Dokapon Kingdom

Fun Factor: 4/5

Dokapon Kingdom is a semi-adventure party game that came out for the Playstation 2 in 2007 and then was ported to the Nintendo Wii in 2008.  This review will be for the Wii version.  In short, Dokapon Kingdom is kind of like if Final Fantasy and Monopoly had a baby.  The game supports up to 4 players and if you happen to not have 3 friends on call to play it automatically fills the slots with computer players.  The end game, so to speak, is to rack up ludicrous sums of money and marry the princess.  To do this you can "cheat" to beat your friends into submission.  The whole game transpires on a giant gameboard that is loosely based on the actual Earth, starting in Asia.  To progress, you defeat monsters until the story mission commences where you have to complete a specific mission and are rewarded with huge sums of money.  The game occasionally balances itself by giving one of the players “The Power of Darkness”, which sends the world into utter chaos making whoever is winning at the time penniless by the end of that players reign of terror.  Largely, if you are patient and not the type to throw controllers when things go south, and have friends of a similar nature, it’s a fun experience.  The only reason I don’t rate it higher is that some of the things it lets you do to each other is genuinely mean, and it takes a very long time to finish a campaign.  I’ve finished three and the shortest one took three months.

Learning Curve: Very Easy

The whole game functions on a Rock-Paper-Scissors basis.  There are stat points as well, but they usually balance themselves enough to give you the freedom to do whatever you feel like.  There are many classes you can play with and unlock, but they are mostly the same.

Overall Rating:  4/5

I give it a four out of five because if you play with people who have already finished a campaign then it’s kind of too cutthroat to play with especially if not everyone involved has played before.  However, it’s still a fun experience.  Unfortunately, it has become something of a hidden gem for the Wii, but not so much for the Playstation 2.