Monthly Archives: December 2005

Best of 2005, GOTY

Best of 2005 #6: Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan

1 Comment

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan

By far the best game about omniscient trenchcoat-clad male cheerleaders that I’ve ever played. If that doesn’t convince you that this is one of the best games of the year I’ll try to do it now through some more traditional evangelisation.

I first heard of Ouendan from the Edge review a few months back and bought it after seeing a friend play it in Japan, and for a very simple rhythm-action game they do a great job of imbuing it with some quirky humour and a huge amount of personality. Musical games are made on the music they feature, and it’s here that Ouendan also shines by including some absolutely brilliant J-rock from a selection of real Japanese bands. If Nintendo decided to release the soundtrack album I’m sure it would be a big seller based solely on the cult following that this game has amassed online.

The gameplay is fairly basic rhythm-action with the touch screen put to good use to give it a pleasingly tactile interface, but the real stars are the catchy music and hilarious design which never fail to bring a smile to my face and keep me playing a music game over three months since I bought it. Even my perennial favourite, Samba De Amigo, didn’t manage that.

Impressions

Game Boy Micro

Leave a comment

Despite the fact that it’s too expensive for five year-old hardware that’s been released already in two different forms (four if you count the Game Boy Player and SP+) and doesn’t play Game Boy Color games the Game Boy Micro is a really nice bit of kit.

While the PSP and DS have to differing extents moved away from traditional gaming, the GBA has possibly the best handheld library ever and many of the games are available for next to nothing now. Similarly the newer handhelds are hardly pocket-friendly, so Nintendo have spotted a niche here for a handheld that is both small and has a very large library. The popularity of it in Japan where they seemed ubiquitous on the trains shows how astute they were.

Game Boy Micro

The thing is tiny. I know there are a lot of comparisons around (the best is that it’s about the size of three GBA carts) but it still manages to feel substantial enough that you can play it fairly comfortably. It’s probably the least comfortable GBA to hold just by nature of the size but it definitely couldn’t be called unusable. In fact it reminds me a lot of the NES controller.

The definite star of this baby, however, is the incredible screen. Shrinking the pixels to make it seem sharper could be considered cheating, but does it ever work. The size coupled with the fact that it’s backlit (the old-style SP was frontlit) makes it look unbelievably sharp and vivid. It’s at least as good as GBA games look on the DS, albeit smaller, and on maximum brightness it makes even the first GBA Castlevania visible. I’d been impressed without even knowing that you could make it even brighter.

To be frank I can’t see the Micro ever attaining mainstream popularity with the newer hardware out and the relatively high price, but I’m definitely going to be using it as the most portable portable around. Coupled with the recent release of an updated Final Fantasy IV (complete with excellent Yoshitaka Amano box art), it shows that there’s still life in the old man.

Best of 2005, GOTY

Best of 2005 #7: Mario Kart DS

Leave a comment

Mario Kart DS

I don’t think I’d be alone in saying that Mario Kart DS is my favourite game in the entire series, and when a series carries a name as big as Mario Kart that’s no small praise. Whereas Mario Kart 64 evolved Super Mario Kart, I felt that Mario Kart Super Circuit was a step backwards and Mario Kart Double Dash felt gimmicky, this one felt like a true step forward.

The focus was brought back to the tight and responsive handling and the weapons which have been tweaked and balanced well over the series, the graphics sit somewhere between Mario Kart 64 and Double Dash, and the power of the DS has been used to add much more interactivity than the last great one, Mario Kart 64. On top of that they were clever enough to throw in a nice selection of classic retro tracks (although some of the choices of “classics” could be debated), fully-featured multiplayer with one copy of the game, and the game’s huge new addition – online play.

Nintendo were slow to adopt online play but they certainly made a good choice of a first game to do it with, and despite teething problems on their first attempt (the overly safety-conscious friends system, the lack of punishment for quitting when losing to protect your record, etc) they did a great job. Not only does this make it one of the best games of the year, it’s also proof positive that the DS is a serious system that isn’t only about touch-screen minigames and half-arsed console ports.

General

The Christmas Invasion

Leave a comment

Wow…I just watched The Christmas Invasion, the first episode of Doctor Who under David Tennant’s tenure, and it was fantastic. Definitely the best of the new episodes so far, and I can’t wait to see the rest of the series after the little preview they did (Sarah Jane and K-9!).

I can confidently say that Tennant will make a great Doctor and if the writing and action in the rest of the series are this good we’re in for a treat. I really loved the whole episode, and seeing him trying out his new costume (which I’ve already said that I liked) while playing around with some of the older ones was a nice little touch for the fans. More than anything though, parts of this episode were just hilarious:

“From the day they arrived on the planet and blinking stepped into the sun, there’s more to see…oh, sorry. That was The Lion King.”

And since ginger jokes are always funny, we can’t forget:

“Am I…ginger?”

The new series starts properly next year, as does the new spinoff, Torchwood, which was alluded to in no uncertain terms. No firm date as far as I know, unfortunately.

General

Merry Christmas

Leave a comment

Just a quick post to wish everyone who reads this a merry Christmas. I hope that whatever you’re doing you enjoy yourself, load up on food and drink, and get given whatever it was that you wanted.

I got King Kong on the 360, a silver Game Boy Micro, and Animal Crossing: Wild World for the DS, so I’m going to use my first Sunday off in a long time to get in some quality gaming. Have fun.

Best of 2005, GOTY

Best of 2005 #8: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

Leave a comment

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

When the 2D Castlevanias achieve near unanimous rave reviews it’s a wonder that they keep pursuing that losing battle of trying to make a decent 3D iteration of the series, and this keeps up the trend by being probably the best new entry to the series since Symphony of the Night on the PS1.

Konami deserve credit for just picking up from their good work on the excellent GBA Castlevanias (they even carry on with the new protagonist, Soma Cruz, introduced in Aria of Sorrow) and, on the whole, resisting the urge to shoehorn in functionality based on the unique functionality of the DS. There are some touch screen functions that work like the breakable blocks and some that don’t like the annoying seal-drawing to deliver the final blow to bosses, but most of the additions use the extra power to make some cool cosmetic touches and, naturally, some bigger and more impressive enemies.

Castlevania games are reliable for being lengthy and addictive action adventures, and this is one of the best in a long time. It therefore happily sits in my best of the year.