Bakushow Review

Written by: Steve Martin Posted: 19th January 2009

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Bakushow Details:

	Casual
	Nintendo DS
	Rising Star Games
	Rising Star Games

Out Now

2-4

Bakushow: Challenge Your Friends is something very different indeed…for starters it is the first (and only, to my knowledge) multiplayer only DS game. It allows single cart wireless play, so you only need one copy of the game and then 3 other DS’s can link up to the host’s DS and join in.

The game itself is extraordinarily simple, the players take it in turn to be the challenger, they decide on a task or challenge for themselves and the other players to complete, which they write on their touch screen, in a similar way to Pictochat (the pre-loaded wireless chat software on the DS) or a whiteboard. The task can be anything that the challenger wants, such as having to draw an animal, or name all the members of a pop band, it depends on how imaginative they are! The challenger sets the time limit for the task to be completed by, and it is sent to all the other players’ top screen, and they rush to complete it on their touch screens. Once everyone has finished or the time has expired, the challenger decides the order in which the answers are revealed to the other players, once they’ve all been revealed, each player has three stars that they use to vote for their favourite answer or drawing or whatever. The player with the most votes wins that challenge and becomes the challenger, and so on until you get bored. At which point, you can choose to quit and all the votes are counted from all the rounds and the overall winner is announced.

There are no graphics or animation to speak of, except the bomb that acts as the time limit for the challenges to be completed, and some small black things that occasionally wander across the top screen. I’ve seen flash animations on the internet that were more advanced than this. The audio is the same, some drum roll effects when the votes are being counted, apart from that, nothing really to comment on.

Obviously the gameplay is very limited, you can change your pen size and erase or copy stuff, that’s it, so it’s unlikely to keep you busy for more than 5 minutes! You will really only get some fun out of this if you and your friends are amazingly imaginative with your challenges and if there is 3 or four of you. Playing with only two people is pointless as you can only vote for yourself or your opponent.

It is less of a game more of a simple Pictionary software clone, and I’m struggling to see the whole point of this game to be honest, the same thing can be achieved easily with some pens and paper! Bakushow: Challenge your friends is £20 - £30, pen and paper…couple of quid at most, the choice is yours, vote now!