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Dungeons and Dragons Tactics better than most say

You won’t need leather home theater seating to enjoy Dungeons and Dragons Tactics, the latest D&D videogame from Wizards of the Coast and Atari. That’s because it’s on the Sony PSP and, despite some lukewarm reviews, I feel the game is quite good.

Sure, it’s not as flashy as Final Fantasy Tactics or the forthcoming Disgaea Afternoon of Darkness (PSP) title, but it does go a long way toward capturing the atmosphere of the old paper-pen-and-2d20 tabletop game so many people enjoyed in their youth.

Dungeons and Dragons is losing its “cool” appeal to trading card games like YuGiOh!, so perhaps younger gamers won’t be able to relate. But for an old gamer like me, this PSP title is role-playing in the most classic sense, and the best videogame version of the D&D universe since the first Neverwinter Nights title for PC.

Dungeons and Dragons Tactics

The Atari brand has just decided to do the smartest thing with their Dungeons and Dragons license since Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 were announced. Coming this spring, exclusively to Sony’s PSP handheld platform, is Dungeons and Dragons Tactics, which is promised to conform to all the latest edition 3.5 rules.

While Square-Enix, Namco, Atlus, NIS America and others have made RPGs a mainstream form of entertainment, for some reason mentioning Dungeons and Dragons is still equated with dice-toting nerds who knock down mailboxes with baseball bats, pretending they are dragons. It’s a logical disconnect that, frankly, baffles me.

But hopefully what Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 have done for restoring the dignity of the name brand on PC, Dungeons and Dragons Tactics will do for the brand on PSP. If it retains the core genre game play and appeal that has made titles like Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea and others big hits, but adds in the D&D flavor, this spring should be a rewarding one for PSP owners.