On paper, Invizimals: The Alliance sounds like the perfect "augmented reality" game. Aimed at a younger audience, the story here revolves around the titular Invizimals, which are, as their name may suggest, invisible animals. To most humans, their existence goes undetected - but, using your PS Vita's camera, you can find them almost anywhere, in and around your house. Lure them out and complete a challenge, and you can befriend them, give them a nickname, and take them into battle, before raising them up, kind of like a Pokemon-lite.
But therein lies Invizimals' biggest problem. Despite all its fancy "augmented reality" jiggery-pokery (basically, using the camera to make things look like they're happening in the real world), Invizimals really is a poor man's Pokémon that does very little else to differentiate itself, and fails to keep its key audience hooked.
Put your AR cards on the desk, and let your Invizimals fight it out. Our money's on Tigershark, there.
At least part of the problem is that there isn't really that much of a story here. While Pokémon has the whole "I wanna be the very best" thing going on, and a set progression of gym leader bosses for you to grow stronger and challenge, there's no such reason to keep playing Invizimals. Despite featuring a huge number of live action cutscenes, where real actors pretend they're hiding behind a shipping container, or clinging on to a speedboat as it jets towards an island, the story never really gets going, and the characters don't have any personality. Despite the cast's overly excited tendencies, the plot here's about as exciting as a brown paper bag - and in a game that's primarily aimed at kids, that's a problem. Without any humour, or really any excitement, the all-too-lengthy cutscenes will only be encouraging kids to switch off.
With no story to keep you going, there's no set goal, or any real sense of progression here, either. Load up the game for the first time, and you'll initially be presented with a blank field, which serves as the game's hub area. Making use of your augmented reality cards, and navigating an all too awkward mini-game, you'll be able to build two structures - a Battle Arena, where you can pit your Invizimals against each other, and a Capture Gate, which you can use to catch them.
Touching the Capture Gate will switch on the PS Vita' camera and let you take the hunt into the real world. After choosing which Invizimal you're looking for, you'll have to follow a series of prompts to hunt it down, whether it's finding an object in your house that's a certain colour, calling out to it, or trying to pin point it by using sound. Unfortunately, these sections aren't actually all that easy, or that reliable, particularly the one that asks you to use sound to hunt the Invizimal out. With your PS Vita making feeble wibbling noises, it's up to you to physically turn left and right to try and find it. Problem is, it makes the noise so infrequently (and doesn't speed up when you're pointing in the right direction) that you have no idea if you're doing it right. There's a real lack of feedback in many of the minigames, which can often make moving onto the next phase of the capturing process more blind luck than anything.
Here, you have to dodge the shots the spider fires at you, while sending a few ones back his way. Only problem is, if you dodge too much, the spider ends up moving with you, and you haven't dodged at all
Once you've managed to hunt your chosen Invizimal down, though, the challenge isn't quite over yet, as you actually have to catch it. Each Invizimal requires a different process to get it to team up with you, with some being much better than others. Some involve singing to a particularly tuneful Invizimal, some see you face off in a quick draw contest, trying to tap the Invizimal's hand before he uses it to shoot at you, and some see you playing a quick game of pinball; others see you tracing a pattern, or trying to move your Vita around a collect gems while an Invizimal has his back turned, while others still make use of the AR cards that came with your PS Vita - so you'd best hope you haven't lost them!
With none that are particularly inspiring, most of these "catching" stages are OK, and some are even fairly fun - but there are a few that are really frustrating. As with most games that rely on cameras, augmented reality, and the PS Vita's rear touch pad, the game isn't always as responsive as you'd like it to be. Some games ask you to find a brightly coloured wall - and despite pointing at several that were as bright as they come in our house (mostly either cream or green), the game wouldn't accept it. Others make use of an AR card, but if you move about too much, your console will lose track of it, only to pick it up again a few seconds later, causing everything on screen to leap and rotate as the game tries to regain its bearings. The front touch screen never feels responsive enough when registering directions of swipes, either, while far too many games rely on the rear touch pad. As it's on the back of the console itself, it's nigh on impossible to do anything with any accuracy with it, so asking you to be precise is a recipe for disaster. On the plus side, when you've finally managed to catch the damn thing, at least you can give it a nickname - like on Pokemon.
It's Dr Zoidberg vs the Demon Furby!
By far the most enjoyable part of the game, however, is the battles themselves, which let you pit your hard earnt Invizimals against computer controlled enemies. With two options on offer, you can choose to either face off against a single, chosen Invizimal in a kind of warm up (which is useful for gaining experience and raising your Invizimal's level), or take part in one of the game's tournaments, which usually have a minimum level requirement.
The battles themselves take place in a small arena, and put you in direct control over your chosen Invizimal. While it's not turn based, the battles also aren't button mashers either, as each of your four moves has a "cool down" time before you can use it again, and also drains your stamina bar with each use. What this means is you have to put a bit of thought into your moves, both in terms of when you use what move, and where you use it. With each having a different range, and taking a different amount of time to charge, positioning and timing is everything. While your biggest attacks may have a large range, they'll also take forever to pull off, giving your foe plenty of time to scuttle out of the way.
Win the battle, whether through luck or planning, and you'll earn some experience points, which, when you've gained a certain amount, will let your Invizimal "level up". Along with generally getting stronger, you'll also be given the option of upgrading some stats here, but unfortunately, the game doesn't bother telling you what each of the stats does. Level up enough, and you'll be able to evolve your Invizimal into a bigger, badder, stronger form - but with character designs that for the most part seem to be as generic as they come, you'll never really feel a connection with your smaller friend.
While it has a fantastic concept, Invizimals: The Alliance gets the execution all wrong. With mini-games that require far too much precision from inputs that are seemingly incapable of providing it (rear touch screen, camera, etc), a dull, drawn out story that children will be more likely to skip over than be sucked into, and very little to do outside of the battles, Invizimals is a disappointment. A poor man-or-woman's Pokemon, then - which is probably exactly the description the developers had set out to avoid.
Format Reviewed: PS Vita
