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DS Reviews
Nostalgia
Nostalgia had a lot going for it - a steampunk role-playing game for a handheld sounds like a recipe for addictive greatness. Handheld RPGs, if crafted properly, can take on the connotations of a good novel, grabbing you and not letting go until either exhaustion or the end. Sometimes both. They can also be a chore to grind through if not done well.
I even ignored their little Nostalgia word play, since the role playing genre has never gone anywhere. To ...
Kingdom Hearts 358/2
Square Enix can always be counted on to do two things, to make epic games, and to make countless sequels and spinoffs of those games. This makes for a somewhat aggravating time in terms of judging them as a brand. Games range from brilliant to pointless, especially since they expanded the genre roster to include more than just RPG's. What's worse is that in some way almost every IP they have now is weaved into ...
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
The second Professor Layton game for the Nintendo DS has arrived in North America, and I have mixed feelings. While the game itself is good, my interaction with the title is tempered by the fact that I was only given a “loaner” copy of the game for a short time. I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish the game in the allotted time, having several other games to review as well as a bunch ...
The Hardy Boys: Treasure on the Tracks
I was actually looking forward to The Hardy Boys: Treasure on the Tracks, and may have been one of the only ones. While there is a resurgence in the mystery/adventure genre, an occurrence I am quite pleased with, the DS seems to have been lagging behind in this department. When it was announced that the famous boy detectives would be making an appearance on the handheld, I thought it would be a perfect match.
I still ...
Space Bust-A-Move
I want to find some original way to describe what Space Bust-A-Move for the Nintendo DS is like, but can't find one. Perhaps that because the game isn't original at all. Nor is it trying to be. Instead we are simply getting more of the same great bubble busting gameplay that has worked in iterations before and will continue to do so for years to come.
Space Bust-A-Move layers on a storyline of Bob and Bub ...
Miami Law
The DS has spawned something of a small renaissance in the adventure genre, with titles like Phoenix Wright and Hotel Dusk getting public attention long after many had written the genre off as dead and buried. Naturally, this has led to a multitude of additional titles seeking to capitalize on the genre once again. Amongst these, Miami Law looked to offer something unique with a lot of potential - a hard-boiled cop story. Unfortunately, Miami ...
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
I like SquareSoft (now SquareEnix). Apart from the multitude of games that stole hours of a dull Midwestern childhood, they have managed to steal many hours of a dull Midwestern adulthood. I also have been quite keen on Nintendo's new console, but I have to draw the line somewhere. Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time on the Wii and DS, deserves some flack.
Much of the time SquareEnix churns out quality product like none other, ...
Valkyrie Profile: The Covenant of the Plume
As Neil Gaiman once said, the Norse worshipped a-holes. It really is quite true, as their mythology is filled with more twists and turns than a soap opera. Tri-Ace has a series of games set among the mythos, Valkyrie Profile. There were two installments, one for the PS and one for the PS2, the original being remade for the PSP a few years back. A proper sequel has been made to the game in the ...
Animal Paradise
Photography-centric games are uncommon, but when they show up, they're usually pretty damn good. Pokemon Snap, Fatal Frame, Beyond Good and Evil, Dark Cloud 2... these are all games that utilized photography as a gameplay mechanic and were much better games because of it. The latest photographic game, Animal Paradise, on the other hand, breaks this chain by being a game about animal photography that doesn't actually let you photograph the animals in question. Instead, ...
Elebits: The Adventures of Kai and Zero
The first Elebits games was one of those odd, experimental things on the Wii. You know, the kind of thing people refer to as a "tech demo" just as much as they refer to as a "game". It basically used the Wii remote's motion-sensing abilities for a sort of virtual reality hide-and-seek. And... well, gameplay-wise, it really has little to do with its first sequel, The Adventures of Kai and Zero. Rather, the DS follow-up ...
Peggle Dual Shot
I had not been introduced to the phenomenon that is Peggle before Peggle Dual Shot for the Nintendo DS arrived for review. For those that are new or unfamiliar to what Peggle is, the idea is to take a ball, launch it into the playing field and knock out certain pegs. Pachinko has similar equipment, being a very primitive predecessor to pinball. Where Peggle has players attempting to knock out specific pegs, Pachinko has players ...
Puzzle Quest: Galactrix (DS)
Puzzle Quest: Galactrix is a puzzle game that mixes in a healthy dose of role-playing strategy to offer up something different. While it doesn’t have the same originality that its predecessor (Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords) had, it changes things up enough to be its own unique spin on the sub-genre it created.
Players take on the role of a ship captain and traipse around the galaxy performing tasks (quests) earning money and materials along ...
Big Bang Mini
The biggest problem I have with Big Bang Mini is that you are unable to move and shoot at the same time. Completely driven by the touch screen, players move by using the stylus or shoot at objects on the top screen by using the stylus. Still, despite this problem, Big Bang Mini is an enjoyable if flawed game.
In a way I was reminded of Asteroids, where players need to avoid objects while shooting at ...
Chrono Trigger DS
Chrono Trigger has come to be revered as one of the great classic Square RPGs, alongside Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy VI (and possibly Final Fantasy IV, depending on who you ask). As someone who cut his teeth on these games when I was young, it's hard to imagine an entire generation raised on the likes of Final Fantasy VII, and even more strange to think that there's yet another generation whose first RPGs ...
Neopets: Puzzle Adventure (DS)
I find it interesting when publishers and developers try to force two seemingly disparaged entities together. Sometimes they work out like peanut butter and chocolate, sometimes the results are more like oil and water. Neopets Puzzle Adventure works more like the chocolate and peanut butter configuration, but the chocolate is a mid-shelf offering, and the peanut butter is generic rather than name brand.
Neopets Puzzle Adventure for the Nintendo DS is good, but not as good ...
Written on January 21, 2009 | Posted in DS Reviews | No Comment
Tropix DS
I think what I enjoyed most about Tropix was that I wasn’t forced to play through every mini-game to completion in order to progress. The idea for this collection is that players are in a tropical island paradise, playing games to earn money. This money then earns them supplies to outfit the island, and when successfully outfitted, they are awarded a new game to play. Earning enough money will earn a new island to play ...
Written on January 13, 2009 | Posted in DS Reviews | No Comment
National Geographic Panda
While it may not be the most entertaining or action packed game, National Geographic Panda for the Nintendo DS is still worth picking up for those looking for something a little different. Sure, it falls within the same general genre as Nintendogs or other animal care simulation games, but this has the added cuteness of pandas (always a winner) and the authenticity of the National Geographic license.
Part zoological simulation and part �edutainment� National Geographic Panda ...
Cradle of Rome
In many ways Cradle of Rome is an impossible game to review because it is so simple that one feels compelled to artificially expand the review to make it bigger than it needs to be, but by simply stating what the game is appears to be selling the game short. The game is a “match 3” style of puzzle game that can be found in a variety of other places and mediums. While ...
Naruto: Path of Ninja 2
Being Christmas, it should be no surprise that the annual franchises come out to play. That means that we should be facing a deluge of Naruto and other anime-based titles, and the latest I have gotten my hands on is the RPG sequel, Path of the Ninja 2. I wasn’t a huge fan of the original, but I am at least an advocate of classic RPG experiences. These kinds of games are getting rarer ...
Pipe Mania
Pipe Mania is not a new idea. Then again, how many games actually come up with original ideas these days? Back in the 80s and 90s, this game was called Pipe Dream. Modern gamers might recognize it as the hacking minigame from Bioshock. In any case, the formula behind it has been around for decades: place random pipe pieces on a grid so that a liquid (seemingly invariably called “flooze”) gets from point A ...
Unsolved Crimes
I’m not usually a fan boy for anything except early 1990’s Washington D.C. indie rock. Now that being said, I love Nintendo. Not just for their Disney-esque characters that are as iconic for my generation as the Mouse was for the theater generation, but because they’re newest systems have returned adventure games to the masses. Phoenix Wright, Hotel Dusk, and others have brought the genre to a new prominence on the DS, and the ...
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
I really feel for Sonic fans. With every new generation of consoles, there is yet another game that promises to be the savior of the series. It’s golden age ended even before Sega stopped minting consoles, and I seriously doubt it can ever fully return. Sonic is an anachronism, and Sega just doesn’t let it rest; continuing to foist more games that completely miss the point, or are just fragile shells of the ...
Bratz Ponyz 2
Over the years, I’ve kinda’ become Dignews’ “girl game” reviewer. I don’t know how it started, but now, any game featuring Mary-Kate and Ashley, touting “hot fashions” as a feature, or sporting box art heavy on hot pink and baby blue… it all goes to me. As you can imagine, in a situation like that, it’s hard to keep from getting cynical after a while. This is because girl games are, with rare exception, absolutely terrible. ...Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise
Viva Pinata Pocket Paradise brings the Xbox 360 franchise to Nintendo's handheld. Having Rare back on a Nintendo system may be the moment that fanboys are waiting for but they shouldn’t get too excited. This is part of the agreement with Microsoft, and doesn’t mark the rebirth of one of video gaming’s greatest partnerships. Bringing the garden tending of Viva Pinata to the DS is ingenious in itself, the ease of control offered by ...
Lock’s Quest
The resurgence of Tower Defense titles has been pretty monolithic. Complexity is not exactly these games’ strong points, yet these games can really extend into at least a story, or something other than their simple arcade roots. It may not be Final Fantasy, but Lock’s Quest is a nice step in that direction. The story of a magical world of Archineers and Clockworks and their long standing war, Lock’s Quest is actually quite well ...
