Lobster

This is a fantastic week! I don't know if I'll be getting anything right away because my time is at a bit of a premium but ever since that perfect ten I especially have my eye on NightSky.

Am also wondering about the block requirement for Prof. Layton.

Sounds like this game thinks it's 1992 - which does have a certain niche appeal that they might have been going for.

Just bought it, definitely a fan. Here's my two cents: I'd give it an 8/10. Graphically, it does what it should. Everything is stylish and clear. Control wise, it can be a bit hard every so often to choose the right box with the stylus, especially over longer sessions as my hand got tired. Music wise, it IS pretty weird to have a silent game! It has sound effects but no music. I usually play games with the sound down, though, so I wasn't too bothered.

Sometimes, with all the fancier stuff on the eshop, I forget that DSiWare still exists, but I'm glad I took some time to remember tonight and picked up this game!

This was pretty interesting! I knew about some, but not all. Living in a rural, Bible Belt area, I vividly recall the late 90s and how Harry Potter and Pokemon were both works of the devil... Yeah....

The kid willing to trade his little sister is just cute. :3

I loved this game back in the day and even know exactly where my cartridge and Gameboy Color are, so I can play it that way if I want. For the life of me I don't remember the RPG bits at all, though! I played the heck out of this game, too. Strange.

I'm glad I got my preorder in. Will pick it up on launch day, then open it on the first of December... my first ever console I got on my birthday. I know they'll drop the price eventually but the memory of getting a new Nintendo console for my 25th birthday will be worth it.

Noooooooo! I have no coins to speak of at this time. Been frittering them away on those free games.

/me stalks eBay.

Sad to see you go, James! Good luck!

I really enjoyed this game, actually, and I have the glitchy NA release. It's not my favorite HM (that would be Magical Melody) but it's still pretty good. I'd give it a 7/10.

Sadly, nothing can recreate the feel of pumping quarters into the arcade version at the skating rink, my friend and I skating around the snack room and drinking so many slushies we were on a constant sugar high. Though even then we preferred Frogger and Dig Dug.

This doesn't surprise me one bit. Obviously with being allowed to draw things, certain people would happily spam penises to everything. I'd rather not see it.

I just hope it's not too draconian! Anybody else play Neopets?

This was the first game I bought for my GameBoy as a kid after Pokemon Blue. It was excellent then and it's excellent now. I'd say 8/10 but that last point might be nostalgia.

So this takes place on the moon Europa, right? Just to be clear.

@Capt_N Haha, yeah, I didn't mean to imply she was my age. She's obviously a little older, but probably not too much. The most she could be is just over eight years older, but it's probably less.

The main article said she started playing video games around the age of two, which seemed impressive to me until I remembered I was actually playing computer games at the same age. No Nintendo in my house until I was 11 or 12. Of course most people didn't have computers when I was two. It's interesting to look at things like the likelihood of owning a particular piece of electronics in that time period, just to see how the opportunity to enjoy gaming has changed over time. Kids these days can play games on their mom's iPad at 18 months, easy. Unheard of back then.

That's probably a subject for a different article, though.

I can understand her selling the cartridge, I mean she's a mom of two and these days with the world economy being what it is, I can understand if she might be strapped for cash.

Anyway, this was really cool! I'm glad there was at least one lady gamer who won. She'd be my 90's hero, if I had known about her then!

EDIT: Wonder how old she was at the time? I know it's not polite to ask a woman her age, but I'm curious. All we get is "11 & under." I wasn't quite three when this went down.

If they stop making them altogether, my launch day 3DS will be a collector's item!

... Or it would, if I could ever seem to stop dropping it!

I agree, I wish they had bigger/clearer pictures. If they had the NA SNES controller I would have already bought one for my game room.

The price isn't terrible, the lack of pictures is.

Awww. OK, that made waking up to another dull day totally awesome. Not as awesome as those things combined, though.

This isn't the sort of title I like but good luck to them. I love my SNES and all my games for it. I think it has a good chance at the title of "Best Console Ever."

I don't give two flips about Tekken, but imagine retro remakes of old arcade games, and the second screen showing the game info that was on the cabinet. I'd like that, if only for the feel of visiting an arcade back in the very early 90s.

I would feel so guilty dl'ing that demo. Like cheating on my actual game which I haven't played in months and months. Gah. This whole thing is making me feel like a terrible person. Thanks for the guilt trip, Nintendo. D:

I was just turned on to this by someone who suggested it as something my 73yo father might finally enjoy playing with me... Let's hope it works!

Art of Balance, Colors, and Picross e, I hope to see you on this side of the pond soon, too!

As long as they are optional, not stupid, and not annoying (oh hey, let me interrupt your game to tell you you just left the first town!) then achievements are fine. Making them a peeing contest is just annoying and doesn't help anything. In fact, it may make things worse by adding to the stereotypical idea of the gamer who lives in the basement and never sees the sun because he has to 100% the game.

On the other hand, like anything, when well implemented they can be very fun.

Well, one day I will have a device it can run on. And on that day I will probably get it. But that day is not today.

In any given year the Zelda game should win best music (assuming there's a Zelda game that year). After all, I don't see anybody else getting an orchestral concert tour for turning 25!

Good luck, Mark Hamill! Let us hope that the Force is strong with this one.

@HugoSmits Excellent! I do have a sneaking suspicion that some math will be learned on my part, though, while playing. Gross! Haha, just kidding. I'm definitely looking forward to this title now.

I still play the original RCT from time to time, so I'm sad to see this. Here's hoping it's only temporary. I found out they were making it not from NL but from a guy in class who was even more excited about this than I was, so the market is there.

This was truly fantastic. At the very least, best thing I've read all month.

@HugoSmits Oh dear, this is starting to look like so much fun, but my poor brain isn't thinking about math anymore. It's been six years since my last class (calculus) and I've forcibly forgotten everything back to about the sixth grade. Will there be difficulty levels? So little kids and us dummies can play it too? If there are, are they significantly different from those geniuses that can do sines and cosines?

My memories of this game are nostalgic, but not exactly fond. I was six in 1993 and I tried to play it without help. While I could read just fine at that age, the puzzles were beyond me. I do remember loving the feel of the world - back then it really was like walking around in it. I think I tried picking it back up again when I was 12 or so but it felt dated and clunky and I just got bored.

If this gets a good review it might be worth trying once again.

Maru's Mission: the game worse than Urban Champion (the 3D Classics version, anyway).

They don't look all bad - in fact some of them have real potential. I'm actually looking forward to the bookstore game, though I hope they'll be swapping the two screens.

I'm actually interested in this one. I've always been a fan of sim games.

I don't see it yet but at least I've now caught on to other updates I've missed.

@Joshers744 Hey, I hope you come back and see this. I saw you posted in another article a couple days ago that you live in WV and don't get any StreetPass hits. Hey, me too, about both! Is there a PM feature on this site?

Anyway, I do admit I love the idea. Kinda reminds me of baseball cards and bubblegum. I hope whatever they do over here, I can eat it, though. It doesn't sound like I can eat the Japanese treats, if they are chocolate cookies. Boo.

Good memories of this as a kid.

@Slapshot Excellent! I know this is a busy time so good luck. I can't wait to see those reviews, though!

Ah, Kingdom Hearts, how did I forget about that one? Hahaha, I am a terrible gamer!

I just looked up NZ in my area and all of our McDonald's came up, a Ruby Tuesday's, and a cell phone store... and a hospital that specializes in physical therapy rehab for senior citizens. Wtf. Haha, guess Granny gets to watch Pokemans too while she's recovering from a stroke?

Oh, excellent! I'm not a Sony fan but I love to see you guys expand - I trust your reviews more than anything and I hope to see them cover everything one day.

Will you be doing retro reviews by any chance? The only non-Nintendo console I own is a PS2 and I literally only have two or three games for it. I'd love to expand my collection (PS2 was an amazing console) but it can be so hard knowing what's worth buying. Since PS2 is backwards-compatible I'd also like to see original PlayStation reviews.

Man, local multiplayer is where it's at. Online may sell copies and consoles but I'm convinced one reason Nintendo stays strong is that it never neglects the local multiplayer. We are social creatures, after all!

I wasn't allowed any consoles as a kid but I still have fond memories of playing MK 64 and Kirby's Dream Course (anybody remember THAT one?) with my friends who did have them.

But yeah most of my childhood multiplayer revolved around local games of Warcraft 2 and Age of Empires - both my best friend and I had dads who loved computers, so we had multiple ones early on at both houses, hers one room apart and mine in the same room. Man, there is nothing like playing RTS multiplayer in the mid-90s!

I miss the good Carmen Sandiego games. And the CYOA books. And the game show.

I wish more instruments were available. I've tried both piano and guitar and so far haven't managed to stick with them. I suppose if these had been out when I was in grade school/junior high that story could have been different.

@Classicgamer You said it.

This is very sad news. My condolences to his family and friends. He was still young.

@K-C Your coins last for a couple years, though with the recent update you can no longer see how many. At least I haven't found it yet. The "end of the year" for them is 30 June, also. After 30 June, your yearly tally of coins starts over but you still get to keep the old ones. And yes, for Elite Status you can get some spiffy free swag; this year I got like 30+ retro Mario buttons to pin on my bags, etc.

Not surprising! I have fond memories of this game on my GBC. In fact, I still have the cart. This was a no-brainer day one purchase for me.

There were a lot of great games this year! I had a hard time choosing. I HAD to go with Pokemon for DS, though - I've spent over 150 hours on it!

There should be some sort of puzzle game, solid game play, idk, Bejeweled-ish maybe, and it should reskin itself on various days of the year. So Christmas you've got like ornaments and presents, first day of summer seashells and beach balls, etc. You could even unlock the skins as the year goes by. It would be a neat gimmick and solve the "all holiday games suck" and "can only play it one month a year" issues.

You heard it here first folks. Now gimme some royalties when it's made.

@rjejr Have your kids downloaded the free Zelda Four Swords game? Also Xevious is free just now too. You can start a pretty good library on things Nintendo has offered free this year even if you aren't an Ambassador.

@7 You underestimate the power of having "Christmas" in the title and a Christmas theme around Christmas. You also overestimate the ability of the average person to look up reviews on the internet.

You know, I've played one hidden object game (Yard Sale Hidden Treasures Sunnyville or whatever on WiiWare) and I actually really enjoyed it. Why can't there be a decent handheld hidden object game? Sometimes I don't want to fire up my Wii. -sigh-