Drone Tactics

Drone Tactics' fusion of turn-based strategy, card battle elements, and the customization of your giant robo-bugs looks to be a lot more interesting than the snoozy name lets on.

Yamato, Tsubasa, Shoya, and Yui, kids with the unlikely hobby of bug watching, are whisked away to planet Cimexus to defend sentient insects from the Black Swarm! K-buto, Y-Ite, and other insects transform into super-powered mecha Drones when activated by humans with Master Cards, but since the Black Swarm has some too, you'll be duking it out via the grid-based tactical battle system. Each Drone has its own strengths. For example, an advantage in either melee, gun, or ranged cannon attacks, and terrains carry bonuses or penalties. Units gain experience to level up, and thankfully, you don't lose characters for good when they die. It feels like a pretty normal tactics game until you start collecting cards.

Card effects range from healing to hard-hitting attacks, like Neptune Horn, which requires a screen tapping session to get your pistons pumping. In the beginning you don't have any cards at all, but later on the composition of your deck becomes such a key strategy that there is even an option to train for the mini-games.

In addition to your card deck, you're also givin a surprising amount of control over the appearance of your Drones. Upgrades purchased with scrap materials at the snail base actually appear when you equip them, plus you can alter paint jobs and design a team logo. All of this shows up on the top screen in the 3-D attack animations.

Between the cute, comfortable anime style, 60 extra missions arranged by level, plus wireless battles, Drone Tactics seems like a safe bet for hours of strategizing on DS come May 13.

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