DS Downloadable Games vol. 4 [DS REVIEW] [QUICK&SHORT]

What's It All About Then?

A cartoony, piratey tower defense game with a twist - you must defend against enemy pirate ships who want to steal your treasure!

+++ PROS +++

• Cheap - £1.80 on the DSi Store.
• Fairly bright and pretty - the graphics do well enough to show the action.
• Novel gameplay - the defense/offense tactics required take a little time to get used to but allow for fun, frantic gameplay.
• Nicely styled - the theme is very piratey and the weapons, music and graphics all complement this.

--- CONS ---

• Slightly poor tutorial - there's a few slides with very small text explaining what you need to do, but this is pretty hard to read.
• Slightly difficult to plan for attacks - ensuring you keep all your treasure and fight off baddies can be awkward - and takes seeing the route that the ships take a few times before you can effectively fight them off.
• Lags terribly when the screen is full - serious slowdown issues here.
• Very short - only 5 levels that will keep you going for a couple of hours at most.

What's It All About Then?

New and shiny poker and blackjack sim, with a whole bunch of game modes and really encourages you to get involved in the game.

+++ PROS +++

• Great variety of game modes - about 10 poker variations, plus blackjack.
• Lots of tournaments to try your hand at - from easy to hard - and then there's multiplayer.
• The graphics of the player avatars and environments look pretty good
• Having a customisable player profile allows you to feel engaged and keeps track of your progress well.
• Loads of achievements to aim for too (win with a straight, all-in before the river etc.) so there's some extra replay value.

--- CONS ---

• Not too cheap - £4.50 on DSi Store.
• Poor difficulty balance - the first 5 tournaments are all "super easy" and the final few are "super hard" - meant that I ended up playing the lower-level games for a bit of fun.

What's It All About Then?

Point-and-click puzzle game where you must use subtle hints to progress through the many levels.

+++ PROS +++

• Cheap - £1.80 on the DSi Store.
• Around 30 levels that take a fair bit of time to get through.
• Ranging from fun little slides which take a few seconds to work out, right through to head-scratchers that require a bit more thought.

--- CONS ---

• Doubt that you'll want to play through this more than once - when you have finished the puzzles there is virtually no replay value.
• Some levels are just a pain in the arse. Not requiring any logic or cunning, a few puzzles need you to simply "click in the right order" and really can only be found through trial-and-error.
• The game keeps track of your clicks - so tapping frantically to work out an obnoxious puzzle will add to your counter (and probably raise your blood pressure too).

What's It All About Then?

Brick breaker game where you guide a ball bouncing around 1001 levels of destructible scenery.

+++ PROS +++

• Cheap - £1.80 on the DSi Store.
• There really is 1001 levels.
• Power-ups and bonuses keep things varied for a while.
• 3D graphics on the DS look pretty good - not spectacular but definitely nice to watch smashing around the place.

--- CONS ---

• All the levels are pretty samey - the game has 4 themes (forest, candy, Greek and stone age) which determine the objects you'll smash - but you'll always smash the same few objects.
• Slightly overwhelming! Having 1001 repetitive levels is a bit intimidating - it didn't make me want to get through all of them.
• If you like bouncing balls to smash things - you'll be in Heaven. If you prefer something more fun - this may get boring quickly.

Feel free to post comments or contributions to improve the experience!

Any images in this review are subject to relevant copyrights and are kindly provided by: 
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/dsiware/pirates_assault_49336.html
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/dsiware/1st_class_poker__blackjack_49093.html
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/dsiware/hints_hunter_49170.html

http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/dsiware/1001_blockbusters_49075.html

DS Downloadable Games vol. 3 [DS REVIEW] [QUICK&SHORT]

GAIA'S MOON

+++ PROS +++

• Simple and effective play mechanic - you press 1 button to fly upwards - press for longer to fly higher.
• Use this to swoop and dive, avoiding a weird and wonderful assortment of "enemies"
• Enemies include jumping sharks, flying dolphins, floating skulls and puffer fish. All in the same level too.
• Nice graphics serve the purpose well - although not amazing
• 2 player mode too - one uses the top screen and the other uses the bottom screen. This can get a little confusing though
• Cheap - only £1.80 on DSi Store
• Infuriatingly catchy soundtrack will stay in your head for weeks.

--- CONS ---

• Your flight path to avoid some of the enemies can be a bit ambiguous - sometimes it seems only flying through the bottom of one enemy will get you through
• Hard to master - takes at least half an hour to get through the first 5 levels safely - and when you lose you have to start right from the beginning
• Infuriatingly catchy soundtrack will stay in your head for weeks.

3 HEROES - CRYSTAL SOUL

+++ PROS +++

• Bright and colourful strategy puzzler game
• On the surface is just a "Match-3" game but actually has some deeper mechanics to work out
• Novel gameplay and design - you must move your character around a grid map by attacking nearby enemies. When you attack, you will also defeat all adjacent enemies of the same colour and earn colour points.
• By defeating the enemies in the right order - and choosing the right colours to go for at the right times - you can earn enough points to pull off special moves and get even bigger bonuses and treasures.
• Enough levels to play through with 3 different (albeit fairly similar) characters - so you can kill a few hours with this. 

--- CONS ---

• Not too cheap for what you get - £4.50 on DSi Store
• Claims to have "RPG elements". In reality it just uses some basic RPG philosophy, fight for as long as you can until your health goes down - then run and heal/save
• Not really any incentive for playing through the levels - there is just the satisfaction of unlocking all the levels but certainly not what you'd expect from an "RPG puzzler"

GO SERIES - UNDEAD STORM

+++ PROS +++

• Basic zombie shooter with plenty of charm and appeal
• Cheap - only £1.80 on DSi Store
• 3 levels and 3 difficulty settings for each - and it is worth giving each of them a go!
• Easy is good for a laugh, just take some rage out on some zombies
• Hard is a challenge - you'll either need to have lightning reflexes or employ clever use of weaponry
• Nice variety of weapons - shotguns, machine guns, grenades, mines, molotovs, melee 
• And a diverse bunch of enemies to use them on!
• 4 characters to choose from - each with their own dialogue
• Plenty of choice for how to approach levels too - do you search for survivors to help you or just go commando?
• LOADS of medals to unlock - sort of like achievements on Xbox or trophies on PS3 - these are awarded for things like level completes or not using special weapons or taking no damage

--- CONS ---

• Simplistic graphics can make it difficult to see what exactly is going on when the screen fills up with baddies and explosions
• Sometimes the end-level bosses can wipe out everyone in your party very quickly - leading to some distressing game overs
• Sometimes the zombies can be a bit....er..... braindead? They just stand there and wait for you to kill them. Not that I'm complaining that much or anything....

If you're in the market for a Nintendo DS - and 45 incredible games to go with it -

then check out my eBay auction.

Ends Sunday 8th April at 8PM BST!

LINK TO THE AUCTION >>>> HERE

Feel free to post comments or contributions to improve the experience!
Any images in this review are subject to relevant copyrights and are kindly provided by:
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/dsiware/gaiaacutes_moon_47538.html
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/dsiware/3_heroes_crystal_soul_47787.html
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/dsiware/go_series_undead_storm_47758.html

Nintendo DS Downloadable Games [Vol. 2] [DS] [QUICK&SHORT]

Bird & Bombs

PROS:

• Cheap - only £1.80 from the DSi Store.
• Enjoyable story - you are a special forces bird sent in with your bombs to rescue the president's daughter from a house full of ghosts. It's for kids but it's still fun.
• Simple premise and controls - you only control the angle and power of your bombs in each level to bounce off the walls, ceiling and obstructions to get the bombs into the ghosts mouths, thus blowing them up.
• Good for a while - there's 50 levels to get through with bosses at key points to keep the action varied. Aiming for perfect scores will take you a fair while longer. After you beat the main story there is Story+ mode, where you have limited bombs to complete the story levels, again increasing lifespan. Finally there's Challenge mode - essentially a tough survival mode to see how many levels you can get through before you fail.

CONS:

• Sometimes annoying definition of what "going into the ghost's mouth" actually is - due to the nature of firing bombs that bounce off walls, sometimes a bomb can pass over the mouth of a ghost and not go in. On other levels, it's almost like the ghost has a magnetic mouth drawing the bomb into it.
• The more difficult levels may make you want to smash your DS onto the floor. The deflated sigh that Bird with bombs makes every time it misses is saddening - and on the tougher challenges you will find that you fail a whole lotta times before you get it just right.

Cut The Rope

PROS:

• Cheap enough - £4.50 on DSi Store.
• The idea here is that you have to cut the rope that is holding a sweet such that it falls into a worm-thingy's mouth (bit of an object-in-mouth theme going on here). That's pretty much it - only the rope will be attached to a whole bunch of stuff that will make this a lot more tricky than it sounds.
• Some pretty complex physics puzzles later on - elastic bands stretch, balloons rise and pop and gravity keeps things in check. There are around 8 distinct puzzle elements that you will need to master - and you'll need to complete them speedily if you want the best scores.
• 125 levels of increasing difficulty - with 3 stars to collect on each level. Getting 3 stars on all 125 levels is not impossible but certainly a challenge.

CONS:

• Touch controls aren't perfect - this means that the more complicated levels requiring quick, coordinated responses regularly end in failure.
• This is a casual game, admittedly, but what exactly is the motivation to play this? To feed a fairly annoying green blob. 125 times. Could of done with a bit more than that really.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords

PROS:

• It was free! The whole thing cost precisely zero pennies off the DS Store!
• It's a colourful affair that has all of the fun and creativity of a Zelda title.
• Great use of the touch screen for controlling the characters - using the gadgets and interacting with the environments works well.
• Excellent multi-player and online features - playing with other gamers to fight through dungeons and earn the most treasure is enjoyable and rewarding.

CONS:

• Not quite a fully-fledged Zelda. There's a lot on offer here - and I can't really complain because it's free - but although it will keep you going for a few hours it isn't as ridiculously enormous as a usual Zelda title.
• More than once I have had level elements not work - usually in online games. This means that you can't go any further and the level timer ticks on regardless. Restarting the level normally sorts it out but it's still a pain when it happens.
• Possibly not available now to download - can't see whether it is available to purchase now that the free download period is over.

Images on this review are copyright of Nintendo and can be found at:
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/dsiware/bird__bombs_16120.html
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/dsiware/cut_the_rope_44901.html
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/dsiware/the_legend_of_zelda_four_swords_anniversary_edition_44936.html

Bloons: Tower Defense [DS] [QUICK&SHORT]

Overview

Cute and enjoyable Tower Defence game, based around positioning your monkeys along a path to pop wave after wave of colourful balloons. Plenty of different tracks and types of monkey available to keep you playing through all 15 levels.

As you can see, it's a bright and colourful affair. With monkeys.

Major Points
Fun - It just cannot be denied how upbeat and playable this game is - putting down dart monkeys to pop lone balloons, placing a missile monkey to blast groups to pieces - all of the monkeys are unique and loveable.
Addictive - Then when you consider there is fifteen different levels with easy, medium and hard medals up for grabs - this becomes a title that can offer many hours of play. Learning which monkeys, upgrades and placements work best on each level is as rewarding as it is satisfying. Finally factor in the horrendously catchy music and we have a classic.
Tough Love - Perhaps one point that goes as much in Bloons' favour as against it, is that the game is pretty challenging. Hard levels require careful use of monkeys, upgrades and spending in order to survive - and some of them require a miracle. Getting all the way to the final wave, only to have a sneaky group of balloons knock off your last lives causes screams of anguish.... but I'll have another go just to get it completed....

One of the best monkey powers in the game - superhero monkeys wipe the screen clean!

Conclusion
Shiny and fun - the graphics are bright and functional and suit the DS screen perfectly. Touch screen controls work well to allow for quick monkey placement. Music is still going round and round in my head.
Feeding that old itch - maybe I'm just a sucker for Tower Defense games, but this kept me going for a while. That's not that there's masses of content here - but I think I've tried to beat the harder levels about 20 times each... and failed miserably.
A tad too difficult? - The high difficulty level does beg the question: are kids meant to be able to complete this? Because either I'm over the hill or this could be a bit off-putting for younger players.

Why not try it for yourself on-line? It's available at: 

http://ninjakiwi.com/Games/Tower-Defense/Play/Bloons-Tower-Defense.html

Images in this review are from http://uk.ign.com/images/games/bloons-tower-defense-dsi-122322/3558348 and are subject to relevant copyrights.

Nintendo DS Downloadable Games [vol. 1] [Mini Review] [DS]

This post is a review of a few downloadable games for the Nintendo DS.


Plants Vs. Zombies
A brilliantly creative game that can make minutes turn into hours turn into the next morning.

PvZ is a tower defense game with the enemies being a vast variety of zombies (slow shufflers, american football quarterbacks, dolphin zombies) charging into your back yard - presumably to join you for dinner. Your tools to defend against this horde are an equally vast array of plant-type things (sunflowers, mushrooms, walnuts). The sheer variety of plants, zombies, settings and special game modes (including 20 unlockable mini games) means that you are challenged, interested and amused throughout.

The difficulty level is pitched very nicely, with levels providing a suitable amount of challenge without being stuck for too long any point in the adventure mode. The sounds are great - from the groans of the zombies to the eerily catchy soundtrack. The graphics, too, are spot-on although I cannot help but be a bit creeped out by "Salad Fingers" shuffling towards me with a desire to nibble my cerebellum.

Overall, this is a fantastic time killer that can be picked up and put down for weeks but is certainly worth the fiver that I paid for it.


Fieldrunners
Another tower defense title that lacks charm and beauty but makes up for it in ease and simplicity.

Each map has an entry point where enemies pour out and you use just 4 main towers (rising to 6 later) to guide the enemies away from the exit as much as possible and wear down their health. This leads to vast number of possibilities and combinations which you can try out and find the best way to take them all out before they make it to your base.

As I said before, this is not a charming nor a beautiful game - in fact the graphics would be better suited to a Windows 95 title and the sound doesnt really add anything to it either. The limited number of towers and maps means that there isn't a great deal of depth here and you may become bored fairly quickly. However, as maps can sometimes take a few goes to get right (especially on Hard difficulty) and with 100 waves of enemies each time, if you can stick with it Fieldrunners can keep you going for a couple of hours at least.

It's not pretty, it's not very clever but it was damn cheap so it's hard to complain!

Flight Control
I went down the rehab clinic and gave the smackheads some sound advice - "Methadone is good an' all but if you want something to make you forget about the brown - it's Flight Control".

So blisteringly simple I really did wonder what all the fuss is about. You have several runways on each map (5 maps in total) and your job is to guide planes and helicopters down to the correct landing strip. There are only 3 types of plane (slow, medium and fast) and 1 type of helicopter. You guide each in by drawing a flight path from the plane/chopper down to the end of the runway, sit back and watch it make the landing. That's it.

The brain-wrenchingly addictive part comes when you try a level a few times. The first time I got 20 landings before a collision which I really should've seen coming. So I thought "Fuck it, you smarmy flight hostess who tells me my final score. I can double that, I'm sure!".

As the number of landings tops 30 the number of planes on screen increases to 10. You've got choppers slowly creeping in that get in the way of your speedy jets, then the slow planes start to build up because you can't find a clear time to land the bastards.

"OK, doing well, got a few out the way at once.... yes... and.... NO! YOU FUCKER! Stupid jet speeding into that chopper! ARE YOU BLIND!?!".

Onto the screen pops smarmy bitch. "New high score - 33".

I know it's not a good idea. I know she's baiting me. But I really thought I'd do 40 that time. "Alright, just ONE more go....".

Then next time I glance over at the clock it's 2am. I've successfully got 60 landings on each of the 5 maps. But I want to see the look on that bitch's face when I top 100. Then I'll show her. Then she'll know who the daddy is. The flight master. The aircraft king. The loser who needs to get up for work in 4 hours. "Last go this time.... I'll get to 100 if it kills me....".

Given that I paid about a fiver for this, I didn't even need to consider pawning my TV to keep the addiction going. The bills will start to pile up if I throw any more FC-related sickies though.

[MINI REVIEW] [DS] Ninja Gaiden - Dragon Sword

The fastest, slickest and most intense action title on the DS.
Boasting a very well thought-out and executed control system, some clever combat and a nice story played out through beautiful cutscenes.

The combat is controlled by slashing across enemies with the stylus to perform sword attacks, tapping far-away foes to launch ninja stars or arrows and using other combinations of taps and slashes to dodge and perform special attacks. This works very well and allows the combat to rocket on at a phenomenal pace.

The graphics and sound are varied and colourful, giving a bright and rich experience that is unlike anything else on the DS.

There is also a limited upgrade system that works well and allows players to spend experience points on new moves and more a powerful sword, although all of the upgrades can be purchased with some ease way before the end of the game.

And that leads me to the major criticism: it's too damn easy! The normal story mode offered absolutely no challenge and playing through hard mode afterwards wasn't any harder. Then there was the final boss battle. After using my projectile weapon for the entire battle (as it was the only thing that worked), I ended up dying and having to try again ten times. Why? An instant-death move. What the fuck? Don't bore me the entire way through, including not losing a single portion of my life on the final boss, only to have a move that kills you instantly. Total crap.
(Oh, by the way, the battle requires an awkwardly-timed dodge. You are then allowed to kill the fucker).

So, although the action is spot-on and it's one of most visceral titles to hit handhelds, the difficulty level never picks up and the final battle was a kick in the teeth.

Overall: 80% - very nearly there guys, just crank it up a notch!

[MINI REVIEW] [DS] Apollo Justice - Ace Attorney

A very quirky title that very nearly strikes the balance between a humourous, over-the-top storyline and engaging, challenging gameplay.

Graphics are stylish and appropriate, the music is suitably atmospheric and the sound effects do add something to the experience. The plot is like something out of a soap opera, with a whole host of likeable and not-so-likeable characters that give you a small sense of satisfaction as you try to fathom out their true motives.

The gameplay shifts between searching for clues (point-click), questioning witnesses (not much freedom here, just gathering information) before going to court and cross-examining witnesses. This is where you are required to take charge, but even though some of the twists are cunning and give a sense of satisfaction when deduced, others require a bit of a stretch of the imagination. This can mean that you are selecting all possible options fruitlessly in order to work out how to proceed. Another point where detective work becomes defective work is the "sixth sense" sections. In these, your character must pick up on the contradictions in a testimony by looking for tells or twitches showing their guilt. Although this is a great idea, some of the tells are very difficult to spot and you cannot quickly repeat sections of the testimony to double-check, meaning that these sections can take ages to get through.

All in all, apart from a couple of parts where the game is a little cryptic and subtle for its own good, this game is a vibrant and engrossing affair which has a story that keeps you interested, audiovisual detail that complements the tone perfectly and gameplay that ties it all together pretty damn well.

Overall score - 78% - Let down by minor points but still well worth a play through.

[MINI REVIEW] [DS] Dragon Quest IX

From start to finish, a hugely-enjoyable and remarkably polished RPG that blissfully balances children's humour and the expansive and gripping character and equipment advancement.

It is obvious in every aspect of this title that the developers have not only taken the time to give each element of the title unique charm but also to give the whole affair a charming personality that makes it a pleasure to play through.

Graphics, sound and controls are all spot on and well-suited to the DS screens and the multiplayer features are a joy on their own, allowing for you to not only play side-by-side with friends but also to have people simply explore and interact with your game world totally independently of your characters.

The only drawbacks being that the abilities associated with party member roles can be a little confusing and restrictive, and that for such a vast item and equipment creation system I would have actually liked to have gotten to create/use more of them (right through the game I wanted Tracksuit Bottoms and at no point have I found how to get them).

Overall, my personal favourite RPG on the DS and one of the most impressive and entertaining experiences to ever appear on a handheld.

Total: 90%