People who are old enough to remember games from the early 90s all the way back to the 80s will know of these kinds of “brick breaking” games. For those who don’t know, the idea is to use a paddle and a ball to break bricks on the screen until there are none left. It’s a pretty simple concept which is why it was so popular back in the day, however AlphaBounce takes some inspiration from Puzzle Quest by adding an RPG element to the mix.

I wasn’t aware of this until I took some time to write up the Game Spotlight, but it turns out AlphaBounce is a pretty popular web based flash game before it became a DSi title. From the footage I’ve seen of the web version, it looks like it’s not nearly as fun as the DSi version which features crisp visuals and some very crazy gameplay.

I won’t bother to go into the story since it’s inconsequential for the most part, however it does serve to set up the interesting space based gameplay and the many power-ups along the way. You’re encouraged to explore the surrounding space and planets in order to gain more power-ups that allow you to conquer the varying types of bricks and enemies you encounter. The more you explore, the more powerful you will become and the farther you can travel.

The game boasts 25 million+ levels and 100 upgrades/power-ups… of course, if you don’t want to go after everything, you don’t have to. In any case, it’s a very well made game for those who want to waste a little time while travelling on public transport on the way to work or school or on long trips to wherever…. I do wonder if anyone has actually come close to clearing all of those 25 million+ levels… it’d suck to be compulsive completionist and play this game.

The Wind Waker was a shock to Zelda fans when it was first revealed. Its cartoonish art style didn’t seem to go down very well initially, however after the ranting was silenced and people actually played the game, they realised it was one hell of a game and that the art style itself had a lot to do with why it was so great. I’m personally glad that Nintendo didn’t take what people had to say initially to heart, because the art style of The Wind Waker has lived on and is present in The Minish Cap, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks.

From the trend, it looks as if the younger Toon Link has become the official Link of handheld Zelda games while the elder, more serious looking Link is seeing his tour of duty only on home consoles. Going even further, it looks as if the two Zelda titles for the Nintendo DS has Nintendo expanding on The Wind Waker timeline, much like Twilight Princess expanded upon the Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask timeline…

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Unlike the first time Nintendo showed off The Wind Waker to the masses, the masses were pleased when they saw that Toon Link would return for the first Zelda DS game because returning with Toon Link would be The Wind Waker’s charm… or so we hoped… From the very first moment the prologue of the game shows you that this Link is in fact the same Hero of Winds from The Wind Waker, even chronicling his adventures from the Wind Waker in a very nice way… however, Phantom Hourglass doesn’t actually transfer over much of the charm The Wind Waker had… but enough of it.

Link, Zelda (aka Tetra) and her pirate crew are back… which is awesome. However Link is quickly separated from most of the familiar Wind Waker characters early on. The new characters of Phantom Hourglass are pretty standard and nothing much to write about… until you meet him! Linebeck! He is single-handedly the best part of Phantom Hourglass for me… the first time Link meets him, Linebeck ends up picking Link up and shaking him senseless… the man was not afraid of child abuse and not afraid to talk big about himself.

By this point in time, we’re all pretty familiar with what the DS can do and it’s no surprise that Phantom Hourglass has you controlling Link using the touchscreen. Controlling Link feels nice and tight and the gestures you make with the stylus to allow Link to attack with his sword as well as performing rolls are done very well… though at times it can be a bit of a hassle trying to control Link and see where you’re going since your hand ends up being in the way of the screen.

Sailing also returns to Zelda, though this time it’s a more restricted experience than you would’ve hoped for. You plot a course on the map using your stylus and then off you go on-rails following the course you had laid out. It may not give you anywhere near the sense of freedom that The Wind Waker gave, however I think it worked out pretty well for itself with Phantom Hourglass.

Phantom Hourglass is an enjoyable game, but definitely not among my favourite Zelda games. The inclusion of The Wind Waker crew as well as the addition of Linebeck carried the story along for me, and the touchscreen controls and clever little gameplay mechanics were enjoyable. I’m glad we were given the chance to see where the Hero of Winds ended up after The Wind Waker.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

The first glimpse of Spirit Tracks, for me, weren’t altogether good. In fact, the first thing I thought when seeing the footage of Link riding a train across Hyrule was that someone over at the development team was taking the on-rails concept introduced in Phantom Hourglass’s sailing element a bit too literally… honestly, I didn’t really enjoy Spirit Tracks all that much and feel it’s one of the worst Zelda games to be made so far…

My reasoning is that while Phantom Hourglass was able to use the novelty of the DS to its advantage, the same old tricks won’t work twice and Spirit Tracks is just the same old tricks recycled in a new game. Sure, it expands The Wind Waker timeline into the future and explains how the Hero of Winds, Zelda and her crew founded a new Hyrule… that’s all nice and everything… but this game really didn’t have much else. The new things it did include ended up being more of a nuisance than anything else.

The first nuisance is the whole train concept. The concept itself seems like a very fun idea, and in my mind it also does seem pretty fun… however, in practice the whole train track idea just served to slow down the pace of the game and curse the game every time you saw one of those bomb trains coming towards you. Since you were in a train there really wasn’t much you could do aside from going backward and forward and following the tracks laid out on the map.

The second nuisance is the dreaded Pan Flute… give me an Ocarina any day compared to the hell I had to go through with that Pan Flute. Most of the tunes you have to play throughout the game are pretty simple, but there are certain moments where you have to learn key songs to make new spirit tracks appear… There were times when I ended up not playing the game for a couple of weeks because I kept on trying to play the song and kept failing. This is the most I’ve ever failed at something in a game ever… Blow into the DS microphone and slide the pan flute using the stylus on the touchscreen to play the right notes… sounds simple… in reality it’ll make you want to throw your DS into the wall. Even worse is trying to play this game on any form of public transport. As soon as you get up to a part that requires the pan flute you’ll have to save and wait till you get to a quieter location to continue.

Playing Spirit Tracks is an exhausting and disappointing experience for many reasons. With games you enjoy, you don’t mind that they end up taking longer than expected to finish because you don’t really want it to end. I’ve found that Spirit Tracks is the opposite for me… it just keeps on going when I want it to end so I can get it over with already!

Initial reactions to this news don’t seem to be as positive as you’d think. Sure, it’s great to have a new generation of Pokémon games, however from seeing comments from around the net, it’s clear that a lot of people would prefer to have the series debut on the Nintendo 3DS so it can take advantage of whatever new features the new system will provide.

So what do people want from the 5th generation?

3DS: The majority of people feel that Black and White should be for Nintendo’s next handheld system. At this point in time the information we have says that the new games will definitely be for the Nintendo DS, however I feel that there is still a strong possibility that these titles will take advantage of all of the 3DS features. Hopefully, if my theory pans out, Pokémon Black and White will be a cross generational game that will probably be released at the same time or after the release of the 3DS but will work with both system and still make use of all of the 3DS features… it makes sense… and it doesn’t make sense to do that though. Firstly, it makes sense because it allows Nintendo to sell the games knowing that they have such a huge user base… On the other hand, it doesn’t make sense to do that because Pokémon sells systems and I would think they’d want to herd people into buying the 3DS just for Pokémon at the very least.

Dynamic environments and battles: The current Pokémon DS games have introduced 3D models into the Pokémon universe, mostly in the form of buildings, trees and other objects that weren’t human or Pokémon. From the recent screenshots that have been released, it seems that the entire environment is polygon based… and I believe even the characters themselves may be so… though we’ll have to see video footage of the game to truly confirm that. The single shot of the battle scene also suggests to me that the camera will move around and that the Pokémon are rendered in 3D, though, like the previous DS games, made to look like 2D sprites. To add to that, if I’m correct about 3DS features being implemented, then the whole transformation into 3D polygon environments and battle scenes will be even more interesting.

So I’ve posted up a couple of things I would like to see from the new games, I’d like to hear what the rest of you would think would be good to see happen with Pokémon.

Note: If you’re wondering where that headline image came from, it’s actually one of my vector art works…

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is one of my favourite games on the Nintendo DS, it’s up there with the entire Ace Attorney series by Capcom which I also hold in extremely high respect. However, unlike Capcom, Cing is a developer with very few games under its belt. A PS2 game, a few Japan-only mobile phone games, a few DS games and a couple of Wii games. Quality over quantity is the way Cing operates, and their recent games on the DS and Wii were all very well made, quality games.

Of course, even if the games are brilliant, it’s not necessarily going to ensure that a developer will find success. As gamers, we all know very well how there are some games that seem to catch on and others that, while excellent, seem to be swept under the rug by most. I feel that this has happened to practically every game Cing has ever released, but at the same time it’s not surprising at all.

Despite Nintendo’s on and off support over the last few years, Cing hasn’t really seen much exposure for their games. The first game I ever played from them was Another Code: Two Memories (known as Trace Memory in North America). Cing was one of the first developers to release anything significant on the DS with Another Code. Its use of the touch screen, built-in microphone and even (and brilliantly) the clam shell design of the Nintendo DS itself were used in the various puzzles found in the game. It may have been a very short game, but Another Code left a great impression with me with the level of ingenuity Cing used to make the game. It’s very lucky for Cing that Nintendo promoted Another Code at E3, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have been aware of the game at all.

When Hotel Dusk was announced, I immediately paid attention to it because of Another Code. I knew that it was something I shouldn’t ignore and when it was finally released, I bought it on day 1 and played it all the way through in one go, forsaking all other games I may have been playing at the time. As I said before, I love Hotel Dusk… and I made it my mission to tell people all about the game. I told anyone I knew who owned a DS about Hotel Dusk and even convinced a couple of people to buy the game even though they had heard nothing of it before I came along.

Nintendo always made sure to mention Cing’s games at various conferences, most prominently at E3 when showing off upcoming DS and Wii games. Another Code: R – A Journey into Lost Memories was another title that Nintendo had shown off as one of the key titles being released on Wii. Despite this show of support, Another Code: R was only released in Japan and Europe, with no release in North America, Australia or any other region… luckily for me though, it seems that UK games are actually playable on Australian Wii, so I’ve actually bought myself a copy of the game off of eBay which should be arriving this week. On the other hand, anyone in North America who was hoping to get their hands on the game will be sorely disappointed. I wrote an entry about this a few months back… it was one of the games that just wasn’t given a chance.

The sequel to Hotel Dusk, Last Window: Midnight Promise was recently released in Japan back in January and, at this point, is still set for a localisation and release in North America… I really hope that goes through because I know what Cing is capable of and from what I’ve heard and seen of the game in its Japanese form, it’s said to be just as well made as the first.

Cing is a very small developer and relies heavily on other companies to do all the big advertising. Unfortunately you don’t get much of that with their games. Most people out there don’t even know what Another Code, Hotel Dusk and Little King’s Story are or why they’re so damn good… hell, I don’t even know why Little King’s Story is good, but from what I’ve been hearing from people who have actually bought and played the game, it’s meant to be a gem that people aren’t taking notice of… kinda reminds me of how a lot of people ended up ignoring Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure by Capcom… but then Capcom is a pretty big and powerful company that can afford to have a few of their games sell poorly. Cing on the other hand depends on every game sold.

Whatever caused their downfall, be it lack of advertising, lack of general interest, piracy or ninjas… I salute you Cing. I hope that somehow, you guys pull through this and are able to continue on making great games.

When Chinatown Wars was announced for the Nintendo DS, my interest was peaked when I saw images of an oldskool style top-down GTA of old. I was excited but still sceptical… after all, most people don’t remember the first and second Grand Theft Auto. Gamers who experienced the third person variants see the first two games as well as Chinatown Wars as alien entities… not “true” GTA games.

Chinatown Wars is a game that manages to bridge the old and the new in the world of Grand Theft Auto. You get that original top-down perspective that does detach the player from being up-close and personal with watching the main character, Huang, cap his enemies, slap those bitches and show off his awesome Kung fu skills. This is probably what turns away most “newskool” GTA players, however for the rest of us who remember a time before GTAIII, the top-down view does have its advantages.

A huge example of this is that your driving ability is greatly enhanced in this view. Looking down from the sky, you have a larger field of view around you and within 20 to 30 minutes you’ll end up speeding down streets and alley ways at top speeds and power sliding around corners like you’re a pro. You’re given a level of control that’s so easy to get into that you’re a lot more eager to take on the cops and go through some awesome car chases with them… which does seem strange in a way… I mean, the fact that this game made me want to commit more crimes than in GTAIV where I found myself trying to avoid the cops and putting too much attention on myself.

Gameplay wise, Rockstar has remembered its roots but has also tied into the mix a lot of the new style that that GTA series has found over the years. Chinatown Wars does feel hard edged and gritty in terms of the way the main story is told. Huang is a likeable character, he’s the kind of asshole you want to see as the main character of a GTA game, but it doesn’t end with Huang… there are some wacky characters in the game you just have to experience. I played through quite a lot of Chinatown Wars while I was in Fiji… in fact, I played through 99% of it in Fiji and only just finished it the day I got back home to Australia.

I’m glad I did end up going to Fiji because it did force me to get this game to play on some of the boring car rides and on the plane trips. It really did come in handy, but it was also a lot of fun to play. True, GTAIV is a lot more cinematic and has the higher budget, but Chinatown Wars has a charm that the third person GTA games lack. It’s just a shame that a lot of people chose to blow off the game… though funnily enough, the day I bought it, Rockstar announced that Chinatown Wars would be heading over to the PSP. Perhaps all those who didn’t bother to pick it up for the DS will pick it up for PSP? Who knows… either way, this game should be selling more than it is at the moment.

I was really sure that Nintendo would announce that the DSi would be getting “Virtual Portable Console” support during this year’s E3. After all, it would make sense on so many levels… though at this point, I don’t really know what to think with Nintendo. They obviously have a plan they’re following which they think will get them a lot of money for the least amount of effort, that much is obvious…

Putting the “Are Nintendo supporting the hardcore or not?” argument aside, it puzzles me as to why Nintendo didn’t announce VPC. In fact, Reggie Fils Aime, Nintendo of America’s President was quoted as saying that they had no plans for such a service.

So then why would a company who obviously wants to make a lot of money as easily as they can pass up on something like this? I mean, it’s not like they’d have to put any huge effort into bringing back the library of ye olden Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games of the past. We all know that Nintendo as well as Sega and other third parties have milked quite a lot out of Wii’s Virtual Console. It really is easy money and would convince a lot of people who don’t already own a DSi to actually buy one.

To top it off, the DSi Ware I’m seeing at the moment is extremely uninspiring. There are a couple of gems in there, of course… but overall there’s nothing I would like to spend my free 1000 Nintendo points on. Maybe if they release a VPC version of Metroid II: Return of Samus and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, I’d actually have something to look forward to on the download content front.

When I set the alarm on my DS, I’m so afraid of hearing it in the morning that I literally wake up every few hours and CHECK how much time is left for me to wake up… and then when it comes close for the alarm to go off, I wake up and then I wait and stare at my DS until 10 minutes before it goes off I turn it off and get up. Does this make me a strange person? Well yes, but I’ve done stranger things before and anyone who owns a DS will understand why I’m like this…

“BRZZZZT-BRZZZZT-BRZZZZT! BRZZZZT-BRZZZZT-BRZZZZT! BRZZZZT-BRZZZZT-BRZZZZT! BRZZZZT-BRZZZZT-BRZZZZT!“… and then it gets louder and LOUDER and it goes on and on. I don’t know what kind of sick experiments people have run to determine the most annoying sound to use to wake people up in the morning, but the Nintendo DS has by far the most annoying alarm I’ve ever heard. I can stand the BEEP BEEP BEEP watches and other electronic alarms make and don’t really mind the oldskool ringing alarm clocks… though, to be honest, I haven’t heard one of those outside of a movie.

I don’t know why it stresses me out so much… but it does. I just thought I’d share that with everyone for some reason…