DSiWare Game Reviews
Review A Little Bit of... Magic Made Fun: Psychic Camera (DSiWare)
It doesn't take a psychic to figure out this isn't worth your time.
Although Nintendo started off by releasing a few tricks directly taken from the retail game Master of Illusion/Magic Made Fun, they've also developed a few new ones that take advantage of the DSi's single big new feature — the camera. This particular trick will allow you to take a...
Review Starship Patrol (DSiWare)
Q Games has another hit on its hands.
Tower defence games haven't exactly been a popular genre for long, but they're already starting to become boring to most. After all, fending off endless waves of enemies by strategically placing turrets is fun the first time, but any more than that and it might start to get annoying quite quickly. With Starship...
Review Miami Nights: Life in the Spotlight (DSiWare)
If only fame were this easy
Sometimes a game’s theme song tells you everything you need to know about what you’re about to get yourself into. For Gameloft’s Miami Nights: Life in the Spotlight, it’s a circa-1996 MIDI instrumental tune that sounds suspiciously like Reel 2 Reel’s “I Like To Move It,” a senseless dance song so shallow...
Review Bejeweled Twist (DSiWare)
Spin me right round, baby
How do you change the formula on arguably the most important puzzle game since Tetris while staying true to what made it fun in the first place? Why, with a twist! Bejeweled Twist is the third entry in the hugely popular gem-matching series, and with it comes a whole slew of gameplay additions and changes. Instead of...
Review Hell's Kitchen VS (DSiWare)
Dog's dinner
Cooking games are ten-a-penny on DS, and it's all Cooking Mama's fault. See, if she hadn't started off getting youngsters interested in preparing food we never would have wound up here, reviewing Hell's Kitchen VS on DSiWare, and for that Ms Mama can never be forgiven. Based on the TV series featuring acerbic chef extraordinaire Gordon...
Review Littlest Pet Shop (DSiWare)
With seven different DS releases to choose from, was this really necessary?
Along with My Little Pony, Polly Pocket, Strawberry Shortcake and a whole host of other toys that now-twenty-something females grew up playing with, Hasbro's Littlest Pet Shop has been given a makeover and revived for the enjoyment of today's generation. Originally released...
Rayman's first adventure, now with added warts
You don’t see a lot of Rayman any more. While technically he has his name on a few prominent Wii minigame compilations, Rayman has since been cast out of his own spinoff series by the Rabbids. But now he’s back, sort of, as Ubisoft has unleashed the limbless freak’s first outing on DSiWare. It...
You'll handle them like a pro in no time.
Puzzlers featuring the familiar format of clearing out a wave of blocks, shapes, jewels, tetrominoes, bits and who knows what else have graced every gaming console known to man. As a species, we seem to be helplessly attracted to the idea of removing things before they pile up too far or reach the end of the...
Capture the flag, animal style!
When it comes to the DSiWare service, we've seen quite a range of software released so far. Some has taken the "less is more" approach and used very simple ideas to create a gaming experience, and others have gone for a slightly more ambitious effort to mixed results. Pop Island ends up actually being a...
Review A Little Bit of... Magic Made Fun: Matchmaker (DSiWare)
A match made in heaven?
The retail release of Master of Illusion (known as Magic Made Fun in Europe, as if magic was inherently boring) came with a special deck of cards to perform many of the game’s tricks. Obviously with the series heading into download territory via the DSiWare service, it’s had to find some new tricks up its sleeves, two of...
Review Just Sing! Christmas Songs (DSiWare)
Not something you'd want to find in your stocking
Developers seem to be absolutely crazy about releasing smaller versions of DS games as DSiWare downloads - just look at Bookworm and Master of Illusion as it is once again the case here. Just Sing! Christmas Songs is a small sampler of the retail game Just Sing!, which is due out sometime in 2010. As...
Review Sudoku Challenge! (DSiWare)
It's challenging, all right, but not as intended
Back in 2008, Digital Leisure hit the Wii Shop with Sudoku Challenge!, a somewhat bare-bones sudoku game with one new twist for fans of the popular pencil-and-paper puzzles: Grand Sudoku. The layout of five conjoined sudoku grids, while interesting, was not quite enough to wow critics or sudoku...
Review Master of Illusion Express: Mind Probe (DSiWare)
Prepare your mind for a mind explosion!
Hey kids! Do you like magic? Do you like pressing buttons?! Golly, do I have a great game for you! That'll be 200 DSiWare Points, and when we're done here I've got a couple bridges I want you to look at! Master of Illusion Express: Mind Probe continues Nintendo's sinister scheme to sell bits and pieces of old...
Review Foto Face: The Face Stealer Strikes (DSiWare)
A great platformer geared toward kids.
The DSi Shop is currently home to a gaggle of puzzlers and non-game applications, but platformers are sadly few and far between. That said, last week, Gameloft's Castle of Magic hit the service, and this week, EA delivered unto us Foto Face: The Face Stealer Strikes. EA is no stranger to 2D side-scrollers,...
A classic puzzler in its most basic form
PopCap has made quite the name for itself over the years as the go-to developer for supremely addictive casual games, so it's only natural for the company to worm their way onto Nintendo's handheld. The Bookworm series has been a staple of word game enthusiasts since first hitting browsers in January 2005,...
Review Reflect Missile (DSiWare)
Bub and Bob would be jealous
When Q-Games boast about their games, it always seems to be PS3's PixelJunk series hogging the limelight, with almost no mention of their other projects. That's a shame, because with their recent remake of Bit Generations title Art Style: Intersect, and now this, they've already got two great download games on Nintendo's...
Review Electroplankton Luminarrow (DSiWare)
Last, but certainly not least.
Electroplankton is a group of unique sound-manipulation applications all bundled together as one DS title. Designed by exhibition artist Toshio Iwai, it is a collective work of art disguised as a game. The title itself has gone on to become a cult hit. With the advent of DSiWare, Nintendo has seen fit to separate the...
Review Electroplankton Marine-Crystals (DSiWare)
Don't eat the yellow plankton.
Electroplankton is a group of unique sound-manipulation applications all bundled together as one DS title. Designed by exhibition artist Toshio Iwai, it is a collective work of art disguised as a game. The title itself has gone on to become a cult hit. With the advent of DSiWare, Nintendo has seen fit to separate the...
Review Electroplankton Varvoice (DSiWare)
Repeat ad nauseum.
Electroplankton is a group of unique sound-manipulation applications all bundled together as one DS title. Designed by exhibition artist Toshio Iwai, it is a collective work of art disguised as a game. The title itself has gone on to become a cult hit. With the advent of DSiWare, Nintendo has seen fit to separate the games and...
Review Electroplankton Sun-Animalcule (DSiWare)
Planting pretty plankton, cultivating undersea chaos.
Electroplankton is a group of unique sound-manipulation applications all bundled together as one DS title. Designed by exhibition artist Toshio Iwai, it is a collective work of art disguised as a game. The title itself has gone on to become a cult hit. With the advent of DSiWare, Nintendo has...
Review Electroplankton Lumiloop (DSiWare)
Harmony without rhythm.
Electroplankton is a group of unique sound-manipulation applications all bundled together as one DS title. Designed by exhibition artist Toshio Iwai, it is a collective work of art disguised as a game. The title itself has gone on to become a cult hit. With the advent of DSiWare, Nintendo has seen fit to separate the games...
Review Castle of Magic (DSiWare)
Is this the magical platforming experience fans have been waiting for?
If it's one thing the DSiWare service needs more of it's platformers. The folks at Gameloft must have sensed this when they decided to port their iPhone platforming hit Castle of Magic over to the service. Since one of the main complaints about the original iPhone release was the...
Review Army Defender (DSiWare)
Defend Your Castle made portable.
One of WiiWare's launch games was Defend Your Castle, a fairly good yet now mostly forgotten title based on the flash game of the same name, in which the objective was quite simple: defend your castle from endless waves of enemies until it finally crumbled. Mindscape and Kaolink must've been inspired by the title,...
Delivering what the DSi should've already had.
Until now, Nnooo only released one arcade-like highscore game on WiiWare and DSiWare. And though one game is hardly enough to go by, we were still quite surprised to find out that their next project was not another game, but rather a simple application. myNotebook pretty much does what the title implies...
Gameloft deals DSiWare a decent hand
This DSiWare release of UNO marks the card game's second appearance on Nintendo platforms within a few weeks, but does it hold up better in pocket format than its recent WiiWare release? As you'd expect, your cards appear on the bottom screen with the top screen showing the play area. Playing your cards is a...
Like synchronized swimming, but with less water and more robots
Working alongside developer Destan Entertainment, Polish video-game producer Teyon has previously focused on the PC, publishing a host of light puzzle games, pet simulators, and mini-game collections, and also the occasional FPS. Together they made their official console debut in...
Review Arcade Bowling (DSiWare)
Some games were meant to be played in real life.
David Crane is a legend in terms of video game design. The creator of such early classics as Pitfall, its sequel Pitfall II, and the original A Boy and his Blob, he and fellow Activision alumnus Garry Kitchen have most recently co-founded Skyworks Interactive, focusing their talents on 'advergaming'...
Review A Little Bit of... Nintendo Touch Golf (DSiWare)
A hole in one or simply par for the course?
Nintendo's "A Little Bit of..." series of DSiWare releases has received criticism in some quarters for offering severely cut-down versions of full titles at barely reduced prices. Well, A Little Bit of... Nintendo Touch Golf survives the transfer from cartridge to download pretty much intact,...
Review Electroplankton Rec-Rec (DSiWare)
A chorus of fish!
Back in 2006, a talented and eccentric media artist named Toshio Iwai developed a very unique title for Nintendo's DS system that allowed the user to interact with various forms of plankton on both a visual and musical level. In fact, it was this combination that gave the game its unique feel and ultimately produced one of the more...
Review Electroplankton Nanocarp (DSiWare)
Carpe Diem!
Back in 2006, a talented and eccentric media artist named Toshio Iwai developed a very unique title for Nintendo's DS system that allowed the user to interact with various forms of plankton on both a visual and musical level. In fact, it was this combination that gave the game its unique feel and ultimately produced one of the more...
