Talk of the Town: Thor (Nintendo DS)

I recently had the opportunity to check out the various versions of Thor and Captain America games set to be released this year. Each iteration of the games (360/PS3, Wii and DS) have their own unique look, style and game play. Over the next few days will be writing up my impressions/thoughts on these games, and today I’ll bring you Thor on the Nintendo DS.

Handled by Wayforward Studios, the development team behind the recent Batman: The Brave and the Bold on DS and Wii, the game was the best looking in my eyes. While the next-gen versions obviously featured much better graphics, nobody does hand drawn sprites like Wayforward and it really shines in this game.

The game is an interesting mesh-up of the beat’em up/RPG genre. While there aren’t really any hardcore RPG elements, you don’t level up Thor or use potions and the likes, but you do equip various equipment and stat boost to Thor, which changes the tide of the battle. An example of this is when I was in Muspelheim and decided to try my luck by equipping a fire boost for MjÇ«lnir which made combat just a bit more difficult than it had to be. I was doing around 1 dmg to each enemy with an attack. To mix it up, I did equipped an ice rune for the hammer and damage nearly quadrupled and the fight went much smoother. This is only one type of rune that Thor could be equipped with. There are 3 classes with 6 different runes you unlock over the course of the game!

The beat’em up action is pretty standard fare. As pressing, Y does your basic combo and X allows you to wield your hammer or toss it at foes (you can also hold it down to charge it up). In addition to these moves, the game features a “smash” like move set up. Where you can press a direction and the Y button at the same time to charge up an even more powerful move. You will need to do this to several types of enemies to break their guard.

As you unleash combos and deal damage, you build up a special meter on the top right of the screen, and when its about half-way allows Thor to unleash one of several screen damaging moves based on the elements. On the screen to the right, you can see him attacking his foes with thunder. Now, if you have the chance, you can hold off on using the attack until the meter is completely filled, and this allows you to do the same move, but will instantly kill any enemy on screen! As is tradition, the move does no damage to the bosses at all, something else I discovered the hard-way!

Speaking of bosses, in my hands on time, I was able to encounter two bosses. One was a screen-filling beast that towered over Thor, but was dealt with after several blows. The OTHER boss however was a double-screen filling boss who you can see below:

I won’t say anymore on the boss as its something you should discover on your own!

In addition to the standard game which has you going through several stages as the God of Thunder, there exists a Survival Mode, which allows you to pick 3 of about a dozen characters from the game including Thor’s brother, Loki. The mode was fun and is a welcome addition even if it is only one stage. Each character has a weak and heavy attack as well as their own custom special move. In the case of Loki, he is able to teleport behind his foes and attack.

Finally, a great bonus for comic fans is the art gallery that includes the cutscene artwork that was done by Mark Brooks. And the pictures look fantastic. So there’s that to check out.

All in all, my time with Thor on the Nintendo DS was fun. The game is a solid beat’em up, and will serve anyone looking to get their fill of Thor after the release of the movie. The game is set to hit on May 3rd just 3 days before the movie makes its debut.