RPG. Keep in mind that I might be a little jaded in this respect, just because the game does feel more like an evolution from what we had almost ten years ago in this series rather than something completely refreshingly new.

The puzzles in the game are fairly simple, taking a cue from many games before it where the clue to solving the mystery usually lies within the latest magical ability you acquired. It’s just a little too predictable in that regard.

So if you’ve never ventured into Weyward you might find this offering just rather average compared to what else is out there, but if you’ve been in this world before and you like it, you’re going to again. It’s like RPG comfort food. You’ve been here before, you know what to expect, so sit down – grab your stylus, and prepare for another journey.

- Syd Bolton

(April 4, 2011)

Syd Bolton is Canada’s top videogame collector who surrounds himself in thousands of classic video games at the Personal Computer Museum (http://www.pcmuseum.ca/) in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.