Code Lyoko review

Like the Frenchcartoon/CGI animated showand manga-style comicit's based upon, Code Lyoko is split between time spent in the ordinary, everydayworld at Kadic School and the virtualized world of Lyoko, where the main characters fight off the evil encroachments on realitycreated bythe computer virus, X.A.N.A. In fact, this is the biggest thing the game does right: itreproduces the experience of the TV show, with cutscenes and missions often taken right from the cartoon.

Jeremy, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd and Aelita, the five heroes, are all playable in the game, and you'll need to use all five of them to kick virtual butt...except Jeremy, because he doesn't kick butt so much as justuse computers. But we suppose if you consider monitoring Lyoko, being a science geek and giving vital information to the other characters "helping," Jeremy could be considered a butt-kicker too.

The gameplay is split between running errands in the real world and fighting X.A.N.A. in Lyoko. There are a few flaws with each world, but the biggest is navigating the halls of the school in the real one. The map living on the top DS screen only gives you a general idea ofwhere you are (there's no "you are here" arrow), and each time you walk to a new area,it rotates or flips or stays the same without leaving the player so much as a virtual clue to its new orientation. This of course begs the question, if Jeremy can operate a secret virtual reality command station, shouldn't he be able to find north on a map and make it stay in one place?