Blogcritics Category: Gaming: Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS Review: Time Hollow

Tall Writer — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:27:10 EDT

This point and click adventure plays like an interactive novel with great production design and quick touch controls.
This handheld title uses a first-person perspective to tell the story of Ethan Kairos, a young student finding himself in extraordinary circumstances. Strong animation, design and voice talent support the strong story, which follows Ethan's parental plight and impending ability to visit the present and past simultaneously with his newfound Hollow...

Nintendo DS 2008 Gift Guide

Tall Writer — Fri, 3 Oct 2008 12:37:13 EDT

This holiday season presents gamers with various products for the �in-touch� Nintendo DS.
Touchmaster 2 (Nov. 3) looks to features the console’s stylus touching capabilities while students can take their learning on the go with FutureU: The Prep Game for SAT (Oct. 20). Comedy and war combine in the real time strategy game Robocalypse (Oct. 28), which offers up to four player battles over Wi-Fi as well as a single player mode. Sim...

Nintendo's Fall 2008 Media Summit Provides Plenty of Suprises

Brian Szabelski — Fri, 3 Oct 2008 11:51:03 EDT

Nintendo unleashes a torrent of information upon the gaming community at their Fall 2008 press events in Tokyo and San Francisco.
After a disastrous E3 2008 press conference, Nintendo was looking to be in trouble. Their core user base was virtually up in arms and threatening to walk away for good, claiming Nintendo has “forgotten them” and that the console was headed for a significant drought. People’s expectations, including my own, were kind of low at...

Nintendo DS Review: Quick Yoga Training

Tall Writer — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 03:17:21 EDT

Keep this yoga assistant nearby to successfully progress and customize various yoga techniques and postures.
This new yoga companion is personal and portable, but not really “quick”. Players get more than 180 poses and different camera angles (referred to as point change, not camera angle) - a possible target for player perversion due to some compromising stances motion captured and approved by Mai Hashimoto and the Swami Vivekananda’s...

PAX 2008 Impressions: Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ, Bangai-O Spirits, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood and Ninjatown

Brian Szabelski — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:37:56 EDT

A number of DS titles were playable on the PAX show floor. But were they all worth your while?
The PAX 2008 show floor was full of DS titles from many different developers. Some were simple ports or games tied in to console releases. Others were games made to stand on their own for Nintendo's handheld console. While a good majority of these games were at Nintendo's own booth, there were a few other notable titles scattered around the...

PAX 2008 Impressions: The Maw, Chronotron, City Rain and Puzzle Quest: Galactrix

Brian Szabelski — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:31:47 EDT

Downloadable titles take the stage at PAX, with one possibly stealing the show.
Amongst all the big games at PAX were a sizable number of smaller, lesser-known titles, many of them headed to the Xbox Live Marketplace, the Wii Shop Channel or the Playstation Store. Not only were titles like Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, Schizoid and Audiosurf on display, several other downloadable titles made...

Nintendo DS Review: My Chinese Coach

Tall Writer — Tue, 9 Sep 2008 19:00:19 EDT

Outstanding learning game features variety, fun learning and, most importantly, the satisfaction of building Chinese language skills.
The latest language learning companion teaches some great life skills through mini games and several modes that entertain at a decent level, but mainly inform and engage the mind. Mei Li, your life-like virtual Chinese teacher, guides you through the most widely used Chinese language, Mandarin (yes, more than one exist), not Cantonese (largely...

Nintendo DS Review: Imagine Teacher

Tall Writer — Sun, 7 Sep 2008 15:56:13 EDT

Decent roleplaying game explores the educational realm in minigames, multiplayer play and lesson simulation all incorporating touch controls.
School's back in session on this exclusive Nintendo DS game. This good roleplaying title glimpses into a teacher's life including lesson planning, child behavior and performance demands. Miss April starts her instructional work in a new town with a retiring principal who acts as the tutorial character in the first couple weeks. Players must...

Despite Its Attempt To Be 'Vaporware', Spore Is Ready To Burst Upon Us All

Robert M. Barga — Wed, 3 Sep 2008 15:06:20 EDT

As Spore nears its release date, a look back at the long wait for Will Wright's newest game.
There is a slight thumping in my chest cavity as I hear the announcement, the great Will Wright, maker of The Sims and SimCity is to make an announcement at 2005 Game Developers Conference. Will it be the anticipated and unprecedented The Sims 3, will it be some new sim-type of game, or will it be something brand new? The beating speeds up as he...

Penny Arcade Expo (PAX '08), Day Three and Final Impressions

Mark Buckingham — Mon, 1 Sep 2008 12:05:13 EDT

A strong finish and some reflection reveal a show that's greater than the sum of its parts.
The lights are out, the halls empty. The cleaning crews have descended upon the Washington State Convention Center to make it as if we, the PAX '08 attendees, were never there. Looking back on the last 72 hours, it's sad that it's over, and the entire event amounted to more than just the sum of its parts.I talked to more people...