DSiWare Reviews - Page 5 of 29

Frighteningly good

To date, the GO Series has been a bit of a mixed bag, ranging from the disappointingly average GO Series: Pinball Attack! to the brilliant dungeon-crawling puzzler PicDun. As such, it's understandable that one might be sceptical of the latest title in the series, GO Series: Undead Storm. We're pleased to report, though, that...

It all adds up

Another week, another dose of edutainment. Successfully Learning Mathematics: Year 3 arrives on DSiWare, allowing another generation of eager young pupils to indulge in some mathematics on their favourite handheld. This title is, in form, identical to Successfully Learning Mathematics: Year 2, which is no surprise as they were originally grouped together in a retail package. The..

On the right track

Lola's Alphabet Train is both a learning tool and a game, but it's quite clearly more the former than the latter. This isn't a bad thing at all, but it's important to know that when setting your expectations. Lola is a chirpy panda bear who, aboard her titular train, presents children with a series of spelling and vocabulary based challenges. These challenges fall into many..

Doll-orous

Anne's Doll Studio: Gothic Collection is your chance to slap drab Gothic accessories on two dead eyed dolls that look like charmless rejects from the movie Corpse Bride. That sentence is a complete and accurate summation of this title, and it's probably the only thing you'll need to read in order to decide if you want it. Anne's Doll...

More is less

You’re given a bag of sweets. On the outside they’re a bit misshapen or broken up, but at least they’re brightly coloured, there’s a big variety of flavours and there are plenty of them, right? The first one doesn’t taste quite right. Neither does the second one. Nor the third. Half the bag has to be thrown in the bin when all...

Full of fun or made of cheese?

While many portable games praised for their accessibility and simple controls are often times associated with mobile game platforms, DSiWare is not without its own quality pick-up-and play titles. Games like Reflect Missile, Pop Plus: Solo and the Art Style series offer satisfyingly simple gameplay perfect for short...

Deaf, dumb and blind

101 Pinball World is, quite frankly, confounding on every level. Teyon's latest misguided attempt to cram large numbers of poorly-designed levels into half-baked games has resulted in a broken, hideous, aurally offensive, shambling monstrosity of a game. And that's being polite. Releasing in North America alongside the...

A logical progression

The Successfully Learning series is becoming one of the most prolific on DSiWare, with Successfully Learning Mathematics: Year 2 now the ninth title on the service. Versions of this mathematical matter have previously been released on WiiWare, but Freddy the Vampire’s campaign to teach all young Nintendo gamers through edutainment means that, once again, we’re going back..

Crystal meh

CIRCLE Entertainment has a whopping 11 releases on DSiWare, with 3 Heroes — Crystal Soul the latest arrival. And while the medieval theme the developer is obviously fond of is still prevalent throughout the experience, this time around it's more of a puzzler than the usual strategy title. At the start of your adventure, you'll find...

Holey-er than thou

Quick Fill Q is the story of a pink ball rolling across featureless terrain at a glacial pace. Every so often he — this ball is a living creature, for some reason — will come across a hole that looks suspiciously like several Tetris pieces were removed from the ground, and it's up to you to fill it. That's the game, in its entirety, and that in itself isn't a bad thing..

Will it eat your baby?

Some games just don’t translate well to the video game format, among them bingo and slots, unless you can bet real money on them. They’re both completely up to chance, and that’s generally not enough to drive a gamer. It’s strange, then, that combining the two works so well. Slingo Supreme does a decent job of bringing the early Internet-borne activity to the small..

Flippin’ out

The DSiWare service continues to serve as a home for independent developers with innovative ideas, and Flipper 2: Flush the Goldfish is another example of that creative spirit. A sequel in name only to Flipper, this latest creation from Goodbye Galaxy Games is full of surprises. The main link to the first game can be found in the...

Near perfect fit

We all know that there is an over-abundance of puzzle games available on the DSiWare service. We also know that there are quite a few DSi and WiiWare games that were originally released as apps on the various mobile services. Miraculously, Doodle Fit is one of those rare games that comes from both of these categories, yet still...

Not so original

If we made a list of things that we've seen just a little too much of in recent years, vampires and hidden object games would sit somewhere near the top. If that weren't enough to temper our excitement over Chronicles of Vampires: Origins, it happens to have one of the clumsiest titles we've read in recent memory (maybe because The...

Steely gamers only

In the early 1990s, when the very idea of 3D polygons was beyond most imaginations, 2D run-and-gun shooters were popular amongst dedicated and skilled gamers. Titles such as Contra on NES, Gunstar Heroes on Mega Drive and Metal Slug on the Neo Geo meant that most console owners experienced, and often loved, the genre. Commando:...

Will it put a spell on you?

A DSiWare shopper with yet another mahjong solitaire game is like a mule with a spinning wheel – no one knows why he got it, and darned if he knows how to use it. But WordJong Arcade stands out from the pack as it gives the game a Boggle twist; instead of removing matching pairs of tiles, you'll form words as you clear...

Maybe it’s a fruit cake

Nintendo’s handheld consoles face the ever-growing prominence of smartphones, particularly in terms of the games on these devices. Cake Ninja is undoubtedly influenced by a thoroughly popular game on Android and iOS that involves slicing fruit: this ninja, however, has lost his way. The gameplay within this title...

Definitely forcing it

On paper, Elite Forces: Unit 77 sounds great. A number of high-profile and wealthy individuals have gone missing all over the world, and it's correctly assumed that this is just the first step in a global terrorist plot. Desperate, the world turns to a renegade troop of no-nonsense butt-kickers: Unit 77. Unit 77 consists of...

Cruel, cruel Santa…

Christmas is here, with endlessly looping festive songs on the radio, frazzled and angry shoppers seeking toys that are always out of stock, and themed downloads appearing on DSiWare. Christmas Wonderland has arrived: is it a land full of magic and goodwill, or a cheap resort with dogs dressed as reindeer? Christmas Wonderland is primarily a hidden object game: a number of..