People, it seems, are not cranking out a lot of Native American themed video games in abundance.
Sure, they might show up in games as characters (and don’t bring up that hot female from that game set in the new world whose constantly stripping down everytime she leaps into battle), but with the exception of, say Turok for instance (remember his old shooters?) there hasn’t been an abundance of Native American video gaming heroes… until now (we hope).

In an attempt to possibly link into the lacking market for Native American leads in video games, we have this company cranking out a new game called Brave : The Search for Spirit Dancer, an upcoming Action slash Adventure title from Vis/Southpeak.

First off, surprise surprise, Brave is so NOT going to tap into the Turok line of gaming, because (well) the whole Turok line is abit… well… passe these days. So we’re not going to go tiptoeing through the Raptors, through the Raptors, shooting them all in the head, we’re tiptoeing through the Rap-- sorry, I’ll stop now.
Instead of the run and gun approach to gaming, you’ll head out into a “kinder gentler” world where you’ll find a game marketed at the wee ones… and no, not all games marketed at the wee ones suck. Lest we forget some of the wee one games are the best in gameplay (better than some adult fare which blows).
Of course maybe this is not a good thing since Brave is supposed to be on par with the Tak line of games and, well, if you didn’t like the Tak games odds are you’re getting a rash just thinking about Brave.
Then again maybe this is better than Tak… maybe. Let’s hope as we look under the hood of this game.

The first promise made by the game is a balanced “Diet” of combat and exploration to occupy your time, with “a few puzzles thrown in to round out the package”… gee, why does the concept of puzzles “thrown in to round out the package” NOT sounds like a good thing? Well it shouldn’t because, well, the way they put it it’s as if they put in puzzles as an afterthought to “balance” out the game, which

means the puzzles may not be as well developed as they could have been (if they put more thought into the puzzles as something more than just filler to make for a more “balanced” experience).
Of course I could be wrong, but that’s for the actual review to merit out.

Combat is supposed to be straightforward, but is that always a good thing? I mean if you end up button mashing the same buttons all the time then what’s the fun in that!
As for your attacks, the game promises a “pair of main attacks” (let’s see… square slash x or x slash circle I’m guessing) which can be modified by jumping (jump attacks) or holding down the attack button (powered attacks)… gee, is THAT innovation?!? Did Vis/Southpeak dig up CAPCOM’s lack of innovation after they buried it post the release of Resident Evil Outbreak File #2?

Enemies you’ll fight won’t be much of a challenge for you to dispense. It will only take a few chops and swings of your faithful stick or tomahawk (tomahawk chop!) to put down the simple enemies that face you… gee, what fun is THAT -- well, that’s at first but later you’ll get some stronger enemies to battle, which, well, isn’t a big thing since your enemies don’t do much past the simple “strategy” of running at you or shooting at you from a distance with their energy attacks… not very imaginative, is it.

As for the story? You’re Brave, and you’re Native American. As you start you’re adventure you are in dire need of “seasoning” (as in practical warrior experience and not food seasoning to make you edible… mmmm… Brave…), which comes right away as you and pal Meadow Flower end up getting on the wrong side of a giganto grizzly bear (NO, Curt! Don’t go homicidal on the humans!! SOMEBODY CALL OFFICER COPPER RIGHT AWAY!!)

Anyway first job you have to do is run away, run run away from the grizzly, while doing the standard (you’re tired of this by now aren’t you) jumping over chasms and thorny foliage… people still think this is fun, but if you’re not one of them then don’t feel bad, you’re not alone in that sentiment.
After you

escape from my neighbor from Animal Crossing you’ll get hooked up with a village elder (a totally generic “village elder” type of guy probably) who’ll give you the job of finding buried artifacts in a nearby glade (time to reconnect with the kleptomaniac in you as you pick up everything not glued down and shove it into your pouches).

However it’s NOT that simple. To do this, the old dude claims, you must set off on the path to become a great warrior… or a great klepto, whichever comes first. This sequence, by the way, serves as your tutorial to the game as you learn how to jump (on the fly), double jump (on the job), and use sticks as weapons (hopefully not against the bear because you don’t need to be in the woods to know what it sounds like when the bear beats the (bleep) out of little Native American hero characters.)

As for the time honored “tradition” of “artifact finding”, I.e. finding stuff and loading up on these things to meet certain “Criteria” to progress in the game, you’ll have to look hard for artifacts. Some artifacts are not so hard to find, and some… might be. Basically whack the plants to find artifacts.

Others, like ones hidden behind obvious things like obviously placed and conspicuous tapestries, take the five seconds to check to find said artifacts. Just indulge your other great hobby that these games bring out, mainly your pyromaniac side, as you build fires and burn things (tapestries) using the same stick you used to cut down plants (sorta like Legend of Zelda : Windwaker).

The other thing your beginning of the game tutorial will teach you is your spiritual gifts, aka your Shaman Powers (and no, we’re not doing the obvious Shaman King joke here).

The first (one of the first) you pick up places a glowing ring around animals, which means you can either manipulate them… or revive the ancient art of Disco in the animal kingdom… I’m betting manipulate.
From this power you can become The Beastmaster (only without having to look like Marc Singer) as you command the animals to do specific things, which is not much since you can only command them

to do things in context of solving certain puzzles in the game. Boring!

Another of these shaman powers lets you climb up walls and trees “just like a squirrel” according to the original article (no nut jokes please, because I don’t want to touch your nuts). Oh, and another power lets you fish using a stick… really, playing any Harvest Moon game will teach you that skill! Big whoop!
This is, by the way, is a mini game in the game (there will probably be others), and (for the record) it sounds like it plays like the fishing mode in Lost in Blue (Nintendo DS) more than Harvest Moon (seeing how you have to spear fish instead of pull it up with a fishing rod).

After finishing a few more trials (and errors), your local village elder then gives you your final exam… by telling you to go out and beat up the grizzly bear that attacked you. Oh… really. That’s so spiritual of you, old shaman dude, way to go. Anyway you go out, retrace your path to find your adversary (because it’s not all that hot on hiding from you after it chased you the way it did), which leads to you fighting the bear.
Don’t expect this to be hard, seeing how the bear will only use two different attacks that you have to be mindful of, but this encounter is your first “boss” battle, of which there shall be more (otherwise this game would be insomnia curingly boring if there wasn’t).

After that go BACK AGAIN to the old guy’s house and he’ll give you a tomahawk imbued with spiritual energy… gee, thanks dude, needed that earlier but WHATEVER old guy!
Oh, then the whole Spirit Dancer thing comes into play. Whoever that is. Let’s all hope it’s a hot female character if we’re lucky.

And that’s that. If you found yourself excited by that description… then you need to play more games. Seriously though, it’s almost out (in August it’s supposed to release barring any delays in release) so I’ll try to give you a more comprehensive (longer and more detailed) review in the near future… whenever I can get ahold of it. Stay tuned.