gingerbeardman

gingerbeardman

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Re: Review: A Little Bit of... Nintendo Touch Golf (DSiWare)

gingerbeardman

Almost 10 years late, but I just finished playing this after being intrigued how different it might be to the original cartridge.

For me this DSiWare version is the better game. It features a proper tutorial (the original only had some still screens), a refined user interface with simpler power and putting display. It's missing Championship mode, but I much prefer the Challenge mode method of levelling up as its more focussed on improving your golf. There are actually 4 levels of difficulty in Challenge mode, and things are really tough at this point, in a good way.

This little version is also missing a bunch of courses and their associated music, replays, special shot, and a few other canal things. But they're not essential to the experience IMHO so they're not missed.

With this version they've taken a look at the game with fresh eyes, taken out the stuff that made it needlessly complicated and added a new mode that reinforces the core of the game. It's a more focused and better game as a result.

I love it. Easily in my top 10 DS games.

Re: Review: World Sports Competition (Virtual Console / TurboGrafx-16)

gingerbeardman

We're playing this at the moment and it's actually really good! Way better than a California Games 1 or 2 and it has more events than Track and Field.

We've been playing all the Olympics games we can lay our hands on and this is actually the best we've found! Make sure to switch on auto run in Config before starting and it becomes a much better game when there's no button bashing. A great selection of events with tight control and quick progress is a winner in my book.

Re: Review: Polarium Advance (Wii U eShop / GBA)

gingerbeardman

@BarryDunne you're correct about the order they were released in, but in my first reply above I was referring to the order the two games were created in...

The correct timeline is: GBA version created, DS version created, DS version released, GBA version released. You can read a little about this odd timeline in the following interviews with Mitchell Corp head Roy Ozaki from 2006:

"Basically, I'm lazy. I never went to Nintendo. A Nintendo director came to us through Capcom. We were showing him another game and, he spotted Chokkan Hitofude (Polarium). It was fate - it controls us all. We weren't making it for the DS until we were asked." https://web.archive.org/web/20060224092551/http://www.insertcredit.com/features/hitofude/

"When Nintendo people came to our office, they happened to see the test sample of Polarium. Nintendo people liked Polarium; we started talks from there. DS was still not announced then, and I was not sure why Nintendo liked it." http://www.cubed3.com/news/5180/1/c3-exclusive-interview-mitchell-corp-on-magnetica-nintendo-wii-and-the-future.html

Another thing about Polarium Advance was that you could load the GBA cart into your DSlite at the same time as Actionloop DS game card to unlock extra levels - the DS game modifies the GBA cart save game. Both games are made by Mitchell Corp. So cool!

Re: Review: Polarium Advance (Wii U eShop / GBA)

gingerbeardman

@Raien exactly.

@Sabrewing The GBA version was created first, and then Nintendo saw it and requested a DS version to be made ready for launch of the then new handheld. So the GBA version was put on hold. But it's very much the better game, and this is a great Christmas present.

Two more interesting facts about the game. 1) the d-pad + trigger control scheme was designed so that the game can be played one-handed whilst standing on a bus or train commute. Typical for many Japanese workers. The TV commercial showed this specific feature. 2) I played through the 365 puzzle mode between August and December 2013 setting myself a goal of finishing by the end of the year. I managed to finish the last puzzle on New Years Eve! One of my greatest gaming achievements.