A few years back, a super interesting game was born. It was a game where you got to fully design your own character, draw parts of the levels you were tackling, create your own tools and use your imagination to play the game as you saw fit. It won awards. It sold lots of copies. They called it Drawn To Life.

Now we have a sequel that puts us right where the first game left off. They call it Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter (for a game based around creative input, not a real creative title, huh?). Using many of the elements of the first, with some improvements, this clever little game has a rich concept and can surely provide some fun for a younger crowd. Today we’ll take a look at the DS version of Drawn To Life: TNC, its features, its faults, and get a taste of how horrible an artist I really am.

The game has awesome cover art, showing an animated fellow swinging by a rope, pleasing townsfolk and showing no sign of fear from the evil blob critter watching him with an evil smirk. The game is targeted towards youth, and the vibrant box art speaks to that audience.

This game is certainly for younger players, as a large portion of Nintendo DS titles are. This game was also released for the Wii, which also advertises itself as a family console. Drawn To Life works by relying on building problem solving skills, requiring creativity via player-created content and presenting it in a fun, lighthearted manner. Keep that in mind when we take a look at the game.

Specifications:

Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter

Genre: Platform

Your hero. Your adventure.

Once again, the Raposa need your help to save their civilization! Drawn to Life returns to the DS in an all new journey, featuring even more ways to customize your hero and your gaming experience!

Create without limits: Versatile advanced drawing tool features allow for more intricate detail. Use additional colors, new guides, and new brush tools to create a multitude of unique items though out the game.

Let your imagination run wild: Ability to draw multi-limbed creatures means you can create your own hero in any form—human, animal or something entirely different.

Action drawing: Draw objects directly into the game-play to help you advance through the levels. Each color has special powers and gives your creation unique properties.

Morph your hero: Choose to turn your hero into a blob or a spider, each has its own abilities to help you advance through the levels.

Extensive action adventure game-play: Explore 4 new worlds and sail on a special ship YOU create. Collect color drops to progress through the game and unlock content including challenges, quests, customization options and much more!

Swap your creations with friends via multi-card play: Trade heroes, weapons, items and hero accessories with friends who have the game too!

Turning on the game, we are put back in the presence of the adorably silly Raposa – a race of odd animal-esque people who find nothing abnormal in camping out in a village on the back of an enormous turtle. Mari, the mayor, wakes up to find Heather has been kidnapped and Wilfre shows up to start obliterating the perfectly charming color out of everything in the world. This watercolor-turned-white canvas landscape is no good, so the people set out on a quest to find the missing girl and take down evil. There’s your story.

You’re the affectionate Creator, an omnipotent deity in charge of creating a Hero to help save these poor souls from living the rest of their lives in stark emptiness. This is one of the first things you create. Unfortunately, it takes a while to get there.

The first hour or so of the game has you learning the ropes. You develop your character during that time, learn to control it, name it, give it a weapon and learn to draw environmental elements. The rub is that during that hour, you’ll play for about ten minutes. The rest of the time is spent watching well-created, well-scripted, but painfully slow cut-scenes. This reality is one of my least favorite parts of the game. It’s a childrens’ game on a hand-held console, but these scenes are Kojima-length. When I first pick up a DS game, I want to play it, not sit and watch a 3” screen for an hour. A lot of children simply won’t be able to deal with this pacing from the get-go.

Honestly. You need to grasp what a problem this is – not just in the beginning, but throughout the game. The storytelling is constant and repetitive, and never gets any quicker. You’ll spend as much time pushing A to advance through the tale as you will actually playing, even once things get cooking.

When you do get to creating your hero, the power of the game comes to life. You’re given a few empty boxes for the various body parts, and you can add/remove more, so your hero isn’t limited to just being a human. You can spend as little or as much time as you want with your hero. Mine, a regular guy with an H on his shirt and a big orange beard is named H-Man, and he has a gun for a weapon that is essentially a black line with a handle. I’m far from Andy Warhol – but that’s what makes it awesome.

Yes, there are weapons. But the combat is bloodless and very much more like knocking things down than actually killing them, so it’s kid-friendly violence. You can also jump on foes Mario-style to take them out.

The artistic tools are very well done. It’s easy to look at the palette and figure out what does what, which is a great improvement over the first title. You are really given an enormous amount of freedom to create what you want when the opportunity arises.

The backgrounds and settings in Drawn To Life are amazing and resemble defined paintings. Drawing my own garbage over top of them is pretty humorous, and I enjoyed the dynamic. Creating your own hero and content throughout the levels is a brilliant concept.

One of the problems is you don’t get to do this stuff enough. The levels are simple, so usually you can get through them just by drawing a few lines. Sometimes you’ll create an item that you’ll only use once, while others, like the health potion, show up continually. Overall, the chances to draw things just don’t come up as frequently as you’d assume from the title of the game. The other limitation is that you’re confined to particular boxes to create your drawings – so even though you’re given tons of tools to do what you want, you’ve got to do it within limitations.

A tip is to make sure you utilize the space you’re given. Say you come across a few dotted line boxes. This is the game’s way of telling you you’re at a point where you need to create some platforms to get through the area. It’s showing you this in the shape of a box for a reason. The game doesn’t crop out areas you don’t use, so sometimes you’re left with invisible tangible things in-game if you don’t complete the drawing, which leaves you jumping onto transparent platforms. There’s nothing good about that, so take a minute to assess what you’re doing with the platform and ensure you draw it to suit its purpose.

While the platforming is really simple, let’s remember once again this is a game for kids. It’s usually pretty obvious where to draw your lines and how to get through each stage, but it might not be as obvious for a younger person. I can’t take 20 years off my life and find out.

As you progress through the story, there are many different settings you’ll traverse. All along, you’re battling foes, collecting coins for upgrades and new items and restoring color to each part of the world. To restore color, you have to gather color drops and repaint the scenery before moving to the next bit. You often have to re-attempt certain things multiple times, as any time you draw in-world you are limited to a certain amount of ink or strokes. Drawing things in the wrong places or running out of ink forces you to undo and try again.

Doing all this uses the stylus, and the controls are very responsive. This seems like a title well-suited for the DS, and drawing things most certainly has to be easier on the hand-held than on the Wii version just because of the nature of the input device.

Music is another strong point in Drawn To Life: TNC. The score is well-composed and always reflects the moment. Emotional bits have emotional music. Enemy battles have intimidating music. It’s all designed and scored to be memorable, and suits its purpose. Combined with the stunning visuals, the game is a true sensory success.

Conclusion:

Those who liked the first game will love this sequel. Such focus on user-created content is a freedom incredibly unique in this game – and therefore, incredibly enjoyable. Outside of that creative freedom, the game is easy, can be trite and frequently moves at an unbearable pace. The user-created content is enough to rescue Drawn To Life: TNC and make it an innovative title for children. That said, the target market isn’t just kids, but kids with some patience. I wouldn’t expect too many older or experienced gamers to enjoy this game a whole lot, but it’s not made for them, so that point is fairly disconnected.

Overall, it’s a brilliant concept with acceptable execution that largely improved upon the flaws in its successful predecessor. There is a lot to do, and a very detailed story in which to do it. If the pacing were improved, Drawn To Life: TNC would be a truly stellar title that I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to give to any child.

Pros:
+Hugely original
+Fun to create your own hero/world elements
+Brilliant sound/visual design
+Responsive input with DS stylus, good control structure

Cons:
-Terribly slow pacing
-No appeal to older crowd
-Not a lot of replay value

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance

Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter for Nintendo DS is a post from: Testfreaks | The Blog

My Secret Diary is the seventh O-Games title I’ve had the ability to review. While I haven’t been impressed whatsoever by the other two titles in the My Games series (My Dress-Up and My Make-Up), My Secret Diary offers a little bit more substance and is the first game in the series that may actually have a justifiable existence. While the other My games offer little to do and no reason to do it, My Secret Diary has some hint of a purpose and reason for a young girl to give it a few moments of their time. I’m not saying it’s the next Final Fantasy, but at least it’s something.

As part of the My Games series, My Secret Diary is geared specifically towards young girls. The cover makes this obvious with its imagery, purple colors and bubbly feminine text. The packaging is attractive and accurate towards the target market.

Specifications:

My Secret Diary

Store your secrets, keep a journal and have fun with mini-games, or send secret messages and event invitations to keep in touch with your friends.

Store and set reminders of special events for you and your friends, and update your calendar with friend’s birthdays and details. Customize your profile and keep up to date with your daily mood monitor.

Play games; have fun with personality tests to discover what kind of friend you are, or what flower you would be, play with fortune cookies, and friend matcher mini-games to see who is most compatible. Check your aura ring to test your mood or consult your crystal ball for a look into the future!

All password protected you won’t have to worry about somebody finding your key. Send secret messages and event invitations to your friends, or sit back and chat with all of your My Secret Diary, My Dress-Up and My Make-Up friends with exclusive ‘MyGames Chat’ over DS Wireless Communication.

Release Date: 07 November 2008

Formats: DS

Age Rating: 3+

At its core, My Secret Diary is PDA software made kid-friendly. It’s also branded towards girls with its presentation and mini-games. The presentation is even PDA-ish; the interface is rounded in the corners to somewhat resemble a handheld unit. You can write in a diary, use a calendar to mark events, save people’s contact information and play games. There’s actually a decent amount of stuff you can do with this software, especially considering it comes from O-Games.

PDA software is something that interests kids, particularly as networking, technology and communication becomes increasingly prevalent in their lives from a very early age. This game gives them the opportunity to have the basic functions of a PDA system right in their Nintendo DS. This would actually be a good organizational solution for some people instead of buying a real PDA for a child that would cost more and will probably end up lost or broken.

The entire game is secured by a secret password that is set when you first boot it up. Without that password, you’d better not even think of trying to get in. It is a secret diary, after all. The first thing you do is pick a mood for the day, then you can begin all of your super secret journaling joy. The menu will appear with your lovely selections.

Typing journal entries can be pretty exhausting as you tap each letter with the stylus. The little squares you have to click are barely bigger than the stylus’ tip. But, I wouldn’t expect anyone to be writing the next War & Peace in their secret diary, so it’s not so bad for the few sentence entries that are likely to populate the journal.

Calendar mode pulls qualities from any digital calendar you’ve ever encountered. Clicking on a day lets you add events for that day, apply a logo to the event so you can quickly tell what type it is (shopping, tv show, appointment, school, etc.) and even set its recurrence if it isn’t a one-time hustle.

Contacts is, you guessed it, the address book. Adding a new name brings you to a screen with various icons representing tidbits you can save in the contact’s record. These include name, birthday, phone, email, personality, favorite color, favorite animal, and favorite music. The interface is well-suited to a younger audience. This type of presentation helps turn what is actually boring, tedious data entry into something a little more interesting. Though it’s still data entry…

That’s really it for the diary features. The rest of My Secret Diary’s contents live in the Fun and Games section. This contains three sections: Quizzes, Games and Mystic. Quizzes is sort of silly and calculates things like your bravery, confidence and bossiness based on a series of 10 dumb questions. For instance, I’m brave because I’d ride a roller coaster and touch a tarantula and other such nonsense. There’s not a lot of value in that section.

Games is a bit more fun and contains word search and word garden. Word search is your typical find-a-word puzzle. Each puzzle has five words to find. Usually they’re blatantly obvious and you can solve the puzzle in a few seconds, but it’s a decent attempt. Word garden is My Secret Diary’s version of hangman. You have to guess all the letters to form a word, but instead of hanging a man, a petal falls from a flower with each incorrect guess. How sanitized. I guess maybe hanging a man isn’t appropriate anymore, but we used to play it in school…

Mystic is another silly section where you open a fortune cookie, rub a crystal ball or check your aura stone. Think fortunes, horoscopes, Magic 8 Ball – it’s all in that realm. I say “meh.”

There’s not a lot of graphics to comment on, as it’s not a game but an organizer. The sound is minimal, like all O-Games, and is almost completely devoid of any music. Much of the game operates in complete silence, which is always a turn-off for me. The controls overall are fine – everything is stylus-based and responds pretty well.

Conclusion:

Overall, the journal, calendar and address book functions do perform pretty well. The games are plain, simple and easily written off as throw-ins to pad the otherwise drab offering of a data entry game. I guess if your kid has a lot of friends that they for whatever reason can’t mentally keep track of, or if they just want PDA software to feel like a big adult, this would be something decent for them to have. Otherwise, it’s silly because kids don’t really need it, and the Fun & Games section is nothing worth paying money for that you can’t get out of a free Flash app online.

But like I said, at least it actually does do something – a claim the rest of the My Games titles can’t make.

Pros:
+PDA features work pretty well
+Stylus-based interface responds accurately

Cons:
-No music, little sound, boring experience
-Not really necessary for most kids
-Mini games are weak

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance

My Secret Diary – Nintendo DS is a post from: Testfreaks | The Blog

I’m not the target market for My Make-Up. I’m not a nine year-old girl bored to death with no other means of entertainment and no method of social interaction. That doesn’t prevent me from knowing what does and doesn’t make for a good video game. If you read my recent review of this game’s counterpart, My Dress-Up, you’ll already know the verdict. It’s the exact same bit of slag, but on a face instead of on the body.

If you are unaware of the unfortunate DS products made by Oxygen Games, you may look at this game’s cover and think it could entertain your child for a while. Perhaps they could have fun playing with make-up in this game instead of obliterating real tubes of designer lipstick and bottles of foundation you bought at Sephora that cost the same as a new car. You’re almost guaranteed to be incorrect. They’ll probably have more fun putting postage on your outgoing mail or changing the household lightbulbs.

The game has a fairly appealing outer package, like any DS game geared towards kids. Fun, happy, cute, exciting… misleading.

Specifications:

My Make-Up

Makeover, Pamper or Face Paint yourself and your friends, or check your messages to see whose makeover dreams you can make come true!

With brushes, colours and creams, face masks, hydrating fruits and face paint palettes; you’ll try out new styles and techniques, and be awarded new colours and stencils to try out on your friends. Check your inbox for messages, give yourself a makeover, or visit your friends for makeover and pampering practice. Do makeovers for parties, weddings and special events, pamper your skin with facial treatments, or invite up to 3 of your friends to a makeover party, via DS Wireless Communication.

Save your favourite makeovers in your photo album and send them to your My Make-Up friends, or to friends with My Dress-Up for a complete new look. Sit back and chat with all of your My Make-Up, My Dress-Up and My Secret Diary friends with exclusive ‘MyGames Chat’ over DS Wireless Communications.

Release Date: 07 November 2008

Formats: DS

Age Rating: 3+

Just like its other My Games counterparts, My Make-Up has limited appeal only slightly greater than doodling on a Post-It while talking on the phone with grandma. Booting it up gives you an immediate taste of what it has to offer – static gameplay, badly rendered 2D graphics, sloppy controls and inexplicably sluggish performance.

You initially create a character to learn how to use the game. The irony is that in doing so, you are playing nearly the entire game. That is to say, there is no game. It’s a five-minute process of putting makeup on a cartoon that you can repeat over and over again, or put down and wonder where five minutes of your life went that could have been better spent standing in a closet with a bag over your head.

There are a few modes: Makeover, Pampering and Facepainting. Makeover is the real heart of the game. Pampering is a joke, as you just throw some cream and cucumbers on the girl’s face then wash it off. It’s a 20 second process that has no use. And facepainting is just silly.

When you perform a makeover, you are first given the ability to structure the dame’s face. You can choose her eyes, nose, hair, and the other usual suspects – even her birthday, favorite color and favorite animal – which of course have no relevance to anything. You follow this by giving her lipstick, blush, mascara, hair colors and highlights. Then you’re done. You can save a picture of your completed makeover if you wish, and then you move on. Nothing else happens. The whole game is the preface to a story that doesn’t start.

The game attempts to formulate bits of purpose via the “Messages” section of the game, where various people will tell you they’re going out to some random event and they need you to perform a makeover so they look totally glam. Accepting a friend’s request takes you straight back to the same makeover screen where you go through the same process. No matter how horrible you make them look, they like it. There are no guidelines or requirements for how to tackle the makeover. The type of event doesn’t matter. The person doesn’t matter. Just make them over and move on – that’s the nature of the game.

When putting on makeup, the stylus doesn’t respond very well. It’s a bit slow and it never really feels like you’re “drawing” on the girl’s face the way you are supposed to be. The control makes it very difficult to end up with the girl looking anything less than ridiculous. Though they are cartoons and don’t look anything like real people, so I suppose it really doesn’t matter.

In classic O-Games style, there is almost no sound in this game. The sound effects are weird (kiss noises, little chimes) and don’t always sound like anything related to make-up (the sound it makes when you apply blush sounds like rain-soaked galoshes treading down a tile hallway). There is no music ever, so you play the entire game in silence outside of these minimal sound effects.

There is also an unreasonable amount of lag when playing. Pictures will at first load with a “?” and then turn into a girl’s face. Choosing different mouths or noses for your characters will show up for you to see on the top screen several seconds after you make the selection in the menu. I can’t fathom any reason why a tiny 2D cartoon image would take that long to load. It’s just crude static images. Sometimes the lines aren’t even straight on the figures – they appear jagged and pixely. Putting on blush looks like the girl is trying to grow a beard.

Like My Dress-Up, this is merely a badly designed character creation screen like you’d find in thousands of other games. The only difference is those other games have something to do with your character after you make them, and aren’t the entire game. My Dress-Up and My Make-Up should have been one title if they have to exist at all. The fact they are separate and run a mad $30 each is beyond comprehension. Sure, you can link the two with wireless DS connections, hold “makeover parties” and apply make-up to your dress-up characters and vice versa, but so what? There’s still no reason to be doing so, and the act won’t be entertaining.

Conclusion:

It’s really just a shame the My Games exist, and My Make-Up is another example of why. $30 for the ability to color a cartoon face with unresponsive controls in a sluggish game is outrageous. Making a game out of character creation with nothing for the character to do is pointless. Girls can use their imaginations in the real world better than in these games. They’re not the ones getting made up, nor are their friends. They’d be better off with a $1 coloring book and a box of Crayolas if they want an even greater experience than this game has to offer.

Pros:
+Ummm… pretty colors?

Cons:
-Everything else.

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance

My Make-Up for Nintendo DS is a post from: Testfreaks | The Blog

My Friends is a game for kids who truly have no friends. It is designed for the most anti-social of children who cannot muster the energy to go outside, make real friends, and engage in basic outdoor play. It’s true that games designed for children aren’t all flash and bang and bullets and guns and graphics and stories like games for adults. Still, that’s no excuse for a game simulating playground activities like Tag. That just seems depressing.

Even your friends in My Friends don’t want to be your friends, should you forget to ask them to play and give them gifts like toy cars and cookies. Anyway, let’s take a look… despite my objections, there is some substance to My Friends that may be enough to entertain a very young child.

The cover art of My Friends speaks to what I just said: this game is targeted towards small children. I think that anyone over the age of 7 or 8 will probably find themselves bored or uninspired by this title after a short spell when comparing it to other games they own, but I could imagine a younger crop getting a kick out of it for a while.

Lots of stuff is happening on the cover. Little kids are just everywhere, playing on things, running around and having a real jolly time. It looks like a crazy fun time and gives the impression there is just a boatload of stuff to be had inside. It’s somewhat true.

Specifications:

My Friends

Create your very own friends, play games with them, create new outfits and share gifts in your very own Friends World!

Create new outfits for your new friends with hundreds of cool looks, hairstyles, sunglasses and clothes.
Play lots of mini-games with your friends like Treasure Hunt, Tag, Mad Dash and many, many more
Collect toys, snacks, gifts and surprises and share them with your friends. Happy friends will share new games to play, new places to explore and cool new clothes, hairstyles and looks.
Explore the Playground, Woods, Ice Rink, Sports Field and more in Friends World for special items and unlockables
Swap your friends and gifts with other Nintendo DS owners or chat with them using DS Wireless Communications

Release Date: 31 July 2009

Formats: DS

Age Rating: 3+

My Friends is a series of playground games. You go to different playground-type areas, like an ice rink, sports field and an actual playground. At said locations you make friends and play common outdoor games. But before you can do any of that, guess what you need… friends! They don’t just happen automatically, you have to create them all to your own design.

That’s right – before you actually get to play anything in My Friends, you have to spend a good number of minutes creating said friends. You’re given options that should be familiar to anyone who has played games in the My Games series by O-Games, including hair, skin color, clothes, favorite animal, favorite music, and the like. Many of these choices have no bearing on anything, but others do.

You design and name these friends then assign them to one of the playground areas. It’s like creating gangs and giving them turf. This here’s Reggie, he’s going to represent the Ice Rink hood. Everyone there wears green horizontal stripe shorts and has pink hair. Stay clear or he’ll knife you.

I wish it were that dramatic.

Once you’ve created your cliques, you can play games with them. Tag is the first game made available to you on the playground. To play tag, you trace your stylus around the screen and your character follows. Running faster requires you to push one of the bumper buttons on the DS. To make this work, you have to have one hand holding the DS with a finger on the bumper, and the other hand navigating the stylus. While these controls respond well and work, I find them to be a little awkward. I would have really preferred to move my character using the D-pad on the DS if I’m going to be using a bumper button to make him run. That’s a personal preference, though, and others may find this control structure to be fine.

Tag is fun for a few minutes, but ultimately playing a game like tag isn’t very exciting when you aren’t actually running around. Or with real friends. Or outside. Couldn’t I just go outside and play tag for real? Sure, it might be raining or something… but there’s really nothing else I could be doing aside from playing simulated tag with creepy cartoon friends on a 3” screen? Sounds like the formula for developing an introverted personality in real people.

Still, I think it would entertain a five year-old. It’s sort of addicting in a strange way…

Completing games makes gifts and stuff appear around the playground area, regardless of whether you win or lose (patronize much?). You find them and pick them up, then give them to the other friends you have created to make them happy. This is required if you want to unlock new customizations for your friends and new games to play.

That’s right – you have to bribe your digital friends to play more games with you, else you’ll be stuck playing tag with Buttressa for the rest of your life. That’s what I named my first friend. Buttressa.

Fortunately I also made a girl named Jane who looks like my fiancé, at least as much as an awkward, pixely cartoon girl can look like a real person. Once I handed her a bag of barbeque chips I found in the corner of the playground, I unlocked another game – Fox and Hound. That’s my girl.

So that’s how My Friends moves forward. You play games, unlock prizes, give the prizes to people, and unlock new games. Eventually you unlock the rest of the play areas, stuff for your characters and other things that “expand” the game.

Nintendo DS wireless communications allow you to give and receive gifts with other real-life friends, or import/export characters into each others games. Though again, if you have a living, breathing, human friend sitting next to you as you play tag together on your DS, I’d have to argue that there’s better things you could be doing. Like playing real tag.

The graphics in My Friends are pretty weird. They’re not completely horrible, but they aren’t good. Awkward is a fitting description. The environments are 2D/3D, and the characters are all wacky shaped and jagged. They look like some sort of manga cartoon gone crazy; like looking at a plush doll held underwater. Their movements (which for some reason change depending on the personality you assign to each friend) are also strange, and most characters run like they are drunk or in a low-gravity world.

I was overjoyed to hear music in this game. It’s not constant, but is present when you are actively involved in a playground activity. The music isn’t good or catchy, but O-Games are notoriously silent, so I was just happy to find music regardless of its quality. Playing in silence only magnifies the boredom level in already sub-par games.

This game is like The Sims, but with way less complexity. If The Sims is beef wellington, My Friends is beef jerky.

Conclusion:

For me, My Friends doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s not extremely well-made, there isn’t much to do, and the things you can do can better be accomplished in real life. It’s simply not successful against all the other products available.

Fortunately for My Friends, I’m not the target market, and I do believe the game has the ability to entertain some very, very lonely children for a little while. The visuals and sound are lacking, the game play is weak, but little kids don’t always care. It’s simplistic, can be strangely addictive and is completely designed for the very young audience that doesn’t need complexity or complication in their gaming. In that respect, it has the potential to be successful.

Unfortunately, the game comes with a $30 price tag. Compared to other $30 games for the DS, My Friends is a pitiful comparison, and the price point could be its biggest deterrent. The game simply doesn’t offer $30 worth of content, and few parents will pick up this title on a whim at that price knowing that their kid might find it boring.

There’s a door on every house. Go through it and play tag for real.

Pros:
+Responsive controls
+Stuff to unlock, development to be had.
+Fun for a few minutes
+Very kid friendly

Cons:
-Overpriced
-Content is repetitive
-Graphics are really odd
-Sound is weak

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance

My Friends Nintendo DS Review is a post from: Testfreaks | The Blog

The Biggest Loser isn’t as much a game as it is a guidebook to a healthy lifestyle. It features exercise instructions, healthy eating recipes, calorie counters, fat monitors, progress charts, goal planners and everything else you could imagine to get yourself in shape, develop proper eating habits and maintain a healthy physical weight. It takes the process and procedures used on the show and applies them to the masses, allowing everyone to source the expert advice of The Biggest Loser trainers and apply them to their own needs.

Health and fitness interactive edugames are becoming increasingly popular on the market these days. Jillian Michaels is the face behind a number of the most successful of these titles, and this is another instance of a useful training tool being released in this genre.

The Biggest Loser’s box is very simple – the logo from the television show atop Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper. The back contains some motivational muscle-speak like “Change your body, change your life!” and “Make good decisions even on the go,” amongst information about the game’s offerings.

Specifications:

The Biggest Loser

Genre: Life Simulation

Change your body, change your life!

At home, or on the go, now you can achieve your goals with The Biggest Loser! Featuring tips and expertise from Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels, all the tools you need for weight loss are now at your fingertips.
Use the digital calorie counter to get nutrition information on thousands of foods from grocery stores and popular restaurants.
Stay on top of your fitness program with the digital exercise manual.
Get access to 50 healthy recipes in The Biggest Loser electronic cookbook.
Use the DSi™ camera to take photos of yourself, then watch your body morph as you achieve your fitness goals.
Track your personal milestones with your accomplishments list.
Test your fitness knowledge with mini games that provide lessons on portion control, cravings management, dieting and exercise.

Make good decisions even on the go.
Age Rating: E

Release Date: 10/05/2009

THQ has put together a really nice product in The Biggest Loser for the Nintendo DS. When I received this game for review, I had no idea what to expect. My first thought was that it would be a game where I played some obese character, taking on a bunch of silly exercise games to see if I could win a weight loss competition. That sounded to me like a horrible game – and apparently the game’s developers thought so, too. Fortunately, that’s not what it is at all.

Instead, The Biggest Loser is an interactive collection of expert advice on staying in shape and being healthy. The playable character is yourself. As someone who sits at a computer 15 hours a day and could always use some improvement in these areas, I can say that I was learning some new exercise ideas and health tips within a few minutes of getting into the software. I am not fat by any means, but I’m far from fit. Exercise has never been a big (or small) part of my life, but this tool has me examining some ways I could incorporate fairly easy, minimal time workouts into my daily routine that would improve my overall well-being. Since that’s the purpose of the software, that shows success right away.

When you get into the “game,” you create a profile where you tell the program your gender, height, weight, age and other personal info. It uses this information as the basis for everything, so don’t lie. You also create an avatar that you’d like to use as your cartoon reflection in certain areas.. As you make progress on your weight loss, his or her physical appearance will change.

It does automatically apply some over-fat to the character, but that’s forgivable and works for effect. My guy looks really chubby, even though the game says I’m normal weight for my height.

My biggest complaint about this game is that a lot of the calculations are based on the BMI. Most people are aware that the BMI is a pretty flawed system when it comes to classifying people as underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese. It’s a rigid mathematical formula quantifying weight against height that wasn’t originally developed for this purpose. It doesn’t take into account muscle weight and other factors, and many people don’t put any stake into its analysis.

Once your character is made, you find yourself at the game’s main menu.

The Biggest Loser Challenge pits you against yourself in a fight for your own goals. Up to three profiles can be stored on the game, so you literally can have a challenge with your friends or family members to see who can lose the most weight.

With every passing day, you can set personal goals for calorie intake, exercises, and more. The results get graphed out for you to analyze, showing progress over time. One of the most awesome elements of The Biggest Loser is its exercise sector. The game comes complete with detailed instructions for tons of different exercises focusing on every part of the body – all of which are able to be done at home, without equipment, and without excuses. There are even animations showing you how they are to be performed by a rendering of Bob Harper.

You can even go through entire exercise regimens, timed and coached by Jillian. It’s like having a workout video that is tailored to you, providing workouts to help you reach your individual goals.

Another seriously helpful tool is the Healthy Eating Handbook. This area of the software has tons of sections, from quick tips provided by previous contestants and winners of the television show to quizzes that test your knowledge of healthy vs. unhealthy eating.

A calorie counter contains nutrition information on thousands of foods. Want to know what’s in that cracker you are eating? Do you? Check it here.

Dozens of recipes are also available, complete with cooking instructions and nutrition information. These are expert-approved dishes that won’t contain ingredients your body doesn’t like, and will help you reach your Biggest Loser goals.

A game based on a television show wouldn’t be complete without some encouraging words and audio recordings by the people from the show, and this game is no exception. While the expressions are canned and repetitive, they’re in there. There isn’t quite enough of them, though, and the novelty wears off soon before you’ve heard Bob cheer you on with the same phrase for the 40^th time.

As for the rest of the game’s sound, it’s alright. Music plays constantly, and it’s little better than elevator music. But that’s the type of music you expect with this kind of title, and it’s not really a big deal. Just turn it down if you don’t like it.

Graphics aren’t particularly important for this genre. Most of the game is made up of graphs, words, tables and information. Text is easy to read, colors are nice, and the presentation is designed wonderfully and is easy to navigate. That’s all you could hope for, and it’s what you receive.

I can’t honestly claim to have played a large number of exercise-related life sims, but being a normal person with a limited amount of exercise and nutritional knowledge, I can’t think of too much that is missing from this title. If I were to become motivated to change myself, this game touches on all the things I would think to investigate. For its genre, it’s a very solid release.

Conclusion:

For the retail price of $30, The Biggest Loser offers a very well-designed, in-depth training tool for anyone seeking a means to accomplish their nutritional and fitness goals. The software contains all the expert training information a person needs for both exercise and diet, which leads me to believe it is very viable for a person to succeed if they followed the program outlined in the game. People have gone through amazing transformations on the television program, and the game puts you through the same regimen and offers the same tips that those contestants receive. It’s informative and encouraging, and worth investigating if you’re in the market for some personal improvement. A great addition to the genre.

Pros:
+Very in-depth tools
+Great healthy eating resources
+Tons of exercise materials
+Well-made and designed

Cons:
-Lots of BMI focus, which many people don’t trust

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance

The Biggest Loser for Nintendo DS is a post from: Testfreaks | The Blog

Seven years ago, someone at Square Enix came up with the wacky idea to create a game blending characters from the Final Fantasy series with classic Disney friends. The game it birthed, Kingdom Hearts, was a surreal journey into a series of worlds racked with creativity, following a storyline that was blissfully nostalgic and powerfully original at the same time. It was pure entertainment and an interesting blend of characters gamers had spent years learning to love, and characters that have stood the test of time as icons.

Two sequels, one official sequel for the PS2 and one spin-off for the GBA, followed the original. Neither quite captured the perfect melancholy that defined the original. The spin-off, Chain of Memories, had a weak story. Kingdom Hearts II was overloaded, unfortunately simple to beat and felt stressed, as if the majesty and charisma that coursed through the first title had been watered down.

Now we’re back with another title to add to the Kingdom Hearts family, 358/2 Days. This DS spin-off follows the journey of Roxas. Kingdom Hearts fans will know him as the member of Organization XIII who is the Nobody of Sora, the main hero of the first two games. Non-Kingdom Hearts fans won’t have a clue what the hell that sentence means, and therein lies the biggest truth about Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days – it is a game designed for existing Kingdom Hearts fans. First-timers will find the story about Roxas’ development and the 358/2 days that took place between Kingdom Hearts I and Kingdom Hearts II incomprehensible, as it relies on an understanding of the other games to have much appeal. And it doesn’t really seem to care. It doesn’t bother to inform or catch newbies up to pace, it simply says “here’s the story – understand it or don’t.”

Still, for those who know the series, this is an interesting take on what we know that will have us recalling moments from the first games and working to connect the dots with our new-found knowledge about Roxas’ character. It offers a new type of game play, a new control structure and capitalizes on the unique characteristics of the DS to function.

The box art is stunning and features Square’s famous hand-drawn renderings of the characters. The colors are beautiful against the white background and it just screams of quality. The back lets you in on one of the story’s main plot points – the mysterious 14^th member of Organization XIII that becomes an integral part of Roxas’ life.

Specifications:

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

In KINGDOM HEARTS, Sora turned the Keyblade on himself in order to release Kairi’s heart, but his heart was also released in the process. This brought about the creation of Roxas, Sora’s Nobody. Unlike most Nobodies, however, Roxas has no memories of… his past. He joins Organization XIII and slowly begins to discover the truth behind his existence and the Organization itself. He meets and befriends the fourteenth member of the Organization, who also has no recollection of her past. What will Roxas see during his time in the Organization? What is the connection between him, Sora and the fourteenth member? And what becomes of them? Dive into the heart of the KINGDOM HEARTS storyline’s biggest secrets.

FEATURES
* Familiar action-packed KINGDOM HEARTS gameplay that has captivated fans worldwide
* “Panel System” — a brand-new system that allows you to customize Roxas’s arsenal by placing abilities, items and weapon parts into allotted slots
* A series-first multiplayer mode, allowing up to four players to control any Organization XIII member
* Learn about the origins of the “Organization XIII” name
* Get to know the members of Organization XIII, including the mysterious fourteenth member
* Finally experience the KINGDOM HEARTS storyline’s missing chapter

Platform: Nintendo DS

Genre: Action RPG

Players: 1 (2-4 via Wireless DS Multi-Card Play)

ESRB: E10+ (Fantasy Violence)

Release Date: 9/29/2009

MSRP: $34.99

Since we can assume by this point that you are a KH fan, otherwise you probably would have stopped reading by now, you’re likely wondering when I’m going to get to actually reviewing this game. That time is now, buddy. Hold on to your suspenders.

The synopsis of the game released by Square states you can “finally experience the Kingdom Hearts storyline’s missing chapter.” That missing chapter is the time between the two games – the 358/2 days that followed the creation of Roxas. Questions will be answered for Kingdom Hearts fans, and more questions than are worth it will be made for non-fans. The opening cinematic sets the tone for the game and introduces us to the story we are about to play.

Though the game takes on a completely new story, it pits you in many locations you will remember from KH1 – the first of which is Twilight Town. Each location is beautifully recreated on the DS and the graphics look fantastic. It’s easy to remember you way around the locations, see familiar sights and have plenty of “oh yeah!” moments, as the handheld does an incredible job of handling what used to be Playstation 2 graphics. It really looks excellent, and the characters and settings are not awkward or deformed like many 3D DS titles.

The only negative to that point is that most of the locations are recycled, so you’re not going to investigate a terrible amount of scenery you haven’t already played. If you’ve played every KH game to date, this will be yet another visit to some of the same places you’ve been time and time again. Square can’t keep this up much longer, because while we love seeing these things in new applications, it’s not fresh forever. These grapes are turning into raisins, I do say.

The control structure goes back to the part menu, part action system that was a strong suit of KH1. The game can be difficult straight from the start, so a mastery of the controls is crucial to getting through the title. For instance, on your second real quest, while Roxas is still a Level 2 character dealing hardly any damage, you come across an enemy with six bars of life that can kill you in two hits. It’ll take a solid ten minutes to put him down.

The top screen shows the game, while the bottom screen generally shows a map of your current location and the locations of goals, pickups and other stuff.

The DS handles these controls well. Different combinations of buttons control your menus, jump/attack are as you’d imagine and everything is handled with ingenuity. The stylus is more or less ignored. You can use it to rotate the camera, but with the amount of button control your hands are constantly doing, tucking a stylus in your palm for the occasional camera rotation is pretty silly. It’s easier to just flick the screen with a spare finger, or just leave the camera be. Most of the time it’s positioned fine and it rotates itself as you fight. The occasional inconvenient angle isn’t worth the struggle to use the stylus.

While the locations will be familiar to KH fans, the mode of progression for the story is not. Instead of traveling freely and completing worlds, you are given missions that take you to different places. Some are optional and end in rewards and experience, while others are mandatory and develop the plot. It’s therefore like any other mission-based game: pick one, go do it, return and pick another. This change actually works well for the story with the Organization, and with the return of older-style controls and previously-seen worlds is an interesting change in an otherwise familiar playing environment.

Another thing that can alter the playing environment is the presence of multiplayer. Two to four buddies can join you and play as any Organization members using DS wireless. This is the first time any sort of multiplayer function has existed within KH, so that’s pretty rad.

Yet another new element is the panel system, which dictates how Roxas develops as a character. It’s basically a board with tons of empty panels where you place certain attributes you collect. They can be magic skills, physical skills or items, in any combination, any way you want. These panels can be changed after every mission, allowing you to totally change them any time you wish. For a certain mission, you can focus heavily on magic, filling up Roxas’ panels with tons of magic spells. For the next, make him as nimble as a sack of kittens with all sorts of dodge, roll and physical movement skills. If you ever enter a mission and don’t have the stats to get through it without dying over and over, you may be able to give yourself a better edge by equipping your panels in a different way. It’s clever, I tell you. Clever!

What’s not as clever is the amount of times you have to go to certain places. You’ll spend the first few hours of playing within the same couple streets of Twilight Town. The areas aren’t as big as they were back on the PS2, and you’re going to get tired of being in the same little spots all the time. For real, it gets repetitious to an annoying level. Especially when the cut-scenes are slow and you go back and forth to the same place mission after mission. Both things happen frequently.

The cut scenes, while beautifully rendered and nicely acted, can be slow. Tick tock.

Music, of course, is wonderful. It’s a Square game, after all. If any company is known for the power of music on its games, it’s Square. The composition quality is masterful and everything suits the game perfectly. Of course, almost all of it is recycled KH music, so that’s not surprising. Still, it’s been a while since we’ve heard it, so it’s not all that bad.

Conclusion:

At its core, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is a true Kingdom Hearts game. Fans of the series will definitely not be let down by this title, despite its repetitive nature and recycled locations. The story is fresh, the DS gets pushed to the max to deliver a stellar visual and auditory performance and the game control structure is handled well by the console. It is a welcome addition to a series that continues to evolve.

While it’ll be very challenging for any subsequent game to invoke the ethereal whimsy that made the first Kingdom Hearts such a joyous experience, it is more than pleasurable to discover a fresh story set within an overarching tale that has been delighting gamers for seven years strong.

Pros:
+Great controls
+Beautiful graphics and sound
+Excellent new story
+Panel system
+It’s Kingdom Hearts

Cons:
-Repetitious
-Lots of recycled locations
-Recycled tunes
-Often slow and monotonous

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Nintendo DS Review is a post from: Testfreaks | The Blog

When little girls play dress-up, they aren’t doing it for any real purpose. They aren’t hoping to get top marks from a fashion judge. They aren’t giving out wardrobe advice like tiny versions of What Not to Wear. They’re just being silly, putting on mommy’s fancy clothes and dancing around the living room with plastic wine glasses saying big words like “pardon me.”

Playing My Dress-Up works along the same lines. Just as real children play dress-up for no reason aside from having some silly fun, they can play this game for no reason aside from having some silly fun. That seems logical in concept, but it turns out that doing something pointless is less fun when you’re not at least doing it for real.

The box is fairly well designed and leaves no question that this game is targeted towards kids. The instruction booklet is pretty decent and should be useful for helping guide people through the game. That is, if you can’t figure it out just by looking at it…

Specifications:

My Dress-Up

Dressing-Up, Fashion and Design for you and your friends. With over 600 customizable items to choose from, you can style yourself and your friends over and over again!

Check your messages to see who needs your help, dress friends up for special occasions, parties, fancy dress or just for the fun of it! Store your favourite outfits in your wardrobe and show them off to your friends, or invite up to 3 of your friends to a Dress-Up party and rate each other on your styling skills, via DS Wireless Communications.

If you’re feeling creative design a range of special t-shirts for you and your friends to wear, connect with My Make-Up friends for a full makeover, or sit back and chat with all of your My Dress-Up, My Make-Up and My Secret Diary friends with exclusive ‘MyGames Chat’ over DS Wireless Communications.

Formats: DS

Age Rating: 3+

What we have with My Dress-Up is a 2D click-and-watch “game” where you apply different outfits to rendered still pictures. Imagine cutting a bunch of clothing pieces of out of a magazine and taping them together on top of your favorite picture of Angelina Jolie. That’s what this game is.

There is no story, no goal, no objectives, no point – you just dress things. The game has a portrait orientation requiring you to turn your DS on its side to play left and right. Take a peek at my exceptionally bad photos for reference.

The main menu hits you with four options, the first of which is Friends.

In Friends mode, you make a person and dress them. After you dress them, you can save the wardrobe or not save the wardrobe. That’s all there is to know. You are given the option to choose their face shape, skin color, eye color and lips. The skin colors are all very strange and unnatural, from paper white to really really intense coffee black. Everything in between are strange muddled pigments that don’t look like human skin colors. You give them a name and a birthday. You attribute them a personality, because all girls are either cool, shy, smart, grumpy or funny. Yay for gender roles! You pick her favorite color and for some reason her favorite animal. Awesome.

Dressing people is the meat of the game. I say that loosely, because if it’s the meat of the game, it’s like Spam. Or Beggin’ Strips, because they’re not really even meat. In all reality, if I were a five year-old girl, dressing people could be fun for a few minutes. You scroll to choose the area of the body, then pick the piece of clothing you want, then give it a color and a pattern (there are an extremely large number of colors, but usually only 1-3 patterns for something) and then apply it to the 2D figure. The left screen shows your person standing there, never moving, never doing anything, just standing there. You can’t get any other angles of the body, no viewing the back, no nothing.

There is no freedom to pick things like height or weight, nose shape, bra size, torso length… But that’s okay, all girls look exactly the same in real life. Right? No? Oh, I’ve been inside too long.

Basically, it’s the character creation screen you find at the beginning of a lot of video games. Except worse. And it’s the whole game.

By know you’ve noticed the graphics are crude and unappealing, even for a young person. Just ask a little kid. I did. They weren’t impressed. I can’t prove this to be true, because I didn’t take a written statement or vocal recording from the kid, but I hope you’ll take my word for it.

The Messages section on the menu is exactly the same thing as the Friends section, except instead of creating a person and going from there, you’re first given a “task” by a “friend” that you should “accomplish” while “dressing” them.

As soon as you accept a task from a friend you go right into the dressing screen and do it all just like above. Regardless of who the person is, where they’re going, or how you dress them, they love it when you’re done. This makes this mode utterly pointless. You’re never graded on how well you compose the outfit, match things, or actually dress the person to suit the event they’re attending. Again – I know – real life dress-up is just for kicks. But seriously… some reason to be playing this would be good.

Or maybe Paula G really does want to go out to dinner with her mother looking like a 1980s carnival hooker. I will never know for sure, because it wasn’t one of the hip, young phrases that these characters utter via messages. I do know, however, that she enjoys art class.

Top Designer is probably the biggest joke about this game. You pick a garment and apply a pre-made logo. You can pick the color of the top and the colors of the logo. Click, click, done. Big deal.

There is almost no sound to speak of in My Dress-Up. If you put the DS down to go get a Capri Sun and forget to come back to it, your battery will be die because the thing might as well be turned off with the amount of sound coming from the game. No music, very little effects when navigating or working on clothes. As if this wasn’t boring enough…

At least you don’t have to worry about getting the tune stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Dead silence isn’t particularly catchy. It does make this a great game to play during church, or when hiding from gunmen.

As for control, I mean, it’s fine. You don’t really have to do anything, so simple touching with the stylus is more than enough. I don’t really see how it could have gone wrong, so it’s workable by default.

The documentation says there are over 600 articles of clothing in the game. How thrilling. To create that total, you have to dress more people and unlock more clothes. That’s really the only objective available in this title. Too bad you don’t have to have any skill or really do anything to unlock them, aside from resist the urge to put down the game after five minutes.

My Dress-Up is part of a series of “My” games. Normally, the prospect of wireless linking with other DS consoles and your friends would be cool. Not so much with this game, because it’s just not worth doing. All the games in this series should be one game, and even then it still might not be worth buying. They are $30 each, after all. I mean come on, I can buy The Orange Box for $20.

Of course, I can’t play The Orange Box in church… It’s got sound and animations and all those crazy things some games have.

You can use My Make-Up to put makeup on your person you created and dressed in My Dress-Up, but you’re not going to. I promise. I promise you’re not going to pay $60 for both of those games so that you can do what should have been part of the game If you do, there are no words I can say that will justify your actions.

Conclusion:

Alright, so the game is made for people ages three and up. The excitement level doesn’t have to be super high, and the archaic design may go unnoticed. Still, to pay $30 for a weak digital version of something kids can do for free using real clothes at home seems a silly idea. That price tag really kills it for me.

It’s nothing more than a character creation screen, and one that is hideously outdone by most character creation screens in real games. The biggest flaw is that you don’t get to do anything with the character after you’ve made them. You just get to dress another character. Then you can go make the Eiffel Tower out of pipe cleaners or count leaves in your yard. At least you’ll have something to show for that.

Pros:
+Easy to operate, straightforward game for kids
+Pretty colors

Cons:
-Just about everything else.

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance

My Dress-Up – Nintendo DS Game is a post from: Testfreaks | The Blog

Hurry Up Hedgehog is not what you expect it to be when you hear the title. Naturally, you first think it’s a Sonic rip-off, given the “speediness” of the title. It’s easy to assume it might be some type of platform jumper, but that couldn’t be more wrong. It’s actually based on the German board game Igel Argern, which was released in the 1990s.

Not too many people have played Igel Argern (also known as Egelrace), mainly because it was (obviously) never released in the rest of the world. Plenty of board games are available for the DS platform, but most are popular titles like Scrabble or Monopoly. Hurry Up Hedgehog is somewhat of a backgammon meets checkers type thing, and will provide a different type of board game from what you are used to. Plus, it has a silly name that makes you want to give it a try. To that end, Oxygen Games gets a few points for originality in deciding to bring American audiences a German game instead of something we’ve seen a million times. The question is whether or not it holds its own as a standalone video game…

Hurry Up Hedgehog’s package presentation is fairly nice. The cover graphic looks intriguing and the back makes the game sound fun.

Specifications:

Hurry Up Hedgehog

Hurry your hedgehog’s home with Hurry Up Hedgehog!
An intriguing brainteaser challenging the whole family to shrewdly manoeuvre their
way to victory. Jostling against the canniest critters in the garden players must
dodge hazards, out-smart their friends and use cunning to race their hedgehog’s
home.
Hurry Up Hedgehog! Is both a simple and thoroughly addictive puzzler offering an easy-to-learn playing experience for the whole family to shrewdly manoeuvre their way to victory.  For board game aficionados, it’s based on the popular board game, Igel Ärgern.
Play against the computer or with up to 5 friends on a single Nintendo DS™ (or with multiple consoles through local wi-fi) whilst dodging hazards and out-smarting friends to race your hedgehogs home.

Featuring multiple game play environments and a selection of customisable game play and game rules options, Hurry Up Hedgehog offers up to 32 unique ways to play the game providing enough depth to keep players coming back for more and more!

Hurry Up Hedgehog! – Race, creep, jostle and out-manoeuvre in this intriguing multi-player brainteaser for all ages.

Probably the cutest hedgehogs to be seen on the Nintendo DS™ will be in shops from 28th March 2008.

Features:
• Hurry Up Hedgehog! game play dynamic is based on the popular board game Igel
Ärgern (also known as Egelrace) loosely translated “Hedgehogs in a Hurry” and
designed by Doris Matthäus and Frank Nestel.
• Board layout: Consists of 6 numbered lanes each 9 columns long. .
• Single DS Multiplayer and Multi-Card Multiplayer for up to 6 players.
• 6 graphic sets, and 5 rule customization options, allowing for 32 unique ways to
play.
• Stylus control throughout.

Release Date: 28 March 2008

Formats: DS

Age Rating: 3+

This is now the fourth Oxygen Games title I’ve been given to review. It is also the fourth title that majorly lacked instruction. Loading this game brings you straight to a menu that you can’t understand, putting you into a confusing situation before you even start the game. If you are a fan of acronym’s, this game’s initials are suitable here: HUH?

The first menu has only four icons. Touching them brings up words on the top screen that tell you what they mean. They are single player, multiplayer, credits and help. This isn’t the real confusing menu, though. Touching the single or multiplayer options takes you to the next menu where you set the options for the game, and that’s where it gets real messy.

There are a lot of settings for Hurry Up Hedgehog. The box art advertises there are 32 ways to play, based on how you employ the options available. That is true, though there is little difference between them when you get down to it.

Icons are spattered all over the menu and it’s impossible to tell what they mean. They look very disorganized and sparse. Touching each icon brings up things on the top screen like “stacking on” and “shunting on,” “tube mode on” and “flat mode on.” Since you’ve never played this game before, you don’t know what those things mean.

If you go back to the main menu and touch the Help option hoping for clarity, you won’t get any. The game tells you to consult the manual. You’d better hope you didn’t lose it (or if your home is like mine, you’d better hope the poodle didn’t eat it).

What the help menu does tell you is how the game works. However, it doesn’t tell you in much depth, so I’ll lay out the premise for you:

Each player has with four “hedgehogs” on the far left of the screen, which is a 6×9 grid. These hedgehogs are really just weird looking circles – the actual hedgehog is on the top screen, where he dances or does weird expressions based on how your turn goes on the screen below. During every start of a turn, a “dice is rolled,” though you don’t see it, and random row is chosen. When it’s your turn, you move one hedgehog vertically and one hedgehog horizontally along the chosen row. The hedgehog you move vertically has to be your own. The one you move left or right can be any hedgehog, giving you the chance to sabotage other players if you don’t have an option to further your own hedgehogs towards the goal. Your turn ends once you have made the forward move. Thus, the vertical move is optional. Pits are found all over the game board, and if your hedgehog moves into one of them, he can’t get out until all the other hedgehogs on the board catch up. You have an unlimited amount of time to choose your moves, so these hedgehogs aren’t actually in much of a hurry. The first player that moseys three hedgehogs to the far end of the board wins.

If you don’t read the manual and only read the in-game help, it’ll take you a while to figure that out.

That is all how the game works on the default settings. Changing the options allow slight variations that don’t change the game drastically. For instance, tube mode allows you to move your hedgehog from the sixth row to the first row by going around the “back” of the board.

The game board itself is very basic, but it gets the job done. There are six backgrounds (or as Oxygen calls them, “playing environments”) you can choose, though they have no impact on the game aside from the placement of the holes.

Control is entirely through the stylus, which works very well for this type of game. The use of buttons would have complicated the control structure, so this was a good call on the developers’ part.

The top screen doesn’t really have much purpose. Hedgehogs dance up there, act awkward, frown, and otherwise emote. It also acts as a score card for how many hedgehogs each player has navigated to the finish line.

Multiplayer with other human beings is the heart of this game. If you have friends with the title, you can link up your consoles. Otherwise, you can just hand the game around to friends on one DS thanks to its turn-based nature. Playing by yourself will get old quickly because the competition is very uninteresting in single player mode, and constant multiplayer against the AI opponents is boring, as you spend the majority of the time watching them.

While there is some skill and tactical stuff you can do when playing against others, it’s not so much that this game becomes a true competition in any context. The challenge piques fairly early and thus the game can get mundane.

As far as graphics go, you can probably tell they are fairly weak. They don’t push the DS at all, and look more like GBA quality. Obviously this game is targeted towards kids, who don’t generally care as much about graphics as a selling point, but I’ve seen comparable graphics in Flash games on the internet. Even the icons on the menu screens are rendered sloppy.

Sound is possibly the worst element of Hurry Up Hedgehog. By that, I mean there hardly is any. Music plays during the menu screens, but the entire game is devoid of any instrumentation. This is uber boring. The only sounds you hear during play are a repetitive little chime during dice rolls and the awful giggling of a hedgehog, both of which will make you want to shoot yourself two minutes into the game. Music doesn’t even play when one player wins the game. Instead, the creepy hedgehog on the top screen dances to silence, performing very awkward pelvic thrusts into the air before the game anticlimactically returns to the menu screen.

Conclusion:

With some friends, this game could be fun for a while, particularly if you are a fan of board games. Solo, it’s a great way to spend 15 minutes, then it will grow stale. That is, if you can convince others to play. While it is fun to play a German board game that is new to most people, there just isn’t a lot of substance to Oxygen’s title to make it a lasting investment.

With awful menu screens and a terrible lack of instruction, it fits the mold with many other O-Games titles. There may be a lot of ways to alter the rule set and change the game a bit, but there is still a distinct lack of content and motivation to spend money on this title. If board games are your bag, then it’s probably worth checking out at the budget price of $20. If not, you probably won’t get your money’s worth.

Pros:
+Interesting new board game
+Great stylus control
+Functional multiplayer play

Cons:
-Bad menus and instruction
-Overall weak graphics
-Total lack of sound
-Lack of content for a full game

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance

Hurry Up Hedgehog – Nintendo DS is a post from: Testfreaks | The Blog

Ahhh, logic games. The DS is full of them, and the bandwagon is led by strong offerings like Brain Age. As with any successful niche, other companies have been trying their hand at developing enjoyable edutainment. I recently took a look at Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles by Oxygen Games. While it had some solid elements, it left me wanting more than two puzzles and a horrendous lack of explanation. The other game in the series, Challenge Me: Math Workout, is what we have to take a look at today.

While Math Workout does improve upon some of the drawbacks in Brain Puzzles that kept me from enjoying the first game, it’s not without its own fair share of problems. Where Brain Puzzles relied on the safety of employing classic puzzles (Sudoku and Picross), Math Workout involves original creations. However, these original games don’t always play out so well, and you may up feeling like the only thing that’s been truly challenged is your patience.

The box art is cute and spattered with mathematical mumbo jumbo. Like the other Challenge Me title from O-Games, the claim here is playing the title may help you reduce anxiety, improve your logical thinking and brain reactions, and improve creativity. Also like the other Challenge Me title, none of this is going to happen.

Specifications:

Challenge Me: Maths Workout

Challenge Me: Maths Workout! Challenge Me: Maths Workout is the second game to be released in the Challenge Me series after Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles.

Incorporating two number puzzle games, Challenge Me: Maths Workout will not only bring you hours of fun and relaxation, it may also improve your Maths skills.

Hidden Logic! In hidden logic you must guess the value of your opponent’s cards whilst stopping them from guessing yours. Initially the cards are facedown on the Nintendo DS™ screen – a correct guess (from 1-11) will reveal the card. Play to reveal all of your opponents cards before they reveal yours!

Formulate! Formulate! is a numbers game that uses equations and cards to formulate answers. Each card, numbered 1-9 is also associated with a mathematical symbol such as +, – , x or ÷. You must move the cards around the screen to create a correct formula. Formulate! is a great way to sharpen up your arithmetic skills while relaxing at home or battling the hordes on the tube or bus!

Challenge Me: Maths Workout – Relax, Play and Improve Your Mind!

Release Date: 27 March 2009

Formats: DS

Age Rating: 3+

Challenge Me: Math Workout features two games. Both, as far as I know, are original creations unique to the game. If not, then they are not mainstream brain exercises, which at least gives this title a little edge in that it contains activities you can’t readily find elsewhere. The games can be played locally vs. AI opponents or with friends over Wi-Fi. Up to four players can be in the games at a time. You can even team up with a computer player, if you so wish.

Each game requires you to pick an avatar for you and your opponent before playing. These are just cute little anime looking fellows. There are six people, a panda and some sort of purple robot looking thing. You know you’ve always wanted to do math as a panda.

The first of the two games is Hidden Logic. This is essentially a guessing game, which already puts into question how it is supposed to help train your brain. The goal is to guess the numbers of your own cards (yeah, both games are card games) and guess the numbers of your opponent’s cards. You each have a stack of face-up and face-down cards, and you use the process of elimination and fleet-footed guessing to figure it out. That’s it. That’s the whole game.

In what seems to be O-Games tradition, there is absolutely no instruction or help menu to tell you what you’re supposed to do in these games. At first glance, it will absolutely not be evident right away. Like Brain Challenges, instruction is missing. Fortunately in that game, many people already know how to play Sudoku. In Math Workout, nobody knows how to play these games, so the lack of instruction is an even bigger issue.

Eventually, you’ll realize there is a set of black cards and a set of white cards, which get laid out on-screen from lowest to highest. The cards you can see are supposed to help you guess what cards your opponent has. Sure, they tell you which ones are obviously already flipped, but the chances of you guessing what the opponent has with much frequency is quite slim. It’s about luck as much as logic, and really isn’t a math workout in any way.

Another thing you may discover is that after a few guesses, the AI becomes exceedingly fortunate at guessing your cards. Since in the beginning all you can do is guess, it’ll take a little bit before you have any hope of putting critical thought into figuring out your opponent’s cards. By then, the AI has become a fortune teller. The whole concept gets tiresome after a few minutes. It may be better with more human players, but I doubt you’ll find out. There is minimal incentive to keep playing this game very long.

Then, there is Formulate. The object of this game is to complete equations using cards numbered 1-9 with each card having a mathematical symbol associated to it. Sounds somewhat fun, really.

This game, being that it revolves around equations, mathematical operators and structure, could actually be considered a math game. The player is given cards of various colors. Each has a number and a random math operator on them. The goal is to create a formula that works with the cards you have, and if none is possible, discard a card and hope the one that replaces it will do the trick. The operator of the card you put first in line on the equation will have its operator covered up, allowing you a “starting point” of sorts. You are given a time frame in which to build your formula, which adds to the difficulty.

Though this game is built on more of a mathematical principle than Hidden Logic, it is equally as fruitless and tedious. This is mainly because you will rarely have cards that can create a formula. The numbers only go 1-9, and you’ll often have cards that simply don’t add up, or contain too many multiplication and division symbols to make anything possible. Multiplication is often just difficult to work with when you are required to have at least three cards involved in the equation resulting in a single-digit solution. However, you can rely on the fact that the AI will figure out a formula within two seconds if there is any possible way for it to be done with the cards on screen.

I get that part of the challenge is being able to deduce whether or not a solution is viable with the cards given. The frequency of impossible combinations is what makes it frustrating and turns a brain game into something boring. You’re lucky to make one or two formulas in a round of play.

The game does give you a good bit of control, which is nice. In Formulate, you can set the number of rounds, the amount of thinking time given, the amount of time to play with opponent’s discarded cards, etc. In Hidden Logic, you can control the same type of options. There are also game-wide options like screen color, sound volumes, and the like – your standard options menu.

Graphically, the game is barebones. Obviously it’s not going to be Crysis, but everything is really flat. Pair it with the weird music, which sounds like some sort of midi marching band that makes me hum “I’m A Yankee Doodle Dandy” for an hour after hearing it, and it’s not the best overall aesthetic. Math Workout is, though, more interesting than its brother Brain Puzzles. The involvement of character avatars and an overall higher level of color makes this game a bit more appealing.

And that’s all there is to the game.

Conclusion:

Challenge Me: Math Workout gets some props for trying to invent unique brain-testing games. Unfortunately, they end up being executed more as trials of luck that leave the player frustrated or bored, and certainly not challenged. The lack of instructions will make it difficult for many to pick up and play – particularly in the children’s market, to which this game is targeted. The lackluster gameplay that follows will ensure this title is one that won’t hold people’s attention for too long after they’ve put a little time into the two game modes.

There are definitely stronger releases out there for challenging your mind, despite this game’s bargain price of $20. It is a mundane package that young people won’t take the time to figure out and older people just simply won’t care to play.

Pros:
+Original game concepts
+A bit brighter and more appealing than Brain Puzzles

Cons:
-Bad instruction
-Trite graphics and sound
-Doesn’t live up to its claim – more guesswork than logic
-Simply not enough substance

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance

Challenge Me: Maths Workout – Nintendo DS is a post from: Testfreaks | The Blog

Puzzle games are one of those surprising genres that have seen mainstream success. There are dozens of great titles out there that challenge your brain, get you thinking, and digitally upgrade age-old puzzles that people used to do in activity books or on the back of the Sunday paper. The genre has pulled in one of the widest audiences of any genre, as puzzles appeal to young and old, gamers and recreational players alike. Nearly anyone can appreciate the challenges posed by the intrinsic complexity of a puzzle. Thus, a good number of game companies have tried their hand at creating a successful puzzle title to add to their lineups. Like any bandwagon titles, some are cheap copycats and some attempt to improve on the titles that stimulated the bandwagon in the first place.

Oxygen Games recently released Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles, another brain game made for the Nintendo DS. The DS is certainly the leading console for puzzle games, as its physical design and platform make it a great candidate for the structure and light-natured game play that comes along with the puzzle genre. While Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles isn’t the most successful puzzle title available and isn’t going to blow anyone’s mind with its take on the genre, it will suit some audiences.

Looking at the box, you can get a feel for what Brain Puzzles includes. The title implies it’s another Brain Age clone with tons of fun puzzles and things to do. In reality, it can barely use the plural word “puzzles,” as there are only two to be found. However, unlike some DS puzzle games that attempt to test your brain using hackneyed, lame puzzles, Brain Puzzles uses two more popular games: Sudoku and Picture Logic. Sudoku is a classic among puzzle enthusiasts and Picture Logic is similar to Picross, a less popular but still fairly well-known game. Therefore, those who are fans of the two will find some good here.

The game does make a few claims on the back of the packaging. It says it may help to reduce anxiety, improve logical thinking and brain reactions, and improve creativity. We’ll see.

Specifications:

Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles – Nintendo DS

Improve your mind and learn something new with Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles! Whether you want to pick up & play or take on the challenge and beat your previous scores, Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles is the game for you!

Play 1000s of Sudoku and Picture Logic Puzzles

See how you improve in the ‘Challenge Me’ mode with statistics & graphics displaying accuracy, mental power and judgment!

Play against the clock in a series of challenges and try to beat the top scores.

Release Date: 27 March 2009

Formats: DS

Age Rating: 3+

As soon as you boot up the game, you may become instantly annoyed. I did. The reason was because the game automatically turned vertical, forcing me to play the game with a side-by-side view as opposed to a top-bottom view. Some people may like this, and other puzzle games have also relied on this view, but I am not a fan of the layout. Looking through the settings to see if there is a way to change it to a top-bottom format was a fruitless battle, as no such setting was ever located. The thing that bothered me most about this presentation is that the box art shows the game being played as a top-bottom… yet you can’t actually do so. I’m not sure what that’s all about.

The music is cheesy, but personally that didn’t matter to me. It’s a puzzle game, and chances are you are going to turn the sound off anyway. There is a setting to eliminate the background music but keep the sound effects – one of the only settings you are given.

The graphics are primitive. You may expect that from a puzzle game, but some games are primitive without being overly bland. Brain Puzzles is very drab, and even though you can select a few alternate color schemes, all of them are pretty lackluster. Personally I find the alternate colors to be even uglier than the plain white/gray default scheme. Nothing about this game is fancy, that’s for sure.

The game has two save modes: Puzzle and Instant Fun. They are exactly the same, except one calculates your scores and gives you a report, and the other doesn’t save any data. There is also a help menu, but you won’t find any help there. We’ll get to that in a minute.

Clicking on Puzzle has you create a player profile. All you do here is enter your name, whether you hold the stylus with your left or right hand (left-handed people flip the DS the other way) and choose a background color. Again, that’s the extent of your options.

When you’re ready to play, you choose Challenge Me! Or Free Play. Challenge Me! Is the mode that, as the game claims, will help perfect your technique. The results of the puzzle are analyzed and given a ranking.

Again, Sudoku isn’t a new thing to most puzzle enthusiasts. But, if you don’t know how to play, this game isn’t going to help you. There is a “Help” section for each game, but it doesn’t actually tell you how to play. For both games, the help section tells you what you need to do as an end result, but gives you no instruction on how to go about getting to said result. It’s like handing someone a hammer and nails, then telling them to build a shed.

Taking a look at each game individually, we can see where the strengths and weaknesses lie.

The Sudoku half of this game is pretty fun. There are 500 puzzles to complete and naturally, the higher you go, the harder they get. On the one side of your screen is the input area. You touch a square, the number pad comes up, and you choose which number you want to set. Any conflicts with your choice will be illuminated on the other screen, which shows your overall progress and alerts you to what might be bad number positioning. There is also a number pad on the touchscreen side. Clicking a number will show you every location of that number on your sudoku board, which is a very helpful means of seeing where you’ve placed things. Overall, the design of this input method is pretty simple and works well, making this an enjoyable sudoku game.

One thing that might bother people is the clock. This is part of the game’s Brain Challenging calculation business. Those who want to play a relaxing game of sudoku may be pressured by the clock, because the target times are really short. They start out at 5 minutes, which absolutely isn’t enough for anyone less than a relative sudoku master. But, you can treat this as you may… if you don’t care about monitoring yourself, just ignore the timer. If you do care, regardless of whether or not you beat the clock, you can see if your time is improving overall thanks to it keeping track for you.

The tracking isn’t very inventive and doesn’t really give you a lot of info. Considering that’s another marketing point of the game, it’s a bummer that it’s more or less useless.

So yeah, sudoku is pretty good. Then there’s Picture Logic…

If you go into this game and don’t immediately say “What the hell…?” you ought to get an A in Brain Puzzles. It is entirely unclear what to do for anyone unfamiliar with Picross or this type of puzzle game, and as stated before, the help section will give you absolutely no instruction on what to do. Here is what you are told:

“This game is a logical numbers game. You must match up the numbers according to their colour and their length. When all of the numbers match up correctly in the grid they make a picture.”

Now, look at the screen shots and tell me what that means. You probably can’t.

Truth is, I still haven’t really figured out how to play this game after a few hours of trying. I’ve even handed the DS off to a few buddies and asked them to crack the code, but since none of them are a Navajo wind talker, they were also left dumbfounded. Checking other reviews of the title online, many people have the same feelings towards this game. If they ever figured it out, they admit it would have been handy to have some sort of instruction. Unlike sudoku, most people aren’t as familiar with puzzle logic or picross. It’s a total turn-off to newbies, and considering it is one half of Brain Puzzles, that’s sort of a big deal.

Here’s what I do know: The goal is to form an image on the right side of your DS using the numbers above and to the side. It’s a process of elimination. Say the first column on the left says 3 and 3, both on black squares. That means on the right side, there are two sections of three black squares that you need to draw. At first, all the puzzles are black and white, but eventually get colorized. In those instances, the left side might say red 3, blue 1. Then you’d know there are two lines to draw on the right, and one is made of three red blocks and one is made of a single blue block. Then, you correspond those instructions with the numbers along the top on the right to figure out where in the line they need placed. That’s probably a very complicated paragraph, and perhaps that’s why the makers of the game didn’t bother to write an explanation. They didn’t know how. I had to play for hours and scour the internet just to get that much understanding. Unfortunately, I now somewhat grasp the concept, but still can’t really gauge how to approach the game and actually draw something.

For me, this makes Picture Logic a failure. Hours of frustration certainly doesn’t reduce anxiety as the box indicates the game should. I find myself clicking the “Give Up” button on Picture Logic.

There are 500 Picture Logic puzzles to add to the 500 sudoku puzzles, giving you 1,000 total puzzles to complete in this game. The box says you can “Challenge Yourself with 1,000′s of Sudoku and Picture Logic Puzzles,” which technically isn’t true, as there are a flat 1,000 puzzles. Still, it’s enough for any fan of the games to keep them busy for quite a while.

Conclusion:

At first glance, the title is misleading. You’d think you are getting more puzzles and more of a game. But, if you take a second to read the game’s packaging, Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles does what it says it will do: provide you with a whole mess of sudoku and picture logic puzzles. However, this game ultimately pales in comparison to most other puzzle titles. If it weren’t for the price, it wouldn’t be worth buying for anyone. Retailing for a meager $20, it clearly relies on value to appeal to consumers. Few comparable games are offered for such a low price.

The game does offer a great sudoku platform, and picture logic works once you figure out what to do. If you’ve never played either game before, expect to learn them elsewhere before delving into this title, or else find yourself desperately lost.

With only two games inside, bad instruction, lame sound and weak rudimentary graphics, Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles will appeal only to hardcore fans of the games within. For them, this $20 game is a dream come true. For everyone else, stay away.

Pros:
+Fun Sudoku
+Inventive input structure that works well with the stylus
+Inexpensive

Cons:
-Terrible instruction
-Weak graphics and sound
-Little appeal to a mass audience with only two games

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance

Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles – Nintendo DS is a post from: Testfreaks | The Blog

Pirates: Duels on the High Seas is a top-down action game that puts you in command of a fancy 18^th century pirate ship. Blasting your way through the waterways, fighting Navy forces and other pirates, you command your ship in search of seven keys. Finding them all will allow you to unlock a very lovely treasure.

There are seven seas to tackle and 70 levels between them, plenty of weapons and gold to accrue, people to hire, and general pirating to be done.

From the box art, you can tell this is a youth game. The animation is juvenile and comical, and that’s okay. It is important to keep that in mind while playing.

Nothing about Pirates is remarkable. It doesn’t have a lot of lasting appeal, and while the gameplay does provide some entertainment, it gets dull fairly quick thanks to extreme monotony. This is the result of the game operating on the same level throughout its progress. The story lacks highs and lows, is missing moments of tension and trouble, and requires no reasoning or tactical application – it’s just a flat title.

Specifications:

Pirates: Duels on the High Seas

Wanted! Hearty crew mates for the nautical adventure of the year! Must enjoy battling sea monsters, fighting pirates, discovering buried treasure and performing feats of daring bravery on the High Seas. All aspiring crew members should report for duty now!

Pirates: Duels on the High Seas is a frantic nautical shoot-em-up game that encompasses naval battles, running blockades, battling sea monsters and discovering treasure. So get your strongest sea legs on and prepare to embark on the adventure of a lifetime!
A chance encounter with an old sea-dog and the legend of a fantastic treasure – Thus begins an epic adventure for the ‘Seven Keys of the Seven Seas’! In an era when Britannia ruled the waves and pirates terrorized the oceans, the legend of Blackbeard’s treasure and the Seven Keys has seen many a pirate to an early grave with their fabled curse and tales of agonizing death for those that dare to pursue them. Faced by the prospect of such a death should you fail, and with the allure of untold riches should you succeed, your adventure begins!

Release Date: 12 September 2008

Formats: DS

Age Rating: 7+

The main content of Pirates: Duels on the High Seas is within its story mode. Here, the text-based dialogue tells you about a captain fearing mutiny from his crew, as there has been little treasure to be found of late. To his good fortune, a fellow gives him a map with the locations of seven cursed keys that open Blackbeard’s treasure. Handily enough, one key is located in each of the seven seas, and you’re off.

That’s really all there is to the story.

Three difficulty levels are available; easy, medium and hard. Easy ships are huge and take more damage, while the hard ships are naturally smaller and weaker. During play, the top screen shows 3D renderings of your ship and its surroundings, and is where the action of the game takes place. The bottom screen serves as a map, letting you know where upcoming enemies, treasure and obstacles are. The map uncovers itself as you move through it, much like that of an RTS game.

Unfortunately, the game feels more like you’re navigating a ship through the Venician canals than the high seas. Game play consists of you commanding your amazingly fast boat through tight corridors. Despite the story’s attempts to make you think you are on an epic quest for buried treasure, there really isn’t much to do in any of the 70 levels but move through the one-way linear path until you reach the end. That’s about all you do, and that’s why the game doesn’t hold your interest for very long.

The controls are a little rough, both in layout and in-game performance. You use the triggers to move forward or backward and use the D-pad to steer. That’s fine, as long as you don’t put too much thought into why a pirate ship can accelerate in reverse. The ship turns on-screen with the radius of a Mack truck, which means you’ll be banging into the walls of the “sea” if you accidentally pass up an object or are trying to thwart an enemy. Buttons entirely comprise the control structure, so there is no use for the stylus (and no real acknowledgment of unique DS possibilities), other than to tap the screen every now and then for a power-up.

This control structure can get tedious at times. Every piece of treasure or weapon you acquire is picked up by piloting your ship atop the item as it floats in the water. Some are there permanently, others come from destroying ships. Your map on the bottom screen will signal you when there is something to pick up in either situation. You’ll want to check the map often and take your time, though, as it’s not 100% reliable. There is a distinct lag between the game and the map, which is pretty annoying. For instance, when you destroy a ship, the ship’s enemy icon on the map doesn’t disappear for a good five seconds or more.

As far as combat goes, you can shoot unlimited cannonballs from the sides of your ships with true pirate style. They will automatically fire from whatever side of your boat the nearest enemies are located, and you are required to line up the shot so it hits them. You can also pick up other weapons, like rockets, which fire with a different button and are usually shot straight forward. Unfortunately, because of the directly overhead camera view, you often can’t see enemies until you’re right up next to them. You’ll know they are coming thanks to the map on your bottom screen, but you won’t see them until they’re in your face. This removes any tactical play, as you really just wait until you see them, turn, and fire.

No damage meter or real sense of destruction comes from hitting the enemies, so until they start to burn (which happens right before they’re about to blow), you won’t really know how much you’ve damaged them. This can make combat a little annoying.

It’s already been noted that there is little to do in this game – fight your way through the path to the other end. This is furthered by the fact that you don’t usually even have to fight your enemies. Sometimes, you have to defeat all the ships in an area to unlock a gate or finish the level. Otherwise, you can just float on by the assailing ships, truly making the game pointless.

The sound is pretty sparse. The music, when it’s there, is alright, but it doesn’t play during levels until each sea’s boss fight. The only thing you hear while playing is the sound of wind and the firing of your weapons. Oh, and the occasional “arrr” from a pirate.

Graphically, the game isn’t great, but it’s not the worst thing in the world. The water looks fairly nice, every now and then a seagull flies overhead, and it’s pleasant. It does get laggy now and then, as the frame rate drops when the screen gets full of ships. Between levels, the story is furthered by still image graphics and text telling you the story. While these stills are a little dull, they are very beautifully drawn, and are quite nice to look at.

You will occasionally find people floating in the water. You can bring them on board to do things, like be your lookout or fix your ship. Once you have these guys, you’ll get some benefits, like seeing a little more of the map ahead of time, your health will slowly regenerate, etc. However, they come real early in the game and aren’t hard to obtain. They cost money to bring on board, but you constantly collect money throughout play, and there’s nothing else to spend it on. This makes the whole finding treasure concept and crew hiring feature pretty redundant, openly handing over one more game element that had potential to be something you could work towards.

Everything becomes tiresome and repetitive after a little while. There are challenging bits, like most off the boss fights, where your ship can take huge amounts of damage pretty quickly. However, even this is undone by the fact you have a guy on board that makes your ship’s health constantly replenish. All you have to do is park your vessel somewhere for a few minutes and wait for your health to fill back up, return to the fight, and repeat until the enemy is dead.

Those who love pirate talk will enjoy this game. Everything is spoken in pirate talk. Everything. Ridiculous pirate talk, too. It’s sort of funny, sort of annoying….

The game also offers a skirmish mode which pits the player against a bunch of ships. It’s not interesting in the least.

Conclusion:

Pirates: Duels on the High Seas is a game that could have potential. It has a lot of the right ingredients, but they all get executed wrong or ignored, leaving us with a game that operates in a constant state of dullness. While it provides a little bit of entertainment for a while, the gag quickly wears off thanks to the design, making it a hard title to recommend even at its budget retail price of $20. The game is obviously designed for children, but I have trouble believing a child would be able to harness their attention to this game longer than an adult. Likely the opposite.

Pros:
+Decent concept
+Good price

Cons:
-Lackluster sound & graphics
-Poor execution
-Weird controls
-Weak linear level design

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance

Pirates: Duels on the High Seas – Nintendo DS is a post from: Testfreaks | The Blog

If Chrono Trigger sounds like a familiar title, it should be since it was originally released in 1995. Back then it was one of the preeminent titles in the role playing game (RPG) genre. In 2009 Square-Enix has re-released what is widely thought of as one of the greatest role playing games of all time for the Nintendo DS. It was an excellent game back then and is still a great game now. Square-Enix took the best aspects of the Super Nintendo version and merged it with the PS One port making this version the best one yet.

The storyline revolves around a group of adventurers who must stop a global catastrophe. This plot may seem familiar as it is found in most of the Final Fantasy stories, but the premise generally makes for enthralling game play. What makes this game special is the story line’s deep plot and character development. As you play Chrono Trigger you start to develop a vested interest in these characters and their stories. In addition there are multiple endings giving the game a replayability factor. Did I mention the game also involves time travel?

The general premise of Chrono Trigger involves your characters trying to repair the broken time stream and prevent the end of the world. Gameplay starts with Chrono and his female friend Marle wandering around the town’s festival. From here a teleporter accident occurs throwing Marle back into the past. Chrono chases after her and they inadvertently change the future. From this point your time spanning adventures begin. Unlike the worlds of Final Fantasy, the events of Chrono Trigger take place on an alternate Earth.

The player will travel back and forth through time and gaining new allies, equipment and powers. In all there are seven playable characters that will become members of your team; several of which are from different time periods. Time travel has certain ramifications such as events in the past have major effects on the future. For instance plating a tree in the past may yield a forest in the future.

Like most RPGs the story starts off slowly and builds momentum as you play the game. Since Chrono Trigger is played across different time periods, there are a variety of different back drops to keep things exciting. In all there are five different eras your characters will adventure in. Time periods range from the prehistoric to the future and in between. In these epochs, your characters will traverse forests, cities and of course dungeons.

In Chrono Trigger the DS interface changes the control paradigm of the original version as there are now touch-screen commands available. The upper screen is where the game action takes place while the bottom screen displays the game map, menu options and character status. The characters can be controlled via either the touch screen or the control pad.

The dual screens allow more gameplay to be visualized than in the original console control scheme. If you long for original style of gameplay, then you choose the classic mode of game play, which is similar to the original versions. In classic mode, the character’s action meter builds on the screen, and actions are selected on the same screen as the one where the monsters are displayed

Specifications:

Chrono Trigger

After 13 long years, the role playing game of the ages finally returns with Chrono Trigger for the Nintendo DS. This chapter begins when a newly developed teleportation device malfunctions, and young Crono must journey through time to rescue a mysterious girl from an intricate web of past and present perils. Enhanced with Nintendo DS’s dual-screen presentation, stylus controls, and a host of great new features, this classic tale returns to a modern, portable platform.

And so the Story Goes. . .
Through a chance encounter amid the festivities of Guardia’s Millenial Fair in Leene Square, the young hero, Crono, meets an adventurous girl named Marle. The two decide to explore the fair together and soon find themselves at an exhibition of the Telepod — the latest invention by Crono’s long-time friend, Lucca.

Marle, fearless and brimming with curiosity, volunteers to assist in a demo. However, an unanticipated malfunction sends her hurtling through a rift in the dimensions. Taking hold of the girls pendant just before she’s whisked away,

Crono bravely follows in pursuit, but the world into which he emerges is one of four centuries ago. In Chrono Trigger prepare yourself to journey into the forgotten past, distant future, and even to the very End of Time.

The Worlds of Past, Present and Future
In Chrono Trigger you’ll journey back to Prehistory (65,000,000 B.C.) where humans and reptiles battle to wipe each other from existence. Antiquity (12,000 B.C.) is an age where the world is divided between people whose continent is buried in snow, and the magical kingdom of Zeal, a highly advanced civilization. The Middle Ages (600 A.D.) is an era of swords and sorcery, a dark time when the armies of Fiendlord rule over the land.

The Present (1000 A.D.) is the time period in which Crono, Lucca and Marle live. It is a bright and peaceful age. However, in the Future (2300 A.D.), an era of despair has taken hold with rogue machines ruling the world. After the day of the apocalypse in 1999 A.D., the prosperous civilization of humanity crumbled and the remaining people struggle to stay alive. And, finally, there remains the End of Time — a place with no era to call its own. This confluence of time’s streams transcends spatiotemporal boundaries. It is here at the gravitational center for all temporal flotsam that Spekkio — the Master of War — serves as your guide on time’s treacherous roads.

Battle Systems and gameplay
This game utilizes a revised version of the groundbreaking Active Time Battle (ATB) System. Chrono Trigger features exhilarating combat in which the clock is constantly ticking. Characters must first wait as the ATB gauges charge, and then perform an action. This makes strategic timing a crucial element in your battle plan. In addition to standard attacks, each character has an array of special Tech skills and powerful combos known as Dual and Triple Techs. Cooperate with other characters to unleash over 50 unique and devastating moves!

Chrono Trigger utilizes great story-telling, interesting characters, action-packed gameplay, and the unique controls of the Nintendo DS to deliver a fun and well-rounded role-playing game on a portable platform.

Game control is simple to pick up and grasp, but if you need help there is a tutorial available in the beginning town. The characters are easily maneuvered throughout the game. Combat is managed with basic RPG commands such as Attack, Item, and Magic. In addition, there is the Tech system, which combines magic and abilities to give your characters new and more powerful attacks. The trick to beating the tougher enemies is to use the right combination of basic and combination attacks.

Chrono Trigger allows the player to use the RPG standard turn based fighting system, where the player and the game’s AI take turns picking either offensive or defensive moves. If you want to speed things up and add a little more challenge to the game, then you can activate the Active Battle System where enemies can attack at any time but you characters power up more quickly. This requires the player to make quicker decisions with the Active Battle System.

My one complaint is the on screen buttons can be pretty small and touch to press with bigger fingers, but I guess that is why they included a stylus with the Nintendo DS. In addition some puzzles require the use of certain characters to advance through the stages.

Graphically the game looks pretty similar to its predecessors with the animated scenes from the Playstation version mixed in with the SuperNintendo game play. The animations are well done and the environments are very detailed; almost too detailed as sometimes items can be overlooked on the smaller Nintendo DS screen.

As a bonus Square-Enix added additional features to Chrono Trigger such as a new village to visit, additional areas for three of the characters to explore after the game is beaten and a monster raising game. Unlike other role playing games, Chrono Trigger is designed for replayability as they include a feature called New Game + which allows you to restart the game with all your party’s equipment and experience. This allows the player to unlock the story’s alternate endings by enabling your team to beat enemies that you were not strong enough to vanquish before.

Conclusion:

There are several must have video games in every gamers’ library and Chrono Trigger is definitely among them. The Nintendo DS version takes this classic role playing game and improves the control interface as well as providing new content. Even, if you are not a fan of the Role Playing games, you should give Chrono Trigger a chance. Who knows it may convert them to a fan of the genre.

Pros:
One of the all time classic RPGs
Plenty of extra features and add ons
Improved control scheme
Replayability

Cons:
None

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance

Chrono Trigger DSLite is a post from: Testfreaks | The Blog

The rhythm band genre has become a major source of revenue in the music industry. With all the licensing fees and downloadable content, the music industry has a new economic paradigm to stimulate sales. Now instead of buying the latest album from Best Buy, you can download the same album for play on Guitar Hero. Knowing this, video game makers and record companies want these games on as many gaming platforms as possible. Not wanting to keep the portable gamer excluded from all the fun, Activision has created the DS version of their hit game – Guitar Hero. The original game was Guitar Hero: On Tour and the new version of the game is Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades. Today we will look at the latter version.

This version of the game substitutes the Guitar Hero Guitar Grip in place of the plastic guitar controller found in the console version. Using the guitar grip, the player can “fret” the notes while “strumming” on the screen with the pick/stylus. Game play is otherwise almost exactly like the big brother version of the game.

Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades is packaged in a yellow box with the game controller seen in a clear window on the top of the package. On the back, we find a list of features and a listing of some of the tracks from the set list. Opening the package, reveals the Guitar Hero DS game, the Guitar Grip, a pick stylus, two sets of stickers, a spare guitar grip skin, the instructions, quick start guide and an adapter for the original DS style game system.

The Guitar Grip controller is black with a clear plastic cover, that can be removed to replace the skin that sits on top of the controller. On the back side of the grip is a adjustable strap which can be adjusted with the Velcro closure. At the end opposite the playback buttons, we find a slot to store the pick stylus.

To get started, one needs to insert the Guitar Grip into the slot 2 position on the Nintendo DS. Then insert the game into the portable console, open the DS and power on the game.

From the main menu, the player can select single or multiplayer game modes. The single player options include either Quick Play or Career Mode. In Career Mode, the player can choose to play Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar/Bass or face off in a Guitar Duel. With Multiplayer, you can host a game and play four different games – Face-off, Pro Face-Off, Co-op, and Guitar Duel. Additionally in multiplayer players can share songs between DSes and between the original Guitar Hero: On Tour and the newer Decades version.

If you need help in learning the musical ropes, then Training mode provides a Tutorial or lets you Practice specific songs. For those lefties, Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades lets the user set the controls for lefty flip or just change the gem color order.

If you have played previous iterations of Guitar Hero, then game play from this point forward should seem very familiar. The controls Game on Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades are the same as on the console version, holding the fret button and strumming the screen will play basic notes, while holding the fret button will sustain the note. Chords are two or more notes fretted while strumming; to activate the whammy bar wiggle the pick stylus anywhere on the touch screen while a note is sustained.

Difficulty settings range from Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert. Easy uses which uses just three of the four Fret buttons, while Medium and up involve all four buttons with more chords and notes added as the difficulty level scales upward.

Once again, the meters are what gauge your performance; from the ever important Rock meter to the Star Power and Multiplier meters, the player must keep careful track of these to maximize their score. Keeping the Rock meter in the green is key for rocking out in Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades. When involved in a Guitar Duel, instead of the Star Power Meter, you will need to get Battle Power Ups to defeat your opponent.

Specifications:
Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades

Product Description

Travel back through time and rock on with the latest portable guitar simulator. Guitar Hero On Tour : Decades features sets of five songs out of a total of twenty-eight tracks. Each set focuses on a specific era of rock music, including two called “2000″ and “Modern”. Each set has a specialized venue for the era. Seven songs are taken from Guitar Hero World Tour.
Play co-operatively or compete head-to-head in local wireless play in Face-Off, Pro-Face Off, or Guitar Duels; blow into the microphone to extinguish a pyrotechnics effects gone wrong, or use the touch screen to autograph a fan’s shirt in the middle of your set Rock out anytime, anywhere -take the Guitar Hero experience wherever you go. The Guitar Hero Guitar Grip is an ergonomic extension that mimics a guitar fret board and fits seamlessly in your hands to deliver the same core gameplay that defines Guitar Hero Strum with the stylus – Included with the game is a Guitar Hero pick-stylus that allows you to strum away in style on the touch-activated screen of the DS

Shred to classic songs from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and today. Play in exclusive, brand new venues set through the course of history, inspired by the most important rock trends of the last 40 years

Mastering the tracks – Rock out to the biggest selection of music ever on DS, with all master tracks from the defining artists of their era including Fall Out Boy, Linkin Park, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bon Jovi, REM, Queen and many more

Customizable characters – Rock out with outfits from throughout the ages, defining the best and most outrageous clothing trends in rock history

Choose your path – Play through any one of three different career paths each with their own story – Lead Guitar, Bass Guitar, and Guitar Duel

Play single-player career, quickplay or Guitar Duel modes

Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades is not a great game, it plays pretty much like the console version except there are a few caveats. The first is the Guitar Grip controller only has four buttons. This makes the game slightly less difficult in the respect that on the console versions, the plastic guitar features five buttons.

Second, the Guitar Grip is hard to manage with larger hands or even smaller hands. My six year old daughter had trouble getting her pinky comfortably around the controller to reach the fourth button, while I am on the tall side and my hand felt awkward on the controller. I felt like my fingers were overlapping buttons and if I was not careful, I would accidently knock the Guitar Grip out of the DS during gameplay. During several occasions, my hand would slip off the buttons and lose the proper orientation against the frets. Not to mention, that the Guitar Grip causes some wrist strain and cramping when held for prolonged periods.

Graphically, Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades looks decent, but is definitely lower resolution than any of the Guitar Hero console versions. The audio does rate better even if it is coming out of the tin-ny sounding Nintendo DS speakers. The songs are original recording sung by the artists that made them famous, which does add some more “realism” to gameplay.

Finally, one of the best things about the Guitar Hero series is the feeling that you are playing a guitar. I guess having a plastic guitar provides a psychological feeling of actually playing the music. The controls on the DS feel like you are scratching the screen while pressing buttons. That ruins the “realism” of Guitar Hero for me.

Barring these complaints, gameplay should feel very familiar with those who have played the larger scale version of Guitar Hero. The song list is much more condensed than the other Guitar Hero titles. Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades features tracks such as from classic artists such as Free, Lynard Skynard and Queen to newer artists such as Tokio Hotel, Paramore and Fall Out Boy. As the game title indicates, the songs are broken down in decades from the Modern era working backwards towards the 1970s. In my opinion, the track list for Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades may be the weakest one to date.

As you play through the Career mode, there are plenty of unlockable features along the way to make gameplay more enjoyable. It takes around three hours of straight game play to get through the career mode, obviously this also depends on the player’s skill and the difficulty level selected.

Conclusion:

Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades has to live up to its namesake and unfortunately is crippled by the console it is played upon. It is not a bad game and if it was a different title, it may not be judged so harshly. The controller is hard to manage with larger hands and becomes uncomfortable after playing for a short time. In addition, there should be some way to lock the Guitar Grip into place on the DS.

There are no innovations to the Guitar Hero franchise with Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades. If you have played any Guitar Hero title before, then this one will seem way too familiar.

Pros:
Can stream songs from DS to DS
Plenty of unlockables
Good sound quality
Multiplayer modes between DSes

Cons:
Guitar Grip becomes uncomfortable quickly
Play List is on the short side
Play List is weak

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance

Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades Nintendo DS is a post from: Testfreaks | The Blog

Puzzle games are simple to play, addictive and can be picked up quickly and put down easily. That is why games such as Tetris and Bejeweled are cell phone staples. The Nintendo DS platform is great for puzzle games due to its dual screen and touch interface. Midway decided to take advantage of this design with its latest puzzler – Mechanic Master.

This game features over one hundred levels of mind-boggling puzzles. The premise of the game is simple – clear each level of Aliens and save the trapped Humans; not much of a plot, but it is a puzzle game. Is plot really necessary in puzzle games anyway?

There are two main play modes: Puzzle and Drawing. In Puzzle mode, the player needs to use the objects in the game environment and available tools to complete the objective of eliminating the Aliens or saving the Humans or a combination of both. The Drawing mode allows the player to draw lines and portals to interact with the environment and accomplish similar objectives.

Mechanic Master is an easy game to pick up and becomes progressively more complex. As proceed to higher levels, the more Rube Goldbergesque the puzzles become. If Mechanic Master seems familiar to some gamers, it is due to the fact that Midway took its inspiration from The Incredible Machine series from the 1990s, since this game follows the same type of formula.

Specifications:
Mechanic Master
Mechanic Master for the Nintendo DS is a fun problem-solving game for creative minds.
Mechanic Master uses the stylus as a weapon to rid the Earth of alien invaders that have scattered across the planet.  Become the ultimate Master of Mechanics by creating crazy contraptions to free humans, keep the mechanics in motion and defeat those pesky foes. Test your skills with more than 100 levels!  Creative-thinking is key to clearing each level.

Category : Entertainment
ESRB : E – Everyone
Release Date : Available Now

The game starts with a Profile screen and supports up to three active profiles at one time. On the main screen the player can choose from the Puzzle mode, which is represented by the Earth, or the Drawing mode, which is activated from the Alien Planet. Each of these modes has numerous levels. The Custom Mode allows the player to create their own levels or connect wirelessly to share with friends. The final option on the screen is the Pause menu.

In Custom mode via the DS wireless connection, players can transfer custom levels. The options menu allows control over Language and Audio, as well as seeing the Game Credits and some Hints.

Game play is simple yet entertaining and does involve a lot of trial and error. The upper part of the DS gives aa picture of the entire landscape, while the lower is a more magnified view, where the player works their mechanical mastery.

The player sets up various items by dragging them onto the lower DS screen, which need to interact with each other to get the Aliens off the board. Aliens can be eliminated by various means including pushing them off ledges, squashing them with objects or sucking them into a vortex. Commonly found items include conveyor belts, fans, balls, lighters, springboards and many others. Once you setup your Alien eradicating arrangement, hit the play button in the bottom left hand corner and let gravity put your plans into motion. You will quickly see if your layout fails or succeeds.

In the Drawing mode, the player uses the DS touch screen to draw lines or circles. Circles create vortices akin to the one seen in the game Portal. For instance draw a portal opening below a crate and then place the exit portal above an Alien. Then press play and viola! One squished Alien.

The Puzzle mode involves more linear thinking, as there are a limited number of tools and ways to complete the puzzle. Some levels are obvious and simple to complete, while others require more introspection. Overall there are 55 puzzle levels and 50 drawing levels. A few of the puzzles became repetitive and seemed to be a combination of some of the simpler ones from previous levels.

Once you get tired of the prefabricated puzzles, you can try your hand at making some new Rube Goldberg inspired puzzles. The building interface works by dragging game pieces and setting them up on an empty screen. The player can choose the characters, the devices, backgrounds, etc. There are multiple sub menus to give you a large palate of items to choose from. Once your creation is saved, you can send it to other nearby DS users via the wireless connection.

Graphically, Mechanic Master is nothing special with the characters and textures looking like something from the original 8 bit Nintendo console. As the levels become more complicated the game area becomes more densely packed, so the lack of detail can be overlooked. Also, it is a puzzle game and these games are not designed for appearance but for entertainment.

The soundtrack and in game sounds are also pretty generic and do not add or take away from the game experience. Overall, the game does not impress with its overall experience, but it does not mean that Mechanic Masters is not fun.

Conclusion:

Mechanic Master is a quick, easy and fun puzzle game that can provide hours of entertainment. It is inspired by the Incredible Machine games of the early nineties and does a respectable job of replicating that game style. The graphics could be more polished and the audio could use some improving. However, Mechanic Master is an enjoyable puzzler with the added puzzle creation mode which provides hours of fun.

Pros:
Easy to play
Over 100 puzzles
Can share created puzzles
Puzzle Creation mode

Cons:

Some puzzles are repetitive
Graphics and sound are lacking

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance

Mechanic Master DS Lite is a post from: Testfreaks | The Blog