Guildford, UK -- Two years ago, EA tried an experiment. Ponder a concept for about six months and see if they could make a game out of it. The team, comprised of Rob (exec producer), Lydia (audio), Dom (designer) and Jacques (art) were asked to create a new children's concept for the mainstream. Of course, success was always the goal and, ultimately, to turn that concept into a game. To make it harder, the team, who had limited experience with handheld games, made the bold decision to create the game for a single platform, the Nintendo DS. The result, called Zubo, lives up to the experiment's goals but only gamers will decide its success.

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Early in the experiment, Jacques started creating these little characters comprised of a head, a torso, arms, legs and big eyes. The result was somewhere between Japanese anime meets French comic books meets a Gorillaz video meets Kubrick figurines.

After deciding upon a modular look for the creatures, Jacques' brain did a creative Cambrian explosion. In about two months, he had created over 200 characters from hardcore punks, to pretty cheerleaders, to Halloween ghouls. The team was overwhelmed. The later designs show off the refined set of concepts, as cylinders and cubes dominate each creature's form and little details like a dog with a black hole in his back side made us giggle, Jacques says in a French accent with a matter of fact half-grin, "Because he farts in the game."

EA's Bright Light office space shows off several posters of Jacques' creations. Yet, they had to narrow them down to a mere 55, just for the sake of sanity.

The game team, even though they were making this for handheld, decided to treat the game more like a bigger console game. Dom, not shy to admit the accomplishment, admits that it may be the first truly next generation game for the DS. From the version of the game we played, it looks more like a PS1 or PSP game than a DS one.

The Game
Firmly targeted at gamers seven to 11 year olds, players begin Zubo by selecting a male or female character, as they're given a task to get rid of a group of evildoers called Zombos. See, the Zombos have come to ransack the peaceful world and the player must befriend helpful Zubo creatures, who offer special abilities, tactics and other abilities to help forward the cause. A group of characters offers only three slots for Zubos to fill as they journey along the map, swapping out as new Zubos are met. Featuring a full 3-D perspective, a party goes along the map until it encounters an enemy. From there, the game switches to a combat screen that looks similar to those from Final Fantasy.

Through those battles, you help add to the skills of your Zubos. In one twist on the genre, battles are fought by getting the player to tap with the game's musical beat – the more you tap in time, the more damage you do. To mash up the Zubos mix, they're grouped into three classes: performers, defenders and fighters. Performers focus on dance and beat moves as Defenders use power blasts and shields to battle with Fighters attacking Zombos with martial arts and fireballs. The final game will feature over 100 moves available to players as they progress through the game.

In creating stages for the world, the team has created 10 themes for each of the 10 zones in Zubalon. Each theme (Pop, Horror, Fairytale, High Seas, Wild West and five other unannounced themes) reflect both the quirky nature of the Zubos and the key elements of that particular zone.

In one of the levels we played, we strolled on the deck of a pirate ship in search of friends and items that were tasked to our main character. Another level called Wild West assigns us with the task of dragging a TNT box around, using the stylus to create a wick, moving a fire to the wick and then blowing on the DS to keep the flame going. From our limited play time, it appears that Zubo will offer a mix of familiar adventure gameplay with a few welcome twists.

Nintendo DS players looking for a break from the likes of Pokemon might find that Zubo offers a different take on creature companion games. The creature designs are fun and playful like a trendy personality T-shirt. Even while they're cute, both boys, girls and even adults will quickly find a Zubo that they are interested in. Will you buy in? As the game creeps towards its fall release date, you'll be hearing more about the game.