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Dark Void Zero Review for Nintendo DSi

Dark Void Zero Review for Nintendo DSi

Fetch Rusty, Fetch. Good Boy.

For many gamers out there, playing an 8-bit styled video game will cause a wave of nostalgia to wash over them. Remembering the good old days of gaming when 2D was king, crushingly difficult was the standard, and game music was frequently referred to by non-gamers as detestable compilations of bleeps and bloops. Ah, those truly were the days. Luckily, there are still plenty of companies out there that have realized that just because processing power and modern game design have made 8-bit gaming a thing of the past, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t still players out there craving these types of retro experiences.

Dark Void Zero screenshot

One of the most prevalent of these companies, Capcom, has essentially turned into nostalgia evangelists, having titles such as Mega Man 9 and 10 going back to their classic 8-bit style. While Dark Void doesn’t have a longstanding 8-bit history like the Mega Man franchise, it is nice to see an 8-bit styled game built around it coming out as DSiWare.

Going even further to evoke a sense of nostalgia, a history has been created to explain how Dark Void Zero came to be, which is likely at least equal parts fiction and fact. The story goes that the game, then called Dark Rift, had been developed to take advantage of the two screened PlayChoice-10 arcade cabinets. There was much deliberation as to whether to bring the game out for the NES since it would require a special chipset in every cartridge. Soon after the SNES was released, it made this decision for Capcom, having them ultimately shelve the project. And due to some tape-based archive issues, the company ended up losing the game forever. Now, nearly twenty years later, Capcom decided to have this lost title recreated to commemorate the release of its spiritual successor, Dark Void. Sure, this is likely a complete farce, but it’s funny to see a company go as far as to create a slightly believable back-story for a game that is only a five dollar downloadable title.

Even without knowing this fictitious history going into the game, Dark Void Zero goes out of its way to let you know of its fabricated past. Right after you select this game to be played but before the opening game screen is shown, this title immediately evokes a plethora of nostalgia. It’s at this point that both screens go blank except for what appears to be a faked image of a Dark Void Zero NES cartridge and a simple instruction that is instantly understood by anyone who played games on an NES. Here you must blow into your DSi’s microphone in order to simulate blowing the dust off of the cartridge. This may seem like a small thing that may even sound annoying to some, but for anyone who has spent a good deal of time performing this same act countless times to help clean their games’ contacts so that the often finicky NES would read them, it is absolutely brilliant and hilarious.

Dark Void Zero screenshot

Dark Void Zero is a completely original game as far as its story goes; thankfully, it’s not just a scaled down 8-bit version of the console Dark Void title. In this game, a stable portal has opened up near Earth, allowing the Watchers to leave the Void and attack the planet. Players get to take on the role of Rusty, the first human born in the Void, in order to help close the portal and save Earth. To accomplish this, Rusty must find three portal control codes so that he can destroy the portal and bring an end to the Watcher threat. While Rusty has to do much of the heavy lifting in order for this to happen, he does get some advice and help with traveling between levels from Nikola Tesla.

The design of this 2D side-scroller’s levels should be pretty familiar to anyone who has played a Metroid or Castlevania game before. You’ll start off every level with the most basic weapon and nothing else; Rusty’s gun and basic ability to jump will get you around a small portion of the level. But along your travels, you’ll need to find all sorts of better weapons, key cards, and jet packs in order to fully explore these environments. Some areas will be completely inaccessible unless you can find the correct key card, a bazooka-like weapon to destroy cracked obstacles, a jet pack in order to reach them, or sometimes a combination of the three.

Dark Void Zero screenshot

The jet pack is the real star of the show in Dark Void Zero, allowing you to zip around to just about any point in the level very quickly. Pressing and holding the B button will send you rocketing skyward, although this is fairly difficult to control precisely. The better alternative to this involves double-tapping the B button, which will put Rusty’s pack into hover mode. In this mode, you don’t have to fear plummeting into enemies or hazards and are free to just maneuver around using the D-pad. However, there will be points in the game where you’ll lose the ability to utilize the rocket pack, but they just make you focus more on platform jumping and are few and far between.

Dark Void Zero screenshot

There is also a good variety of weaponry to be had in Dark Void Zero ranging from your standard gun to the bazooka. Each weapon has its own properties that make it distinct and grant different advantages that can come in handy in various circumstances. For instance, there is a gun that can fire through most platforms, making it quite useful when venturing into more vertically-oriented terrain. You can only handle one weapon at a time, so going out of your way to pick up a certain weapon may not seem worthwhile all the time, but sometimes it may just be the best option.

This is partially due to the game’s extreme difficulty. When starting a new game, you are given the option of three difficulty levels. Easy is just that, providing little to no challenge to get through. However, Medium and Hard difficulties are almost obnoxiously difficult. Not only are the enemies you face stronger and more adamant about taking you out, you can only save your game once you’ve started a new level. There are checkpoints scattered around every level that allow you to continue your adventure from them as long as you still have lives, but if you run out, you’ll have to start out from the beginning of the level again with only the amount of lives that you came in with. So if you make it to a level with absolutely no lives left, then you either have to find some very scarce and hidden 1-ups, somehow try to make it through an entire level without dying (a nearly impossible feat when playing on medium or hard), or start the entire game over again in order to try to do better. While this does fit with the retro feel of the title, it would have been nice to have been able to start a level with at least three lives if you’ve already made it there.

Although Dark Void Zero can at times feel like a series of spiraling fetch quests placed back to back, it is still rather fun to play through. The only real problem I have with the title is that it is only three levels long. These levels and the obligatory boss battles found between each can take awhile to get through, usually somewhere between a half hour to an hour each, but even at five dollars it seems like the adventure is over far too soon. I mean, did Capcom forget how the rest of the game was supposed to go after the first three levels, since it has been so long since the original copy’s destruction (wink)? However, even with its short length, it is still an enjoyable game full of challenge and a ton of retro goodness.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.8 Graphics
For an 8-bit styled game, Dark Void Zero looks quite good with a fairly diverse color palette. 4.0 Control
The controls feel spot on throughout the game unless you are trying to use the jetpack for bursts instead of its hover mode, which is nearly impossible to control. Luckily, you are never forced to. 4.2 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The music and sound effects in this game are exactly what you’d expect and sound very reminiscent of 8-bit Mega Man titles. 3.3

Play Value
What’s there is fun and feels well designed, but with only three levels it is over far too quickly.

3.7 Overall Rating – Good
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • Dark Void Zero delivers a distinctly retro appeal with its use of classic 8-bit visuals and chiptune music.
  • Take control of Rusty as he attempts to save the Earth from the Watchers.
  • Make use of a state-of-the-art rocket pack and several futuristic weapons in your quest to save humanity.

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