Just when the DS is shedding the reputation of housing many games that play more like short tech-demos, Electroplankton arrives. In a market now dominated by classics such as Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Sonic Rush and Kirby: Power Paintbrush, how can Electroplankton ever hope to reach the surface and stay afloat?

The concept of the game is simple. Using a variety of unique underwater tools, mainly small creatures (the titular Electroplankton), you make music. Included are about a dozen or so different setups (or programs) used to make your music, each with different sounds. For instance, one setup is based entirely on recorded vocals of yourself, while another uses four separate notes that you control by sending the 'plankton in different directions to create a nice little rhythm. It's a great bit of fun to play around with and experiment with - but that quickly fades away when you realise there is absolutely nothing else to do in the game.

You can't save your music, which not only would have been nice to listen to later, but would have been excellent had you been allowed to use one program the create a rhythm, save it, then open another program to create a separate layer to play on top of the other one, creating an actual song instead of just a segment of one.

Other than the creation mode, the only other section of the game lies in the Audience mode, where you simply watch the game create some melodies. It's not a whole lot of fun unless you really like the electronic-based music the game spews out, and if you do, then this mode is a nice bit of background music for you - however, you can't actually select what program the game uses, so you may end up hearing a lot of noise that you don't find entertaining on any level.

Electroplankton is great to experiment with. Many users will probably spend a good ten minutes recording funny one-liners into the mic and then manipulating them with the final program, but after doing it once there is almost no incentive to go back and do it again. This is the game's ultimate downfall - even if you do end up going back, perhaps to another program, and creating more music, you'll never be able to save those great rhythms and melodies you come up with and share them with someone else.

The graphics of Electroplankton are actually quite good, creating an inviting underwater atmosphere full of lively colours and shapes that compliment the calming and serene music the visuals help to create very well. The music itself does not always fare as well; often it's hard to even classify it as music, when it's really just a few notes that you're attempting to make a rhythm out of. One program allows you to get some beautiful piano harmonies, but when I can only think of one program - out of a whole set of them - that actually creates something remotely entertaining on a musical level... well, that isn't good.

Electroplankton is not a great game - hell, it isn't even a game. It's a toy, or program, meant for only the few dedicated users out there who will absolutely love it. I'm talking about the ones who will buy another DS and another copy of the game, to truly create music in the way that you should have been allowed to do in the first place. For the rest of us, this is a definite pass; a nice little experiment but unless it's going to really be packed full of things, it's nowhere near worth the price of admission; this one is unfortunately destined to drown in the pool of DS tech-demos and toys, as a great idea that never reached its potential.

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).