Fossil Fighters?

Hello readers. I hope you are all having a good week. I know I have. And that is due to a large part of my favorite DS game, Fossil Fighters. It's a fairly forgotten game that was a big part of my childhood. The game is a game from a couple of companies that are no longer really around and was pretty ambitious for its time. If there were one word, I would describe it as it would be resourceful. The game really uses all of the features of the DS to its advantage whether that be the mic or the way they formatted the game to make it seem like there was a lot more than there was. Enough about the vague exterior let's get into the meat of the game.

Fossil Fighters was a DS game released in 2008. It was conceived pretty much at the start of the handheld console and was a collection of different ideas that came to form one game. In the game, you play a voiceless protagonist who travels to Vivosaur Island to become a Fossil fighter champion. High jinks ensue all around you, escalating to having to save the world. The game has a very tongue-in-cheek humor that can even be fun for adults. The game isn’t overly difficult, and the gameplay is pretty fun. There are three big things you can do in the game: explore and search for fossils, clean those fossils, and battle with the revived dinosaurs from the fossils you clean. The map and exploration are pretty simple, but it can be a lot of fun to travel to these spaces. A thing that must be known about the game is it is mostly 3D, and if you know the DS system, it didn’t have the best graphics, but Fossil Fighters uses that as a strength with very stylized locations, character models and creature design. This gives the game a lot of character that sets it apart; the movements of the characters show a lot of emotion and humor. Cleaning the fossils is a big part of the game. There is no avoiding it, but it is a really fun mini-game. It is so satisfying to see a clean, perfect fossil. And you can do this just as much as you like. The fighting in the game is a pretty basic turn-based system. Even though the battle system is simple, it's a lot of fun, and you can really strategize if you wish. Elements, team synergy, and Dinosaur position all matter and make the combat really engaging.

The plot of this game is absolutely bonkers. It feels like nonsense in the best way. It feels like explaining the plot of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure to someone who has never read or watched it. Absolutely fun, with good characters all around. Other than the main game, grinding in this is fun for me. It doesn’t require too much thought, and I can easily see the progress that I am making. There are a few issues with the game. Some fossils take forever to find, and you just have to bang away at it for days to get a full set. They have a fictional tribe of unknown origin that feels like it is filled with stereotypes and slight racism. Sometimes, the graphics, even with all the charm the game has, are just not good. Then, the post-game is a bit different. These factors don’t ruin the game for me at all. They are just things that I think could have been worked on a bit more.

So, if this game is so good, what happened to it? Well, it did receive two sequels. One was great, and the other was a complete letdown. The game did sell well in Japan and the U.S., and it was reviewed decently, but it was the failure of that damned it. The game has not had a sequel since the release of the third installment. It only recently had a cameo in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a spirit. There have been rumors of a revival every now and then, but there has yet to be any actual news from Nintendo about it.

I hope you all liked my talk about one of my favorite games of all time. Don’t forget that you, too, can post your thoughts and ideas here and have them edited by a professional. You just have to email me through the Gmail at the bottom. Next week I am going to cover the sequel Fossil Fighter’s Champions. Thank you again for reading.