Archive for the ‘Nintendo DS’ Category:
Why you won’t be seeing an Elite Beat Agents sequel any time soon
Gamasutra has an interesting article about the disappointing sales for two portable rhythm-action games - the PSP’s Patapon and terrific touchscreen tapper Elite Beat Agents on the DS.
While the former was a niche title which arguably overperformed - partly thanks to a low price point - EBA (based on the Japanese game Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan) was always expected to do better, with Reggie Fils-Aime having confessed that he’d hoped for roughly 300,000 sales - the game limped out of the charts with a comparatively paltry 179,000.
Japan - Nintendo releases three new DSi colours
As if to make up for the fact that the Japanese don’t have a new handheld launch to look forward to, Nintendo has announced the launch of three new DSi colours, which will join the white and black flavours on store shelves in Japan on March 20th.
There’s a lurid pink model, which I think is the least attractive of the three, while the lime green is suitably bright, but still not to my tastes. Much more pleasant is the metallic blue number - very reminiscent of the Enamel Navy DS Lite.
Katamari DSiWare - first shots and game details revealed
Famitsu has new shots and information about the forthcoming DSiWare title based on Keita Takahashi’s brilliant roll-em-up, Katamari Damacy.
Named Katamari Damacy: Korogashi Puzzle, it’s released on the handheld’s download service, and will cost just 500 points. The DS is held in the book style, with the left screen showing the King of All Cosmos, while the touchscreen has a vertical puzzle display. It’s similar to Meteos in that you need to match tiles to blast items off the screen - in this case, combining specific items to make stars in the night sky, a concept familiar to fans of the series.
There are two main game modes - a self-explanatory Endless Mode, and the Challenge Mode which has differently-themed stages. It seems that the King will have specific requests for the types of items to be included in the stars - again, this mechanic is well-known to Katamari fans.
Nintendo goes indie
Wired.com’s Game|Life has an interesting report from DICE about Nintendo’s intentions to support independent gaming on both Wii and DSi.
Nintendo’s director of project development, Tom Prata, accepted that Nintendo could potentially have issues in that department - particularly on Wii given its lack of storage space - but it’s evident that the big N is seeing how well games like Flower and Noby Noby Boy are working on rival hardware and wants a piece of that critically-acclaimed pie.
Nintendo, of course, has its own figurehead for indie gaming on Wii, and 2D Boy’s Kyle Gabler was introduced to talk about World of Goo. Nintendo would be wise to throw a bit of money to keep the two-man devteam working on titles for its consoles, though it’s heartening to see it taking steps in this direction - especially as it recently seems to have focused on commercial success over genuine gaming innovation. Though that would be to ignore some of the smaller-scale, more experimental titles like Skip’s Art Style series, which runs across both Nintendo’s download services - for my money one of the most exciting developments in Nintendo gaming since the Wii’s launch.
Handheld addiction has a new name: Rittai Picross site opens
Shortly after March 12th this year, my entire world will grind to a complete halt. That date marks the release of Rittai Picross, Nintendo’s 3D take on the life-eatingly compulsive puzzler which enslaved my DS (and me) for several months in 2007.
It’s pretty much exactly the game you’d expect it to be - Picross but in 3D. You’re given a number of cubes with numbers on to chisel away at until you’re left with a vaguely recognisable (if blocky) rendition of a dog or a plane or a baseball player. It appears to be completely stylus controlled - using swipes to rotate the view and stabs to tap away any unwanted cubes, with an icon swapping between a hammer and a paintbrush, the latter to colour in areas which are part of the finished shape. Eventually you’re left with the solution, which then animates in a rudimentary but entirely charming way. And that’s about it, really.
Presentationally, it’s giant strides ahead of Picross DS and its peers (Hudson’s Illust Logic and Colorful Logic remains the best take, for my money) and it’s the logical next step for the game. One concern remains over how exactly the more complex puzzles will be presented - the official site merely offering a few examples of early brainteasers - but this is Nintendo, and I’m sure there’ll be an elegant solution to that particular problem.
Japanese DSiWare update next week - Mr. Driller & two more Art Style titles
Nintendo’s Japanese site has details of the new DSi software which will be available to download next Wednesday, February 25th.
For 200 points you can get a Nintendo-themed calculator, with Super Mario Bros. and Animal Crossing skins among others, while there’s also a slightly unfathomable app which Google Translate suggests is a ‘clock software dictionary’. Erm.
Thankfully, the remainder of the games are a little more understandable. For 500 points you can get one of two new Art Style games - Nalaku is a faintly nightmarish isometric puzzler which sees your stickman avatar climbing and pushing to reach the top of a cube while trying to avoid being crushed by falling blocks. Hacolife seems a little more relaxing, requiring you to cut out and fold together cubes from flat grids of squares - sometimes needing to ensure you’ve packed away an item within your created box before it’s lifted away by some omnipotent crane thing. Also for 500 points is a collection of table games (chess, reversi, connect five and two more) and a stripped down version of that 100 Classic Book Collection, offering twenty titles to read on the move.
Japanese hardware charts - DSi rules roost, PS3 gaining on Wii
The pattern’s starting to become familiar - DSi still reigns supreme in Japan, with PSP in second place. Wii’s just about scraping into third, with PS3 hot on its heels.
That said, it’s interesting to note that even with the release of Street Fighter IV this week, PS3 couldn’t raise its game enough to topple Wii for a single week. So perhaps once it’s over this slightly fallow period, Nintendo’s casual-courting console will start to pick up sales, particularly as the bigger third-party releases hit (how Nintendo must be looking forward to Monster Hunter’s arrival). It’s hard to see Wii de Asobu: Metroid Prime having any effect on Wii’s sales next week, particularly as the series is much more popular in the west - if any console sees a sharp rise in sales next week it’ll be the 360, with Square-Enix’s Star Ocean IV on the way.
DSi coming to Europe two days before America, will cost £149.99
“Ha! We’re getting DSi on April 5th!” snort the Americans.”Ner ner ne ner ner!” retort the Europeans, thumbing their noses at their US counterparts as Nintendo announces a launch date of April 3rd in PAL territories the following day.
“We’re getting a blue model, though!” laugh the US residents.
“Ah, but we’ve got white!” is the response.
DSi release date confirmed - coming to US on April 5th
Nintendo today announced the launch date for DSi in the US - it will arrive Stateside on April 5th, and appears come in laser blue or black variations. What, no white? Madness. Perhaps Nintendo is saving those for Europe.
The official site can be found here, though it’s little more than a press release at the moment - a press release which also confirms that Rhythm Heaven will launch alongside DSi. Interestingly, it talks about the game’s music being composed by Japanese producer TSUNKU, so it seems that an EBA-style makeover is off the cards.
Elsewhere, Kotaku has pictures of the box, whose teeny-tiny icons showing the handheld’s multimedia capabilities aren’t a million miles away from those used by the PSP. If Sony’s really clever, it could do a neat bit of counter-marketing here by pointing out that its console does similar things already. Although you need a separate attachment for the camera, of course.
Plume-ing marvellous - Square-Enix to release Valkyrie Profile DS in April
Square-Enix, perhaps the only publisher releasing more DS games than Atlus, has announced the forthcoming release of Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume in PAL territories on April 3rd.
It’s another RPG from the kings of the flowery subtitle, this time with a more strategic bent than usual, as tri-Ace (Star Ocean, Infinite Undiscovery) tell the story of a young soldier named Wylfred, who thirsts for revenge after the death of his father.
Hardly the most original plotline, then, but the big SP for Profile is its tactical battle system, which has evolved from the console games, utilising a ‘mutual assistance’ mechanic so allies can help you in battle. You’ll also need to shuffle your battle formation to get the biggest benefits from your squad’s abilities in combat. And that’s before we get to the myriad spells, finishers and combos, and the traditional RPG-style item management and skill levelling.