Who the devil let Dragon Booster out of development? While racing dragons may have been a natural for conversion to a video game, the resulting game is an absolute mess that will hold no appeal to gamers looking for a different kind of racing title on the DS (though if you bought Mario Karts DS like I recommended, you may never need another racer for your DS) or fans of the show. And to foist this cruel trick of a game on the young fans of the Dragon Booster cartoon is just a shame.

I have to admit when I got the assignment to review Dragon Booster for the DS its name made me think it might be some kind of Grand Theft Dragon sort of game. You know, boosting dragons and taking them for joyrides. It was only after doing a little looking into it that I found it was a cartoon that aired on ABC Family and the Disney Channel. The premise is that humans and dragons live together in the world. In the past the pure Star Dragons were gold and had great energy. As time passed, humans bred dragons in different colors, causing the development of unstable and dangerous energies. War resulted. A last-of-his-kind dragon, Beau, was determined to end the war and restore stability. He chose a human to help him: the first Dragon Booster. Order was restored and now 3,000 years have passed. But once again dragons are being bred in different colors. The different-colored dragons are used to race in matches that settle disputes between nations so war can be averted. But war is indeed once again looming. Beau has returned and chosen teenager Artha Penn to be the new Dragon Booster and save the world.

Okay, enough of that meaningless stuff. If you watch the cartoon it is pretty much kid-only targeted and thus near incomprehensible to adults, even if you can stay interested through an entire episode of the cartoon. For our purposes, let’s just say the game is about racing dragons on tracks. The style of play is that of a combat racer where you can attack your opponents while you race.

The main problem with the game is the developers got overly ambitious with the control scheme. They tried something different with the touch screen and it just didn’t work. To race your dragon you will guide him with the directional pad. To jump over obstacles you tap your dragon with the stylus. To target an enemy you tap him with a stylus. To gather power-ups you tap them with the stylus. Is a pattern emerging? And since the screen is small and you’ll quite often be racing close to opponents, it can be hard to be precise with your taps. All too often I wanted to jump over an onrushing obstacle only to initiate an attack on a close opponent. The opposite happens too. You also don’t have direct control over acceleration and cornering, depriving the game of the traditional racing skills.

Bottom line: the game is near uncontrollable. The whole interface is a cluttered mess. This especially holds true for the overly-busy upper screen where all sorts of things are going to be happening that you won’t have time to look at because you’re wrestling with the controls on the lower screen.

Getting past the control scheme, we come to the game itself. It never really feels like racing. At the beginning of each race the other dragons take off and you are left to catch up at a plod and fight your way past each of the other dragon/rider teams while gathering power-ups and avoiding the obstacles that are incomprehensibly in the middle of a racing track. If anyone thinks that sounds like fun – think again. It plays more like an on-rails shooter than a racing game. Winning a race will award the player with money that can be used to purchase gear for his dragon that makes control even that much more cluttered as you use the face buttons to employ gear.

Visually the game also ranks pretty low on the quality scale for the DS. It just looks inferior in almost every way. The music is fair but the sound effects have a muddy quality to them.

Okay, let’s say you have not been completely scared off and want to know about play modes. The main mode is All City Races. In this mode you compete against AI opponents in a series of races. Training mode teaches the basics of dragon racing. Free Run allows the player to race the tracks for training purposes. Mini Challenge offers skill-based play to hone your technique. Grudge Match allows the owner of a Dragon Booster cartridge to inflict the game on another player (who was smart enough not to buy this game) in a two-player head-to-head race.

Okay, I know by now Dragonball Z fans are used to the mediocrity that the games based on their favorite cartoon are but, since this is the very first game based on the cartoon, I’m not sure the fans of Dragon Booster are ready for this kind of disappointment. Parents, avoid this game if you don’t want your little tyke smashing his expensive DS against a wall in frustration. Dragon Booster fails in nearly every way and never should have seen the outside of the development studio.