In what has to be the biggest stretch of using the "DS" branding idea, Fullmetal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy was announced for the dominating handheld early this morning. The show's been cleaning up on Adult Swim for years, while the toys, playing cards and new movie continue to bolster the tale of two alchemic brothers into superstardom.
In Sympathy, you'll control red-coated Edward Elric, his ghost-in-the-armor brother Alphonse, and four other characters from the show, complete with authentic voice acting and clips from the series. It's a standard side-scrolling adventure, but the touch screen's alchemy button may break up the standard running and jumping. The longer you hold the button down, the larger the attack is, doing anything from creating metal spikes to oversized cannons.
And of course, there'll be 10 minigames to try out along with a show-spanning story mode and more personal character mode, which focuses on one member of the cast instead of following the course of the animated series.
The show may rock pretty hard, but let's be honest, the PS2 Alchemist games weren't that hot. Here's hoping Dual Sympathy can bring something fun, if not necessarily new, to the table.
September 12, 2006
