Game of the Week: Inazuma Eleven 2 | Video Games, Reviews ...

DS genre-scourge Inazuma Eleven?s sequel has finally made it across from Japan. The second outing for the sporting RPG arrives in two editions, Blizzard and Firestorm. In a stylish little Pok?mon-inspired manoeuvre, the variation between the two is trivial at best. There will be special moves and players available to each that will be unavailable to the other, and other such pernickety shenanigans. But what else had changed with this new installment?s arrival?

The plot finds the triumphant Raimon Eleven still reeling from their surprise victory in the football frontier final. Set only a week after the events of the first game, Level-5 have crafted an odd little confection story-wise that will have little impact for those inexperienced with the first game. Mark Evans and company see their beloved school destroyed by a mystery hail of black footballs (reality and logic are a moot point where these guys are concerned). From the mangled ex-building emerges Gemini Storm, a team of alleged extraterrestrials here to prove their supremacy via soccer-action. (I remember the days when angry aliens did this via different means. Ah, huge metallic monstrosities and funky rayguns, those were the days.) From here, the story reers off into the realms of convoluted lunacy (as is the wont of Level-5) as the threat to the planet emerges.

Fortuitously, Raimon have a new innovation to help them out. The Inazuma Bus allows them to travel across their homeland of Japan, in search of teams to practise against and players to recruit to their ranks. Your aim in Blizzard/Firestorm is to build the most formidable squad you can with which to challenge the ascending threat, from talent across all regions of the country. During the course of the game, old favourites will come and go (and naturally return again, proverbial bad pennies that the core cast are), and new characters will be intermittently introduced. My personal favourite of these is without a doubt the icy stylings of Shawn Froste, with his preposterous hair and irregular accent. (this last is a difficult thing to convey in a largely voice-acting-free manner, but it comes through nonetheless.)

Aside from these additions, the bedrock of the experience remains largely unchanged. The football is played in a simple stylus-flailing manner, with you drawing paths to position players and pass or shoot the ball. Subtle layers of depth are introduced to the familiar mechanics with the new long shots, which can be instigated from anywhere on the pitch. To counter these, there are also now block abilities with which your defense can mitigate an attack or prevent it outright. Debuting, too, are individual character abilities. These are equipped in the same fashion as your usual special moves, but function as latent talents. A player with Shot Force, for example, will add a minor boost to the whole team?s attempts on goal. As each of these will also occupy one of a character?s limited moveslots, it all serves to add a further element to the game?s RPG-flavour repertoire.

As sequels go, Inazuma Eleven 2 is hardly a revolution. As I have touched upon, the plot assumes, to a significent extent, knowledge of their original travails. This does not prevent those new to the series from enjoying the game, but it is certainly advisable to play through the debut first. There are subtle refinements to the mechanics, and in matters of character development. The aforementioned Froste, specifically, has a charmingly twee little backstory which was a delight to see unfold. All in all, it?s largely a matter of playing it safe with this release.

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