Data Sheet Title: Warlocked Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Bits Studio Features: Game Boy Color only, Save anytime, Infrared Port, Cable Link, Battery Back-Up. Format: One player strategy game. (Included a few mini-games). Reviewer: Bligma Rating: Introduction It was a boring Monday morning, when the door-bell rang. I lazily dragged myself up stairs to the front door. I slowly opened the door, to find the UPS man handing me a brown, light package, addressed to me, Bligma! I quickly opened the package. As I thought it was my GBC Warlocked game, that I ordered from Game Express. I hurried myself upstairs to my room, where my Game Boy Color awaited. I slid the cartridge into my Game Boy Color slot. I then turned it ON. After a brief introduction clip, I was on my way to the world of Warlocked! First, you pick if you want to be Humans or Beasts. Neither is better than the other, although, I chose Humans. The start up screen is quite confusing. There are a total of five possible options. Play: Here, you may start your new game, or load a saved game. Once you choose this option, you will be transferred to another screen, where you may either choose one of the four following. Play: Here, you may start a whole new game. Load: If you choose 'Load,' you will automatically start where you last saved. Replay: If you already have completed any given missions, you may pick here, so you could play the missions over. Swap: If you are getting tired playing as Humans or Beasts, you are permitted to easily change your current race. The second off the five main options is.. Options! Here, you may turn the music and sound effects on/off. If you want, you are even allowed to take a little demo of the songs. The third choice is VS. If you have a friend who has Warlocked too, you could go head-to-head and battle each other using the Game Link cable. Fourth is Armies. Here, you take full control of arranging an army, in your favor. Last, is Extras. Throughout the game, you gain clues, and hints. Here, you could trade some thing in the game, called 'Wizards' using the Infrared Port. I will explain later, what 'Wizards' are. Gameplay, Controls, & Graphics A good game to compare Warlocked to, are the best-seller PC games, WarCraft, StarCraft, and Command and Conquer. Warlocked is a definite Strategy. You could manage your workers, and warriors to build Barracks, Look-Out Tower, Farms, and more. You are given over 20 missions to complete. You will be given a very small army, to grow, and soon, become victorious. Each level is pretty compact. The first three missions will go by quite fast. After that, just one mission may take over one whole hour to complete. Probably the best thing in the game, that I discovered, is that when playing, you could easily press 'Start' and a whole bunch of options will appear. You then, have the choice to either Save the game, Start the level over, see your status, review your briefing, so you may find out what your missions is. You also may exit the game, the 'right way.' Besides this, there are a few other options. Like I just said, you can access the save screen by pressing 'Start.' The beauty of Warlocked, is how easy the saving is. If you save during a mission, you will be brought right back to where you were, before you pressed start. The good thing is, is that if you save, and you find out that you shouldn't of saved, for what ever reason, you could just go to the Start screen and restart the level, as easy as that! I major part of the game has to do with something they call, Wizards. Wizards could be traded, via the Infrared Port. Wizards are similar to Warriors, except they have special powers. You could change enemies into Pigs, or even increase your gold or fuel status with a single tap of the 'A' button. Now, your probably thinking, I want to get one of these Wizard things, so I can kick some butt! But, how do you get them? Well, during the briefing, the Queen will tell you what your mission is. A mission may be from to rescue a kidnapped King, to meeting a Wizard, and getting him to join your army. I am not sure the exact number of Wizards, but I sure that there are well over eight Wizards, each with there own powers, strengths, and weaknesses. Throughout the game, you will be in charge of making sure your grunts (workers) build the proper buildings, for your defense and offense. There is a specific difference between the looks of a Human and a Beast. You will choose if you want to train a warrior, an archer, or other kinds of units. Besides the Wizards, there is a total of four units. A grunt (Human name)/Goblin (Beast name) is only used for building things, mining gold, chopping lumber, clearing walkways, repairing buildings, and more. A Knight/Warrior are experts at hand-to-hand combat. They are much stronger then archers, but have to be at the side of the enemy when attacking. An Elven Archer (Human name)/Skeleton (Beast name) are not too powerful, but can attack from a distance, and attack high objects. Lastly, there is the Dragon. I found the Dragon extremely useful and powerful. The Dragon could only be gotten, when you find an egg. The egg will soon hatch, and you have a baby dragon. After 40-50 steps, the dragon becomes an adult, and could attack. Dragons shoot out fireballs, that will stop at nothing to kill its enemy. The only thing that can effect a dragon, is another dragon, or an arrow. Swords are useless in fighting a dragon. As you are permitted to train as many Warriors or Archers as you wish, you may only use one dragon. The graphics... The graphics in Warlocked are spectacular! Almost any Game Boy Color game made today have great graphics, and Warlocked easily fits in the category with other great graphical Game Boy Color games. I was very impressed, also with the colors, according to the surroundings. If you were in a snowy level, everything's palette seemed to change, and become whiter. In a grassy level, with many trees, everything becomes greener! Final Comments Wow.. The Final Comment already? I first decided to buy Warlocked because I was going on a vacation to California, so I wanted a good game to make time go by quickly. I wasn't sure if Warlocked was the answer. After all, I have heard good and bad things of it. Luckily, the good burned the bad. If you ask me, this game is a definite must, to any gamer. If you only play RPGs, you will still love this game. Like I said, Warlocked is a definite Strategy, but is so action-packed, its amazing. Warlocked has Wizards, Dragons, Dungeons, Warriors, Archers-... Heck, Warlocked has it all! If you have been starving for a good Strategy or a good Game Boy Color game, in general, Warlocked is definitely for you! What I like about Warlocked is the ability to use the Link Cable. I battled many of my friends using it. It wont take long, and in some respects, it is kind of like fighting a friend in Pokemon using the Cable! Before, I stated that Warlocked is much like the PC game, by Blizzard, WarCraft, or Command and Conquer. If you loved any of those tittles, I can assure you you will be hooked on Warlocked, and wont be able to put it down. I just got it about five hours ago, and have played it already for over three hours! Wait a second... I'm playing it as I type this Game Review! Reader's Reviews are game reviews submitted by the readers of EAGB. If you would like to submit a game review, you can do so here. [ Back To Game Reviews ]