DSiWare Game Reviews
Review GO Series: Picdun (DSiWare)
First person picture puzzler
In the 8- and 16-bit eras, there were quite a few games that featured first-person dungeon crawling. Looking through your character's eyes, you had to navigate a maze by moving forward one square at a time, possibly also having to collect treasures and fight monsters along the way. Games like The Legend of the Mystical...
Review Big Bass Arcade (DSiWare)
Nice catch
Big Bass Arcade seems to be as good an adaptation as DSiWare can reasonably offer the sport. We say that not in a back-handed way, but knowing that whatever potentially horrible type of fishing game could have been released on DSiWare, Big Bass Arcade manages to break on through and be kind of fun anyway. True to its name, Big Bass is as...
Does it add up?
Although the majority of titles on the DSiWare shop are games, since launch there have been some items that would more accurately be described as ‘apps’. Common on smartphones, they have become increasingly less frequent on DSiWare. Cinemax are bucking the trend with Calculator; does it get the sums right? The list of features...
Review Word Searcher 3 (DSiWare)
The same old search
It has become apparent that each of Digital Leisure's Word Searcher titles is intended to vary the content rather than improve the design toward a more interesting take on the activity. If you’ve played any of the previous entries, then you know exactly what’s in store with their newest addition to the DSiWare service, Word...
Review Successfully Learning English: Year 4 (DSiWare)
Can you spell re-pet-i-tive?
Tivola’s series of edutainment titles keeps rolling on, Successfully Learning English: Year 4 representing the third entry in this particular DSiWare series. In our review of Successfully Learning English: Year 3, we observed that the classroom was unchanged from Year 2; does graduation to Year 4 bring exciting change...
Review Whack-A-Friend (DSiWare)
Totally wack
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, step right up and see Whack-A-Friend, Agetec’s latest incarnation of the ever popular arcade game Whac-A-Mole! Or don’t. Either way, you won’t be missing out on much. The game starts with you choosing to either play using the picture provided, or you can use your own...
Review Mighty Milky Way (DSiWare)
Très amusant
WayForward's first DSiWare release Mighty Flip Champs was arguably the first must-have title for the service, and given the game's popularity it's understandable that fans have been clamouring for a sequel ever since. But rather than create a direct sequel, the developer has instead chosen to throw gamers into a completely new gameplay...
Ahoy, mateys!
So, you’re already thinking “really? Another puzzle game? Really?” But wait! Ikibago, the latest DSiWare title from Neko Entertainment, has got pirates in it! It may be lacking in the ninja, robot, zombie and unicorn territories, but there are plenty of pirates in this fun and addictive puzzler to go around. In the...
Review Anonymous Notes Chapter 2 - From The Abyss (DSiWare)
Second verse, same as the first
Anonymous Notes Chapter 1 - From the Abyss turned out to be a mechanically sound albeit slightly aimless dungeon crawler with a couple of interesting ideas up its sleeve. Save for a different main character, this is the exact same game as before. Not that we were expecting anything else — both games selectively pull...
Review Ice Hockey Slovakia 2011 (DSiWare)
Wayne not-so-greatzky
Many people are familiar with table football – sometimes referred to as "foosball" — that consists of a table containing little miniature football/soccer players on rods with handles sticking through the case that you can pull, push and twist. A ball is dropped in the centre of the table, which the opponents must...
Review Successfully Learning English: Year 3 (DSiWare)
Are these A, B, Cs as easy as 1, 2, 3?
It seems that Tivola’s campaign to bring educational entertainment, or edutainment, to Nintendo consoles is yet to run out of steam. Successfully Learning English: Year 3 is the second entry in this DSiWare series, and the sixth ‘Successfully Learning’ title overall. The first Successfully Learning...
Review Zoonies - Escape from Makatu (DSiWare)
A great escape?
New developers have gravitated towards DSiWare since it launched, resulting in a broad variety of titles on the service. Kiloo Games is another developer making its DSiWare debut, having previously focussed on developing for smartphones, entering the fray with puzzle platformer Zoonies – Escape from Makatu. In Zoonies you play as...
Nothing funny rhymes with "Ubongo"
Ubongo is a board game that's won its fair share of awards in continental Europe, and came to WiiWare via a not-so-great adaptation. Shrinking the game to the DSiWare platform doesn't do it any favours either, sadly, and comes with a host of new problems. As opposed to the four-player original board game and...
Review GO Series: Tower of Deus (DSiWare)
Prince of Persia Lite
With the absence of any Prince of Persia titles on Virtual Console, there's not really anything available for download in the way of acrobatic platformers in which the objective is to nimbly climb up ledges and perform almost pixel-perfect leaps. DSiWare's GO Series Tower of Deus somewhat fills this empty space, but mostly...
Review Airport Mania: First Flight (DSiWare)
Smooth skies
Good news, everyone! The wait for the DSiWare port of Airport Mania: First Flight is finally over. Combining aspects of both the WiiWare version and the watered-down Airport Mania: Non-Stop Flights — already available on their respective services — this is definitely a game worthy of closer inspection. As stated above, this game...
Review Inchworm Animation (DSiWare)
Animazing!
When Flipnote Studio burst onto the DSiWare scene back in 2009, it quickly became one of the most popular releases on the service, although it is worth noting that the title was available free of charge. Sites dedicated to hosting the animation creations began popping up across the Internet and remain active almost two years later. Now...
Review Valet Parking 1989 (DSiWare)
A crash course in parking
The DSiWare service certainly has the ability to surprise with its diverse variety of genres and concepts. Developer Zordix AB is throwing its hat into the ring with Valet Parking 1989. The title is self explanatory, and the concept of valet parking has been envisioned as a time management puzzle game with a distinctly 80s...
Review Music On: Learning Piano Volume 2 (DSiWare)
Beautiful harmony or sour note?
Abylight has already released seven Music On titles for the DSiWare service that teach basic instruction for such musical instruments as the keyboard and the guitar. While the Spanish studio has already released one title covering the piano, it's obviously decided that the instrument needed a follow-up with the...
Review Hellokids - Vol. 1: Coloring and Painting (DSiWare)
A decent artist's toolbox
With the free title Flipnote Studio available on DSiWare, it's kind of hard to really create anything that would be able to top it. Hellokids - Vol. 1: Coloring and Painting, however, does offer some decent options and might be fun for younger kids. The main draw for the young ones is probably the colouring mode, in which...
Review Successfully Learning English: Year 2 (DSiWare)
Vocabu-scary or the definition of fun?
After four entries in the Successfully Learning Mathematics WiiWare series, Tivola is now turning its attentions to studying English, and this time Freddy the Vampire flies – at night, of course – over to DSiWare instead. It’s time to start a new class, but will this help young gamers learn their ABCs?...
Review Escape Trick: The Secret of Rock City Prison (DSiWare)
Far more frustrating than fun
Despite the system's unique touchscreen feature, we've seen very few point-and-click adventures for the system. Intense Games hopes to remedy that situation with the release of its mystery adventure Escape Trick: The Secret of Rock City Prison on DSiWare. Combining a story full of plot twists with point-and-click puzzle...
Awesome ink
All right, let’s be serious for just a minute. Who here hasn’t dreamed about the glitzy and glamorous lifestyle that comes with being a tattoo artist? Well, now you can finally fulfill your fantasy with the release of Art of Ink from Sabarasa for DSiWare. Though it’s obviously not a completely accurate representation of life in...
Some folks call it a Slingo
Remember Slingo, the popular, fun and highly addictive internet game that had you wasting most of your work hours trying to get the high score? Well, thanks to MumboJumbo, this incredible browser game is now available on DSiWare in the form of Slingo Quest, a reincarnation of the classic with a few extra surprises...
Review Anonymous Notes Chapter 1 - From The Abyss (DSiWare)
Non-stop grind
There's nothing quite like a good dungeon crawler to waste away an afternoon. All that hacking and slashing and magicking and looting and leveling — when these gel together, why, yes, please. These are all traits found in Anonymous Notes Chapter 1 - From The Abyss, but sadly the glue keeping the game together lacks a very vital...
Review 3D Twist & Match (DSiWare)
Not a perfect match
There are quite a few games on DSiWare which started off as part of another title but have been released seperately. However, there's also quite a few games that seem like they really should've been part of something else, and 3D Twist & Match undoubtedly falls into the latter category. The sole objective here is to rotate...
A slippery slope downwards…
If there is one thing missing from the video game world, it’s a snowboarding game starring goblins and dragons, and Enjoy Gaming is aiming to fill the void with Trollboarder. It’s been marketed as the ‘craziest snowboard game in history’, but is this zany fun or an experience that will drive you mad? The premise...
Review GO Series: Captain Sub (DSiWare)
Diving to the murky depths
DSiWare has seen quite a few ‘GO’ titles during its lifespan, and the latest in the series is GO Series: Captain Sub. This title marks another departure in the series with a combination of puzzling, shooting and exploration. The question is whether this game is worth the expedition undersea. The premise of the game is...
Review Absolute Baseball (DSiWare)
Foul balls
What happens when you take baseball, America’s favorite pastime, and mix it with Japan’s favorite pastime, the turn-based RPG? You get Tasuke’s newest DSiWare game, the Frankenstein-esque genre crosser titled Absolute Baseball. While the idea here is nothing less than genius, does an RPG in which you take control of a baseball...
Review Dancing Academy (DSiWare)
Uh-oh, I’m dancing with my stylus
Tivola’s ‘Academy’ series of games is becoming a prolific presence on DSiWare. In consecutive months we've had Model Academy and Beauty Academy. These titles have targeted pre-teen girl gamers and the latest entry, Dancing Academy is no different. We’re dusting off our dancing shoes to determine whether...
A fairy solid puzzler
We've seen a fair share of puzzlers on DSiWare, so any time a new title from the genre is released, it's generally met with a cautious approach, especially considering the number of mediocre releases we've seen so far. Having initially made its rounds on the PC and Mac, A Fairy Tale makes its way onto DSiWare and brings all of...
