This game offers many hours of semi fun dungeon delving. It is reminiscent of an old AD&D game that I was fond of on PSOne. But tht was about 15 years ago. With games out there like Assassin’s Creed and GTA being retooled for DS,  and games with great graphics like God of War going on the PSP it has raised the bar lots higher than what you see in 80% of DS games. We are beeing fed far too many rehashes that look like graphics from the past. Even though the DS Lite offers new features it’s the games that make or break the console. If there aren’t enough games to play, those dusty handheld’s go into the used market, and less consumer dollars go into buying new hardware.  I can’t blame this game for the bad economy, but shovelware like it does no good for anybody and gamers either.  Since video games are holding the economy together, then developers should give the gamers more credit and make graphics of higher quality instead of phoning it in like this one did. First off you cannot create a female character…

You can name them whatever, but there isn’t a gender choice. Then where else this game falls down are in the graphics and in the RPG play design. The screens have too much black and brown. The dungeons all look the same and the graphics on the top DS screen also are the same colors. The next problem is the way the menus work. They are all multiple choice and you have to wade through them to do anything. If you make an error in character creation and a wrong key press will have you redoing the whole character.

At one time a game like this would have been interesting because you didn’t know what would happen next. The first person perspective going down a dark hallway has been done since Doom on the Apple, and done to death. Now a days you all ready know what is going to pop up and nothing is new here. The exploration factor is nil. However it is so bad that it is diabolical and cruel, which also can be admired to a certain extent.

The characters are rolled up in a dice like fashion. The hit scores in battle are as well. This does not work out in the favor of the player. When you play an authentic Dungeons and Dragons game the dice rolling math mechanism is very sophisticated. This one is not and it does so poorly. Dice roll mechanics make a game much harder even if it is done right. In this case it over complicates an all ready befuddled game.

Of course the labyrinth of hallways and rooms with traps, puzzles, creatures and monsters are all there. Right along with all the flaws in the game play from yesteryear too. Mobs outnumber the party. Insufficient hit points are given at start up. The level grind is morbid. There’s endless back tracking. The maps are indistinct. Mages can only cast nine times per battle. We shouldn’t have to deal with all of these things all over again and resource management on a DS game in 2009. It does have the saving grace of a save-anywhere feature that we might not have had in the day.

This game has its place among the fans who are obsessive. Those who like to look into a game pixel by pixel, and explore for every hidden door and secret panel. For that this game is good. It is exasperating, and in itself does raise its score a bit. Dark Spire may be a game that you love to hate, occasionally that can work. I give Dark Spire DS 6 rusty long swords outt of 10.