DSiWare Game Reviews
Review Prehistorik Man (DSiWare)
A real dinosaur
Originally released for DOS as Prehistorik 2, Prehistorik Man has seen ports to the Game Boy, SNES, and GBA already, and it seems the GBA version has been ported to DSiWare this time around. In each version, the story is the same — hungry dinosaurs have snuck into a prehistoric village in the dead of night and eaten all the...
Boom boom pow
When it comes to downloadable game output, Intelligent Systems is on a roll. They’ve launched us to the moon, single-handedly blasted pollution into nothingness and took a few turns around some dragon war. Now they’ve got us chucking bombs into the mouths of ghosts in Spotto! And while it may be their smallest effort yet, it...
Review Spaceball: Revolution (DSiWare)
The same sphere-shooting fun, now in the palm of your hand
Last year, Virtual Toys brought Spaceball: Revolution to the Wii Shop, an arcade-style puzzle game that had you firing at a grid to copy patterns. Now that it's hit the DSi Shop, this puzzler has brought the same unique experience to a handheld system. Challenge Mode is where you’ll find...
Par for the course
On DSiWare, we very recently saw the release of A Little Bit of... Nintendo Touch Golf (Or True Swing Golf Express in North America), a slightly cut-down version of the retail game bearing the same name. We thought it was very competent, and as such felt that the "golf game" gap on the service had been filled. But here...
Review Oscar in Movieland (DSiWare)
Cut, cut, cut
Oscar in Movieland was originally released for Amiga computers in 1993 under the name Oscar. While its predecessor, Oscar in Toyland, was centered around Troll dolls back in the day and later shoehorned the character into the game when developer Flair lost the license, Movieland was the first straight-up Oscar game. Like Toyland, this...
Review Link 'n' Launch (DSiWare)
We have liftoff!
If it's one thing Intelligent Systems has become well known for over the years, it's their diverse game development. While they've had their hands in quite a few of Nintendo's biggest selling hits over the years, it's their Advance Wars and Paper Mario series that tend to stick out in most people's minds. Now, they've decided to try...
Run to the hills
There once was a time when the tower defence genre was so niche that, shock and awe, there weren’t these types of games released somewhere every week. In case you haven’t overindulged on the genre, Subatomic Studios’ Fieldrunners would like your attention, please. No, don’t leave, it’s good! Originally released on...
Review Extreme Hangman (DSiWare)
Less violence, more vocabulary
With all the sudoku games that have hit the DSi Shop since the service launched last April, it's nice to occasionally see a pen-and-paper puzzle game for DSiWare that doesn't involve numbers. In Extreme Hangman, Gamelion has taken the time-honored word-guessing game and turned it into something a little more...
Review Sudoku 4Pockets (DSiWare)
Time to dig out your sudoku dictionary
Since 2002, the aptly-named 4Pockets.com has been creating applications and casual games for pocket PCs and smartphones, including Breakout clones, jigsaw puzzles, pinball games, and of course, sudoku. Their version of the ever-popular puzzle game has received a slight makeover and a cute Japanese doll-shaped...
Combining two classics into one disaster
Cinemax's last DSiWare game wasn't too hot, so we didn't exactly have high hopes for their second effort. It looks like our assumptions were correct, because although it borrows heavily from classics Arkanoid and Snake, it just doesn't work. How does one combine Arkanoid and Snake, you ask? Simple: by taking...
Review Downtown Texas Hold 'Em (DSiWare)
One step forward, two steps back.
We've already seen a host of card games released on DSiWare so far and Texas Hold'em seems to be the hot new card game to get. Hudson recently released its High Stakes Texas Hold'em onto the service to rather mediocre reviews and now EA is serving up its version of the game with the release of Downtown Texas Hold...
Review 5 in 1 Solitaire (DSiWare)
Five games for the price of two
So far, Digital Leisure hasn't done the greatest job of bringing public-domain games to WiiWare or DSiWare. Sudoku Challenge wasn't challenging in quite the right way, and Word Searcher only worked on DSiWare because word searches were meant to be portable to begin with. The interfaces seemed a bit rushed and...
Review Legends of Exidia (DSiWare)
DSiWare's first RPG doesn't set the bar too high, but it's still quite enjoyable
It's a bit odd that we haven't seen any DSiWare RPGs until now. You'd think that with the service's portable nature and the genre’s wealth of retail releases, it would be a perfect fit. Apparently developers think otherwise! Gameloft is known for their frequent...
Review AiRace: Tunnel (DSiWare)
All I wanna do is zomma-zoom-zoom
Flight games are a rare breed on DSiWare. There’s Thorium Wars and, uh, we suppose Paper Plane, and now QubicGames has entered the not-so-crowded field with the neat AiRace: Tunnel. It’s more Paper Plane than Thorium Wars since the focus is on navigating an obstacle course/tunnel as far as you can instead of...
A must for maze mavens.
Gevo Entertainment didn't have the greatest luck with WiiWare, but they've turned things around for their debut DSiWare release, going from a brightly colored, child-centric theme to something more dark and mysterious. In Escapee GO!, you play as Claire, a girl who has been locked up in an insane asylum by the mysterious...
Review Chronos Twins (DSiWare)
Double the fun, half the price.
Quick history lesson: Chronos Twins began life as a Game Boy Advance title that was later ported over to the DS. While the game saw release in the UK, it was unable to land a North American publisher – poor UK sales didn't help matters. The game was released on WiiWare and now, only one week later, the DS version is...
Review Dark Void Zero (DSiWare)
More 8-bit retro goodness
We've already seen Capcom enjoy success on WiiWare with their retro-infused Mega Man 9 release. Now it seems they're trying to show DSiWare the same retro love with Dark Void Zero. Of course now the question is, does the game live up to the lofty standards the company has already put in place with Mega Man 9? Dark Void Zero...
Review Word Searcher (DSiWare)
Better on a portable?
Digital Leisure attempted to jump on the Sudoku DSiWare bandwagon a while back, failing miserably in the process. Now they've taken another crack at the service with something different: Word Searcher, a game featuring 100 different word-search puzzles to sink your vocabulary into. Granted, Word Searcher as WiiWare wasn't that...
Review Jazzy Billiards (DSiWare)
Every day I'm hustling
Out of the entire spectrum of bar games to make the digital jump, billiards is second only to poker in delivering really fun interpretations, like Virtual Pool on PC. What makes that series great is a total understanding of why billiards is fun and how to translate that into mechanics that feel more like skill than luck. Arc...
Review Move Your Brain: Rollway Puzzle (DSiWare)
Tilting fun on a DSi
Move Your Brain: Rollway Puzzle certainly is a brave title. It dares make use of the DSi camera extensively – the last title to do that was Nintendo’s own WarioWare Snapped! and the result was a game that didn’t really work in a lot of lighting situations. The game is based on a maze of 3D platforms, the job of the player...
A budget title in more ways than one.
When Cinemax first announced their plans to bring the classic Sokoban puzzle to DSiWare, we were somewhat excited – especially with the price being set at a measly 200 points. But unfortunately, in this case, this has also resulted in the game itself not offering much content. The game starts with pretty...
Review Animal Puzzle Adventure (DSiWare)
Puppies and kittens and piglets, oh my
Aksys Games makes most of their living by translating and localising Japanese games for Western markets. Their choices for WiiWare offerings, at least, haven't been great so far, but they've now graced the DSi Shop with partner developer Arc System Works' Animal Puzzle Adventure
Review The Oregon Trail (DSiWare)
The most fun you can have with dysentery
For whatever reason, The Oregon Trail in its various incarnations, whether on DOS or an Apple II, holds a special place in the hearts of American gamers. Maybe it's because of the balanced risk/reward system and simple resource management. But more likely it's because The Oregon Trail was one of the few...
Review Me and My Dogs: Friends Forever (DSiWare)
Pure bred or pure mutt?
Me and My Dogs: Friends Forever is a curious title: it's unashamed of its Nintendogs roots, but rather than simply following the leader of the pack it earnestly tries to make its own mark. It's a virtual pet sim, focused on raising a small pack of puppies and training them for various competitions. The game is set in a small...
Puzzle fans will take a shine to this one.
Proudly located in the Big Apple, Powerhead Games is an independent game developing company that previously focused their talents on licensed titles published by bigger companies, including games under the Catz, Trollz, Mary Kate and Ashley, and Winx Club names. They pitched their very first original game...
Review Arcade Hoops Basketball (DSiWare)
Flick and swish
Arcade Hoops Basketball is a simple beast. Odds are you've played it's real-life counterpart before, too. No, not basketball. Have you been to a fair? Theme park? Arcade? Large movie theater? It's the one where you have to chuck a ball through the hoop as many times as possible before time runs out and you may or may not win a cheap...
Review Sudoku Sensei (DSiWare)
Beginners beware
This past summer, sudoku-holics were blessed with Hudson's Sudoku Student and Sudoku Master, which brought hand-crafted puzzles straight from Nikoli to the DSi Shop. However, where Student was for beginners and Master had a little bit of something for everyone, Sensei brings the pain with 100 of Nikoli's hardest puzzles to tantalize...
Review Hot and Cold: A 3D Hidden Object Adventure (DSiWare)
Will it light your fire or stink on ice?
"Find the Hidden Object" games used to be the realm of books and magazine puzzles, but recently computer and video game versions have become more and more popular. This past Monday Majesco Entertainment made their DSi Shop debut with Hot and Cold: A 3D Hidden Object Adventure, where they take the...
Review High Stakes Texas Hold'em (DSiWare)
No more, no less
With the influx of card and parlor game adaptations hitting DSiWare, it’s odd to see that poker, arguably the most popular competitive card game in town, is so underrepresented. Seeing this gap, Hudson has leaped in with High Stakes Texas Hold ‘Em, doing exactly what it says on the tin. The whole package couldn’t be more...
Review Dragon's Lair (DSiWare)
Dragon slaying for people on the go!
In 1983, former Disney animator Don Bluth decided to create a video game using his stunning animation talents. Instead of the regular sprite-based games normally found in arcades, Dragon's Lair created a vivid world through some of the best animation of the time. Of course in order to store all of this animation,...
