If you’ve been paying any attention to the state of gaming the past few years, you’d notice a growing number of casual titles out there, especially on the Nintendo DS. QuickSpot is Namco’s newest foray into that market, and while it’s fun for a little while, ultimately it just feels lacking.
Most of you probably know the basic concept of QuickSpot from magazines and activity books you read as a child. Each screen on the DS shows an image, and your goal is to circle what’s different on the touchscreen portion. It doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, but you’d be surprised; I know a few people who picked up the DS to just try it really quick, and ended up playing past the entire first set of missions.
Sadly, that’s really as far as you’ll go before you get bored of the game. The first set of stages takes anywhere from half an hour to an hour to beat, and during that time you’ll see at least 90% of the images that the game has to offer. As you progress through the stages you’re introduced to new aspects of gameplay — such as having to scratch off the viewing area, a la a lottery ticket — but these also grow repetitive, and there’s no true innovation after the first few aspects are unlocked.
While playing the singleplayer mode, after each set of images your brain power will be ranked, and you’ll be judged in a variety of categories like in Brain Age and all of its copycats. The problem with this, though, is that there’s really not a lot of meaning in the rankings. No matter how well you perform, chances are you’re going to have at least one aspect nearly empty, while others will be pushing the edge of the chart. It would help if Namco gave clear reasons for this, but going off of the explanations in the game it’s hard to justify why your concentration can be almost nonexistent yet your stability and judgment are near-perfect.
When it comes to the gameplay itself, most of the time there are no real issues. Every now and then, though, the game doesn’t register correctly when you draw a circle. This can lead to an error, which will affect your data. This is especially a problem in the levels where you need to dust off the screen to first to see the image; if you’re trying to wipe the gray area away but happen to hit an area already wiped clear, the game will act as if you’re drawing a circle in the cleared area.
The singleplayer mode may get boring fast, and it may frustrate you at times when it doesn’t register your stylus’ circles correctly, but the two multiplayer modes — Time Bomb and Scramble — help make up for it. Time Bomb is exactly what it sounds like. Using one DS, players take turns spotting the difference and then passing the DS on to the next player. When time runs out, the person holding the DS is the loser. Basically, it’s like QuickSpot hot potato. Scramble is very similar to the singleplayer game. In it, the basic concept is for the players to find the difference the quickest. When you lose, you gain the ability to use power-ups to help even the odds. These obscure the screen of the person winning, and give people who have fallen behind a chance at catching up.
At $20, you really shouldn’t expect an incredible game. If you’re looking for something which will keep you entertained until Pokemon Diamond and Pearl come out, QuickSpot isn’t that title. It’s a briefly entertaining and unique casual game which will certainly find a niche market — especially with the younger and much older crowd — but it’s nothing to write home about. The gameplay gets repetitive after the first hour or so, and if you don’t have a group of friends to play multiplayer with chances are you’re not going to want to play the same puzzles again and again by yourself.
