[Blue_Falcon]

Way back in May (It’s felt so long, hasn’t it?) E3 2004 happened and Nintendo showed off, for the first time, the Nintendo DS. And since then I’ve been insanely hyped over it. Rather than going into a needless history lesson, I’ll fast forward to the present, namely my first impressions of my DS.

Now as some of you may know, I’ve been really really…really anticipating this thing and now I have it.

So anyway, I boot up my DS, I pulled out my stylus and put in all the info: Date, time, calendar settings, and so on. I had a decent amount of fun with that on its own, simply just because I could use the stylus and all. I know this isn’t a really big deal and all, but it makes menu screens go through a lot quicker. I also thought that the main menu (and all the other ones) were slick and appealing to the eyes. The sound is the best you can get for a handheld device such as this. The lighting is amazing (Want proof? Play your DS in the dark, you’ll be pleasantly surprised) But I do have a few hardware problems: The buttons are a bit smaller than I’d like them to be. I’ve learned to adjust, but none-the-less, they could be a tad bigger. The volume controls could be better. The Game Boys have always had little wheel-dial things, and they worked good, but the DS replaced that with this plastic little nub that’s hard to adjust (although, usually I either have my volume at maximum or completely off, but there have been a few times where I wish I could have had my volume a little lower, but not quite off). And finally, the lighting is great when it’s on, but you do have the option to turn it off, but it basically becomes impossible to see what’s happening on the screen unless you take a minute to adjust to whatever lighting in the room. Even in a brightly lit room, it’s no good, unless it’s angled over the DS in a certain way. Also, I wish the power button was a bit more responsive. For the most part I love the hardware and all, but those last few things bugged me. Oh, and on a final note, which wouldn’t fit in with the game reviews: The games come with cases. It’s about time too.:P

Now onto the games…Right now I own three games and Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt.

Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt: When I first booted it up, I was immediately by the opening FMV. Then I began to play the game, and I first, I was pretty disappointed, because I really had no idea on how to play it. The touch screen was new to me, and to top it all off, I’m left handed, which basically means I had to use the face buttons to control my movements (while using my left hand for the stylus) There are five different control settings, but I went with the default, because it works best. You use the bottom screen to aim, to change into Morph Ball mode and to select your weapon setting and it also functioned as a map. Also, double tapping the screen makes you jump. The D-Pad and the buttons functioned as both for movement and strafing and the shoulder buttons were used to fire (whether in Morph Ball mode or in shooting mode). Now, like I said before, the controls were hard to get used to at first, but once I got used to them…I F**KIN’ LOVED THEM! Seriously, whether you use the thumbstrap (which is good for comfort) of the stylus (which is better for more precise aiming) you will be pleased once you get used to everything. Everything felt so fluid. But anyway, there are three main menus: Training, Multi-player, and Options (which really is nothing more than control settings and records). Now Training contains three modes: Regulator, Survivor, and Morph Ball.
Regulator is mainly a target practice of sorts (with a 10 minute time limit)…well, it’s better than that, but for the most part you basically are trying to shoot all the mocktroids (and the occasional Metroid) and try to rack up points, and that kind of stuff up until the end in which you face off against yourself. Easily the most exciting part of the level, simply because it’s one of the few things that actually attack you (unless you walk into one of the creatures). Either way, it’s pretty fun. Next is Survival, which contains no time limits and is just you going around this huge environment racking up the amount of kills you can get. There are a lot more Metroid in this area, so dieing becomes a lot easier than it does in Regulator mode. And finally there’s Morph Ball…which I really haven’t played too many times due to lack of fun-ness of it. Trust me, you’ll play it once and be somewhat bored of it half-way through, the other modes more than make up for it though.

Another thing that his demo contains is a demo of the multi-player, and three of the maps; one designed for a certain amount of players in mind, one for 2, one for 3 and one for 4 players. While I have not gotten the chance to play this mode yet (or any game multi-player for that matter) I will make sure to post my impressions when I finally can do it (as well as any other game).

And on one last note, the sound quality is very high and the game looks better than a lot of what the N64 could produce. Overall, I cannot wait for the full version of this game, because I know when it comes, I think it will simply show the greater capacity of what the DS has to offer.

Spider-Man 2: When I first saw this game in motion, I had very high hopes for this game. A side-scrolling super-hero game…Viewtiful Joe comes to mind, no? While this isn’t my main reason for being hyped about this game but more so because of the fact that Vicarious Visions has done so well with GBA games (mainly the Tony Hawk games) and also just Activision in general has been good with their licenses, especially with the console versions of Spider-Man 2 released earlier this year. But this game was a real disappointment to me. Sure, the game had pretty graphics (arguably one of the best looking launch titles for the DS)…but the game fell flat pretty much everywhere else. The music was annoying, looped to no end and completely forgettable techno-rock crap stuff. The other audio tidbits contain great liners like “oof,” “AHH!” and “Help me Spider-Man” and some other forgettable one-liners. I wouldn’t remember though, since I tried to pay as little attention as possible to the audio portion of the game as possible, mainly because I was trying to do somewhat good at the highly frustrating gameplay. Right off the bat, this games use of the touch screen didn’t bother me much at all, the screen was used for either selecting attacks which you can unlock…somehow. (I’ve beaten 14 out of the 16 poorly designed levels and I still only have the 3 default attacks you get). It’s also used for minigames which usually either involve you tapping something or dragging something. Whoopy. The X button is used to we zip you towards any walls (as long as you’re facing in that direction). The A and Y buttons and punch and kick…that have no reach on them whatsoever (more on that later) and finally the B button makes you jump (double tapping makes you web swing and continuing to press B continues the swing, one of the few fun parts of this game) The D-Pad was used for movement (and crouching if you aim down, which is too easy to do, which usually ends up with you being pummeled) the R trigger is used for the special attack you’ve selected via touch screen and the L trigger is used for the slow down feature. But there’s one major problem with it though, the timing on it is horrible. 90% of the time, you usually end up slowing down you getting pummeled. Now let’s talk AI, and I don’t mean boss battles, I mean just your plain old goons and robots (courtesy of Mysterio and Doc Ock). They’re about as strong and as fast as you. Actually, in some cases, they seem faster than you. And on occasion they carry projectile weapon! What fun! Yippee, just a faster way to pummel my ass! Seriously, unless you come up from behind (or get a lucky shot) against any of them, you may have a better chance, but other than that, you usually cannot beat these guys unless you continually shoot him with webbing (which takes a lot more shots to kill him with than you have). You can’t even tie enemies up. I think it’s one of the unlockable combos…one of Spider-Man’s default attacks is something you have to unlock. Am I the only person who sees a problem with this? And on a final note (simply because I’m tired of dwelling on this game, there are more things to complain about, IMO) the mission objection are nearly impossible to do for example, in the first mission, you have to defeat all the bad guys and rescue 5 people trapped in a burning building within 8 minutes. You are given no sense of guidance where these people are, it took me 20 minutes to complete that mission simply because I couldn’t find them. Overall, this game was a huge disappointment…possibly the largest one I’ve had all year. Either way, I can only recommend this title to big fans of Spider-Man, and really no one else.

Feel The Magic XY/XX: Right off the bat, I’m going to name the three flaws and one disappointment I had in this title (unless you consider being really quirky and really “SUPER HAPPY JAPAN FUN TIME WHEE!!!” kind of game a flaw):

1. The game is short, I beat it in four days (although, I do intend on eventually playing through it again on Hard mode, which you unlock after beating the game).
2. The game felt a little repetitive
3. I felt that there could have been a bit more mini-games.

As for the disappointing part, when I was hearing about this title, I was expecting more of a story. Sure, it’s made plainly obvious at the beginning (well, and the back of the box, too.) but it wasn’t until the near end in which I felt any sort of story. Other than that, it’s just a bunch of scenes in which you do crazy madcap stunt and rescue her from danger and rescue your true love. (Well, that’s what the box says.:P) That’s basically most of the game explained without being specific. But anyway, this game really shows what the system is capable (minus the WiFi) between the built-in mic and the touch screen. The games make you do one of four things in it: Rub, Touch, Shout or Blow. My problem with the blowing and shouting games were that really all I had to do with those mini-games were just blow into the mic (not the touch screen, held by popular belief, at least for the Candle game) and that was about it. It really just wasn’t fun. Unique and borderline innovative; yes, but I really just didn’t enjoy them. Luckily, there are only a few of them. Now the other mini-games are much more fun, where you do things from painting a wall to make cats cry to get through a factory. Trust me, you do a lot of weird stuff in this game. But the best of these mini-games are the boss fights. When you play them, you’ll know which ones they are, they’re real fun too. You’d never think that tapping a bunch of bulls while avoiding guys on skis would be so much fun.

Another thing you can do in this game is customizing your girl (This is called Maniac Mode). You have 21 heads, bodies and shoes. But the cool part of that lies not in the customization (it felt too Barbie-ish for my liking) but more so that if you have any GBA games done by the Sonic Team, you can automatically unlock certain clothes, simply by putting the GBA game in the slot. This really makes me think of the possibility of GBA-DS connectivity, but without buying cords and stuff, unlike GBA-GCN connectivity. I’d definitely like to see more of this in the future. And on a last note for game modes, there’s also Memories, which is similar to the Story mode, but just with hard things (somehow, or another). It’s also how you unlock the clothing for Maniac mode (unless you have any GBA games done by Sonic Team, which is just the easy way out though).

In terms of music, this game is nothing fantastic, and sometimes downright annoying (not bad, just annoying), but it still fits the settings, so it’s satisfactory. And for the graphics, the game chose to go with simple, yet highly artistic and beautiful visual that oddly immersed you in the game. No one has any faces in the game, which oddly fits well, almost as if to put you in the shoes of the main character, while the girl of YOUR dreams in hers. It’s a nice touch, if you’re looking at from that perspective.

At the end of the day, if you’re looking for a “SUPER HAPPY JAPAN FUN TIME WHEE!!!” kind of game and don’t mind short games, you may come out pleased with this title…god, I love the Japanese.

Super Mario 64 DS: I’ll start off by admitting that I never played the original Super Mario 64. I had no memories of its platform gaming bliss and whatnot….until now. Seriously, the feeling I had when I got my first star in the game was unlike anything I’ve felt this past year. I don’t know how only collecting one out of 150 stars made me feel so good, but it did.

Wait, did I say 150 stars? I thought the original only contained only 120 stars? Well, it did, because, in addition to giving a portable rendition of Super Mario 64, but you get another 30 stars to collect along with it. BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! You can get all that plus you can play as Yoshi, Luigi, and Wario as well! Not satisfied yet? We’ll throw in 36 mini-games on top of all of that! Not satisfied yet? OK, we’ll give you all of that PLUS a multi-player mode all for the low price of $29.99!

OK, sorry for sounding like a bad Paid Programming ad, but the truth is you get a lot in this game. You start off playing as Yoshi and then you slowly get to unlock the other playable characters. Now each of these characters have their own unique attributes, which varies the game play. Yoshi can do his flutter kick, he can suck up enemies to make them eggs and use it as a homing attack. He also has the special power to breathe fire. Mario, on the other hand can kick off of walls to get to higer ledges and can also inflate like a balloon and cross certain terrain. But his best is, of course, the wings on his cap. Luigi has his scuttle (good for long distances, like Yoshi) the ability to run on water (which I’ve found to be completely useless, maybe I’m missing something) and finally, he has the ability to turn invisible which allows him to walk through enemies as well as certain parts of the terrain. And finally Wario he break certain blocks and turn metal. Plus he also has a move throwing ability to use in multi-player (I guess it’s to make up for his lack of any sort of speed). And speaking of that multi-player, I have yet to play it, but I know it’s basically you playing as each of the four characters aiming to get as many stars as you can in 30 seconds. And the last of the new additions are touch screen based mini-games…and the majority of them are fun. Some are similar to one another, but each offer fun experiences. (You’d be surprised for how long I’ve played Picture Poker consecutively) To unlock these mini-games, you have to use each character to catch bunnies located in different areas throughout the castle. (I’ve actually spent quite a bit of time just looking for the bunnies themselves). Anyway, while these titles are simple in design and execution, they’re quite fun. I’ll make an example of a few:

Bob-omb Squad: This game has you at the control of a slingshot in which you have to shoot at falling Bom-ombs.
Pair-a-Gone: Touch 2 cards that are the same to make them dissapear (it’s a lot more fun than I can descibe, in all honesty)
Bounce and Pounce: Control 3 Mario by touching them and help stop the Fly Guys (again, you really have to play it to understand how fun this is)
Wanted: On the top screen, one of the characters is shown as wanted, but his face is hidden in a crowd of others below (as above..bah, I don’t need to explain it again)

As for graphics and audio, they’re both simply top-notch. The sound is done beautifully (thanks to the DS’ great speakers) and easily the best that a current handheld can offer. The graphics are even better than that of the N64 version, everything is way less blocky, and everything is quite more fluid. The colors are vibrant and just plain pretty.

Now as for the gameplay, similar to Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, the learning curve is a little steep (I’m not saying literally they’re similar, but the learning curves are quite a bit for the main portions of this game). You use the touch screen to (best) move your character as well as rotate camera angles. You jump using the B button, Punch/Suck Up (pending on which character you use) using the A button, you dash using the Y button and. You can use the D-Pad for movement, but I can’t stand it in comparison to using the thumpstrap (I recommend it over the stylus, for the record). It’s usable, but just not as good. And finally, the L shoulder button is used to center the camera behind you and the R shoulder button is used for ground-pounding and crouching.

Overall, this is a really great experience, and basically the current must-have for the system. If you buy a DS, do not forget this game. It’s got a lot to offer in such a small package.

And on one final note, I’d like to say that I’m really enjoying my DS, and hope for a long long life out of this system. And by January, I hope to have a few more DS reviews (Hopefully Ridge Racer DS and Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits) sometime shortly after the holidays.