I'm covering two letters this week as the selections for both 'H' and 'I' are pretty slim pickings - they do include one of my favourite puzzle games of all time though!
Quick recap: To facilitate this exercise I played every game made available on the DSiWare service and, once I weeded out the shovelware, I have divided the remainder into four categories:
Hidden Gems: Games you've probably never heard of that are utterly brilliant
Well Known & Wonderful: Still gems, still potentially brilliant, but perhaps not quite so 'hidden'
Honourable Mentions: Those games that are good, but lack the real spark required to fit into one of the top two categories
Also Rans: Not bad enough to be completely ignored, but probably not quite good enough to warrant higher status
Two caveats: Firstly, I don't enjoy RPGs. Like, at all. So you won't see any of those at any point. And secondly it's very hard to define 'Hidden Gem' on DSiWare, as the service itself was never hugely popular, so please excuse a potential few miss-categorisations along the way!
Well Known & Worthwhile
In case you're unfamiliar with this title I should probably make it clear that the question mark isn't a typo. The plot of the game (such as it is) involves a young flightless bird and a quest for her identity.
Story, however, is not at the forefront of this experience. This is a kind of endless running puzzle platformer where our cute protagonist runs, initially left to right, and must be guided over and through obstacles by manipulating 'vines'.
These are drawn directly onto the touchscreen in real-time. This means that not only can you draw bridges and ramps, but you can also use them to flick Ivy around the levels.
It's a compelling mechanic, and one that encourages experimentation, but over the course of this 'mini' version's 50 levels it runs out of steam a little. The full game, released physically for the DS and the Wii, had the same 50 'Story' missions, and extr a50 besides, so there's an argument that the downscale to fit the limitations of DSiWare has done the game a favour.
Yuji Naka has made a career of making games that are 'pretty good' since the heady day of Team Sonic, and Ivy the Kiwi? is no different.
It's a great idea, and fun to play in short bursts, but it lacks a little in depth and variety to be considered an essential play.
Back in 2005, around the time the Game Boy Micro was released, a series of simple, stylish games were released - Minimalist console, minimalist games.
6 of the 7 were developed by Skip Ltd, the 7th, and last was Digidrive - the first game developed by Q-Games, the company who went on to make the brilliant 'Pixeljunk' games.
The idea of 'Bit Generations' didn't die with the GBA. Three of the games were brought to the WiiWare service under the same 'Art Style' banner that we've already seen plenty of on this blog. A fourth, Digidrive, was the only one of the 7 originals to make it to DSiWare, where it was rebranded (in PAL regions) as 'Intersect'.
The game is quite difficult to explain. So please trust me when I say it is a fantastic, tense, original puzzler that balances risk and reward better than most other games in existence. You should absolutely go and play it right now - before I make it sound far more complicated than it actually is.
The main play area is a cross shape that mimics the d-pad. Different coloured chevrons, probably representing vehicles, travel along the arms of the cross from the outside. When they reach the centre they must be directed in one of the other three directions. Here, if they match, they stack up, waiting for a multi-coloured chevron to arrive and fire them into the 'Plunger'.
Still with me?
The Plunger is on the right hand side of the screen. It slowly lowers as you play and if reaches the bottom it's game over. But, by stacking and firing chevrons into it, an explosion is set off that pushes it back up, away from the bottom of the screen.
And that's it. Direct traffic, build chains, charge the plunger, build the score. There's also layers of multipliers to consider as well as that risk/reward balance of when to keep stacking and when to cash-out, as it were. It starts very slowly but the whole thing builds to an incredible pace and it becomes a genuine feat of mental agility to keep on top of all the elements.
I don't want to oversell Intersect/Digidrive, but when I played it back in 2005 I thought it was the best puzzle game I'd played since the original Tetris. Not only do I stand by that today, but I also haven't played anything better since.
Honourable Mentions
Hero Puzzle (G.G. Series)
You'll be getting the idea of 'Honourable Mentions' by now, games with good ideas that don't do enough with them - and the games that form the 'G.G. Series' are becoming a permanent fixture here.
Hero Puzzle takes the Tetris format and applies old school RPG elements. Match 3 swords and you'll attack your CPU controlled foe, three shields will defend against their assault.
It's a neat concept, but as mentioned in the preamble, it doesn't do enough with it. For starters it's very very slow. I suspect this is an attempt to drag out what is a very short game, but I'd rather a few repeated bosses if the benefit let the dev's double the game's speed.
It's worth a go to see a fun idea play out, and you might even get through to the end, but it's unlikely you'd ever play it again if you did.
Horizontal Bar (aka Let's Swing) (Go/G.G. Series)
When I first started playing this one I thought it was destined for the 'Also Rans'. After a couple of minutes I was hopeful for a 'Well Known...'. Ultimately though, this is the right level for a game that - you guessed it - is fun for a short while but doesn't really evolve enough from it's central concept.
That concept involves jumping to, and spinning around the Horizontal Bars of the title and releasing at the right time to propel yourself to the next. And the next. And the next, until you reach the exit.
Learning the correct timing to get this right will take a good few levels, but that challenge is sadly the last one you'll come across. With the basic level design not bringing enough changes or complexities as they go, it won't be long before you've seen everything the game has to offer - despite being a long way from the end.
Also Rans
Hero of Sparta
I went on at length last time about the perils of judging a book by it's cover. That was in relation to a game that was ostensibly childish but, in reality, was a challenging and brilliant action puzzler.
The opposite is true of Hero of Sparta, a game that looks like it's going to be a neat God of War clone but ends up a damp squib lacking challenge, clarity, and anything approaching player agency.
And that's it for 'H' & 'I'.
'J' is often pretty barren ground when it comes to alphabetical game list making - so we might get another double-header next time.
I guess we'll find out in a week or so, see you then!
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