We're pretty inured to this kind of thing on the Wii, although we still enjoy getting outraged about it now and then. But now we're starting to see last-gen ports on the DS! Sure, we have the Phoenix Wright games already, but they totally get a pass since the ports are new to the US and Europe.
RPGLand reports that Mazes of Fate, the first-person dungeon crawler developed by Argentina's Sabarasa Entertainment, is being prepared for a DS release by publisher Signature Devices and their in-house developer Graffiti Entertainment. Unlike Phoenix Wright, the GBA version of Mazes of Fate did come out in the US-- in December of last year. The DS is a good system for dungeon games, with its map-displaying second screen, and Graffiti is adding new dungeons, characters, and some touch-screen stuff. If you don't already have the game, this is the one to get. Or if you have a DS Lite and you get really embarrassed about the GBA protuberance.
Game|Life's Chris Kohler got to live our most recent lifelong dream of playing Contra 4, and he likes it! (Hey Mikey!) Upon hearing that Contra 4 is actually as good as it looks and doesn't rely on DS gimmickry, we reacted in a manner that is best illustrated by this video clip.
Kohler cites the classic weapons, the cleverly dual-screen-enhanced level design (which we don't think counts as DS gimmickry) and the Contra-appropriate sound design as features that contributed to his positive impressions. Oh, and the difficulty. Apparently action games are hard when you've been at a trade show all day, doing interviews and lugging a bunch of computer equipment around. We hope Contra will be sufficiently challenging even in more comfortable conditions.
We think we're going to have to find an excuse to postaboutContra 4everyday until more developers get the message that there are plenty of strategy RPG's, sports games, mascot platformers, first-person shooters, puzzle games, and such out there. But there is a huge hole in the market for REAL ACTION GAMES like this one that are about jumping and shooting and synthesized guitar, and God knows there's enough of a userbase on the DS to support both awesome run & gun games and whatever else people want to put on there.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
It is possible that some of you may be persuaded to buy Face Training. This is assuming two things: first, that you would like to have a stand, and second, that something other than Adults' DS Face Training, homebrew or official, will make use of the DS camera. A distant third possibility, that you feel a strong desire to stretch your face at your DS, would supercede the first two. We would enjoy a DSLitestand, and we hope we'd have a use for the camera, so it's not inconceivable that we'd consider this a deal worth looking into.
Play Asia is taking preorders for the game at $48.90, which is their normal asking price for a Japanese DS game. That's not too bad for a camera, a stand, and (ahem) miscellaneous bonus content. We hope it's within range for a few homebrew developers, at least.
Of course, its regular-priced-ness in Japan means that if, by some clerical error, Adults' DS Face Training somehow came out in the US, it would be regular US price of $30-$35. Don't hold your breath on that one-- although it may be good for your face to puff out your cheeks like you're pretending to hold your breath.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
We were just coming down from our adrenaline-fueled reverie over Contra 4 when this came along and OBJECTED its way into our lives. TAKE THAT!, normal heart rate! It's a trailer for Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations!
What's more, Capcom USA bloggers promise frequent updates on the official blog and in the forums! It's so nice when a company thinks about all of us non-E3-goers who just want to see some cartoon arguing.
If your face hasn't been sufficiently rocked by the DS showings at E3, then we suggest watching this video of the first boss battle in Contra 4. Even if you feel like you've been rocked enough, you should go ahead and watch it, and allow Virt's brilliant cover of the Stage 1 music to rock your face clean off.
No brains are being trained here, people. Unless you count the brains of alien soldiers, which are being trained to blow up. We know it's early to declare a winner of E3, and we also know that E3 is not technically a competition. Even so, Contra 4 wins.
The Xbox 360's best launch game, Geometry Wars, is heading to the much-less-HD screens of the DS, and we've got the first screens of Geometry Wars: Galaxies. It appears to have been adapted to a touch-screen-based method of control, but we're sure that's the first thing you thought of when you heard about, well, a DS game.
More interestingly, the DS version of Geometry Wars has online leaderboards! And if you happen to end up with both the DS and Wii versions of the game, you can combine your high scores and compete on the Elite Leaderboards. An apt name for something that basically requires more money to use.
Publisher Sierra Entertainment says that Galaxies contains the full version of the Xbox 360's Retro Evolved as well as a new single-player campaign.
Nintendo never got around to announcing this new game at E3: a crossword game tentatively called Nintendo Crossword. For sudoku fans, a "crossword puzzle" is a grid puzzle much like sudoku, but with letters instead of numbers, and completely different rules in place of the sudoku rules.
Nintendo's presentation is much more staid than that of its competition, New York Times Crosswords, passing over odd color schemes and Comic Sans-alikes for a traditional newspaper-like display. It's boxy, but good.
It's true, we didn't hear much about The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass at Nintendo's E3 keynote. But Nintendo discreetly dropped some images into a press release and stuffed them into our briefcase, giving us the notion that if they happened to be shown to you guys, it wouldn't be terrible.
A few new screenshots have been added to the gallery, as well as some character art. One of the pieces is the same artwork used in the supposed US boxart, which, to us, confirms the validity of that boxart. Man, the Wind Waker art style still out-styles pretty much everything else out there, especially in mainstream AAA games. Sorry, every other game.
Insecticide combines a noir theme with visual elements of Psychonauts and personality-filled characters reminiscent of an adventure game. This is our first chance to see any of the actual DS version of the game, however, and something tells us the publisher doesn't want us to see it. The PC trailer certainly didn't get the shaky-cam treatment.
Check after the break for a textbook example of how not to make a video game trailer. Seriously, this goes beyond poor editing or bad screen quality and into intentional obfuscation. But it's worth it to check it out, because Crackpot's game looks fantastic.
Eric Caoili: Unlike last year's E3 press conference -- in which titles like Yoshi's Island 2, Star Fox Command, and Elite Beat Agents were debuted -- there wasn't much new software shown for the DS at today's event that'd make us throw our arms up in celebration.
Seeing The Hylia's Mike "TSA" Damiani take the stage to demonstrate The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass brought a smile to our faces, but there wasn't anything demonstrated that we haven't already seen in previews or import impressions. Though casual titles made an appearance, the only items that perked our brows were Vision Training's US localization and hints of Cooking Navi receiving the same treatment. Disappointment-ton? That's what it looks to be, so far.
JC Fletcher: The best part of the DS coverage, I thought, was when Iwata started talking about Cooking Navi. But it turns out not to have been an announcement; he just really likes Cooking Navi.
The whole DS presentation was like that: underwhelming. Reggie mentioned Brain Age 2 for a fraction of the time he should have spent talking about it. Nintendo really undersells that here. Even when he said that it outsold Brain Age in Japan, that's not telling the story. It outsold most things in Japan. It was enormous, and it was just a footnote over here. Baffling.
Meanwhile, an unproven nongame is the focus of Nintendo's Wii presentation and massive hype. Not really presenting a unified front, are they?
David Hinkle: Things didn't go so well for Nintendo during the keynote and especially for DS fans. They focused heavily on the Wii, which sucks for us because we wanted to see more. Phantom Hourglass? There are plenty of videos of that game already, seeing as how it was already released in Japan.
Aside from that, no new colors for us. No software outside of a small mention of Brain Age 2. And Vision Training coming to the U.S. was good news, but what about Cooking Navi? Overall, I concur with my colleagues. I was underwhelmed. Alisha Karabinus: Sorry, guys, better late than never. While you were all sweating out and waiting for DS announcements that didn't come, I was suffering at the dentist. So even if you're underwhelmed by the keynote, I promise you had a better time than I did!
As a serious DS devotee, I am disappointed at the lack of DS news. Brain Age 2, Phantom Hourglass ... these are great, and I will buy them both and hug them and squeeze them and all, but where's the new stuff? Just because the DS outsells everything but food doesn't mean we only want to hear about the Wii. That tide can turn. Throw us a bone here, guys! Where are our colors? Where are our new games? Where's my Cooking Navi? As a cooking enthusiast, I have lusted over that forever and it only gets namedropped? Lame. But hey, it's a Nintendo keynote, so frankly, I can't say I expected anything else. Reggie and co. are great to watch when they're doing their thing, but the information is often a little thin. Maybe we'll see some cool DS announcements over the rest of the show. Maybe.
We're pretty inured to this kind of thing on the Wii, although we still enjoy getting outraged about it now and then. But now we're starting to see last-gen ports on the DS! Sure, we have the Phoenix Wright games already, but they totally get a pass since the ports are new to the US and Europe.
The Xbox 360's best launch game, Geometry Wars, is 
Insecticide