Whenever the Sarbylion Galaxy is being threatened by an evil force DICE (DNA Integrated Cybernetic Enterprises) will come to the rescue. The young men and women that make up Special Unit F99 are on call 24/7 to assist anyone in need. Riding atop their Transformer-esque Dinobreakers, they'll whip their foes with vicious tail strikes, terrorize them with painful looking head butts, and burn them to a crisp using a special Satellite Bot. It's a tough job, but it's all in a days work for these folks. In fact, after a hard day in space they just might release some stress by entering a race, because after all, if you had a giant robotic dinosaur that transformed into a sweet speed demon, wouldn't you want to take the whip out for a spin? No??? You're crazy!

That's essentially the gist of Bandai's animated series, DICE. It's not exactly the most original of concepts yet it's based on the simple idea that if you make a cartoon about cool looking robots that turn into even cooler looking cars the audiences will flock to it, which to a certain extent they have. But regardless of the show's ratings there is a PS2 game that's being developed and I just spent a good two hours with it. DICE is better than some of Bandai's other recently released titles but based on a preview build the company sent to me it's ultimately hampered by a fairly shallow gameplay experience and some questionable design decisions.

In a way DICE reminds me very much of Capcom's Gotcha Force. Similar to that game, it's a futuristic looking and ultimately brainless beat-em-up where you go through several mini missions at a time. Go to one room, attack enemies for two minutes, head off to a different room, beat up on some more enemies, square off against a boss, rinse and repeat. That's basically the first two hours of the game. I'd begin in a room full of bad guys, I'd eliminate a certain number of them and then I'd get whisked off to a similar looking location and do the same thing all over again.

Ok, so Bandai's secret is out of the bag. DICE isn't brain food, but when we're talking about a game based on a show that's aimed at 6 to 11 year olds it doesn't need to be. All you need to know is there are 11 shape-shifting Dinobreakers, they all look really sweet, and they can transform into vehicles that go really fast. You can even hop off your Dinobreaker and walk around, stopping to punch and kick a few adversaries along the way.

All of the playable characters ride their own Dinobreaker, and aside from two game exclusive robots, fans will recognize them as well as their riders. Tak Carter, Jet Siegel, Sam N'Dool, and Robert Clapice have been included, among other familiar faces, and Dinobreakers Motoraptor, Dimetrover, Monocrawler, Hoverptera, and Paratrica are available from the start.

There are also these cool little guys called Satellite Bots, attack machines that come in several distinct flavors. There's only three available at the start of the game (Beam Bot, Missile Bot, Laser Bot) and you can only select one at a time. However, as you progress through the game you'll unlock more. They don't pack a serious punch, but their ranged attacks come in quite handy when squaring off against bosses.

There's no denying how bad @$$ the Dinobreakers look but they don't do anything super amazing, at least from what I've seen. Punches, kicks, and tail swipes are all that I've gotten out of most of them and that's a bummer considering the untapped potential.

I'm also a little concerned about longevity. There appears to be quite a few missions in this game, and if they're as mindless as the first, DICE will get old rather quickly. The developers have spiced things up by placing racing segments into the game (a quick door unlocking sequence and qualifying for the Chikira Grand Prix are the first tastes of this), but every time a rider hits an obstacle he or she will be propelled from the vehicle and the player will have to walk back over to their Dinobreaker and hop back into it. Not only is this extremely annoying because losing precious seconds results in lost races, but this doesn't communicate seat belt safety to the game's target audience.

Races can also be quite disorientating. The qualifying track isn't completely surrounded by a protective barrier which is perfectly fine, but the way things are laid out it can be difficult figuring out which direction to go. At one point I was trapped on this humongous circle and I couldn't tell where I had to go next. Ah yes, and when I went in the wrong direction and landed right into the water, I was teleported back onto the track, but my rider was automatically thrown from the vehicle. Seat belts Bandai! Seat belts!

Then again, should I really expect a game that features a fictitious company named Humpty Electronics to be sophisticated and feature sound game design? Yes, which is why I'm not sure how I feel about DICE. On one hand I sort of enjoy the simple button mashing, but the game's shallow nature coupled with the bad racing have me divided on whether this is actually a good game or not. Sadly, it appears that if you didn't like Gotcha Force or Custom Robo then you'll probably want to pass on DICE, but since the game is being released later this month I'll return with an in depth review. Then, the world will know. Oh yes. The world...will know.