DS review – The World Ends With You

The World Ends With You is a fresh take on the Japanese role playing game that introduces plenty of badly needed new concepts to the genre. By challenging the existing norms, The World Ends With You succeeds in thoroughly shaking up a fast stagnating style of game and dragging the entire genre, kicking and screaming into the current generation. The use of bold storytelling techniques, a distinct audio/visual presentation and a fresh modern day setting allows the game to explore psychological and emotional concepts that are rarely touched on in video games. Add a unique control scheme that takes full advantage of the Nintendo DS touch screen, and a very detailed and layered combat system and The World Ends With You is one of the shining lights in an industry that is fast becoming too conservative to take the risks necessary to move itself forward.

No game left behind…Wii Fit (updated)

In August last year, David Gosen, vice president for strategic marketing at Microsoft Europe and former Nintendo employee, claimed that research found up to 60 per cent of Wii Fit owners ‘play it once and don’t play it again’. That’s more than eight million people who spent AU$150 on a game that they used only once!

An alarming statistic and one that seemed hard to believe considering Wii Fit is one of the biggest hits on the Wii.

Fast forward six months and I have to reluctantly admit that I have been one of those eight million. I played Wii Fit once and didn’t touch it again. Well, that was until recently when I decided that it was time to get the balance board out and start using it on a regular basis

DS Review – Anno 1701: Dawn of Discovery

Anno 1701: Dawn of Discovery is a very well made and very entertaining Nintendo DS strategy game developed by Sunflowers Interactive Entertainment Software and published by Disney Interactive Studios.The basic premise sees the player take on the role of governor setting out to establish a new colony for a demanding monarch. Managing the economic, population and military demands of the new colony are the keys to success and require careful planning and attention to detail.

The game is controlled with the touchscreen, which works very well, but the interface could do with being a little more user-friendly. Small things like being able to rotate the view to see behind buildings and mountains and more detailed instructions would go a long way to making things easier for the player.

Wii Preview – Family Ski and Snowboard

A new batch of screenshots and a trailer for the upcoming Wii title Family Ski and Snowboard have been released and the game is looking mighty fine indeed.

The game features two exceptionally beautiful mountain environments with 7000 vertical metres to explore; day, afternoon and night riding modes; a comprehensive catalogue of tricks, jumps and flips; and most importantly Mii and Balance Board support.

The game has enough depth to appeal to the hardcore gamers and has a clean and simple look and interface that should appeal to casual gamers. Hopefully it will find players of both types willing to shell out and reward NamcoBandai for investing the time and money required to develop a good third party title on the Wii.

Due for release in Australia on 27 February 2009, Family Ski and Snowboard is surely one to watch.

Click through for the latest screenshots and a link to the trailer.

The Crystal Bearers lives!

Square Enix has released a new trailer of the mysterious title Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles The Crystal Bearers and it is looking amazing.

This is the best glimpse of gameplay footage we have seen so far and it appears to lean more towards a 3D action game than the original Crystal Chronicles.

Details still remain scarce, but what is presented is really promising.

This could really be the game that encourages other third party developers to really put some effort into producing titles for the Wii that are aimed at hardcore, adult gamers.

I don’t know about that hideous music though, hopefully that is just someone’s idea of a bad joke.

What’s wrong with…Mario Party

Even after eight console and two handheld versions, Mario Party is still one of Nintendo’s most popular franchises. It is also one of their most maligned, especially among hardcore gamers.

The reason for much of the hate is that the pick-up-and-play mini-game action of Mario Party has changed little over the past 10 years. What was initially seen as an innovative new intellectual property (IP) is now seen as a tired and rehashed bore-fest. This lack of innovation has turned off many and provides endless fodder for fanboys to use when criticising Nintendo and their so-called unwillingness to invest in new IP.

Whether you agree with the hate or not, most gamers assumed that with the move to the Wii, Mario Party 8 would be the game that would show off some of the big new ideas that the series desperately needs. Unfortunately, the eighth iteration was again just more of the same, this time with some motion controls thrown in to replace button presses.

Interestingly, Mario Party 8 came out in the middle of 2007. With no announcement so far of a ninth version, it will have been at least two years between version eight and nine. Surely this must signal a serious return to the drawing board for the series? Well at least I hope it does.

Wii Review – Disney Think Fast

My latest review has gone up at Australian Nintendo website www.vooks.net.

This one is for Disney Think Fast and you can read it here.

Here is a quick excerpt:

Disney’s Think Fast is an entertaining, but bare-bones trivia game which caters well to its target audience of younger gamers and their families. It features very simple and easy to understand gameplay, a decent variety of questions and an excellent audio/visual presentation, but is a little light on game modes and features. It is maybe skewed too much to the younger crowd, but is certainly something that can be enjoyed for at least a little while by everyone.

Playing now…Final Fantasy IV DS (updated)

Status: Abandoned

The last few weeks I have been playing Final Fantasy IV on the DS. Keep reading to find out what I thought of the game at various intervals throughout.

Impressions after the jump. (spoilers too)

What’s wrong with…XBox Live?

As a Nintendo-only gamer I am constantly reminded that I should be envious of all those XBox 360 owners who are enjoying the “fantastic” XBox Live online gaming service.

But when it comes to things like this story posted by NeoGAF member speculawyer, I am glad Nintendo has taken such a conservative approach to online gaming.

I’ll let speculawyer speak for himself:

I was trying to help my sister set up her xbox so I created an open UNO game and was trying to show her how to play an online game. I had my xbox 360 camera on and I could be seen sitting on my couch with my 3 year-old daughter on my lap.

Then some guy joins the game, puts porn on a PC, and then points his camera at the porn and leaves it there.

Really now. Is that necessary? My daughter is plainly sitting there on my lap and yet he puts the porn on anyway?

Nintendo to fail in Russia?

The Nintendo Wii and DS will not be as successful in Russia as they have been in the rest of Europe because they are not multimedia devices capable of playing movies as well as games according to one of Russia’s leading video game publishers.

Gameindustry.biz recently posted an interview with Inna Bukatina, head of international licensing and acquisition at Russian developer/publisher GFI, who said Nintendo would find it more difficult to succeed in Russia because of the lack of extra features in the Wii and DS consoles.

“Well, firstly people in Russia prefer products that are more universal, that can be used for a number of different purposes,” Inna said.

“For example, a PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Portable can be used for games, or films, and so on.”

Inna went on to say that even though in other parts of Europe older people are playing Nintendo games, in Russia the population’s unfamiliarity with technology would hold Nintendo back.

“The gaming society in Russia is pretty young,” she said.

“In Russia they (older people) don’t know what to do with it – they never owned a computer, and probably never worked with a device that’s more technical than a telephone.”

Read on for my take on this story…