If you happen to have a pre-teen in the house, you'll know that Gormiti: The Lords of Nature! is all the buzz right now. Eclipsed only slightly by the onslaught of Bakugan and Beyblade, Gormiti has managed to become a strong toy brand. Part collectible-card game and part miniatures action, Gormiti: The Lords of Nature! also has the benefit of a running television presence on Nickelodeon. It's a perfect opportunity for some licensed gameplay, so we were surprised to find this DS entry seriously lacking in curb appeal. The computer-animated sequences that run between levels and stages are laughable, something you'd imagine came out of a correspondence-course in animation rather than a pro game studio. There isn't any voice acting, other than some sound effects, and the text scrolls down the screen in segments, like something out of Pictochat. This material mostly ties into the show and the Gormiti backstory. The main game is a muddled mess on the screen, regardless of how well it plays. You'll at least be able to pick out gameplay elements that require interaction, like switches, and each of the lands you explore have the right feel. The forest is green, the sea is blue, the members of the Volcanic tribe appear as fiery red spurts... There's no real connection to the style of play kids are accustomed to in the card game, such as depictions of the collectible cards, and the character models are just too rough to be very exciting. The big payoff should either be exploring a more realistic version of the world of Gorm, or playing a more limited puzzle/card game with realistic characters. Instead, we've got bland characters set against a bland background.

The action quotient in Gormiti: The Lords of Nature! is only slightly higher than its cosmetic appearance. You know you're in trouble when the game's manual only consists of one page to explain the controls... It's not that kids haven't been stuck with licensed claptrap before, but most of those games at least pretended they had a coherent story. We'll give some points to Gormiti: The Lords of Nature! for translating simplistic card/miniatures rules to a videogame, and there's no doubt that it's a playable product. The idea of the tribes working together is a bit strange, considering they are generally portrayed as enemies. Teaming tribes up gave the developers a chance to establish some classic cooperative gameplay...simple puzzles that require the use of more than one character under your control, and lots of pressure switches. Sure, even big-kid games like Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light use pressure switches, but the idea of mixing the tribes to solve puzzles becomes a worn-out device very quickly. You'll find special switches that only one tribe can activate, power points that can only be activated by a specific tribe, and variations on these themes. You'll also get into some battles with bosses and minions, navigable by no more than modest wits and diligent tapping. Can we coin a new phrase for "stylus mashing," since there aren't any buttons involved? On the plus side, kids won't need much preparation or training to feel like they've mastered Gormiti: The Lords of Nature!, and that works in the game's favor as kids keep playing, trying to explore new areas of Gorm, and uncovering special characters ("Lords" in the game's parlance) as they complete stages representing each tribe's stomping ground. The only extra offered here is a sliding puzzle game, that feels more like a throwaway than anything else.

During the playable sections, you'll get hints occasionally that show new objectives, often accompanied by some visual cues, but you're mostly on your own. Each area of Gormiti: The Lords of Nature! is a constrained set piece, and there are only so many things one can do because of the lock-and-key mechanics between the Lords and the objects with which they can interact. These objects can take slightly different shapes, but older gamers will find it a simple task to plan and execute a strategy for clearing a specific level. A Lord from the Water Tribe will be able to ford rivers, while a member of the Air tribe can float up and down on drafts of wind, to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. Through these divide-and-conquer sequences, you'll have to figure out where and when to use the special power of one tribe, in order to set the others up for success. Once these puzzles get more complex, younger gamers will be left in the dust, as the structure of the game is often confusing. Splitting out the wrong characters results in a dead end, and finding the characters left behind gets harder as the levels grow in size. Younger kids that are more interested in twitchy action than close observation and planning will find Gormiti: The Lords of Nature! extremely frustrating. Each level feels like a puzzle, and it's only because each Lord is able to control exactly one element that things are manageable. The weakest part of the game comes from repetition and overly long or involved levels that will leave younger gamers frustrated, bored, or all the above. When they set out to create a cooperative game experience, they should have been shooting for more variety or at least more obvious ways that characters could get from place to place, in order to appeal to younger gamers.

All the action in Gormiti: The Lords of Nature! is handled through the touch screen. This is a decent way to explore Gorm, but it falls apart once the battles begin. When you need to move quickly, Gormiti: The Lords of Nature! feels muddy and unresponsive, not to mention when you have to attack the enemy. Holding down the stylus near the characters you happen to control will move them in whatever direction you specify, and tapping an object will cause your Gormiti to activate or otherwise use it. A chart is listed on the side of the screen, showing the characters you have available for play. You can select all three to move together, or tap a specific character to single it out. This helps navigate puzzles that are specifically designed to slow you, because there will only be one character capable of making initial progress. Throw a switch, break a wall, grow a living bridge, or move some special objects to allow your friends to pass through otherwise closed doors and navigate obstacles. The controls are the one of the more interesting and well-executed aspects of Gormiti: The Lords of Nature!, which isn't saying much for the game. What should be a smooth, top-down action title turns into a pastiche of numerous other licensed games we've played over the years. Even when these ideas for gameplay are awesome, the entire thing is dragged down by slow performance and weak graphics. Puzzle gameplay is fine and well, as long as the demographic for the game is fully capable of success. We're not sure how many pre-teens will have the patience for Gormiti: The Lords of Nature!, but we'd guess not many. In the end, the Gormiti: The Lords of Nature! card/miniatures game isn't as much about expansion sets as it is about imaginative play. We'd love nothing more than to see a company turn a toy into the next Army Men videogame franchise, but Gormiti: The Lords of Nature! is not that game. Too many rough edges, repetitive gameplay, and structure that isn't ideal for young kids conspire to keep this from being one we can recommend. One size fits none, if you will...