Dark Arena

Dark Arena
North American cover art
Developer(s)	Graphic State Games
Publisher(s)	NA Majesco Games EU THQ
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance
Release date(s)	NA January 18, 2002 EU February 15, 2002
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player
Distribution	ROM cartridge

Dark Arena is a first-person shooter video game for the Game Boy Advance. It was the first FPS game announced for the Game Boy Advance, but it was the fourth released. Another Game Boy Advance game, Cruis'n Velocity, used the same game engine.^[1]

Story

Dark Arena has been labeled a Doom clone due to the similar look and play of the game

A training facility for soldiers was built on a small, isolated island. Genetic splicing was performed to create Genetically Engineered Organisms (GEOs), and when the security failsafes failed, the GEOs quickly took over the base. Then, Angelina Bradshaw (the main character) and her special operations team went to eradicate the threat, but they were pushed back into the center of the base, and Angelina is the only one left alive. She then knows that she has to reach a hangar on the outskirts of the island before a nuclear bomb goes off as a last resort to destroy the creatures.

The game's ending depends on the difficulty set by the player. If the player plays on the Easy difficulty, Angelina dies in the hangar (The "Bad Ending"). If the player uses Medium, she barely escapes (The Medium Ending). Completing the game on Hard will have her escape with ease (The Good Ending).

Reception

Dark Arena received mixed reviews from critics^[2] primarily due to poor enemy AI and uninspired level design, but was also praised for having many nice touches often not included in pseudo-3D FPS, such as a sniper rifle with zoom functions and a guided missile. Many people regarded it as a Doom clone, as it used the Doom engine and level designers were recruited from the Doom modding community.^[3]

References