The Series reaches its full potential in its Console Version.
In terms of storytelling, Origins doesn't break any new ground, but it shows that steps are being made to make a particularly good story. The word "Origins," is in the title, but this isn't a prequel to the series. It's the third title in the series in terms of chronology and obviously release, but it does tell an "origins" story so to speak without moving too far into spoiler territory. Starring protagonists Rallen and Jenna are out for their normal patrol, only to be sucked into a portal that causes them to be brought into another system known as the Kaio system and find that the inhabitants of this system are now in danger because of Krawl now reappearing to consume this edge of the Universe. You'll learn about the NPP's commander, Grant, and what he did when he was younger. You also learn the origins of the villain, "Krux," and you'll learn more about the nature of the Spectrobes. At the end of the day, the plot is predictable and doesn't do much to set itself apart from others of its kind, but it's nothing unbearably bad that you'll bang your head over. Some foreknowledge of the previous Spectrobes games is needed in order to understand some of what's going on, but it's all stuff you might be able to piece together on your own if you don't feel like playing the DS games.
Graphically, Spectrobes Origins manages to be eye pleasing, but doesn't do anything that couldn't be done on the Gamecube. The CGI cut scenes are brilliant, something that really pleases the eyes when you get a chance to see them, but the in game graphics themselves of course aren't exactly the most advanced looking you'll see on the Wii. When it comes to technical aspects, the animation is good, the frame rate doesn't take too many dives and only happens every now and then when there are tons of Krawl on the screen, and there's no clipping that occurs with the backgrounds and character models. In terms of sound, Spectrobes Origins manages to deliver the goods in order to keep the mute button from being pressed. The music is nothing that will make you want to download the soundtrack, but it sets the feel for the situation be it for any of the basic planets or for any action based event. Even if the voice acting isn't going to win any awards, it does manage to stand above the rest in terms of most kid friendly games when it comes to getting the story across, particularly with Krux, Rallen and Kamtoga.
Finally, what makes Spectrobes Origins better than its handheld kind is the way it plays. Much like its DS predecessors, it's an action RPG where you fight as your character along with your Spectrobes. It's your choice for Rallen or Jenna, but they don't really have any major differences in how they fight, it basically depends on whether or not you want to play as a male character or a female character. Either way, you play as the human character while the computer controls the Spectrobe in battle. The key differences in combat from the DS games comes from the fact that you can only let out one Spectrobe on the battlefield at a time, which was probably a good idea to keep the battle arena from getting too cluttered. To compensate for this though, combination attacks have been replaced with Special Attacks which happen when after defeating enough enemies your Spectrobe is able to unleash a more powerful attack than its normal one. You control your character with the analog stick and pressing the C button brings up the targeting screen to allow you to select a target for your Spectrobe to attack. Pressing the A Button triggers an attack from Rallen or Jeena while thrusting the Wiimote will send your Spectrobe to attack the targeted enemy. Pressing the B Button allows for attacking with the Special Attack, but you can only do this when you gain enough charge orbs from the enemies. If you want to change Spectrobes in the middle of battle, you press the Z button and select with the D-Pad. When the D-Pad isn't selecting Spectrobes you use it in order to change the camera angle, which is helpful in levels where you might end up getting crowded in the middle of a Krawl fight. Just like Beyond the Portals before it, your character is also capable of selecting from even more weapons than before, this time adding lances and axes to the mix. I personally still find the sword to be the most versatile and effective, but if your fighting style is more suited towards any of the weapons you find, then they're there for you. There's also shields to protect you from suffering more damage than you might like, giving players more of a defensive edge in the heat of battle.
In order to progress through the game's story, you have to visit a planet and defeat the Krawl boss. You can only do this when you solve a few puzzles and explore the surroundings. When you explore a planet, a child Spectrobe will accompany you and can investigate the surroundings for minerals or fossils by wagging the Wii Remote to that area. These are easily found because of the sparkles that come up from the ground, which need to be brought back to the ship to be excavated.
The excavation isn't that different from its DS prequels, aside from the use of the Wii Remote to do the task by simply selecting a tool on the screen and then using it by activating with the A Button. Even though the excavation system was more inventive on the DS, the new one addresses more complaints from the DS games on the Wii. Scratching the touchscreen and blowing into the microphone does make for some cool uses of the system's features, but it did manage to get quite old fairly fast. Origins' excavation system does have the same effect, but you won't find yourself irritated at it for the most part. When you finish excavating you get a grade depending on how well you did, which is affected by how much damage you have done to the fossil and how quickly you managed to clean it. The higher the grade, the more your Spectrobe will benefit from better stats. After that, you'll be able to awaken the fossil with a few Wii Remote and Nunchuck movements which will awaken the child Spectrobe.
Child Spectrobes can only be used to scout the ground, but by feeding them minerals in the incubator, they will be able to evolve into adult forms when you finally decide to give them an evolve mineral, which is the minimum requirement for a Spectrobe to assist you in battles. Adult Spectrobes will keep leveling-up until you evolve them into Ultimate Spectrobes, which are the most powerful form they can attain.
The Spectrobes and enemies all have an element assigned to them, being ice, plant, sky, fire and ground with each one having it's own strength and weakness against a certain element. Fire being stronger than plant, ice is stronger than fire, and you'll probably be able to figure out the rest. This makes for a bit of strategy to take into consideration since this also applies to your weapons, and it can mean the difference between success and defeat. While you search the planets, you'll find elemental barriers than can only be removed with the help of a child spectrobe of the same element.
It's a fairly simply built game that fans of the first two games will most likely eat up, and newcomers might like it as well if they can keep up with some elements of the story they missed. The title does have more appeal for kids than adults, and it is meant to be something easy to play, but it is something that adults may find enjoyable as well especially if they're a fan of Pokemon. There are some issues that keep the series from excelling, but it stays as a fun game from beginning to end, with its nice dungeons, challenging boss battles, and about a hundred Spectrobes (including evolutions) to train. There isn't much replay value once you beat the main story, but game itself takes at the very least 20 hours to beat, which makes for a pretty good justification for a full purchase. If you've been a fan of the franchise for a while, you should definitely consider picking this title up as soon as you can, but if you haven't and it sounds like something you'll enjoy playing, you can buy this with comfort knowing that you'll be getting a good game out of your purchase.