In 2002, Doshin the Giant for Nintendo Gamecube was released in Japan and Europe. The game had previously been released for Nintendo's ill-fated 64DD and, because of the relative failure of the 64DD, few people ever got to play it. Sadly, the game sold nearly as poorly in Europe as the 64DD had sold in Japan. Because of this, Doshin was never released in the US.

The basics of the game are as follows; you play as Doshin, a yellow giant capable of transforming his surroundings with mystical powers and brute strength. Your goal in the game is to grow as much as you can, interact with the local islanders (the tiny people who live on the map) and make them happy. When an islander wants something an icon will appear above their head. Their needs vary; some may want the land to be raised or lowered, some may need trees planted, and some may just want to pray to the giant (whom they seem to think is some kind of god). Each good deed you carry out results in love from the islanders, and when you collect enough love the giant grows.

If you tire of playing as Doshin you can transform into Jashin the hate giant at any time by pressing L. Day then turns to night and Doshin changes from the smiling yellow "happy-giant" to the devil-like red "hate-giant". Jashin can also alter the land but is capable of more destruction than Doshin; he can shoot shockwaves, for example. The islanders react very differently to Jashin and will run away from him on sight, but there are advantages; Jashin can jump higher and walk faster than Doshin. Regardless of which giant you are, if you hurt the people of the islands or carry out the opposite of their instructions (i.e. raising ground where they want the ground lowered) you'll get hate from them. Hate also enables you to grow, further increasing the hate giants destructive capabilities.

The game is split into "days", which are individual play sessions. Your giant begins each day the same size, and the pressure is on to grow as much and achieve as much as possible in this set period of time (each day in the game lasts about half an hour). At the end of the day you get a rundown of your achievements and comments from the villagers. Although you can manipulate the time by switching between Doshin (daytime) and Jashin (Night) at any time, the day only ends after the time runs out. When the sun sets at the end of that day, your play time is over.

The game has a fairly laid back feel to it, and and it's easy to forget all about the villagers and spend days manipulating the land. The map is a mixture of ocean and land, and all of it can be manipulated by the giant. If you want you can create massive mountains and new islands or you can lower existing islands into the depths of the ocean. The entire map is yours to play with as you please. It's here that the benefits of growing become apparent; larger giants can walk faster, move buildings and alter the landscape more quickly. At the beginning of each day you start off being about four times the size of the villagers, by the end of the day you can be 20 or 30 times their size!

You can also influence where the islanders live. A tree will create a green area around the spot where it is placed and tree placement is very important. The green areas around the trees are essential as it's here that the islanders will keep their animals and build their homes. If you treat them well, the islanders may even build a shrine to the giant! There are several villages scattered across the map in seperate locations, and on seperate islands but you can start new villages by taking male and female islanders from different villages to a suitable location. If they like it, they'll begin building a new village.

The game unfortunately does have some faults, the biggest of which is the pace. Even a larger giant moves painfully slowly and, although you can speed up the pace by changing to Jashin, it's still a slow game by anyone's standards. Growing has disadvantages as well, as stepping on villagers becomes all too easy a mistake for a larger giant. The graphics are pretty basic; although they do look nice, they give away Doshin's 64DD roots. Certain sound effects are repeated over and over again, and get really quite annoying. And there's an unfinished feel to the game. Some of the animations are both slow and terrible (when Doshin falls over, for example), and there are various bugs and glitches which should have been sorted before this game got released... for example; fish suspended in mid-air or buildings that fall into the ground.

But overall the game is worth playing. The PAL (UK/European) version is in English which makes things a little easier to understand, although most gameplay aspects should be straightforward regardless of which version you buy. Doshin is nowhere near to being the best Gamecube game but it's charm and playability make it something that is easy to get into, even if it only is for half an hour.