Doshin the Giant

Doshin the Giant
European GameCube cover art
Developer(s)	Param, Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Composer(s)	Tatsuhiko Asano
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64DD, Nintendo GameCube
Release date(s)	64DD JP December 1, 1999 JP May 17, 2000 (expansion) GameCube JP March 14, 2002 EU September 20, 2002
Genre(s)	God game
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	ELSPA: 3+
Media/distribution	Nintendo optical disc

Doshin the Giant (巨人のドシン, Kyojin no Doshin^?) is a 1999 Nintendo god simulation game for the Nintendo 64DD released in Japan on December 1, 1999. The original game was bundled with the 64DD console. An add-on was released five months later called Kyojin no Doshin Kaihō Sensen Chibikko Chikko Daishūgou, which took a very different perspective of the game. The original Doshin game was later released and upgraded graphically to the Nintendo GameCube and released in Japan on March 14, 2002 and Europe on September 20, 2002. It was not released in North America because of a deal struck between Nintendo and Atlus over the localization of another niche game called Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest, which would have released at about the same time on the GameCube.^{[citation needed]}

Gameplay

Doshin appears as a yellow giant in the game.

The player has the choice of what the outcome will be. By absorbing the love or hate of the islanders Doshin grows in size.

Doshin is the Love Giant, a yellow, featureless giant with a happy face and a few strands of hair. He is a benevolent, helpful being who, with his good actions, earns love from his people, and increases in size (only for that day, by the next day, he is back to normal size).

Doshin can transform, at will, into his evil alter ego Jashin, the Hate Giant, and has wings on its back and clawed feet. Jashin is known to be a destructive force to the natives, the exact opposite to Doshin's nature. With his bad actions, people show him their dislike, and he increases in size. The only thing the two giants have in common is that both have an outie belly button.

Doshin/Jashin has a small variety of actions to perform. He can raise and lower terrain, and pick up trees and objects. The island is randomly generated, and it takes time to walk the whole island.

The four native tribes on the island are separated with the color of their clothing (red, green, yellow, blue). The female natives are dressed in a sleeveless, uni-colored gown of their tribe's color. The male natives wear a kilt and hat of their tribe's color, but remain shirtless, also showing outie belly buttons.

Doshin also appeared as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee. He was shown holding a villager in his hands. He was called the Love Giant as the title of the Trophy, but called Doshin in the entry. Jashin appears as a secret trophy in the lottery as Hate Giant.

A recent document unveiled by Nintendo for Super Mario Galaxy also shows what suspiciously looks like a Doshin the Giant planet which didn't make it into the final game.^{[citation needed]}

Plot

The main scenario of the game is that you control Doshin, a yellow giant. Doshin inhabits an island called Barudo, and the objective of the game is to encourage the four tribes to build monuments. The game is divided into days, of which the player can have an endless number, which last 30 minutes and include changes from sunrise to sunset.

If you build the love or hate version of all 15 monuments, the last monument will be built. After the building, it will cut to a cut scene, where the monument is destroyed and the island sinks. Doshin attempts to save the villagers but is later seen floating at sea, where he then turns into an island himself.

You then awake on the small Doshin island, where aliens have inhabited the island, and Doshin has to gather a flower so they can complete the final monument of the game, a spaceship. Once the spaceship has been completed, the game is finished, but the player can continue to unlock bonus maps.

Expansion

Kyojin no Doshin Kaihō Sensen Chibikko Chikko Daishūgō (巨人のドシン解放戦線チビッコチッコ大集合, lit. "Doshin the Giant: Rescue from the Front by the Toddlers that Tinkle at the Large Meeting-hall"^?) was released on May 17, 2000 for 64DD and requires 64DD version of Doshin the Giant to operate.

Plot and gameplay

In the game, a child is told to go to sleep and is pulled out of bed and through the window, into a world of dreams. In this dream world, Doshin is now imprisoned and you can "Tinkle" 2D hearts on people and even the giant himself. The main objective of the game is to watch the 17 mini black and white movies collectively titled "More Than Giant" that were specially animated for this game. You must repeatedly go back and forth between the two disks to verify that monuments were built in game 1, and to complete tasks that the "Queen Companions" request of you. Most of the mini-movies in this game are simply stand-alone animated shorts called "more than giant' telling bits of the story of how Doshin came to be imprisoned (e.g. a boy fishing catches a giant, Doshin raises and lowers land to the sound of rap music, etc.).

Another objective is to free Doshin from his imprisonment, by causing him to grow larger than his cage. This will cause the game credits to show and can only be viewed once, unless you reset the game's saved data.

You can also gather help to free Doshin. After creating monuments in 'Doshin 1' and their counterpart pavilions, children will appear in the Expo area and you can "tinkle" on them with your hearts and they will join you, becoming what are known as Teamers or teamsters. There are two other teams you can choose from at the start of the game, and with enough pavilions completed you can battle the other teamster groups in a tinkle contest. If you win, the loser's team members become neutral and can be added to your team. You can have 6 other children on your team. This gives you 6 times more tinkling hearts when you go to try to free Doshin.

Reception

Doshin the Giant was a hit game in Japan, peaking at number-one in that country and was Japan's ninth best-selling game of 2002.

In the UK, Doshin the Giant peaked at number-nine and was the UK's sixty-fifth best-selling game of 2002 and hit the top of the GameCube charts and was the twenty-second best-selling GameCube game of 2002.

Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	68%
Review scores
Publication	Score
GameSpot	6.8 out of 10
IGN	6.8 out of 10
Nintendo World Report	9 out of 10
Ace Gamez	7 out of 10
Games Asylum	8 out of 10
Gamestyle	7 out of 10
Mad Gamers	3.6 out of 10
GamingWorld X	8.9 out of 10
NTSC uk	6 out of 10
GameCube Network	54 out of 100

References

External links

• Official website