Nintendo World Report

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This DSi-exclusive title is kind of like Scribblenauts, with a cool concept but poor execution.

Regardless of its quality, System Flaw still holds the high honor of being the first Nintendo DSi-exclusive game available at retail in North America. Published by little-known Storm City Games, System Flaw is a first-person shooter with an interesting hook: it uses the exterior DSi camera to track the world around you as a background for the game.

You don't interact with the background at all, but you do have to turn the entire system and most likely your body to fire behind you. In the game, you function primarily as a gun turret as you spin around, tilting up or down, slaughtering hordes of alien enemies. It's a very cool concept, but unfortunately its execution is a little lackluster.

The game is split up into two different modes: Patrol and Survival. In Patrol, you go through a series of short stages that introduce new enemies, focusing on one of a small list of objectives. They range from "shoot all the enemies" to "patrol for two minutes," but in order to successfully patrol for two minutes, you have to shoot all the enemies. In reality, there is no real variety in the objectives. It's just the same actions and goals with different end points.

The second mode, Survival, pits you against unending waves of enemies as you shoot for high scores. There's not much to it, and it certainly doesn’t play to the game's strengths as you have to spin around the entire system until you die.

System Flaw doesn't amount to much more than a tech demo, since there really isn't that much to do. The idea is cool, and it's one of the first games out there that can only be done on the DSi, but it's just a gimmick – one with unvaried goals and dull gameplay that doesn't hold up over repeated sessions.

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