DSiWare Game Reviews
Review Bounce & Break (DSiWare)
Slowpoke
When you think "zen," odds are your mind goes to little bonsai trees and smooth rocks littered about. There might even be a small frog hanging out on a water lily as cherry blossom petals sprinkle the pond. When applied to a game you'd expect a slower pace and possibly some cherry blossom petals, but Enjoy's Bounce & Break...
Review 1001 Crystal Mazes Collection (DSiWare)
Chump's challenge
Every so often a developer realizes a concept so simple and fun that for as long as games are made, other developers will replicate and modify its formula again and again. Sokoban is one such game, and 1001 Crystal Mazes Collection is one such replication. Not that copying a classic design is inherently bad; Windows users of old...
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Bloons has already made an appearance on WiiWare, where it didn't exactly bowl us over. Now it reaches DSiWare with a few much-needed improvements, and in places it's quite the fun little puzzle game: it's challenging enough to captivate fans of the genre and other serious gamers, but might be a bit too difficult to...
Review Simply Solitaire (DSiWare)
Here we go again
It seems that barely a week goes by without a card game being released for DSiWare, and chances are if you were after a virtual solitaire you would have bought one of the previous releases by now. However, Engine Software is hoping to tempt the undecideds with this deck of solitaire games, following the same style as its recent...
Review Ferrari GT Evolution (DSiWare)
Drivers may want to exercise caution
Ferrari GT Evolution is a decent arcade-esque racing game. It looks quite good, handles well and has enough gameplay variety to keep things interesting, but you'll have to return to certain tracks far too many times before progressing to warrant a stronger recommendation. The meat of the game is Career mode, in...
Review Scrabble Slam! (DSiWare)
More of a slap, really
Scrabble Slam! is a different take on word puzzles for DSiWare. Instead of searching out pre-determined ones or collecting letters to spell elaborate words for maximum pointage, Slam! gives you a hand of cards with letters, puts four starter cards on the table and yells "go!" The goal is to play one of your cards on...
Review Puffins: Let's Roll (DSiWare)
Let's not
It's kind of a bummer when games come out with controls that just don't fit the platform. This wasn't much of a problem a mere generation ago, but with the plethora of options today ranging from button to motion and touch it's become more prevalent an issue. Other Ocean, behind the excellent Dark Void Zero, has fallen into this very trap...
Does it crack under the pressure?
For anyone that's even played Lemmings or Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, you'll have a pretty good idea of what to expect from DodoGo!. Your goal in each level is to guide at least one of the eggs back to the nest safely. If you want to earn medals, however, you're going to have to get all the eggs...
Review Earthworm Jim (DSiWare)
A slippery customer
Like previous platforming conversion Rayman, Earthworm Jim is something of a missed opportunity. Fondly remembered by many gamers from its original outing on Mega Drive and Super Nintendo, Earthworm Jim was a welcome antidote to the huge numbers of cutesy animal platformers with its bizarre attitude and plenty of character...
Review Don't Feed the Animals (DSiWare)
Un-bear-able
In Don't Feed the Animals, you play a child who, with his or her friends, has stored a bunch of candy at a fort. On your way to eat said candy, wave after wave of covetous animals bombard the clubhouse. You must protect the candy – all twenty pieces of it – with robots. There are three robots that you can use in your defence:...
Review Game & Watch Flagman (DSiWare)
A game you might want to flag down
Flagman might not be one of the top tier Game & Watch titles, but it's still quite entertaining if you've got a few minutes to kill. The game borrows heavily from many of the memory-type games of the era: one that immediately comes to mind is the classic Milton Bradley electronic game Simon. As with most of the...
Review Surviving High School (DSiWare)
If only the real thing were this much fun
With this downloadable title, EA provides a very entertaining and engrossing experience that many will unfortunately write off based on its name alone. The game is almost completely text-based, which means that there aren't any explosions or fancy graphics, but the story and characters are funny and...
Maybe a bit too simplistic for its own good
We haven't seen a significant amount of apps made available on the DSiWare service to date, but that hasn't stopped Nnooo from tossing a couple into the mix with their ongoing myLifeConnected suite of DSiWare applications. We've already seen the release of myNotebook in various colours and now the company...
Review System Flaw Recruit (DSiWare)
Seriously flawed
Essentially a first-person Space Invaders, System Flaw Recruit uses the DSi’s external camera in a crude form of augmented reality. The bottom screen displays a radar showing enemies in your proximity, and the top screen lets you line up the targets with your reticule. When the alien craft get within a certain range they attack,...
Review Pocket Pack: Words & Numbers (DSiWare)
Five very basic games in one
We've already got more than enough Sudoku games on DSiWare, but thankfully that's not the only thing included in this collection. Pocket Pack: Words & Numbers offers a total of five different games: Sudoku, Kakuro, Anagrams, Word Guess and Word Cubes. And while it's a jack of all trades, it's a master of none. We...
Review Game & Watch Donkey Kong Jr. (DSiWare)
A rather snappy LCD version of the arcade release
The first thing you'll notice about Donkey Kong Jr. Game & Watch is that it's clearly a lot more playable than many of the other Game & Watch releases. Not only are there more ways to do more, but now you have four-way controls, not to mention a jump button. The vine layout is also something...
Review Game & Watch Ball (DSiWare)
A load of old balls
Before the world-crushing DS, before the Game Boy began its decade-plus of supremecy, Nintendo’s handheld division began with the humble Game & Watch line, which started with the even more humble Ball in 1980. Over the past 30 years, odds are good that if you’ve had any interest in the company’s portables you’ve come...
Bet you can't deduce what this one's about
The first time we entered the AiRace universe, if you will, was through the simple and fun 200 Point DSiWare tidbit AiRace: Tunnel. While it was a satisfying arcade flight experience, it felt more like a bonus mode that was chopped out of a larger game. AiRace is that larger game. With more aircraft, actual...
Fold!
7 Card Games makes no effort to disguise its simplicity. It is what it is: seven card games, no more, no less. There’s no fluff, no extras and no incentive to play beyond the desire for quick, cheap, 500 Point fun. You might enjoy it while waiting for the train or before bedtime, but beyond that this game holds very little potential for...
Review The Price is Right (DSiWare)
No it isn't
Guess a number. Wrong. Wait ten seconds, then guess again. Wrong. Wait ten seconds, then guess again. Wrong. Now all this exciting number-guessing action can be yours to own with the release of Ludia’s The Price is Right for DSiWare! Yes, you too can estimate the prices of fanciful items you can’t win, compete against AI opponents...
Quite possibly the best Arkanoid clone ever
AlphaBounce started out life as a free to play online game. Borrowing heavily from Arkanoid and other "move the paddle to bounce the ball and break the blocks" games, it added a few rather unique twists, rather than being almost a direct copy like most of them are. The game focuses on one of...
Review Game & Watch Manhole (DSiWare)
Everyone walks all over a nice guy
The Game & Watch series was Nintendo's first real foray into the world of portable video gaming. Designed by Gunpei Yokoi, who would later mastermind the grey-brick Game Boy we all know and love, these handheld electronic games featured an LCD display, a tinny speaker, and just enough buttons to complete the...
Review Game & Watch Helmet (DSiWare)
When tools fall from the sky, just stay home that day
We should all be very glad that affordable portable video game technology has moved beyond the rudimentary LCD screen of the Game & Watch. Not that there haven't been any worthwhile endeavours to come out of the series, but when you're stuck designing your game around strict on-screen...
Review Game & Watch Vermin (DSiWare)
Everyone loves to whack it!
Before the days of Game Boys and DS systems, Nintendo manufactured a small portable game device called the Game & Watch. These electronic games featured LCD screens that featured specific movements that could be controlled via various buttons and D-pads on the units. While they didn't feature the same type of...
Review Mr. Driller: Drill Till You Drop (DSiWare)
All driller, no filler
Mr. Driller has become quite a beloved arcade puzzler over the years and after a solid WiiWare release, it seems Namco Bandai thought it might be time for the game to make an appearance on DSiWare as well. Now puzzle fans looking for a little arcade digging action can enjoy the game on the go and with a nice added set of...
Review Puzzle to Go Diddl (DSiWare)
Just change the puzzles and release what is essentially the same game for more money!
A while ago we got Puzzle to Go Wildlife, a relatively decent jigsaw puzzle game marred by one major flaw: over half the puzzles had to be unlocked, which took an eternity. Did developer Tivola learn their lesson from this or not? For this second Puzzle to Go...
Review Save the Turtles (DSiWare)
Tiny turtles bring big puzzle pleasure
Sea turtles begin life as vulnerable little creatures. Provided they actually survive the process of incubation and hatching and manage to dig their way out of their buried nests, they often become disoriented on their way to the ocean and, worse yet, they make perfect snacks for local wildlife. With Save the...
Review Disney Fireworks (DSiWare)
All flash, no bang
Combining both loud noises and pretty colors (things we've been conditioned from birth to stare at in awe), there's something magical about a good fireworks display. Disney is well-known for the nightly shows put on at their assorted theme parks, and now their game-developing arm has brought the fun to the DSi Shop in the form of...
Review Nintendo DSi Metronome (DSiWare)
It's a metronome
The DSi wasn't intended just for games; part of the meaning of the "i" is in reference to using it as a "personal tool," according to some Nintendo rep who may or may not have been full of it. We've already seen some fairly useless applications hit the service already, lending credence to this, so it makes a...
Review Nintendo DSi Instrument Tuner (DSiWare)
It's an instrument tuner
The DSi wasn't intended just for games; part of the meaning of the "i" is in reference to using it as a "personal tool," according to some Nintendo rep who may or may not have been full of it. We've already seen some fairly useless applications hit the service already, lending credence to this, so it...
