Based on the 2007 Walt Disney Pictures film of the same name, 'Enchanted' for the Nintendo DS has the player embark on an epic quest with Princess Giselle in order to find her true love, Prince Edward.
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ngl i like it still to this day 😭😭
Enchanted for Nintendo DS, is, well... not that good as you can imagine. It’s basically a worse version of Phineas and Ferb for the same platform, though seeing as that game released a few years later, the opposite is more like it: Phineas and Ferb is a better Enchanted. Not that that makes it a great game anyway.
So, what do we have here? It’s a 3D platformer, with touch screen mini-games galore. The platforming itself is not very challenging or fun, and occasionally requires touchscreen action, like swinging off poles. There’s also material gathering aspect, something that sees a return in Phineas and Ferb, as Giselle you’ll find yourself crafting dresses or other stuff required to move the game along. Gathering materials requires using a specific touch screen action for specific instances, like a circular move to clean a spider’s web to gather some string and such, or honey from bee hives. I, uhh… don’t like the crafting aspect of this game. First off, gathering materials becomes a chore – you basically go back and forth between transitions to respawn item spots, and do one and the same task. Second, the crafting itself presents one and the same mini-game of drawing a circle to spin the bucket with materials that’s been thrown in, you’ll have to change from clock-wise to counter clock-wise periodically. I don’t remember having to grind in Phineas and Ferb, though in fairness I did gather most materials on my way to the goal, while this game throws you in a sort-of central location with no goal besides collecting materials. Even if I did grind in that game, it wasn’t as egregious as in this one.
Giselle is accompanied by various animal buddies of varying usefulness… mostly context specific. There’s a chipmunk/rat, the animal depends on whether you’re in Andalasia or in New York, but serves same functionality. Anyway, to be honest… I forgor what it does. I remember the rat was useful to lure slime enemies in New York (don’t question that) onto vents to make them fall through, where you controlled the rat with the touch screen, which was… kinda interesting, makes me think of Overlord in a way. There was also one area where the rat just chewed a wall to pass through, which lead to materials. Otherwise, I don’t think it’s useful for anything. There’s a Bear/Dog which is heavy enough to sit on switches. A cartoony blue bird/pigeon, which can be used to gather some out of reach materials. Butterflies, which make you move faster, especially if combined with a cartwheel move which only seems to serve as a mobility option, as it’s faster than just running. As soon as I discovered they make you fast, I made as much use of them as I could. There’s a unicorn/horse that can kick an obstacle, which is only used in the main story, like, 2 times. If you thought that animal was useless, hold your horses, let me introduce you to skunk/skunk. All it does is… gas enemies. It’s only required in a sort-of tutorial section where you let terrible smell at 10 mushroom enemies, and never use it again. Seeing as there’s no need to defeat enemies as Giselle, at least not in the main story, pretending these enemies don't exist is a viable strategy. Lastly, there’s a cat, who is unlocked after the game has been beaten and you reload the game in the “Enchanted Mode”, where all areas are open to explore, if you want to 100% this thing. You can pet the cat by drawing a circle around it, which restores health. The recovery is slow, so it’s usefulness is questionable.
There are song stages scattered about. Neat, but most of them are just… useless? The game says if you sing a song on them, something will happen. Well, in the tutorial, it opened a door. The mini-game is just tracing a line of one of the images presented. After that, I tried a couple, and didn’t notice any good effects, so I continued ignoring them until they were actually required. Like, what’s the point? There’s a song that makes you walk on water, which is required once (or twice, I don't remember anymore). Again, it could be useful for 100% thing, but it’s very situational outside of that, as if these pads are mostly a pointless distraction.
Besides Giselle, you’ll also have to play as Pip the Chipmunk and Prince Edward. Let’s talk about the former. Pip’s sections are pretty simple 2D platforming sections. You can use a touch screen to touch Pip to jump (or use a button for that), and there are items scattered throughout, which can also be touched. Pip can cling onto walls and ceilings, and enter some glass orb thing for rodents and ride inside it which gives a speed boost, though you can’t climb surfaces like that. When you beat the level, you get a rank based on your performance. I kept consistently getting B ranks, not sure how to get it higher. Maybe collecting all items, or I just wasn’t fast enough, even though I pretty much speedran my way through. There are also a couple of basic bosses tied to these sections. It’s a pretty simple and inoffensive distraction. That’s where my assessment of this gameplay type would probably end, but, according to The Cutting Room Floor, Pip’s Game was supposed to be a separate item on the main menu and not mandatory for the main story (or maybe it was still mandatory, we may never know for sure), which does explain the ranking system and best time saving, despite having to start a new game to see that new record. To be fair, presence of these sections does make sense in the context of the game’s story… except, for the last one, where Nathaniel seemingly frees the chipmunk from the ball thingy where he put him in the first place, which is NOT what happens in the movie… only for Pip to be entrapped in it again, and be freed by Edward at the end, something that DOES actually happen in the movie. Apparently, there was also one Pip level completely cut, he would’ve climbed up to the dragon and made it fall, just like in the movie, but the level was never made. Altron did eventually get to make a side game that remained a side game, that being Bolt DS and its Rhino’s Mission, and that legit was the most fun I got out of that game. I could probably say the same for Pip’s Game honestly, even if it’s just simple and OK.
Next, we have Prince Edward, which focuses on the combat. Guess what? More touchscreen goodness! Basically, you touch an enemy when an icon appears and participate in fighting. First, you “catch stars”, there’s stars falling from the top where you have to touch them and avoid black ones, one that moves about and bounces away when you touch it and you have to touch it multiple times, and a roulette. Depending on the color, you may receive health, a special meter, or… I think increased damage? Anyway, there are a few methods of attacks. Slices when you slide in heart icons from one end to another, thrust, when you just touch multiple dots, or… more thrusting when you have one dot, but you touch it multiple times. There are also moments where you have to defend yourself by sliding in a wave-like pattern, and there are also occasions where you need to ESCAPE! By touching one dot multiple times… again. Pretty simple… and fairly repetitive. There’s not much variety in what you do for attacks. Maybe they add a couple harder ones that still act the same, but ultimately, there’s still not much to keep me interested or engaged. There are also pointless finishing moves, assuming you didn’t touch a bad star in the opening, you’ll have to perform a finishing move, again, slide a heart icon from one end to another, but in a complex pattern (ok, you don't actually HAVE to do it, you can just let the timer run out). All it does is… give you a spectacle, and more hit combo, which is, as far as I can tell, worthless. One more detail, is that at the end of the game, Giselle takes on the role of Prince Edward, with identical mechanics, to fight the dragon. That’s it. Actually, there’s also Edward’s Horse sections, that I forgot about the first time until I encountered it for the second and final time. It’s very simple, you draw a circle around the horse to speed up clockwise, or slow down counter-clockwise. You tap the horse or Edward to jump over or duck under oncoming obstacles. That’s all there is to the mini-game. Pretty basic.
The graphics are alright, and the music… well, it’s also alright. One thing I noticed with Altron’s DS games is that they retain that GBA sound quality, I noticed this with their later games (Bolt DS and Phineas and Ferb DS), and this game just reaffirmed that Altron didn’t feel like upgrading… for some reason. Heck, I can even recognise some sound effects from Hey Arnold! The Movie, a Game Boy Advance game from 2002. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but DS is capable of producing high quality sound. Again, I’m gonna cite The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody: Circle of Spies’s soundtrack as one of the best and highest quality soundtracks I’ve heard from the handheld. Even Madagascar DS and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire DS show how big an upgrade the sound’s quality is over their GBA counterparts, and they released relatively early in DS’s life span (at least, they released a couple years earlier than this game, and Altron’s subsequent ones). The story… ok, I don’t usually talk about stories in these games, because they’re usually the same as the movie. The thing is, this is the only licensed game, out of more than 60 that I’ve played up to this point, that actually made me want to watch its source material. And so I did. The game is mostly faithful to the movie, though there are a bunch of differences throughout. Like how Robert and Giselle at the end don’t make a callback to that one scene at the beginning of the movie, where Giselle lands in Edward’s hands. It does also have a few scenes that aren’t in the movie, like the one where Nancy receives pigeon gift delivery and talks about forgiveness. There are a few instances where you’re transported to Andalasia for a flashback or “What if?”, which is usually used to teach a new mechanic. Also, there are slimes ramming about in New York, Narissa’s minions, the game says. Yeah. I did notice a few grammatical errors in the text, though not as many as in game’s unused files.
Overall, the game ends up being a very “meh” experience. The game does feel a little unfinished and unpolished at times, for example, you can encounter straight up dead ends, which made me lose time. Like, for Enchanted Mode, sure, but for main story just block the unnecessary routes, alright? The crafting and gathering aspects are not very enjoyable. The mini-games are pretty repetitive, one thing I can’t criticize Phineas and Ferb DS for is the increased variety of them (even if that game still ends up being repetitive at times). And I feel there are too many ideas, that many things feel pointless. The combat is mediocre at best. Enchanted for Nintendo DS is simply not a very good game.
So, what do we have here? It’s a 3D platformer, with touch screen mini-games galore. The platforming itself is not very challenging or fun, and occasionally requires touchscreen action, like swinging off poles. There’s also material gathering aspect, something that sees a return in Phineas and Ferb, as Giselle you’ll find yourself crafting dresses or other stuff required to move the game along. Gathering materials requires using a specific touch screen action for specific instances, like a circular move to clean a spider’s web to gather some string and such, or honey from bee hives. I, uhh… don’t like the crafting aspect of this game. First off, gathering materials becomes a chore – you basically go back and forth between transitions to respawn item spots, and do one and the same task. Second, the crafting itself presents one and the same mini-game of drawing a circle to spin the bucket with materials that’s been thrown in, you’ll have to change from clock-wise to counter clock-wise periodically. I don’t remember having to grind in Phineas and Ferb, though in fairness I did gather most materials on my way to the goal, while this game throws you in a sort-of central location with no goal besides collecting materials. Even if I did grind in that game, it wasn’t as egregious as in this one.
Giselle is accompanied by various animal buddies of varying usefulness… mostly context specific. There’s a chipmunk/rat, the animal depends on whether you’re in Andalasia or in New York, but serves same functionality. Anyway, to be honest… I forgor what it does. I remember the rat was useful to lure slime enemies in New York (don’t question that) onto vents to make them fall through, where you controlled the rat with the touch screen, which was… kinda interesting, makes me think of Overlord in a way. There was also one area where the rat just chewed a wall to pass through, which lead to materials. Otherwise, I don’t think it’s useful for anything. There’s a Bear/Dog which is heavy enough to sit on switches. A cartoony blue bird/pigeon, which can be used to gather some out of reach materials. Butterflies, which make you move faster, especially if combined with a cartwheel move which only seems to serve as a mobility option, as it’s faster than just running. As soon as I discovered they make you fast, I made as much use of them as I could. There’s a unicorn/horse that can kick an obstacle, which is only used in the main story, like, 2 times. If you thought that animal was useless, hold your horses, let me introduce you to skunk/skunk. All it does is… gas enemies. It’s only required in a sort-of tutorial section where you let terrible smell at 10 mushroom enemies, and never use it again. Seeing as there’s no need to defeat enemies as Giselle, at least not in the main story, pretending these enemies don't exist is a viable strategy. Lastly, there’s a cat, who is unlocked after the game has been beaten and you reload the game in the “Enchanted Mode”, where all areas are open to explore, if you want to 100% this thing. You can pet the cat by drawing a circle around it, which restores health. The recovery is slow, so it’s usefulness is questionable.
There are song stages scattered about. Neat, but most of them are just… useless? The game says if you sing a song on them, something will happen. Well, in the tutorial, it opened a door. The mini-game is just tracing a line of one of the images presented. After that, I tried a couple, and didn’t notice any good effects, so I continued ignoring them until they were actually required. Like, what’s the point? There’s a song that makes you walk on water, which is required once (or twice, I don't remember anymore). Again, it could be useful for 100% thing, but it’s very situational outside of that, as if these pads are mostly a pointless distraction.
Besides Giselle, you’ll also have to play as Pip the Chipmunk and Prince Edward. Let’s talk about the former. Pip’s sections are pretty simple 2D platforming sections. You can use a touch screen to touch Pip to jump (or use a button for that), and there are items scattered throughout, which can also be touched. Pip can cling onto walls and ceilings, and enter some glass orb thing for rodents and ride inside it which gives a speed boost, though you can’t climb surfaces like that. When you beat the level, you get a rank based on your performance. I kept consistently getting B ranks, not sure how to get it higher. Maybe collecting all items, or I just wasn’t fast enough, even though I pretty much speedran my way through. There are also a couple of basic bosses tied to these sections. It’s a pretty simple and inoffensive distraction. That’s where my assessment of this gameplay type would probably end, but, according to The Cutting Room Floor, Pip’s Game was supposed to be a separate item on the main menu and not mandatory for the main story (or maybe it was still mandatory, we may never know for sure), which does explain the ranking system and best time saving, despite having to start a new game to see that new record. To be fair, presence of these sections does make sense in the context of the game’s story… except, for the last one, where Nathaniel seemingly frees the chipmunk from the ball thingy where he put him in the first place, which is NOT what happens in the movie… only for Pip to be entrapped in it again, and be freed by Edward at the end, something that DOES actually happen in the movie. Apparently, there was also one Pip level completely cut, he would’ve climbed up to the dragon and made it fall, just like in the movie, but the level was never made. Altron did eventually get to make a side game that remained a side game, that being Bolt DS and its Rhino’s Mission, and that legit was the most fun I got out of that game. I could probably say the same for Pip’s Game honestly, even if it’s just simple and OK.
Next, we have Prince Edward, which focuses on the combat. Guess what? More touchscreen goodness! Basically, you touch an enemy when an icon appears and participate in fighting. First, you “catch stars”, there’s stars falling from the top where you have to touch them and avoid black ones, one that moves about and bounces away when you touch it and you have to touch it multiple times, and a roulette. Depending on the color, you may receive health, a special meter, or… I think increased damage? Anyway, there are a few methods of attacks. Slices when you slide in heart icons from one end to another, thrust, when you just touch multiple dots, or… more thrusting when you have one dot, but you touch it multiple times. There are also moments where you have to defend yourself by sliding in a wave-like pattern, and there are also occasions where you need to ESCAPE! By touching one dot multiple times… again. Pretty simple… and fairly repetitive. There’s not much variety in what you do for attacks. Maybe they add a couple harder ones that still act the same, but ultimately, there’s still not much to keep me interested or engaged. There are also pointless finishing moves, assuming you didn’t touch a bad star in the opening, you’ll have to perform a finishing move, again, slide a heart icon from one end to another, but in a complex pattern (ok, you don't actually HAVE to do it, you can just let the timer run out). All it does is… give you a spectacle, and more hit combo, which is, as far as I can tell, worthless. One more detail, is that at the end of the game, Giselle takes on the role of Prince Edward, with identical mechanics, to fight the dragon. That’s it. Actually, there’s also Edward’s Horse sections, that I forgot about the first time until I encountered it for the second and final time. It’s very simple, you draw a circle around the horse to speed up clockwise, or slow down counter-clockwise. You tap the horse or Edward to jump over or duck under oncoming obstacles. That’s all there is to the mini-game. Pretty basic.
The graphics are alright, and the music… well, it’s also alright. One thing I noticed with Altron’s DS games is that they retain that GBA sound quality, I noticed this with their later games (Bolt DS and Phineas and Ferb DS), and this game just reaffirmed that Altron didn’t feel like upgrading… for some reason. Heck, I can even recognise some sound effects from Hey Arnold! The Movie, a Game Boy Advance game from 2002. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but DS is capable of producing high quality sound. Again, I’m gonna cite The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody: Circle of Spies’s soundtrack as one of the best and highest quality soundtracks I’ve heard from the handheld. Even Madagascar DS and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire DS show how big an upgrade the sound’s quality is over their GBA counterparts, and they released relatively early in DS’s life span (at least, they released a couple years earlier than this game, and Altron’s subsequent ones). The story… ok, I don’t usually talk about stories in these games, because they’re usually the same as the movie. The thing is, this is the only licensed game, out of more than 60 that I’ve played up to this point, that actually made me want to watch its source material. And so I did. The game is mostly faithful to the movie, though there are a bunch of differences throughout. Like how Robert and Giselle at the end don’t make a callback to that one scene at the beginning of the movie, where Giselle lands in Edward’s hands. It does also have a few scenes that aren’t in the movie, like the one where Nancy receives pigeon gift delivery and talks about forgiveness. There are a few instances where you’re transported to Andalasia for a flashback or “What if?”, which is usually used to teach a new mechanic. Also, there are slimes ramming about in New York, Narissa’s minions, the game says. Yeah. I did notice a few grammatical errors in the text, though not as many as in game’s unused files.
Overall, the game ends up being a very “meh” experience. The game does feel a little unfinished and unpolished at times, for example, you can encounter straight up dead ends, which made me lose time. Like, for Enchanted Mode, sure, but for main story just block the unnecessary routes, alright? The crafting and gathering aspects are not very enjoyable. The mini-games are pretty repetitive, one thing I can’t criticize Phineas and Ferb DS for is the increased variety of them (even if that game still ends up being repetitive at times). And I feel there are too many ideas, that many things feel pointless. The combat is mediocre at best. Enchanted for Nintendo DS is simply not a very good game.