DSiWare Game Reviews
Review Absolute Brickbuster (DSiWare)
Bustin' used to make me feel good
Absolute Brickbuster is not an easy game to review. For starters, it gives a reviewer so little to work with: it snuggles itself into the cozy framework of other, better-known brick breakers, and falls asleep before it thinks to introduce anything new. That doesn't make it a bad game, but neither does it make it...
Review Petz Hamsterz Family (DSiWare)
This time, you won't be so sad when your dad accidentally steps on it
The hamster is largely considered a cute and desirable pet, even in spite of its often curmudgeonly temperament and stinky, difficult to clean cage. They're a lot more fun to watch than they are to play with, which means that it shouldn't be difficult for Petz Hamsterz Family to...
Review Crazy Pinball (DSiWare)
The only thing crazy is that nothing about this game is crazy
There aren't many pinball games on DSiWare. We have no clue why: they're pretty much perfectly suited to digital distribution. dtp Entertainment has given us Crazy Pinball, the second pinball title available, and its name seems to imply that it is quite crazy indeed. Upon first booting it...
Review Hospital Havoc (DSiWare)
Dead on arrival or just what the doctor ordered?
Hospital Havoc is quite a simple, fun game that debuted as an iPhone application almost a year and a half ago and doesn't seem to have changed much since. This is apparent in both the gameplay and graphical simplicity, and while it is a lot of fun, the lack of variety and abundance of bugs add a touch...
Review Scrabble Tools (DSiWare)
Hey, a Scrabble dictionary! And some other junk, too.
After a solid vanilla version of the main game and a less-than-great spin-off, EA and Hasbro's third DSiWare outing of the popular board game comes in the form of Scrabble Tools. It's not so much about playing as it is about improving how you play. The application bundles two useful tools along...
Impurrrfect
There once was a time when all that one could expect from a virtual pet was to feed it and play with it when it beeped. We've come a long way and should now expect a lot more, having moved on from imaginary digital creatures to real animals. Certainly a kitten simulator should simulate the behaviour of a kitten. It should be good enough...
Review Happy Birthday Mart (DSiWare)
Not worth a shoplift
It’s probably safe to say that Happy Birthday Mart is a legitimate winner of the Most Childish Game on the DSiWare Store Right Now Award. From the simplistic gameplay to the mindless use of animals, it’s definitely not for anyone over the age of 6 or 7. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a bad game; actually,...
Review 4 TRAVELLERS - Play French (DSiWare)
Liberté, Égalité, Médiocrité
Learning a foreign language is hard work. There are gendered nouns, verb conjugation, sentence structure, idiosyncratic phrasing, funky pronunciation and, of course, seemingly countless words to memorize. There are ways to facilitate the travail, but beyond the most basic education, playing a game isn't one. Maybe...
DSiWare sees one of its most rewarding puzzlers yet
Indie (like, really indie) developer Jason Rohrer's portfolio is filled to the brim with what may be best referred to as interactive art: works like Passage, Gravitation and Between operate on a whole different emotional and philosophical plane than a Mario. So it makes sense that his attempt at a...
Review Hair Salon: Pocket Stylist (DSiWare)
Mane attraction or curl up and dye?
Just in case you've ever wondered what you'd look like with a head of luscious bright green hair, here's Hair Salon: Pocket Stylist to satiate your curiosity. To start, you snap a picture with your DSi camera and manoeuvre your face within the guide area, which then becomes the face of your character. In case you...
Review 2Puzzle It: Fantasy (DSiWare)
This being worth your time is a mere fantasy
DSiWare's already got way too many Sudoku games, so it's a nice sight when a developer releases a puzzle game that isn't something done to death already. The service has yet to get one traditional sliding puzzle game, so we had at least some hope for this first effort. Likely to be the first in a series,...
Review Pop Island: Paperfield (DSiWare)
More capture the flag on wheels
When odenis studio released its first Pop Island title onto DSiWare last year, it brought a simple, yet wildly playable capture the flag experience complete with one of the most ambitious visual presentations yet seen on the service. Now it's returned with what you might call a semi-sequel, and once again the game has...
Review 101 Shark Pets (DSiWare)
Shark weak
Part virtual pet, part mini-game compilation, 101 Shark Pets cobbles together enough halfway-decent features to create a slightly above average game that younger audiences ought to enjoy. While its individual parts could never hold up on their own, within their sometimes fun framework they just manage to make this a passable title. As...
Review SteamWorld: Tower Defense (DSiWare)
Your head will be steaming
There’s no doubt that you'll know if SteamWorld: Tower Defense is for you upon asking yourself one simple question – do you like tower defence games? Not only is SteamWorld the essence of this sub-genre, it doesn’t try to pull anything crazy, either. If you’ve never played this type of game before, they’re quite...
Review Soul of Darkness (DSiWare)
Castlevania called - it wants its game back
No game publisher has released more games on the DSiWare service than Gameloft. And while the company has received a wide range of review scores among their various DSiWare releases, no one can argue that they've brought some quality games to the service in the short time it's existed. Soul of Darkness...
Review QuickPick Farmer (DSiWare)
A flocking good time
One of the most important aspects of a video game is fun gameplay, and that's what developer Dancing Dots delivers with their budget DSiWare debut QuickPick Farmer. It's a simple, accessible and original experience that will hook you and carry you away like so much wool. The goal is to drag set quantities of differently styled...
Review Ancient Tribe (DSiWare)
Dino snore
Hot on the heels of T-Rex Rumble comes Ancient Tribe, another real-time strategy game in which you lead a prehistoric society as it grows, develops and fights the beasts with whom it shares the land. We at Nintendo Life try to judge a game for what it is instead of what it's not, but when two games that share the same basic concept hit...
Review Date or Ditch (DSiWare)
Ditchfest
Don't be fooled by the level of choice suggested by Date or Ditch: this is a strictly linear game with even less depth than its vapid title suggests. Another converted mobile game from Gameloft, Date or Ditch puts you in the shoes of a male or female protagonist who must decide which of three love interests to settle down with. Gameplay...
Review 24/7 Solitaire (DSiWare)
Solid solitaire
Relatively speaking, there's not too many solitaire picks available on DSiWare. Europe and North America each have two: one title created by Nintendo themselves is the only one shared, while North America has Digital Leisure's offering and Europe an Engine title. This new release has the most variety yet, not just offering about 30...
Review Maestro! Green Groove (DSiWare)
A medley of musical mayhem
We've already seen several companies break their past retail releases down into pieces and sell them off as individual DSiWare releases, so it really comes as no surprise to see Neko Entertainment following suit with their first DSiWare release Maestro! Green Groove. The good news is that this release comes from a game...
Review Hello Flowerz (DSiWare)
Hello averageness
There's a surprising lack of games on DSiWare that pretty much require you to play every day. Hello Flowerz seems to be the first, in fact. It does pretty much everything you'd expect from a flower-growing game: you have to take care of flowers by watering them, giving them fresh new soil every day and similar tasks. Each flower...
Review Puffins: Let's Fish! (DSiWare)
Hungry hungry birdies
After a dreary first outing on DSiWare in the form of Puffins: Let's Roll!, Other Ocean has brought back the birds for more fish-chomping. Like Roll, Fish is pulled from the 2009 retail minigame compilation Puffins: Island Adventure. Let's Fish! is a maze game where you have to steer your little birdie around the depths of the...
Review Legendary Wars: T-Rex Rumble (DSiWare)
An archaeopter-mixed bag
To play Legendary Wars: T-Rex Rumble is to take your emotions for a ride. When you first see its great graphics and hear the fantastic sound design accompanied by a lighthearted sense of humour; when you play the first level and realise that you've learnt its somewhat complicated framework in an easy and enjoyable fashion;...
Review Music On: Retro Keyboard (DSiWare)
A step up
We've already seen Abylight's Music On: Electronic Keyboard application for DSiWare, a decent but flawed attempt at putting a keyboard in your pocket. Now the company's back with Music On: Retro Keyboard, and although it shares the first game's finer features and faults it's a better buy overall. As with its predecessor, you're granted a...
Review Face Pilot: Fly With Your Nintendo DSi Camera! (DSiWare)
Soar spot
The 3DS will introduce a motion sensor to the machine's line-up of inputs, but the humble DSi has already been home to a few motion-detecting titles, with Face Pilot: Fly With Your Nintendo DSi Camera! the latest – and longest-named – of the lot. You've likely already surmised what to do, but here's a quick description. You play a...
Review Pocket Pack: Strategy Games (DSiWare)
Smart move
The previous entry in the Pocket Pack series, Words and Numbers, combined Sudoku, anagrams and more into a package that was perhaps too familiar to make much impact in the DSiWare ranks. Now the second compilation, titled Strategy Games, has arrived on DSiWare, and it's a far better combination than its predecessor. The five games on...
Review Combat of Giants: Mutant Insects - Revenge (DSiWare)
If only we could squish this game under our shoes
Ubisoft seems to love its Combat of Giants series. With three retail DS releases and two DSiWare adaptations based on two of those retail titles already available, it was quite obvious that they were going to go for the full set. The third and hopefully the last, Mutant Insects Revenge very...
If by "mega" you mean "bland"
If it's simple word puzzles you want, then by golly, it's simple word puzzles you'll get with Mega Words. It'll put your vocabulary to the test across its three game types, sure, but in the most basic way possible. Anagrams plunks down a handful of tiles and asks you to create at least six words to advance, whereas in...
Spin Six will have you spending your five
Suckers for Bejeweled-style puzzle games are in for a treat with Nintendo’s Spin Six, a game based off that game's fundamental design with a numerical twist. Like other puzzles games in the past, it’s a simple design with lots of replayability but the addicting puzzle mechanics and the cheerful...
Bejewel 'til you drool
For almost ten years, computerised jewels have had it rough. Countless gamers, cell phone owners and bored white collar workers have made it their mission to line them up in rows of matching colour and destroy them. Now with Super Swap, even more jewels risk losing their lives to the technological menace that is man. Players...
