Tag Archives: DS

Games, Impressions, Music, Nintendo

Elite Beat Agents Impressions

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Elite Beat Agents

I don’t think I really need to go over how much I liked 2005’s cult DS hit Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan (in case I do: 1, 2, 3) so to say that a whole new sequel excited me should go without saying. Well, having played a good few of its songs now, I can safely say that Elite Beat Agents is a great addition to the burgeoning series, even if some of the quirky charm is lost in translation.

The wacky sense of humour is still in there, to be sure, but I can’t help but feel that it loses something when what’s going on beyond what you can work out visually. Does it even need to be in English? Diarrhoea is a pretty universal language.

OK, so marketing is an obvious concern in that respect. CIA agents just sell better than male cheerleading squads for some reason, and for god-knows-what-reason people prefer Ricky Martin to L’Arc-En-Ciel. The music may have been more appealing if they’d gone for less obvious artists that could have been pulled straight out of thin air, and again just don’t have the idiosyncratic charm that the best stages of Ouendan had. I’d just pick any of the original songs over the embarrassment of having YMCA suddenly blare from my DS.

Regardless, the great fundamentals are identical and on that basis it still gets a firm recommendation. Just be sure to pick up Ouendan as well (handy Play-Asia affiliate link!) so that you won’t miss out. The original is still the best.

Games, Impressions, Nintendo

How Old Is Your Brain?

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Brain Training/Brain Age is out here today and I bought a copy to see how it would cope with my sharly-honed intellect. I know that you can’t get rated below 20 so I couldn’t get a completely accurate judgement (I think of myself as a keen 18-year-old), but it seemed like a bit of harmless fun. So…my first attempt?

73. With the worst possible score being 80.

This game is obviously broken. How many septuagenarians can complete a Sudoku puzzle in six minutes?

Games, General, Nintendo

English Ouendan?

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Not exactly confirmation, but Go Nintendo is reporting that someone from Nintendo of Europe has let slip that Ouendan, the sixth best game of 2005 (NTSC-uk thought similarly), will come to the UK. It’s a pretty safe bet that if that happened it would make it to the US as well.

Personally I hope that if it comes out outside Japan they leave the actual song sequences untranslated and only change the menus into English. Knowing what on Earth was going on might actually be detrimental to the quirky appeal of the game, so they should at least leave the option of keeping the crazy Japanese-ness intact.

Best of 2005, GOTY

Best of 2005 #6: Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan

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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.

Best of 2005, GOTY

Best of 2005 #7: Mario Kart DS

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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.

Best of 2005, GOTY

Best of 2005 #8: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

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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.