DS Game Reviews
Review Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS)
Eureka!
Although four installments long already, the Ace Attorney series has never really changed much in terms of gameplay. Every previous game consisted merely of showing the right evidence to the right people, or at the right time, with only very minor additions or alterations between each title, like the Psycho Locks in the second and third...
Review Resident Evil: Deadly Silence (DS)
A good adaptation with obsolete game design
It's tough to judge the classics, especially one like the original Resident Evil. Ground-breaking when it first hit the PlayStation in 1996, many of the game's mechanics are downright antiquated by now and can be off-putting to gamers who missed out on the series until Leon Kennedy shot up half the...
Review Bleach: The 3rd Phantom (DS)
The first tactical RPG for the modern manga classic leaves some to be desired
The 3rd Phantom is the latest Bleach game on the DS and also the first to depart from the fighting game genre. Instead, Sega have produced a tactical RPG resembling Nintendo's Fire Emblem or Sega's own Shining Force games, with players moving characters like pieces on a...
Review Wario: Master of Disguise (DS)
Not even a master could disguise this mess
Wario games have always stood out as being excellent venues for experimental game design. He challenged death in games by going immortal for a spell, helped Nintendo test the waters with motion control across multiple games and platforms and for the most part boldly goes where Mario dares not. He's seen a...
Review Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes (DS)
A classic DS mash-up is born
Mixing the heavy plot and masses of dialogue from an RPG with the instant gratification of a puzzle game might seem an odd choice, but Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes pulls it off with aplomb. Reminiscent of classic DS puzzler Meteos, Clash of Heroes offers a stylus-sliding take on the match-three genre. Each puzzle is...
The DS' first retro sci-fi MMO
Phantasy Star Online for Dreamcast was a genuine revolution: the first-ever online RPG for consoles, it boasted an advanced translation system, free online play and stacks of action. The GameCube saw Phantasy Star Online: Episodes I & II that expanded the original game with all-new areas, weapons, monsters and...
The 8-bit classic returns
If you were gaming on home computers in the 8-bit era then it's very likely you came across a game called Pipe Dream. Originally published on the Commodore Amiga as Pipe Mania, it's a puzzle game in which the goal is to link together pipe sections on a grid to complete a route for a green (or blue) liquid called...
Luchador's lament
Lucha Libre has an interesting history and place in Mexican culture and luchadores can be viewed in the same light as Japanese sumo (unsurprisingly Lucha Libre has a strong following in Japan as well): real-life super-heroes. Like super heroes, most luchadores wear masks and go to great lengths to maintain an air of mystery about...
Review Geometry Wars Galaxies (DS)
A near-perfect translation of the console classic
Bizarre Creation's Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved is something of a modern classic. The wireframe graphics and gameplay consisting of firing at enemies in every direction on a closed 2D playfield are like a marriage of arcade classics Tempest and Robotron, making for some addictive gameplay. Sierra...
Review Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 (DS)
Once you start, you'll need to call on the Ouendan to help you stop playing this game
In 2005, iNiS crafted Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan for DS. Rhythm games were hardly being made for the system, but they instantly proved that it could have amazing results when done right. People spoke so positively about it that it was popular both in and outside Japan,...
Herculean effort or Greek tragedy?
Role-playing game fans have to be excited to see the number of RPG releases appearing on the DS system continuing to grow. And while we've seen some very unique gameplay elements in many of the titles, we've seen almost as many titles take a much more traditional approach, choosing to stick to many of the familiar...
Review Sands of Destruction (DS)
Yet another engaging DS Japanese RPG.
There's no denying that Nintendo's DS system has seen quite a few Japanese RPG releases over the years and is quickly becoming the system of choice for fans of the genre. Imageepoch, comprised of former developers of such legendary RPG classics as Xenogears and Grandia, have once again combined their talents to...
Review Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland (DS)
Kooloo-limpah!
When it was announced Japan would be getting a game starring the Zelda series' strangest character, Tingle, everybody pretty much agreed on one thing - it would never leave Japan. But, in a very surprising move, Nintendo decided to take the gamble and localise the game. Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland takes place before every Zelda game he's...
Sega’s African adventure bagged and tagged.
Jambo! Safari: Animal Rescue is a bold attempt at converting the popular Arcade title to something more palatable for the home audience. Quite obviously aimed at younger gamers, this conversion basically boils down to a few veterinary minigames tacked on to the central animal-wrangling gameplay sections...
Review Hasbro Family Game Night (DS)
Family Game Delight?
Connect 4, Operation, Battleship and Bop It – games that have become household names with which we are all familiar. Translating Battleship and Connect 4 into digital versions for the Nintendo DS was always going to be an easy task; the challenge for EA was to digitize Operation and Bop It to try and emulate the success of...
Review Crossword Collection (DS)
Cryp-ticks all the right boxes.
It's very rare for Nintendo to be beaten to the punch by other developers, but some of their recent DS releases certainly seem to be playing catch-up to the wealth of third-party support on the machine. Style Boutique (known as Style Savvy in the US) resembles any number of other titles, and now with Nintendo...
Not quite out of this world...
Well, by now you'd have already seen our review for Planet 51 on the Wii, so it's time to see how the dual-screen version of the new extra-terrestrial flick fares. Did Sega manage to blast this out of the stratosphere of gaming delight or did its cargo jettison somewhere in the atmosphere of the mundane? Just like the...
Review The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS)
On the right track or running out of steam?
Link's last outing, 2007's Phantom Hourglass, was a piece of portable paradise, showcasing all the DS's features with some wildly imaginative puzzles and unforgettable moments, and still remains one of the console's best titles. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks takes all that was good about Phantom...
Bewitching.
The DS has seen some fantastic RPGs released this year, with Valkyrie Profile, Nostalgia and of course Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, and Luminous Arc II keeps the standard high with a quality Japanese RPG package that is sure to please anyone looking for a tactical fix. The game’s story takes place in the kingdom of...
Review Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders (DS)
Belgian waffle?
Thank goodness for Nintendo consoles making it easy for gamers to pick a range of moustachioed characters from various spheres of the employment world. If you fancy something a bit more cerebral than plumbing in your portable plaything you might want to check out Agatha Christie’s ABC Murders, in which you play the world’s only...
Review Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter (DS)
Definitely not the life of the party.
Coming in the wake of its below average-rated predecessor, Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter is a game that not only has a lot of potential but also a lot to make up for. As a concept it’s a good one: you get to draw your very own character as well as various in-game elements including platforms, falling blocks...
Review C.O.P. The Recruit (DS)
Cop a load of this.
With the DS now nearly five years old, you’d think there’d be no surprises left inside that flip-top wonder box, but here comes Ubisoft with something we probably didn’t even realise was possible on DS, under the rather off-putting title of C.O.P. The Recruit. The very talented (if unfortunately named) V.D. Dev have...
To arms! To arms! Lego Battles storms onto the DS in the very first Lego RTS, but is it a battling success?
Following the unquestionable success of the various Lego games of the past few years, Lego Battles is something of an oddity in the ever-growing stable of generally very good, solid adventure titles (and one rhythm game) from the Lego brand...
Too sexy for its shirt
When word leaked out that Sega's Sonic Team was working on a minigame collection for Nintendo's new DS system, many wondered why such a talented development group would be wasting their time creating something as trivial as a minigame compilation. Gamers got their answer with the release of Feel the Magic XX/YY (known as...
Does the series’ DS debut rock or roll over and die?
DS music game fans have a pretty good selection for a portable, with Nintendo’s own stellar Rhythm Heaven and Activision’s Guitar Hero and Band Hero outings eager to put your rhythm skills to work. Harmonix’s Rock Band series has now taken the handheld’s stage for the first time in the...
One of the most unique and enjoyable DS RPGs to date.
The developers of Nostalgia have repeatedly stated that they've been putting the game together for the better part of a decade. While this might seem like an exaggeration at first, when you begin playing the finished product you'll quickly see the many different eras of RPG influences that make...
Review Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (DS)
Enjoy Winter Olympic fun on the move.
Refreshingly for a simultaneous release on Wii and DS, the handheld version is a completely different beast to its big brother: far from being a stripped-down conversion it’s a decent accompaniment to the Wii version, although one aimed at a completely different gamer. Where the Wii game looks to capture the...
A bit of a mental lightweight
There's something intrinsically addictive about the whole genre of 'brain training' games. Implicitly we all want to better ourselves to a greater or lesser degree. By being told just how much a success or a failure we are at intelligence-related tests, there is definitely a major hook in this whole genre of games that...
Review MechAssault: Phantom War (DS)
A stomping good game?
MechWarrior. You’ve got to love it. The very concept of stomping around in your own personal giant robot, crushing things underfoot and blowing things up really is the sort of thing we gamers live for. Go on, admit it: every one of you has at some point had ‘the MechWarrior fantasy’. Up until 2002 however, the MechWarrior...
Will DJ Star get your party started?
Sold as a sort of DJ-ing equivalent to the Guitar Hero franchise, DJ Star offers up the Guitar Hero concept for the Ibiza generation. You won’t find any guitars here: your instrument of choice is instead a set of decks, and your mission is to fill the dance-floor with as many dancers as possible. Loading up DJ...
