Doraemon: Nobita to 3-tsu no Seireiseki
Description
Based on the anime series of the same name, this is a 3D action game similar to Super Mario 64. Three sacred crystals were broken into pieces and scattered across the world. Controlling Doraemon, a robotic cat-like creature who can enter fantasy world through his dreams, and his three friends, you must retrieve the crystal pieces and prevent a powerful demon from conquering the world. You can switch between the five playable characters (Doraemon himself, Jaian the karaoke bully, Suneo the boxer, Shizuka, a girl who can jump very high, and Nobita the pea-shooter), each one of which has his/her own fighting style and abilities. Doraemon can upgrade himself by collecting various tools that will allow him to breath underwater, to fly, or to ride a winger dragon.
Spellings
- ドラえもん のび太と3つの精霊石 - Japanese Spelling
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 57% (based on 7 ratings)
Players
Average score: 2.1 out of 5 (based on 5 ratings with 1 reviews)
The Good
It's not the worst it could have been
The Bad
Confusing objectives, poor platforming.
The Bottom Line
Doraemon is a very popular anime/manga character. I’ve definitely seen the robo cat’s design before. The first N64 outing took inspiration from Super Mario 64 – to the point that multiple reviewers at the time suggested it was close enough for Nintendo’s lawyers to get involved. While it looks a bit like Super Mario 64 (especially the first level, with trees looking like they were stripped out), but it doesn’t play like Mario.
Doraemon is a 3D platformer and is a lot like Mario, but different in many ways. You have access to five different characters (plus a bonus one after beating the game) – Doraemon himself and the kids he hangs out with. There’s a girl that jumps higher than the rest and throws bombs, there’s kid that looks like Tommy Pickles that punches and does more damage, while Doraemon has an arm cannon. Interestingly, the title character, Nobita, is just a poor gameplay clone of Doraemon, so there’s no reason to ever use him. You can swap between them at will, but the game never makes use of this mechanic.
Then there’s the actual movement. Mario had a wide moveset, in Doraemon you have one kind of jump. It’s stiff and clunky and to make matters work, your character comes to a complete stop when you land. When the movement of a platforming game is dull, it makes the whole game dull. There are a few minigames thrown in, such as a racing game and a scrolling vertical shooter, but these are similarly boring to control.
The story is something I had to rely on Google translate, which baffled me as the first line came out as “Is it coronavirus?”, it turned out that the King’s name is “Korona”. Anyway, an ancient danger has awoken, the princess is sent to get help from another world because Doraemon has a magical pocket. The pocket gets stolen, but you get it back early on, but the objects are missing. Oh, and there are some fairy stones that you also need to collect pieces off to defeat the ancient evil.
The stones are simple, as they’re just at the end of levels, but the other objects are hidden in chests across the world. Some are optional, some are required, and you have to do some really random things for some, including repeating previous levels (but only some).
Doraemon isn’t atrocious, there’s just nothing good about it. The levels all feel random with no stand out visual design to them, and the gameplay itself is just boring. Japanese speakers who are fans of the show might get something out of the (fairly generic) story and random objects (I’m just guessing that they might be references), but it would still be tedious to play through the game.
Nintendo 64 · by Cube1701 · 2024
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Related Sites +
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Wikipedia: Doraemon: Nobita to 3tsu no Seirei Ishi
Information about Doraemon: Nobita to 3tsu no Seirei Ishi at Wikipedia
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Unicorn Lynx.
Additional contributors: chirinea, DreinIX.
Game added February 1st, 2005. Last modified November 6th, 2023.