VideoGame It's come a long way.
I've been playing the Spectrobes series since the original DS game. I've played every one. I have to say, it's rather entertaining.
Story: Good. The story could have been better, but they did what they did well. It felt like a Saturday morning cartoon, and I mean that in the best way possible. Considering the target audience (children ranging from the ages of 8 to 14) each game did it right.
Graphics: Good It would have been a mediocre, but the graphics improved over time with the years. The first game's graphics were average, with only two high-quality cutscenes. The second game improves the in-game graphics somewhat and adds in more high-quality scenes. The third game's graphics, being for Wii and with the proceeds from two successful predecessors, were superb.
Music: Average It's not something you'll find yourself scowering google search result pages for download links.
Gameplay: More than good, less than great. the game play was fun, but easily became boring after a while in all three games (but was less prevalent in the third game due to the sheer amount of eye-candy.) Level grinding was a horribly boring, and it made me put down the games for several week intervals at some point (again, the third game manages to eliminate this by offering stronger spectrobes that can be excavated in the new areas, but the final dungeon lacks this luxury.) Although somewhat repetitive, I did enjoy the fights though.
VideoGame Review of Beyond The Portals
In my opinion, the best game of the three. It has great graphics, the battles are satisfying, and when you get stronger, so do some of the enemies on the earlier planets. There are few, if any, instances where you need the guide. The elemental armor seems to have no purpose anymore except for being cooler than plain white, but that's forgivable. Battling is intuitive and easy, unlike the original. It is also quite possible to skip all the battles except the bosses. However, the lazy people who do that are in for a surprise, as the bosses are hard to beat without a few levelups along the way. (You can cheat and level up with minerals... But only if you clear out an area so the Child Form Spectrobes aren't afraid to help you look). The sword, blaster, and glove actually do something in this game, and in general, it is a fun game. My only complaint is the three spectrobes and assortment of ship parts that don't seem to be avaliable without the cards, and while decks of bonus cards are probably easy to find, I haven't been able to get them.