The story that sets up the game in Amazing Island isn't the reason for a bad first impression. The problem is that the story takes at least 20-30 minutes to play out before you get to do anything. Perhaps children, the target audience of Amazing Island, have changed since I was a wee lad and the youths of today have infinite patience. But I would have preferred to start playing and the dialogue boxes just kept coming.

The world of Amazing Island is one of bright, vibrant colors and cute, doe-eyed children. It also includes good monsters and bad monsters – discernable by bright, happy colors and big eyes on the former and dark, foreboding colors on the latter. The good monsters are slowly being wiped out (actually, they turn into dark monsters when defeated) and are unable to defend themselves, so you're their only hope. Your character can be either male or female and with any name you like. The good monsters will also help you build companion monsters that will do the actual fighting.

You can answer a series of personality questions for the game to give you a general layout of the monster that fits you best, or you can start from scratch. You'll get a general shape of your monster, a skeleton, sort-of, and you can draw the shapes around it. Once that's done, you can change his accessories, like horns, and some of his appearance and color scheme. You can also give him a name before you set off into battle.

Considering this process is one of the selling points of the game – indeed, it is half of the game – it's fairly disappointing. Your monsters float in midair, with limbs and heads that don't quiet connect. They're also lacking clarity; it's difficult to focus on them at all. Once you do get a good look you realize you aren't missing much. You'll win more options for your beast when you defeat foes, but it doesn't help make them any more interesting to give them different eyes, a pair of sneakers or bolts coming out of their head. The worst part is they'll never look as natural as the other characters in the game, and their appearance is largely irrelevant to the outcome. Some additions make a subtle difference, but most are just for looks. Horns aren't a weapon, for example, they're just decoration.

The other half of Amazing Island is equally unfulfilling. The battles against evil monsters are really just one minigame after another. Some are as simple as possible (push A as fast as you can), and some require a lot more coordination, but they're all minigames like the ones you'd find in WarioWare. You'll race, throw things, catch things, etc. against the bad guys. The battles can be challenging while you get the hang of each one's unique controls, but many of them aren't explained very well. It leads to more than a few frustrating do-overs just because you can't figure out what to do. Again, not a favorite of the kiddies.

Minigames like those in Amazing Island are a lot more interesting and competitive against human opponents, but the game only supports one player at a time. The only way you'll play against a person is to connect your GBA, upload a monster, and play against someone else who has done the same.

There are two parts to Amazing Island, and neither is hearty enough to combine for a strong package. Monster creation serves only as a necessary step to get to the actual games. And the games, played alone, have been done before. It's a cute game, with monsters that would make excellent stuffed animals, but the execution is too childlike for adults and not intuitive enough for children.