For more on Solatorobo: Red The Hunter, check out our full Solatorobo: Red The Hunter review. Or, for more of the best Nintendo DS games for a 10 year old, why not try our Family Game Finder
Solatorobo: Red the Hunter casts kids in the role of Red, who's effectively an odd job man for hire in the Shepherd Republic - a group of islands who's inhabitants have been turned into cats and dogs.
Receiving quests from the handily placed booths in each city, your child will find themselves performing a variety of tasks, from clearing the sewers of giant rats, to hunting down a number of crates that have been scattered across some islands, all from the comfort of Red's very own long-armed robot suit. There's a decent story here, too, for kids to really get into, and it's all suitably fantastical.
In terms of difficulty, Solatorobo is one of the easiest role playing games around. The battles are simple, and simply involve mashing a button to pick an enemy up, and then pressing it again to throw them. There are no stats, spells, or anything else to worry about, which means, in terms of pure gameplay, this should be playable by people younger than we've suggested. Our recommendation, however, is because of the sheer amount of text involved. With no voice acting, very strong reading skills will be required to get the most out of this - although there's nothing stopping a six year old with moderate reading skills from giving it a go!
In terms of mature content, there's actually very little here. There's no bad language, and no real violence to speak of. There's no blood, guts and gore, as the only violence you'll see here is in a very stylised cartoon form, as Red picks up his enemies, and chucks them at the ground, where they bounce in a cartoony manner, or explode in a puff of smoke when you've defeated them (even the non-mechanical enemies). In terms of content, this is fine for all ages.
Solatorobo: Red the Hunter does contain a multiplayer mode, but, sadly, it's only available if you own more than one copy of the game. No support for single-card download play renders this a bit useless.
Age Ratings
Format Reviewed: Nintendo DS
