Electroplankton a kind of moving art exhibit. One part visual and one part audible, and unforunately zero parts fun. There are nearly a dozen 'modes', each featuring some sort of minimalist aquatic theme. For more details on the individual modes, see this 1up.com review. Each mode has, at its core, a new skin, including a different way to create sounds, and different sounds. Some plink, some plonk, some hum. There's one interesting mode with sounds, music and effects from Nintendo's classic titles like Super Mario Bros. but the rest feature generic MIDI samples. A piano here, a harpsichord there, nothing at all unusual. A few modes let you record samples using the DS' microphone and play with those.

In each mode you drag, drop or adjust the plankton themselves or the environment they inhabit, and they run off and bounce, wibble or dangle their way making MIDI plonks and dings as they go. It's absolutely engrossing and entertaining for about five minutes, and then you're crying for more while the game sits, spent, with no more to offer.

This is where Electroplankton completely fails. You can't edit an existing 'composition' and most of them reset or time-out after a few seconds, so anything you create is completely ephemeral. You can't save them to show off later, nor can you easily re-create anything you've done.

Electroplankton smacks of a weekend coder's competition. It has a coherent style and works very well for what it is - an audible, mobile art exhibit. Like most art however there's nothing more to do when you've seen it all, and in Electroplankton's case it takes all of five minutes to see and do it all. Twice. There's just nowhere else to go. This kind of non-existent longevity might be forgivable in a budget or demo title, but Nintendo saw fit to charge nearly full price, no doubt seeking to justify it by including some shitty one-dollar blue headphones in the box.

Unique, involving, tactile and marvelous, no question, but please forgive me if I demand just a little more than five minutes to see everything when I've blown a forty dollar hole in my wallet.

Lawrence.