I’m reviewing DSiWare you can buy cheap and easy, just how I like ‘em.

Part 1: Intro

Part 2: X-Scape

A wonderfully whimsical and clever puzzler based on making some boxes. Unlike the standard Box Factory as portrayed in the Simpsons, this one couldn’t be more fun to work at.

Boxlife, by Nintendo developers Skip Ltd., packages two different types of games based on making packages. Both are fun, but take wildly different skill sets to pull off. First you’ll need to step into R&D which will introduce you to the mechanics of the game through an increasing series of 14 box building puzzles. Each level introduces new ways of box building, as well as a catchy new song to jam to while toiling away. 

Once you are sufficient in the art of the box you can take on the factory, a series of eight timed stages that task you with cutting as many boxes as possible to earn money. As your money grows, nice but superfluous  items that add the life to Boxlife. It’s not much, but the idea is certainly nice, and adds a nice visual representation of your progress. 

Boxlife is technically part of the wide range of games known as Art Style, a series of various games all built on retro gameplay, graphics, and music, many of them made by Skip.

Oh hell, the music. This game, alongside the other Skip Ltd. produced DSiWare title Pictobits (which I will get to soon enough), got some of the most outstanding music of any download only title Nintendo has ever released. This shouldn’t be a surprise if you have played the far too underrated Chibi-Robo for Gamecube, one of Skips only major releases to make it stateside. This company has a penchant for chiptunes, oddball instruments and serene but catchy melodies. All this is on display on every level of Boxlife.

I have to mention the music because it becomes an integral head bobbing piece of the game as you silently cut, connect, and cube up boxes. As the timer counts down, pressure builds to get those boxes moving, but the music does a good job  keeping you calm and focused on the task at hand.

Much like other Art Styles, Boxlife is a quirky yet serene remix of classic Nintendo gameplay ideals. 

I’m reviewing DSiWare you should buy. Cheap and easy, just how I like my games.

Part 1: Intro

I would argue that Dylan Cuthbert and his studio Q-Games are the kings of downloadable games. Over the course of a few DSiWare articles you might understand why I speak such truths. 

Q-Games have been able to impress me consistently in the downloadable content era by helping me imagine a world where we went directly from SNES to downloadable titles on the DSiWare. All the big budget blockbuster bullshit that home consoles have become is washed away. Cuthbert flips the script on these big spending fools, releasing downloadable games just as fun and intuitive as anything back in my pixelated heyday.

Well, for Cuthbert, those days were already polygonal, having created 3D graphics in Argonaut’s first game, X, which came out on the Mother F-ing Gameboy back in 1992 (British developers were laying down epic coding as personal computers began to hit homes in England in the early 80s, Classic Argonaut and Rareware are proof of that).That early mastery of 3D processing might account for the vector graphics, sharp angles, and minimal use of colors that make current Q-Games releases stand out so well.

X-Scape owes a lot to X and the Star Fox series. Q-Games used this knowledge to craft a clear spiritual successor to them both. Much like Cuthbert’s Game Boy and SNES days, Q-Games rings some stellar graphics out of the DS. This isn’t evident in screenshots, but the varying color schemes, shaky wartime camera shots and polygonal mother ships that explode as if they’re made of stained glass make for some standout visual effects. I wasn’t expecting anything so vibrant from some colored in wireframes.

Strong or significant elements of arcade storytelling have been woven into their simplistically styled downloadable software, which is a habit first realized in the talkativeness of the original Star Fox. That isn’t to mention  the obvious inspiration for the tunnel shooting introductions and “all-range Landmaster” gameplay of the game. It’s easy to imagine that a few ideas that didn’t work their way into past Star Fox iterations found a home within the polygonal world 

WIth X-Scape being the spiritual successor to 1992’s X, it would be easy to imagine a simple arcade style update with a few levels and a remixed song or something. You could expect that from some other companies, but Q-Games seems to go pretty hard to make sure they don’t create games that feel unfinished or cheap just because they are not retail sold spectaculars.

This game, like a lot of downloadable games, is an underrated gem, and deserves to be in every action loving 3DS/DSi owners collection. It gets a lot of things right, creating a fun, stylized world to fly and shoot around in, but there are some ways to make this a longtime classic, and that is way I have this to say to Q-Games

Dear Q-Games and Mr. Cuthbert,

Please consider creating an X-Scape 2 for the 3DS eShop and imagine the possibilities at hand! You would have a more eShop savvy Nintendo audience to provide the game to. Those crisp vector graphics would be even crisper, and in 3D. Of course, the Star Fox 64 3D battle mode that was criminally left without an online mode could finally be resolved by adding online multiplayer in this game. All that and more could be true if you just create a spiritual successor to this spiritual successor.

DSiWare has been around for a number of years now, and in fact seems to be even livelier now that the 3DS eShop has opened. Which makes sense because the DSi still has the same clunky as it is boring interface it had when it came out. (I have some things to say about the DSi by the way, but this right now) So now we live in a world in which there is a cavalcade of cheap games to clog your 3DS’ internal memory like so much fast food in my arteries.

This also finds me in the position to give you my opinion on these tiny titles from small developers (and small groups of Nintendo developers). I’m from the arcade era and often I like my games in bit size chunks. Quick bursts of concentrated entertainment.

I will get more in depth with this game by game in a process similar to my top 3DS eShop games. There is no list to pertain to this time though, since I don’t even know how many will make this list. There are quite a few good games you know. Oh you will know. Rest assured.

Will someone please use all the amazing beats and rhythms from this game and rap over them, mash ‘em up, funk them out. This series, and especially this iteration deserve way more musical attention than it has gotten.

The world of original music in rhythm games was over before it even began. Parappa, Um Jammer, Gitaroo, all niche titles due to their funky art style and oddball original music. Of course those were also the reasons they were so amazing.

After Guitar Hero and Rock Band saw the light of day, this niche genre exploded. Those games were fun, but original they were not, especially when compared to the artsy freewheeling associated with the creation of Parappa the Rapper and Gitaroo Man. Nintendo SPD continues on in the same vein. the SPD devs have been working the OG rhythm game genre for years now, but Rhythm Heaven Fever was the teams big console break.

Sadly the Wii was already on the way out, and the already hard to place style of Rhythm Heaven Fever went largely unnoticed, likely more than if it found it’s way into the Wii line-up circa 07-09. This is unfortunate because if anyone can breathe some life into this style of rhythm game play, it is Nintendo. 

They could probably do so very easily by simply making some kind of Rhythm Heaven Super Mario with remixed songs and such, which would be awesome considering the zaniness of the Nintendo SPD developers. I would love to see Nintendo SPD cobble together a wacky parody Super Mario musical adventure. Well that idea is both awesome, and money in the bag for Nintendo, I still have to say that I would much prefer wacky originality over wacky re-imaginings as far as rhythm games are concerned. 

Slice it from any angle, and I want to do more rhythmic tapping of the A button along with pea stabbing forks, golf playing baboons and racquetball batting cats and dogs. Truly, this is what we should all want.

I have been waxing nostalgic on the DS as of late. Ever since around ‘08 or ‘09 (maybe even earlier) I began to claim that the DS was definitely my second favorite console (Guess which is number one). The variety of great games for the DS was enormous back then, and even greater now. Despite all these amazing experiences, to this day I can not point to a single DS game and say, “this is my favorite game on the DS ever!’

Soon I will be deciding which game is my favorite, and it will be daunting but it will definitely be epic. Expect fuller details in the near future!

Also thanks to finchie for being the only person on tumblr to answer my question about your favorite DS games (could have been YOUR name here you lazy non commenters)!

finchiekinstheowl said: Ghost Trick, FFIVDS, the 3rd Professor Layton, Etrian Odyssey 1-3, All the Phoenix Wright games, Hotel Dusk.

Some of those games will make the cut, but the ones that didn’t are simply because I didn’t have the chance to play them. I definitely have all those titles on my list of games to play eventually.

Two twitter folks @Gordux and @AW_GBATemp mentioned some other favorites of mine that look to be strong contenders. 

There is a lot of writing to do, but you have officially been put on notice, son.

EDIT: Thanks tumblr for breaking all the formatting and links in this post when it initially went live.

Non remake, American released DS games to be precise.

Let me know, and you might have some influence on my next overly wordy article!

Dance fueled remix of A New Day by Hideki Naganuma!

On my quest to hear everything associated with Hideki Naganuma I ran across this awesome remix of a track from the oft forgotten but amazing Sonic Rush soundtrack. 

Recently I have been on the hunt for some shiny Pokemon.

It’s bullshit.

There is no other way to put it.

This hunt has continued since I returned to the land of Pokemon back in the DPP (Diamond, Pearl, Platinum for the uninitiated) days. Never ran across any shinies in the hundreds of hours on that game. Same goes for White 1. Hundreds of hours, never saw a shiny anything anywhere. Now I have gone so far as to hit 999:59 hours on White Version 2 and still nothing!

So I am working the “Masuda Method” and even got the shiny charm, but my odds are still piddlingly low and after a few days of egg hatching, still nothing. The repetitive but worthwhile nature of Pokemon has become bleak and never ending, and still repetitive.

I get the idea, shiny Pokemon are rare, but this is really a bit much. I put my hours in dammit, and I want my shiny Magnemite!

On a slightly related note, I wish Pokemon names allowed for much more characters, so that shiny magnemite could one day be known as “Bite My Shiny Metal Ass”

So I need to say some quick notes about the upcoming Pokemon while it is so fresh on my mind.

• So Black and White 2 now appeared to be a last minute DS moneygrab by Nintendo, EXCEPT that the game was so well streamlined, and so many post storyline extras that this moneygrab is likely my favorite DS Pokemon title.

• The age old debate. How many Pokemon is too many Pokemon?

• Multiplayer battles need, NEED, to let you select battle stages for fights. There were so many great backgrounds that only appear once in B&W2 that looked pretty epic. Basically Pokemon battles need to be more like fighting games.

• Now make a new Pokemon Pinball!

It’s going to be one difficult October to get any homework or writing done.