The Best of DSiWare - Part 13: Games beginning with 'N'

Half a dozen games this week with at least one popping up in every available category, which is nice. We also see the return of old friends the GG and Art Style series' following their conspicuous absence last time out.

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!

Hidden Gems

Number Battle

The DSiWare platform has a reputation for two things: Shovelware, and puzzle games. When I started this series some three-plus months ago the first thing I did was weed out the shovelware; a fairly simple task really, even if some rubbish with ostensibly high production values slipped through the net. The weight of puzzle games offers a more complex challenge to the reviewer, however, as it can be hard to maintain enthusiasm, for even the better examples, when faced with another 'zen' soundtrack, another grid system, or trying to find yet another way of saying: "In this variation on Tetris..." Number Battle (known as Sujin Taisen Number Battle in some territories) ticks a lot of those boxes, and yet it is an easy game to recommend.

As the name suggests this is primarily a 'vs' style puzzler, so strategy plays a big part in the way it plays. As I've mentioned so many times before, I think it's pretty disingenuous to suggest anyone will be linking up DSis in 2021, so luckily the AI is pretty robust in the central 'Story Mode'.

Developer MITCHELL are responsible for a number of titles that hark back to ancient board games such as Go, or Dominoes, and Number Battle is no exception. Here, each player is given five square titles to place on a board shared with their opponent. Each tile has a number from one to five and between one and four linkable sides - similar to the sort of thing you'd find in Pipe Dream. They also come in two distinct types; rainbow and monochrome. 

The details of play are far too complex to go into in detail here and, truth be told, I'm still discovering a lot of nuances myself. The basics involve placing your tiles on the board, in ways that link, to score points. Simply placing two linking tiles together is not enough, however, as to score points the numbers need to either be the same or sequential. Using rainbow tiles will get you more points, but also allow your opponent to link to those tiles, and big points come from completing loops, loops with sequences, loops that are 'closed', etc, etc. And all this while keeping an eye on your opponents tiles to see if there are advantages to be gained by placing your hand into their play-area.

And, just to repeat myself, those are the basics. So, rather than go into too much detail I'll just stop here and say that if this kind strategic puzzle game is your thing then Number Battle is a must play. It's minimal but stylish presentation is a perfect fit for the gameplay, and, even if you're suffering from understable DSi puzzle-fatigue, it's challenge and hidden complexities will keep you hooked for a long time to come.

Well Known & Wonderful

Nintendo Touch Golf (A little bit of...)

If ever there was a sport that worked better in video game form than the real world, it's golf. Even if you take personal preference out the picture, Golf is a sport with possibly more social, financial, and practical barriers to entry than any other.

In the world of videogames all you need is hardware, software, and a controller or, in the case of Nintendo Touch Golf, a stylus, as the game's unique selling point is it's excellent touchscreen controls that put draw, slice, and power, under your control at the tip of the stylus. Initial shot set up will be familiar to anyone who's played any golf game before but, where you might normally be presented with a swing meter and timing bar, here you simply draw down on the touchscreen to set distance, then swipe forward quickly to take the shot. It's a brilliantly intuitive system that makes this a game worth playing all by itself.

Despite being part of the 'A little bit of...' series (AKA 'Minis') the game arrives pretty much fully formed from the physical version that was released on the DS just a couple of years earlier. This is notable as, despite this, the game has something of a 'lite', almost unfinished, air about it.

The main game mode is the 'Challenge'. Here you play a sequence of mini games that are based on actual golf - in that there's no mini-golf or superpowers. Rather, an example challenge would be to hit the ball further than a given total in three drives, or to get within 10m of the green in two shots, that kind of thing. 

But that's when the structure gets a bit weird.

When you have successfully completed 25 challenges a new course opens up for normal play. But to actually play it you have to end your game in challenge mode completely and return to the main menu - meaning that when you return to Challenge Mode to unlock the next course you'll be starting from the beginning again.

In practice, and with the caveat that handheld games are often played in short bursts, treating the Challenge Mode as the entire game is the most satisfying way to play. Go into Nintendo Touch Golf with this mindset and it's excellent control scheme will provide hours of fun - stupid trousers and country club membership not required.

Honourable Mentions

Ninja Karakuri Den 1 & 2 (G.G. Series)

I originally planned to list the first NKD as an 'Also ran' and save the relative prestige of 'Honourable Mention' for the sequel but, all things considered, I think this is a better option.

The original is a pseudo 8 bit, single screen, action game in which your little ninja bounces across dissolving floor platforms, slicing up baddies, while trying to reach and destroy a number of onscreen gear-wheels. Achieve this and (in true G.G. Series style) an exit opens through which you progress to the next level. And that, besides the every-fourth-level one-on-one battles with an enemy ninja, was pretty much that.

It was a pretty fun, slightly limited, and very challenging game that slotted very much into the middling nature of most released under this prolific banner.

The sequel, which as far as I can tell was only released in Japan, builds on these bare bones and turns the game into a much more well-rounded experience.

The need to destroy cogs to advance is gone completely and instead defeating all onscreen enemies opens the exit, making it a more focused experience. Alternating levels add auto-scroll to keep the gameplay from getting too samey, and even the boss battles have been zooshed up, with much more variety and challenge.

Probably the best change, however, is the introduction on a second playable character. This female ninja may be ticking all the trope boxes with her 'more mobile but less powerful moveset', but the added variety makes a big difference to the game and increases longevity for those who really get into it.

Personally I enjoyed seeing the progression from the original to the sequel but, in truth, you could absolutely skip the first game entirely as the second improves on it in every way. 

Need for Speed Nitro-X

With physical versions available for both the Wii and the DS, this was the third outing for the red-headed step-child in the vast Need for Speed family.

At it's core there's a fun, if pretty ugly, arcade racer here. Over the top speed boosts, vertical overtakes, and insane track designs threaten to make this a must-play. But the extra challenges and mini-games the game offers are largely less fun, for example, in a bizarre cross between a street racing game and Jet Set Radio, one has you pick up pairs of icons on track to alter the gameworld's colour-scheme to match that of your vehicle. Sadly, like the smash targets mini-game (and most of the variations on unimaginative themes) it sounds more fun that it actually is. 

If I'm honest with you (and myself) the only thing keeping this out of the 'Also Rans' is the paucity of racing games on the platform. This is not a terrible game, but both of the previous versions, notably that on the Wii, are far superior.

Also Rans

NemRem (Art Style)

Remember up at the top when I mentioned poor games with high production values slipping through my initial quality check?

Welcome to NemRem (known as ZenGage in some territories), the only truly 'bad' game I've found under the Art Style banner so far.

This simple puzzler plays like a mix of a sliding-tile game and a two-dimensional Rubik's Cube.
Slide the tiles, match the pattern, get bored, turn it off, play literally anything else in this usually excellent series. 

I'll see you next week for the 'O's, until then, thanks for reading, I'd love your thoughts and feedback in the comments.

Until next time.

The best of DSiWare - Part 12: Games beginning with 'M'

And so we come to the (alphabetical) half-way mark. With the Zelda franchise putting in an appearance last time out, it shouldn't be too surprising which of Nintendo's gaming goliaths show's their face for the letter 'M'.

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!

Hidden Gems

Metal Torrent

What we have here is a bona-fide hardcore vertical shooter exclusive developed by Arika for the DSiWare service. Featuring just eight stages, a tiny hitbox, a screen full of enemy fire to weave through, a special weapon to slow down bullets, and the tried and tested three lives and you're out system... this is about as brutal and 'pure' as bullet hell games get.

But. Should this is all be a bit much, you can play on the game's easy mode.

In this mode your special weapon recharges almost faster than you can use it, the spread of bullets you fire covers the entire screen, getting hit doesn't kill you, and you will finish the game on your first try. Guaranteed.

However, the game is unashamedly built around high-score chasing, and even featured online leaderboards when such a thing was still available. With this in mind the super-easy mode is somewhat forgivable, as getting to the end isn't really the point. The boss designs though, are less forgivable.

There are four in the game and no matter if you're playing on 'Easy' or 'Maniac' mode it is pretty much the same boss each time. The backgrounds, too, lack variety, although there is a lot of style in what we are given.

Even if the 'Easy' mode doesn't really serve as a gateway to the what feels like the game's true form in Maniac mode; for shooter and bullet-hell fans this is an absolute must play that will challenge even the most seasoned veterans of Cave and Capcom, and although the game is very short, it will take many hours of play and practice to get to the end.

Mighty Flip Champs!

I was tempted to put this, and the next game, into the 'Well Known...' bracket as the developer, Wayforward, has carved quite a name for themselves thanks to the often brilliant Shantae series. The two 'Mighty' games on DSiWare have also appeared on a few other platforms but, in the end, I don't think either of these great puzzle games has had the attention they deserve, so here they are in 'Hidden Gem' territory. 

Mighty Flip Champs is a puzzle platform game that makes great use of the dual screens. A fairly simple ladders and hazards style platforming level is drawn out on the top screen. On the touchscreen below, with a wibbly-wobbly effect applied, is another level of similar design. The goal, which (in true idiosyncratic Wayforward style) is to get to and rescue 'Fishman', cannot be reached using just the one level, so you must get our protagonist, Alta, to a good spot in the top screen layout so that the layout on the lower screen can be 'flipped', replacing the existing layout and allowing you to continue.

At first this is quite simple. There will be a gap between Alta and Fishman for example, and flipping up the layout on the lower screen will provide a platform on which to cross it. Later in the game things get much more complicated. There can be up to 8 screens in play, and the feats of memory and lateral thinking required are pretty intense.

Fortunately, Mighty Flip Champs eases you into the experience. The cartoon art and joyful presentation are definitely not indicative of the challenge ahead, but it does gently evolve into the more complex puzzles smoothly over the course of several levels.

When it comes to games developed by Wayforward, the presence of either Matt or Mark Bozon on the production team is key to knowing if it's going to be among their best stuff. Mighty Flip Champs! was directed by Matt, and designed by them both - and this pedigree is clear when playing the game.

It's tight level design, great concept, vibrant presentation, and excellent difficulty curve make it among the very best games I've played on the platform. It has challenge and replay value to spare and will be a game I'll waste no time coming back to once I have completed this blog series.

Mighty Milky Way

Just above, in the Mighty Flip Champs! write up, I mention that the best games from Wayforward are usually easily identified by having either (or both) of the Bozon brothers involved in the development. Mighty Milky Way, however, has neither name appearing anywhere on it's credits. Which means, in just a few short paragraphs, I have rendered my own point completely moot.

In this game our female protagonist (a definite running theme in Wayforward's output) is an alien called Luna who has the ability to create and destroy planets. Each level starts with Luna skipping around the circumference of a small planet that is drawn in simple 2D on the touchscreen. Tap the planet once and Luna will launch into space, should she land back on the same planet a second tap will destroy it, as our heroine sails safely into the cosmos once more. While free-falling through space (during which time you are influenced by the gravity of various bodies) you can tap anywhere to create a new planet to land on or guide you. But to do this you must first have collected enough 'Planet Candies'.

Yes. Sweets that create planets. 

There are a couple of times in the game where it goes full nutzo and collecting confectionary to create planets is just one example. Another would be that Luna, who I will reiterate is an alien, obviously doesn't speak English. She does, however, appear to be quite fluent in French. And there's the chief antagonist who, unlike the cute pink blobs who sometimes hinder your path on the surface of planets, is a giant green robot tyrannosaurus rex that shoots lasers from its eyes.

Wayforward really cornered the market in this happy-go-lucky style of slightly bonkers game design, and I for one lap it up at every opportunity. Mighty Milky Way's gravity puzzles might be a very different to the level flipping of the previous game in the 'Mighty' series, and the development team has not a single person in common, but the atmosphere of joy and fun permeates both, and means that this comes with no less of a recommendation than Flip Champs! did just above. 

Well Known & Wonderful

Mario vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again

Among the reasons I've been accused of being a hipster, a contrarian, and various less polite variations on that theme over the years is that I have no qualms in proclaiming, as I'm about to do, that I don't like Mario platform games.

Being from the UK, and just that bit older than many people who enjoy classic games, platformers - in the guise adopted by Mario et al - weren't really a part of my introduction to videogames. In the arcades and on the ZX Spectrum games tended towards the more immediate such as R-Type, Jet-Pac, and OutRun, or the more cerebral such as Rebelstar, Knight Lore, and Rampart. I always found platform games somewhere in the middle, offering neither the directness of action packed arcade games of the more deliberate nature of exploration, puzzle, or strategy games.

All of which is a lot of background to talk about a Mario game that isn't a platformer. This is major plus for me as I get Nintendo's usual first party quality, with none of the faux inertia and mawkish delivery that plagues their mainstream efforts.

In case you've not played and of the Mario vs Donkey Kong games before, they generally involve an amount of puzzle platforming in which you direct robotic 'Mini Mario's' to an exit as you chase down DK.

Unique to this particular version, the gameplay has a lot in common with Lemmings. This largely manifests in the Mini's wandering about the stage freely, leaving you to manipulate elements of the stage on the touchscreen to guide them to the exit. This is a well worn path, but there's no doubt that it's delivered here with style. There are extra goals to achieve in every level, the addition of a tight window to get all your Mini's through the exit, and the not insubstantial addition of a level creation mode which, despite losing a chunk of it's appeal to closed servers, is still a lot of fun to tinker with.

As you would expect of Nintendo, then, this is a class product that, despite being fairly derivative and having fallen slightly victim to the march of technology, remains just a simple and entertaining puzzle game of very high quality.

Mr Driller: Drill till You Drop

There's a little personal irony in selecting this game in the 'Well Known...' bracket as, until a few days ago when I played this, I had never tried any game in this 20+ year old franchise.

And what I fool I've been. This gloriously colourful and instantly playable series is an absolute joy. 

If (like me a little while ago) you've never played the game, it works almost like a reverse Tetris. You start with a 'well' full of blocks and have a character (4 are available to choose from in this version) who stands on top of them and drills down with the goal being to reach a depth specified at the start of the level.

There are obviously complications on this simple format. Firstly you can drill in all four main directions. Secondly, blocks falling from above will crush you. Thirdly, you have to collect air capsules as you go. And, finally, the blocks here link by colour. This means you can sometimes clear very large areas, that spread in all directions, by drilling a single spot on a large mass of, say, green.

This all comes together into a wonderfully addictive package, with great music, sound effects, and visual design combining with the easy to play, yet hard to master mechanics.

Whether you're an old hand or recent convert like myself, Drill till you Drop is a fantastic action puzzler that has made me an instant evangelist of the brand.

Also Rans

Magnetic Joe

A mobile port that starts promisingly but quickly asks you to be quite accurate with mechanics that are not fit for purpose.

Guiding a ball through a maze using magnetic force is exactly the kind of simple game I can usually get behind - but the inaccuracy of control offered here makes the whole thing unforgivably frustrating.

'N' is, obviously, up next but I have a sneaky suspicion we'll be in for a double bill again.

Until then, thanks for reading, I'd love your thoughts and feedback in the comments.

See you next time.

The Best of DSiWare - Part 11: Games beginning with 'L'

A certain very well known and well loved franchise features among the five games I've selected under 'L' but, more importantly, this week sees a trio of hidden gems unearthed.

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!

Hidden Gems

Libera Wing

It's very noticeable, playing through all these games, that the era in which the DSiWare service launched was also the apex of the Tower Defence trend. Fortunately, most of those I've come across so far have attempted to bring some little twist to proceedings, none more so than Libera Wing.

Each level in this nicely presented, if occasionally scrappy, game starts with a tower offence section where you must use your abilities to guide your ship and a small group of drones to the goal. The little nano-ships proceed to the goal automatically, so it's up you to ensure they arrive safely by using various weapons; a virus that will freeze all turrets for a short period, for example, is the first to come to mind.

Once you've successfully guided your small squadron to their target, the second, more traditional tower defence, part of the game begins. In this part, the ships you previously escorted are used to power-up turrets as the enemy surges to re-take the base you just invaded. Truthfully, this feels less special than the inverted approach of the opening, which is to be expected really, but the whole cycle taken together is pretty creative and, more importantly, a lot of fun to play.

The scrappyness I mentioned earlier comes from the comic style story sections that take place between levels. These are not of particularly high quality and feature regular grammatical errors. Artwork, too, is repeated and reused a little too often.

But, for me, this kind of thing is expected in a true hidden gem. The imperfections add to the charm and the original, entertaining gameplay takes care of the rest.

Looksley's Line Up

Good Feel are a company with a real flair for the visual. Developers of Kirby's Epic Yarn and Yoshi's Woolly World, along with the exceptional and oft forgotten 'Wario Land: Shake It!', they always bring a strong, consistent aesthetic to their work. 

With Looksley's Line Up (AKA the much less snappy: "Tales in a Box: Hidden shapes in perspective!") they not only bring their usual visual flair, but additionally make it a genuine part of the experience.

Guided by the titular Looksley, a white rabbit of the usual Alice in Wonderland temperament, with the use of some rudimentary (and lets be honest: Sometimes a little janky) face tracking technology, the object of the game is to move the DSi around and change the angle through which the paper-craft-esque dioramas are viewed.
In doing so, you reveal hidden words and letters. Each level has several to find and you can't progress until they have been discovered.

It sounds incredibly simple and in concept it is, but thanks to some wonderfully devious placement and the later introduction of moving elements, I have no doubt that this game will keep you entertained far beyond what you would expect after completing the first level.

Between the surprising level of challenge, the attractive design, and the brilliant concept, this is a simple game that is nevertheless very easy to recommend. Make sure you get that camera calibration right before you start though, because on a technical front the game's ambition very nearly outstrips the hardware's abilities.

Link n Launch

There's a couple of games from way back in the glory days when physical distribution was the norm, that mocked the player for getting stuck-in before reading the manual. Unirally on the SNES springs to mind as one that said something along the lines of 'So you tried to play the game, failed, and now your back here' on the first page of the booklet.

To be clear, Link n Launch doesn't do this. For starters there's no manual, obviously, but I was reminded of these jibes when I fired up the game, completely ignored the tutorial levels, and immediately regretted it.

Link n Launch isn't really that complicated, it's just that it's slightly more complex than you'd expect from something that initially appears to be a Pipemania clone.

It's an easy assumption to jump to. There are pipes and you do need to manipulate tiles to complete a route. If you're not familiar with Pipemania you may know this kind of thing as the hacking mini-game from Bioshock. However, in this game, the similaritys pretty much end with the pipes.

In Link n Launch you have to link fuel lines to a rocket in order to launch it up the screen. Most of the pipework is in place for you and can't be manipulated but there are gaps that need to be bridged/connected before the craft can take off.

All the tiles required to achieve this are on the play area to begin with. They are coloured green and must be 'rolled' or flipped into position to direct fuel to at least one of the three boosters on the ship.
This rolling and flipping action adds a devious level of challenge to the game, but it doesn't end there. Feeding just the right or left booster will launch you diagonally to one side, allowing you direct yourself to special areas and steer away from the edges of the play field.

There's upgrades and other gameplay enhancements too, and everything combines with the lo-fi design aesthetic to make this ostensibly very simple puzzler incredibly charming and addictive.

Also Rans

The Legend of Zelda Four Swords Anniversary Edition

So here's a confession that might surprise/annoy you: I've never enjoyed a Zelda game. I've tried almost all of them over the years but, I think primarily because my love of games is born from the arcade experience, I've not got very far in any of them.

The tone of the Zelda series is also something that I don't enjoy. There feels like a constant undercurrent of twee-ness in all of those I've played. I don't think it's any coincidence that the Zelda title I enjoyed the most was Minish Cap, a game developed outside the usual influences by Capcom.

Now, when it comes to the consumption of media, objectivity is, obviously, a complete myth. But with that said, it would be ridiculous of me to ignore the enormously high regard in which the series is held. It doesn't change my opinion but, on the off chance that the reader didn't already know about this enhanced port of the GBA game, I wanted to at least draw it to their attention.

Let's Create Pottery

An attempt to make a 'Zen Bound' or 'Bonsai Barber' style relaxing puzzle game that falls foul of some buy/sell mechanics that don't really work and inconsistent register of stylus activity.

There's a lot of snobbery about this kind of game that I refuse to buy into, but there's no getting away from the distinct lack of entertainment or quality on offer here.

We'll be hitting the alphabetical halfway-mark next time as 'M' is next up. I feel like 'L' is a tough act to follow, so I look forward to seeing what it has to offer.

Until then, thanks for reading, I'd love your thoughts and feedback in the comments.

See you next time.

The Best of DSiWare - Part 10: Games beginning with 'J' & 'K

'J' has always proven difficult when I've done alphabetically organised lists before, so it's no surprise that I'm including the equally limited selection from games beginning with 'K' alongside it this week.

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 & Wonderful

Jelly Car 2

Jelly Car 2 offers a rather neat lens through which to view the pitfalls of digital distribution.

Upon release, this DSiWare port, along with it's pretty much identical siblings on PSP and WiiWare, were criticised for offering less content than the iOS version at a higher cost. Fast forward a little over a decade and the various states of preservation for iOS and Nintendo software and firmware means that these 'lazy ports', as games like this were branded at the time, are by far the easiest way to play this fun puzzle-platformer.

Jelly Car 2 is presented as hand-drawn assets with made-by-a-human sound effects and signature 'soft-body' physics.

The levels are mostly structured as left-to-right challenges with all the moving platforms and jumps that you would expect. There are power-ups too, such as sticky wheels, and the ability to temporarily increase the size of your car.

With these tools at your disposable you advance towards the goal in as fast a time as the wobbly, weight shifty, bouncy physics allow.

It's all exactly as much fun as it was 10 years ago, with some genuine head-scratcher levels and others that are just about careening along as fast as possible.

There's an additional long jump mini-game and another that's a basically a colour sorting machine that's more entertaining than it has any right to be.

All in all, whether you're revisting this as a lost phone favourite, or playing for the first time, Jelly Car 2 is a lot of fun, both in it's (perhaps a little try-hard) presentation and in it's pick-up-and play design.

Kubos (Art Style Series)

Yet another Art Style game with a different name in every territory. This one is known as Precipice in North America and Nalaku in Japan, I'm in the UK though, so Kubos it is!

By this point I probably don't need to tell you that any entry in this series has a minimalist audio-visual style. This time round, Kubos' main play screen is a five by five layer of cubes. Atop which stands a little silhouette character who serves as your player.

Points are scored by walking over the top of as many of these cubes as possible. Hazard and progress is provided by the same means; additional cubes that fall from the sky.

When you first start the game there is only a single mode. The aim of this is ascend ten levels. So, as the new blocks fall from above and build a new layer you have to climb, ever upwards, to the goal. There's the additional jeopardy of only three levels being viable at once, with the lowest one periodically disappearing into the abyss below, and further complexity is added with health pick-ups and a shove ability earned by standing on special cubes.

Getting up to the tenth level opens a second play mode. In this 'Endless' version the play area is reduced to three-by-three with the unsurprising goal of staying alive and scoring as many points as possible.

And, as much as that sounds limiting, it's actually Endless Mode where the game really shines. The pace of this mode suits a game of this style much better, and it bring a good old fashioned kind of 'just one more go' addictiveness.

Kubos might not be the best or most striking game in the Art Style series, but it's nevertheless a very worthwhile game in the DSiWare library.

Testament, I think, to the carefully curated efforts that have made their way to the Bit Generations/Art Style brand over the years.

Korogashi Puzzle Katamari Damacy

In an effort to moderate your expectation, I should say up front that this isn't a Katamari game as you would recognise it. Interestingly, though, you might recognise it as something else.

It will be fairly obvious, to anyone who has played it, that Korogashi Puzzle is nearly identical to Pac-Attack; the Tetris-esque block puzzle that Namco Released in 1993. If you're familiar with Pac-Attack you'll know that it had a mechanic whereby ghosts needed to be lined up in a row in order to turn blue so that a Pac-Man tile could be dropped to clear them. Obviously this situation would not fit well in the world of Katamari, so it has been removed.

What's doubly interesting is that this is actually makes the game even more similar to Cosmo Gang: The Puzzle, the 1992 arcade game that was tweaked and re-skinned as Pac-Attack in the first place.

All three games have the same basic mechanic; a combination of square bricks and 'character bricks' fall from the top of the screen. Square bricks can be eliminated by forming horizontal rows, character bricks must be removed by dropping the respective game's title character(s) into the 'well' - who will destroy/eat/roll them up.

Katamari's own twist on the formula is that 1 of three blocks can be chosen, with the stylus, to fall into the play area next.

Going all the way back to it's origins, this was always a fun if unspectacular falling-block puzzle game, and despite the usual off the wall art and sound effects Korogashi Puzzle Katamary Demacy can be described in much the same way.

It's nevertheless nice to play a game of this type that offers something a bit different, so if you've never come across Cosmo Gang or Pac-Attack then consider that an extra tick in the 'should play' column. For anyone else it's a more guarded recommendation, given additional hesitancy by the fact there is no English language version available, so an amount of muddling through the menus is required. 

  

Honourable Mentions

Jump Trials and Jump Trials Extreme

I was unsure as to whether I should list these two together but, as much as 'Extreme' is definitely it's own game, the improvement over it's predecessor are pretty iterative, so I think this is the right way to go.

At their core both games are the same. We're back in stick-figure platformer territory here with a ten second time limit in one mode, and a bronze, silver, or gold award system in the other.

You control the little avatar with the d-pad and 'A' button, so moving and jumping are the limits of your abilities. Using this set of skills you have to navigate a series of single and multi-screen levels replete with traps and hazards.

As previously mentioned, the difference between the two games are minimal. In the first game the graphics are beyond simplistic, in the sequel a little more colour is added. In the original jumping is a tad floaty, in the sequel this has been improved. Most notable of all, however, is the addition of a quick-restart button (select) which is essential for this micro-platformer sub genre and felt like a bad omission in the original game.

And, in that genre, this is a decent entry. It's obviously not as polished as something like Super Meat Boy, and not as devilishly difficult as VVVVVV, but it does it's own thing with a certain amount of commitment - especially in the sequel - and for me, that should be applauded.

Also Ran

Jagged Alliance

Yes. That Jagged Alliance.

Imagine playing the PC version of Jagged alliance on a 4 inch screen with broken stylus controls. Congratulations you just imagine Jagged Alliance on DSiWare - a good idea, badly implemented.

Hopefully 'L' will offer enough quality to avoid a double-header again next week.

Until then, thanks for reading, I'd love your thoughts and feedback in the comments.

See you next time.