Disney's Bolt for Nintendo DS is an action platformer that doesn't follow the movie's plot, instead it is set in a fictional TV show within the movie, starring Bolt the super dog and Penny as they're trying to find Penny's dad and foil evil's plans, which is an interesting choice for a movie tie-in video game.

As I mentioned, Bolt is an action platformer, and a 3-Dimensional one. The platforming itself is actually rather basic, there's no way to die in a pit or anything like that, the jumps are sort of scripted so you always jump over gaps, and you can only fall off ledges if there's ground below for you to try again, so failing ends up as a minor inconvenience. The movement honestly feels a little clunky, you can't turn instantly, as a small animation needs to play, and the momentum when jumping isn't always consistent, sometimes I didn't have a lot of momentum after a jump, I think it's because I jumped from stand still, and also it seems like you can't jump as soon as you land, and need to wait a little bit before you can jump again. The game also has combat, and it's honestly not that great, I avoided most confrontations whenever possible. You can attack with Y and X, and perform combos with said buttons, and you unlock more as you progress, you can also perform special moves by blowing into the microphone or touching the screen, both Penny and Bolt have different special powers, for instance, touching the screen as bolt will make him invincible, and he can actually damage enemies and objects this way, while blowing into microphone will make him perform a super bark, while Penny can do a spinning attack on touch and a smoke bomb on microphone input. There are only a few enemy types, so there's not a whole lot of variety or strategy. The game features a level progression, like a light RPG, when the enemies die, they drop an item that can be used to boost main character's abilities, attack, defense or speed/energy depending on which character, and once you spend enough points on all three, you level up and unlock new combos that may prove to be more powerful and useful, so fighting enemies isn't a complete waste, but the combat is not very difficult to be honest. There are also upgrades that can be found in levels, health and energy boosts, so there's a light element of exploration, and normal containers can feature health pickups, energy or EXP. Aside from platforming and fighting, there are occasional mini-games that use the touch screen, like hacking which is basically "connect the dots" and avoid hazards, or tracing a line to cut something with Bolt's eye lasers.

Your objectives through missions are mostly the same, get somewhere, defeat enemies or play a mini-game to progress, though there's a little bit more for variety, like destroying objects, surviving for a set amount of time and disarm rockets as Bolt. There are a few standouts, like towards the end, where you need to get Bolt in cage to Penny, which is rather awkward, also can't Penny just pick the cage? I mean it is big, but I don't think it's that heavy. In the same level you have to bait the enemies to break a container with Penny's Wheel-Bar so she can fight them and continue with the mission, but these moments are few and far between, I found the game to be pretty repetitive overall, and the levels can take more than 10 minutes to complete, though it's not consistent, as some levels are much shorter than others. Luckily, the game saves at certain points mid-level. My big issue with this game is camera. The game is fully 3D, with some open areas and some corridors, and occasional top-down view, but for the most part the camera is zoomed in on the main character a bit too much for my liking. It makes it easy to lose enemies from the view and for them to hit you when they're offscreen and it doesn't help with finding the correct path or key elements for progression, the most you can do with camera is pan it left or right with shoulder buttons. There are occasions where the camera is further away, and there's no noticeable performance problems if the devs were worried about that, so I don't know why it's so zoomed in. I think the game would've been much better if it was a little further away all the time, and not sometimes. Another issue I have, though this one is pretty minor, is that I wish the tutorial text for controls didn't have to say control schemes for both right and left handed options at the same time, but only said one depending on the control scheme chosen in the options.

Aside from the main game, there's also a small side game, Rhino's Mission, which is like a Super Monkey Ball sort of deal, you tilt the screen by using D-Pad, touch screen or the face buttons, if you're left handed of course. The controls feel janky at first, but honestly it's kinda fun, you guide Rhino through corridors on a time limit, collecting seeds and avoid hazards. There are only a few levels, each based on a world of the main game, so it ends up being a bit short, but it's easily the most fun I've had with the game, if it wasn't for this inclusion my opinion on this game as a whole would've been a bit lower. The only issue I have regarding this mode is that there's no camera control, and hitting some hazards turns the camera, creating awkward situations. I beat both easy and hard options, hard mode makes the time limit stricter and the hazards deal more damage, but otherwise it's identical.

Let's talk about graphics, music and overall presentation. The graphics are pretty decent, and the game runs very smoothly, I'm convinced it runs at full 60 FPS, and the frame drops are rare. But, as I mentioned, the camera is zoomed in on the player for most of the time, which not only hinders gameplay, but also the graphical fidelity. It's clear the game can show a lot of geometry on screen without any noticeable performance issues, as there are some cinematic shots, and occasions where the camera is distanced away, like for certain platforming segments, or pulling/pushing something as Bolt. I honestly wouldn't have minded a smooth 30 FPS if it meant I could see more of the level. Maybe achieving full 60 with full 3D isn't as difficult as I think it is, I haven't played very many DS games, and admittedly there's not much complex geometry in the levels, but still. The models also look decent. The presentation during cutscenes I'm more mixed on, sometimes the characters look good, but sometimes they look strange. The music is kinda average, not bad but I don't think it's anything special, and it's not very high quality, compared to, say, The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody: Circle of Spies' soundtrack which sounds high quality for the hardware, and it released earlier the same year.

Overall, Bolt for Nintendo DS ends up being a pretty mediocre action game, the combat is repetitive and not even necessary most of the time, the platforming is basic, with occasional mini-game or unique objective breaking up the pace, but ultimately it's nothing special. The only things I can confidently say I liked are the game felt pretty smooth to play, and the Rhino Mission was decently enjoyable.