LEIPZIG, Germany--The DS is certainly not short on quirky, anime-inspired adventure games, but Spectrobes is certainly a novel take on the genre. Developed by the team behind Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Spectrobes is an action role-playing game in which you will dig for ancient fossils and bring them to life in your intergalactic spaceship. This all sounds vaguely Pokémon-esque, and indeed the game seems ripe for a cartoon series, but it's a completely new idea realised by the developers at Jupiter.

　　We took the opportunity to meet with Jupiter at this year's Leipzig Games Convention in Germany in order to see the game firsthand and go into more depth than we could in our E3 preview. The game tracks the journey of Rallen and partner Jeena, who patrol the galaxy to keep the peace. One day, their adventures lead them to an old man, who awakens from his deep sleep to demand something from Rallen. Apparently, evil creatures called the krawl are set to invade the galaxy, and of course Rallen is the only one who can stop them.

　　The krawls are amoeba-like creatures that can absorb different kinds of materials to make themselves stronger. Human beings like Rallen and Jeena don't have any powers with which to fight these creatures, so they need to call on ancient creatures known as the spectrobes. Like dinosaurs and other ancient creatures, the only way to find spectrobes is to dig for fossils. Luckily, not only does Rallen have the ability to do just this, but his lab can also be used to regenerate spectrobes into their original state. Using spectrobes to fight the krawl is the basic principle of spectrobes, with digging, awakening, training, and fighting all being the main activities of the game.

　　Starting out in our playable version of the game at Leipzig, we find Rallen on board his spaceship as he travels from planet to planet. When you land on a planet, Rallen can start finding fossils straight away, and this is where the touch-screen interaction comes in. If you are told by your equipment that the fossil is three metres underground, you need to tap the screen three times to break through the layers. Using the L button to scan the fossil's shape, you then have to dig around this and take care not to damage the infrastructure. Once the fossil shape has been cut out with the stylus, you can blow away the debris via the DS's microphone. Slowly, you then have to chip away to expose the fossil without damaging it beyond a certain percentage, and it can then be pulled out of the ground.

　　This fossil excavation routine is good fun, and while the sound effect used in this build sounds unnervingly like a dentist drilling a tooth, we're promised that this will be replaced for the full game. If you manage to cut through the fossil with zero percent damage, you are rewarded with a special item that you can use to customise your spectrobe. You then have to take your new pet back home to the labs on your spaceship, because they need awakening and growing as soon as possible. The microphone is cleverly used at this part in the game, as you have to shout 'wake up' into the microphone and keep your voice at a certain level in order for it to work. Some spectrobes are more difficult to awaken than others, and you may end up shouting at the creature like an unruly child. This is not a game for the bus then, but the kids at our demo seemed to love this part.

　　As you rear your spectrobe, you have to decide what minerals to feed it, since this will have an impact on its skills and whom to pair it up with. This part is important, as the stronger the friendship between two spectrobes, the more powerful their combo attack is during a battle. These fights take place on planets, and they are signposted in the game as tornados. And when the battle commences, Rallen and two spectrobes are able to walk around and attack the krawls at will. They can even choose to back off if they are being beaten, although we didn't see much need to do that during the early parts of the game. Each shoulder button corresponds to the spectrobe on either side of you during a battle, and we liked the explosive and over-the-top nature of the combo attacks that would wipe out the low-level enemies with ease.

　　The game will see a global release in spring 2007 on the Nintendo DS, and we are promised animated shorts that will premiere online in the months running up to release.