Spectrobes - hands-on

Even though there's a ton of stuff to work on in the main game, there will be plenty to keep fans busy while they recharge their DS Lites. First and foremost is the huge online presence the game will have, featuring leaderboards and Xbox Live-like achievement awards for players who accomplish certain goals in the game. Spectrobe trainers will be able to upload their progress, preferred monster lists and other deets for rivals to check out, plus download exclusive content not available offline. In a strange, perhaps unnecessary twist, you'll have to log on the site each week to catch a batch of "Download Points" to retrieve items off the site. Miss a week and those points are gone for good. So play along and send somerandom clicks their way, alright?

A much more ingenious method of accessing exclusive content comes packed with each copy of the game. A set of four translucent cards can be laid over the touch screen and used to deliver whatever's on the card into the game. How's that work? Each card has a few tiny holes punched in it. When the card is laid over the screen, those holes line up with specific, unseen coordinates that will activate once touched. Yeah, it seems like a gimmick (especially since these cards aren't sold anywhere), but we'd be lying if we said it wasn't fun to unlock new weapons by tapping through secret agent-looking cards.