Yahoo UK Review: Blue Dragon Plus

Nintendo DS gamers are well served with role-playing games, but not all carry the same prestige as this latest from Ignition Entertainment.

The original Blue Dragon came exclusively to Xbox 360 in 2007 with much fanfare from Microsoft, but only lukewarm reception from the public. Its creators comprise artists responsible for the acclaimed Final Fantasy series, most notably director Hironobu Sakaguchi and artist Akira Toriyama famed for his Dragon Ball characters. This same team, which also includes Final Fantasy composer Tetsuya Nomura, has now produced Blue Dragon Plus for Nintendo DS – an entirely different animal.

Blue Dragon on Xbox 360 benefited from lush 3D visuals and dazzling special effects. Of course you're never going to replicate this on DS however Sakaguchi and the gang are on familiar ground here since their finest hours were in the mid / late 1990s on Nintendo's Super NES console. Hence the visuals are very charming on DS, and similarly the music has retro-remix appeal. Minus the glitz a strong storyline becomes essential and in this respect the game excels. But whereas Blue Dragon for Xbox 360 was designed to attract non gamers as much as the role-playing fan base, for DS the team has chosen a relatively strict Strategy RPG approach.