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.