Treasure World Hands-On

If you haven't read up on Treasure World yet, it's a unique game that uses you (yes, you the human) to help Starsweep refuel his ship with stardust. With the help of the robot Wishfinder, you're responsible for searching around the cosmos for stardust--aka wandering around the traffic-congested streets of San Francisco. It's like playing a game in two different worlds, the virtual one as well as the real one. By simply turning on the game and looking through Wishfinder's treasurecope, I immediately picked up 10 new signals while sitting at my desk. I found another 100 between my office and the train station. Since I have a lengthy commute, by the time I made it home, I had picked up well over 300 new signals. This meant that I already had a solid inventory of items to play with, new gear to dress Wishfinder in, and enough stardust to reach Starsweep's first goal. He'll gradually increase the amount of stardust you need to find in order to continue.

The ultimate goal of Treasure World is to help Starsweep get back on his feet so that he can go back to cleaning the stars, but for those who like to collect items and play with them on the DS, Treasure World lets you do that. You can play dress-up with your Wishfinder or plant a lovely garden in the space provided. Each item that you can place on the ground comes with a sound, so you can even create your own musical masterpiece, or find blueprints to use as a guide. It's like an empty music staff for you to play with, except you're using plants, furniture, and lawn ornaments as the notes. From the hundreds of items that we've already picked up, there's a wide variety of stuff, ranging from chocolate eggs to ninja outfits to different species of cacti. Check out the trailer to get a better idea of how it's all laid out.

If you're really into collecting and like to have goals to shoot for, there are constellations, clusters, and galaxies you can complete by gathering the required items. This will unlock even more fun items to play with. It will take some time to pick up everything, but you don't have to do it alone. You can also trade with friends locally or online to complete your collection.

Treasure World is geared toward a younger audience who could probably use this game as a distraction when out in public with their parents. It's easy to keep it in your pocket with the clamshell closed, and it can still pick up Wi-Fi signals as long as you leave the game on. From what we've played, it's a cute and charming DS game with an original concept that would be a good fit for kids or anyone who loves to collect.