Fossil Fighters

Nintendo always puts on fun launch events and this one was no exception. Fossil Fighters is a brand new DS game aimed at the younger market. Fossil Fighters is an original IP made in Japan. Due to it’s popularity in the Japanese market Nintendo decided to bring it out here.

The vivosaurs are loosely based on dinosaurs but within the groups there are variations. Characters dig up the vivosaurs fossils. The player then has to clean off the fossil to “revive” the vivosaurs. Then the vivosaurs are ready to be taken into battle.

The battle system will be familiar to those who play Pokemon but the stat system is alot more in-depth. Also the battle ground allows you to swap positions in battle and there are two neutral positions where fighters can place their vivosaurs if they are taking damage.

To promote Fossil Fighters in Japan they made a comic book which is being localized and will be posted next week at fossilfighters.com.

Nintendo had the launch event at the LA Brea Tarpits which is a perfect place for the activities centered around the new title. The kids were all able to go on a tour of the neighboring museums. In addition, Nintendo hosted a trivia tournament, a fossil dig where kids put dug up pieces of a vivosaurs and put them together on a board, and there was a Fossil Fighters tournament as well. The grand prize for the tournament was the coolest part of the event. It is a copy of the game encased in “plaster” meant to look like a fossil. The winner will have to “tick away at it with a hammer and chisel” to get to the game. When the winner was announced all of the adults were saying how he shouldn’t open it because it’s a collectible. But you know that kid just wants to break it open.

Fossil Fighter

The kids at the event definitely loved playing Fossil Fighters. I saw girls and boys jumping in wanting to compete in the tournament. The game itself does have some challenging aspects to it. The player finds fossils by using a radar. Sometimes instead of a fossil the player will find a random fight. In order to use the fossil for your vivosaur, players have to clean the fossil. Cleaning fossils is actually pretty tough. It took me a few tries to clean the fossil without breaking it. Once you break the fossil it’s unusable. Fighting has alot of stats and options that take more than a 10 minute hands-on to get into.

Fossil Fighters will be out next week for the DS and DSi.