The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave

All it takes is something as simple as a name, an icon, or a description to put someone off playing a perfectly good video game.

Take The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave, for example. The name is a long string of apparently unconnected words, while the game's characters look rather uninspired.

And yet this 3DS downloadable title turns out to be a perfectly playable and enjoyable dungeon-crawler, with some nice ideas thrown into the mix. It just needs a catchier name.

Awesome wave

The Denpa Men, a funny little race of people, have washed up on various shores, and they need your help to fend off the King of Evil.

This involves hunting around your room via the camera, catching Denpa Men, and then bringing them together to form a dungeon-crawling team, ready to take on numerous caverns and dangerous forests.

The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave quickly proves itself to be the turn-based dungeon-goer that the Nintendo 3DS has been waiting for. It's cute and silly, yet actually rather deep and clever, with some brilliant ideas that really make you consider your options.

For example, if a Denpa Man gets knocked out and you don't have anything available to revive him he'll be lost and you'll either have to go catch another weedier Denpa Man or buy 'offerings' and take them to the shrine to resurrect your downed-man.

This forces you to actually care about whether your guys die, and to stock up on supplies before heading out, adding a dimension that's absent from the average RPG.

Don't lose your Denpa

The game takes it further with its 'auto' versus 'no skills' battling.

Seemingly a simple system at first, it quickly becomes clear that carefully selecting either means you can still blast through dungeons using relative skill, and then bring out the big guns for the bosses.

You've also got items to equip, levelling up, clothes for boosted stats, moves that are strong or weak against specific types - everything you need for the perfect dungeon-crawler, essentially.

It's notable, however, that the game doesn't really get any more interesting or exciting after this. A few hours in and the environments and battling feel rather samey. That's not to say the game becomes dull, but rather that it settles into a pattern that stops holding your attention.

If you're looking for a dungeon-crawler for the Nintendo 3DS, The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave is exactly what you need. Grab it, delve, be happy.

The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave

Don't be put off by The Denpa Men's silly name - this is a great dungeon-crawler with some carefully considered ideas packed in
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Mike Rose
Mike Rose
An expert in the indie games scene, Mike comes to Pocket Gamer as our handheld gaming correspondent. He is the author of 250 Indie Games You Must Play.