Hello there, and a warm weekly welcome to this series for which 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!
And finally, as there was only one title worth writing about for 'Q', I've smooshed it together with the selections for 'R'...
Hidden Gems
With it's faux dot matrix visuals and Breakout inspired gameplay, Reflect Missile (AKA Trajectile), from somehow always surprisingly good Q-Games, really couldn't be much more retro... so the fact that it still manages to bring so much that's fresh and interesting to the table is hugely impressive.
With a set of tiles on the top screen that will put you immediately in mind of Atari's block breaking classic or any of the myriad games that followed in it's wake, (I'm a big Arkanoid fan myself, but don't ignore Sidhe interactive's Shatter) it's the bottom screen where the game brings it's own personality.
Instead of a bat and ball you have one or more missiles ready to fire into action by aiming with the stylus (in a way that brings to mind Puzzle Bobble) in an attempt to hit specific target tiles above, hit them all and the stage is beaten.
The standard missile type will, however, only ricochet 5 times before exploding, and you have a pre-set number of shots with which to hit all the targets.
It's these limitations that make Reflect Missile shine, especially when paired with the many different kinds of power-up on offer, with driller, bomber, and super missile variants just the tip of the iceberg.
The final piece of the puzzle that ensures this game comes highly recommended is the huge number of levels on offer. There's 200 in total to unlock, which is a staggering amount of play in a game that, thankfully, offers more than enough fun, challenge, and creativity to make you want to see every last one of them.
You may find other reviews of these games (and the third instalment on 3DS) under the name Rabi Lady. But I've looked at the title images of all three games and there is absolutely an 'X' in there.
I've lumped the first two titles together as the second really feels more like a level pack than an a full on sequel but, y'know what, when the core gameplay works as well as this then it's not actually much of a problem.
This is a single screen puzzle platformer with a visual style that leans towards the bizarre end of Alice in Wonderland and gameplay that's like two-thirds of 4th generation classic The Lost Vikings.
Rabi, who is a rabbit, can jump and Lady, who is dressed like Alice on her journey through wonderland, can carry stuff. Your task is to combine these two abilities to bypass hazards and reach the exit.
It's a simple format that works very well and the only thing that spoils the fun, and risked this getting bumped into 'Honourable Mentions' is that the difficulty curve is all over the place.
The challenge pendulum swings from insultingly easy to console-hurlingly tough from one level to the next, and this is consistently inconsistent across both games - although I understand they resolved this for part three.
Nevertheless, the game offers far too many a-ha! moments and satisfying victories to judge it too harshly, and the visual design manages to walk a neat tightrope between cute and bizarre.
Honourable Mentions
Roller Angels
This one should have been right up my street with it's combination of OlliOlli and Jet Set Radio gameplay with Powerpuff Girls stylings.
Unfortunately it never quite came together as anything close to the some of it's parts for me.
As the game autoscrolls with you in control of one of the three titular onesie wearing angels there are tricks to perform, jumps to make, enemies to beat, and areas to spraypaint - often all at the same time. But everything happens so slowly that it's never particularly exciting, even later in the game when the challenge reaches surprising heights.
Roller Angels is a fun game, but it's just not quite as exciting as it should be, or needs to be, to hold your attention.
There's not enough difference between the two iterations of this game to bother covering them separately, but rest assured that whichever you choose there's a fully featured and robust football/soccer simulation on offer.
While obviously never going to compete with the latest Fifa or Pro Evo in 2023, Real Soccer could very much hold it's head high among it's handheld contemporaries from over a decade ago.
Because it's rendered in full 3D, with all the controls you'd find in any modern recreation of the sport, it's actually harder to recommend today Real Soccer today as there's no old-school charm to carry against a newer game.
It's the best football/soccer game on the DSi though, so that's something at least.
Also Rans
There aren't enough good racing games on DSiWare, and this effort from the creators of AiRace sadly does nothing to rectify that.
Sketchy controls, muddy visuals, and an abundance of jank puts paid to any notion that this could be a fun successor to the Re-Volt crown.
Quick Fill Q
A very simple take on the Tetris theme, but this time you're creating shapes to fill a hole so that a ball can roll ever onwards from left to right.
It's not a bad a concept but the presentation is about as white-knuckle and thrilling as a ball rolling slowly from left to right sounds.
Rayman
The brilliant original in the long running series is utterly ruined by having a zoomed in camera that fills the experience with a billion leaps of faith and twice as many cheap deaths from off-screen enemies.
Play one of the countless other versions instead or, better still, play Rayman Origins, it's one of the best platform games ever made!
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