Majesco’s new interactive first person shooter is a fast-paced romp that takes the Nintendo 3DS in creative new directions.
There’s just nowhere to play the thing.
Huh? A portable game that isn’t fun to take along with you? In spite of a cool design and gameplay elements that make it feel like a cross between “Ghostbusters” and “Pokemon,” “The Hidden” ultimately isn’t able to make the most of its vast potential.
As a matter of fact, the only safe place to play this game is in a padded room. After a few hours of playing the title, you’ll feel you belong in one.
A new initiate in a team of entity hunters, you learn the ropes and soon enough, you’re sent on missions. The cool part is that the title uses the 3DS camera as its background, pretty much the same way “Face Raiders” does, creating a fun and easy to see gameplay experience. Walking around your home is a hectic, but cool time. The controls as well are super simple and give the game a casual and fun feel. However, while on the hunt, you’ll need plenty of room to navigate. These ghosts are quick little buggers. Like a game of “Ace Combat,” you’ll engage in dogfight like gameplay that forces you to run all over the screen.
The only problem is that screen is your real environment.
Unlike other handheld games, it is nearly impossible and unsafe to play “The Hidden” while on the train or bus. While the innovative design has you navigating real-life locations in real-time, which you’ll be asked to travel back to while on patrol most of the game, it’s just not fun at times. The pacing is also weak, as the random battles take far too long to initiate. Gamers don’t have 15 minutes to walk around and wait for ghosts to attack them. They need action and fast. Because of that, it’s easy to grow tired of the title.
However, if you live in suburbs or own a large home and have land to wander around safely, the game can and will provide hours of fun. The hosts of unlockables and fun story add to the replay value as well. Again, it just takes too long to experience the real meat of the game.
That doesn’t mean the game should be avoided. It does mean that it should be played with caution.
Sad, too, considering how strong the sum of the parts that makes up the heart of “The Hidden” really is.
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