DSiWare Game Reviews
Review Digger Dan & Kaboom (DSiWare)
Dig it
Digger Dan & Kaboom, right off the bat, has a lot going against it. For one thing, its title sounds like the name of some rejected Disney Channel cartoon trying to channel the success of Bob the Builder, and its awful CG concept art isn't doing much to combat that notion, either. Combine that with the fact that this game came completely...
Believe in angles
There's a wealth of puzzle games on DSiWare, but 505 Tangrams is the first tangram-based title to hit the shop so it's got the genre all to itself. How high does it set the bar for future tangram titles to match, though? If you're not sure what a tangram is, allow us to enlighten you. You're given a silhouette, here in one of five...
Review Airport Mania: Non-Stop Flights (DSiWare)
Economy class
In November, Nintendo Life received an unexpected – and quite pleasant – shock from a little game called Airport Mania: First Flight. It was a release that flew in from totally off the radar, and immediately became one of our favorite games on the WiiWare service. It was a deceptively deep, engaging game of time- and...
Review Ante Up: Texas Hold'em (DSiWare)
Sometimes less is more
Since we've already seen a host of Texas Hold'em games released on the WiiWare and DSiWare services, it would be quite easy to dismiss this fourth entry, Ante Up: Texas Hold'em, as just another attempt to cash in on the game's popularity. But even with the game's minimalistic visual approach, it's difficult not to be impressed...
Review Glory Days - Tactical Defense (DSiWare)
Glorious
odenis studio has built a good track record on DSiWare, with its capture-the-flag-on-wheels adventure Pop Island and its follow-up, Pop Island: Paperfield. Before that, however, it was responsible for the combat strategy Glory Days titles, and now it's drastically altered and miniaturised the formula into a downloadable top-down...
Sell it
Quick! What's the most convoluted and fun-deprived card game on the DSiWare service? Wrong: it's The Seller, an unnecessarily complicated and almost completely unstimulating card game that probably won't even keep you awake long enough to irritate the Hell out of you. Now, let's get one thing clear: The Seller isn't broken. It's (almost) a...
Review Missy Mila: Twisted Tales (DSiWare)
Child's play
Virtual books aren't really anything new on the DS, having seen full retail releases such as 100 Classic Books Collection containing classic literature such as Around The World In 80 Days to the DSiWare series of Flips. This time around, we have Missy Mila – Twisted Tales, a small collection of five original children's stories (Baba...
Review Animal Boxing (DSiWare)
Not just cruelty to animals, unfortunately
For those who don't know, Animal Boxing was originally released as a DS retail title two years ago to little fanfare. In fact, even though the game has just been recently released on DSiWare, most people don't even know it was originally a retail release. Perhaps this might explain the reason the game's...
Review Oscar in Toyland 2 (DSiWare)
Oscar in Average Land 2: Mediocre Harder
In September 2009 we got Oscar in Toyland on DSiWare, and almost a year ago we saw its follow-up, Oscar in Movieland, come to the service. Both of them were secretly slightly redone ports of Amiga platformers, which, in a weird way, meant that there were actually some Virtual Console games available on the...
Review Alien Puzzle Adventure (DSiWare)
Connect three puzzle action returns to DSiWare.... again
Puzzlers are a dime a dozen on DSiWare. They range from connect three games like A Little Bit Of... Puzzle League to simple bubble-popping in Pop Plus: Solo. Now we have Alien Puzzle Adventure, Mastertronic's second title for the service. Does it do enough to stand out from the crowd? Not...
Review EJ Puzzles: Hooked (DSiWare)
Crab your enthusiasm
When last we heard from Electron Jump games...erm...uhhh...well, you know where we're going with this. Suffice it to say we weren't quite thrilled about wading through such questionable waters a second time. But a strange and unexpected thing happened with their most recent release, EJ Puzzles: Hooked. It turned out to be a...
A+
The year may be young (really, really young) but we've already seen two must-have games hit the DSiWare Shop. The first was Alt-Play: Jason Rohrer Anthology, a collection of some of the most beautifully realised artistic statements gaming has to offer. The second is Surfacer+, a wonderfully unique action-puzzler that came out of nowhere and...
Review Word Searcher 2 (DSiWare)
Legend of the seeker
In late 2009 and early 2010, Digital Leisure released versions of Word Searcher on both WiiWare and DSiWare respectively. Finally, after nearly a year of waiting, fans of the original adventures can quit holding their breaths and take in the fresh air of Word Searcher 2, available now as a brand new addition to the DSiWare...
Review Alt-Play: Jason Rohrer Anthology (DSiWare)
Real art style
Jason Rohrer has made a name for himself in the art game sphere with numerous small and thought-provoking PC games. To kick off their Alt-Play compilation series, Sabarasa has pulled together a collection of three of his most notable releases so far in the Jason Rohrer Anthology: Passage, Gravitation and Between. While DSiWare patrons...
Review Music On: Drums (DSiWare)
Hard to beat
Abylight's been putting out music games on DSiWare for a while, so you'd expect the Spanish studio to have it down to a fine art by now, but it's had a few bumps along the way. Thankfully Music On: Drums is a better outing than previous series entry Music On: Playing Piano, as it plays out more like an electronic drum sequencer than a...
Review G.G Series: Z-ONE (DSiWare)
Ride into the danger zone
As the variety of shoot-‘em-up games on the DSiWare service continues to expand, it’s expected that some titles are going to stand out better than others. With releases such as Metal Torrent and Paul’s Shooting Adventure already available and rated highly, being a new contender is no easy feat. The G.G Series of...
Review GO Series: Dark Spirits (DSiWare)
In good spirits
The latest in Gamebridge's line-up of localised Japanese budget titles is GO Series: Dark Spirits, a horizontal shoot 'em up again courtesy of developer Suzak. It's not exactly a bullet hell shooter like Metal Torrent, but the difficulty can still get pretty high. You play the game as some sort of wizard who can only fire one rather...
Review Fantasy Slots: Adventure Slots and Games (DSiWare)
500 Point bandit
Gambling is fun. It must be. Millions of grandmothers and potential homeless people can't be wrong. But what, exactly, is fun about it? Is it the glitz of the casino? The pulsing energy of the crowd around you? The free drinks? The wandering magicians and entertainers? The risk? The rush of joy that comes with winning a particularly...
Review Cosmo Fighters (DSiWare)
Decent multiplayer fun
If the DSiWare service is lacking one thing, it's a compelling multiplayer experience. And if it's missing two things, it's a compelling multiplayer experience and a solid fighter. Cosmo Fighters, the latest from developer Abylight, hopes to kill both those birds with one downloadable stone, and, although it's seriously...
Does it measure up?
Cinemax releases have proven to be a rather mixed bag when it comes to DSiWare, from below average attempts such as Sokomania to the some of the best music applications available on the system, most notably Rytmik and Rytmik: Rock Edition. This time around, the company has provided a program for calculating biorhythms, which...
Review Paul's Monster Adventure (DSiWare)
Not quite The King of Carrot Flowers
Last month in Paul’s Shooting Adventure, Paul was an infant who could fly through the air, shoot energy blasts, and transform into various creatures. Things are a bit different these days in Paul’s Monster Adventure in which we see our protagonist as a young teenager who seems to lack any extraordinary...
Review Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp (DSiWare)
A trip back to the days of the LaserDisc
Few series divide players – including our own writers – as sharply as Dragon's Lair. Originally intended for the LaserDisc format, its titles are more interactive movies than traditional video games, tasking you with pressing the correct button quickly enough every few seconds. If our hero, Dirk, has to...
Review GO Series: D-Tank (DSiWare)
Tank Defence
The GO Series already had a tower defence-esque game with tanks, but there's already another one now in the form of D-Tank. In Defence Wars you got a bunch of turrets, cannons and tanks to defend you against oncoming armies, but D-Tank takes its name quite seriously and only has one of those, the tanks. You control one single tank at a...
Review Jam Space: PocketStudio (DSiWare)
Dance club calibre headaches without the fun
Among the applications that have made it to DSiWare so far is a handful of music mixing and writing programs, none of which are particularly bad. From the mighty Rytmik and its rockin' follow-up to the slightly more basic but still solid Rhythm Core Alpha, DJs on the go have had their fair share of...
Review Just Sing! Christmas Vol. 2 (DSiWare)
Another lump of coal for this year's stockings
Last Christmas, the European DSiWare service received the karaoke title Just Sing! Christmas Songs. As you might expect, it featured a Christmas theme and asked you to sing along, but it only included two songs and proved itself as nothing more than a waste of time. Sadly, Just Sing! Christmas Vol. 2 is...
Review Dairojo! Samurai Defenders (DSiWare)
A strong defence, or will it just offend?
Here is it, folks. Yet another entry in the ever popular tower defence genre on DSiWare. With a focus on arcade-style high score achieving rather than plot-driven level advancement, Dairojo! Samurai Defenders makes for a slightly different experience while still retaining the same basic formula. Enemies...
Review Rocks N' Rockets (DSiWare)
Rocking rockets
Most people are familiar with arcade classic Missile Command. In it, you control a bunch of anti-air batteries and have to shoot down the incoming enemies before they manage to destroy all of your cities. Rocks N' Rockets can pretty much be considered a revival of sorts of that game, although it does add a few unique twists of its...
Jedi school dropout
Originally released to arcades in 1984, Space Ace sought to recapture the magic of its predecessor, Dragon's Lair. And by "magic" we mean "ability to eat money." Gameplay was not high on the list of priorities for the team that designed these games, but flashy presentation certainly was. As a result, we are...
Review Spot It! Challenge (DSiWare)
Spot It or Ignore It?
Spot It! Challenge, if nothing else, has to be commended for making an incredibly boring idea (that's usually relagated to children's books that you'd find in the waiting room at the pediatrician's office) frantic and fun. At its core this is is still very much a portable version of the Spot It! search-and-find books on which...
Review DodoGo! Challenge (DSiWare)
DodoGo! Hard Mode
A little over half a year ago, Neko Entertainment released DodoGo!, a charming, decently sized puzzle game not unlike Lemmings. Now they're back with a new instalment, but is it worth another go? The basic premise of DodoGo is still here. Your objective in each stage is to safely get at least one of the present eggs safely to the...
