Hello there, and a weekly welcome back, 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!
There's a lot to get through this week with, you'll be pleased to hear, some absolute belters in the mix...
Hidden Gems
With shmups as poor as 'Score Attacker' (see below) around you may be concerned that I would overstate just how good Sagittarius-A-Star is. However, I ask that you please remove these thoughts from your head and take me at my word when I say that this (sadly) Japanese exclusive release is one of the very best games available for the DSiWare ident.
Sure. If you're not a fan of shmups this game isn't going to convert you, but for those who know their Espgaluda from their Radiant Silvergun, you're going to love this one!
Things are promising right from the start, with gorgeous polygon visuals and a thumping soundtrack being the first thing that really hits you, the next thing to hit you will almost certainly be enemy fire - because this game, like all the best shooters, is tough!
Initially, gameplay looks fairly simple; enemies arrive from the top of the screen and you shoot them from the bottom. Thrown into this straightforward approach is the unassumingly named 'attack' move. This is a quick dart in the direction you're facing with what appears to a bladed slash projecting a short distance in front of you. It must be charged before use but, in the first bit magic the game has to offer, there's a tiny window after the first slash has connected that allows you to combo into another - and following that, another.
3 is my longest chain with this attack to date, but I've heard tell of combo's much higher.
The second piece of magic is in the design of the enemies. Each has a line through it in yellow or red. Line up your slash attack with this and the enemy will be destroyed instantly. Certain obstacles also have these lines and, most brilliantly of all, some of the bosses have them too - allowing for single hit deaths on screen-filling end of level baddies!
Sagittarius-A-Star is, for me, a true hidden gem and if you have even the slightest interest in vertical shooters then you need to hunt this one down immediately.
At what point does a game go from being 'inspired by' to 'a total rip-off' of?
Where-ever it is that you personally draw that line, I can assure you that Soul of Darkness, with it's full blooded mimicry of the Castlevania series, definitely oversteps it. And then some.
From the gameplay to the sprite designs, the cutscenes to the soundtrack, this is Castlevania in all but name.
All that notwithstanding, the graphics are among the very best you'll find on DSiWare. Huge sprites, lovely effects, and imaginative characters are in abundance.
For gameplay, think early Castlevania in that his is a fairly linear affair with the only 'vania' esque moments provided by the ability to transform into other creatures. However, in perhaps the games only big misstep, it indicates exactly where and what to change into, negating the mechanic somewhat.
While lacking in that particular area, the game is near perfection in almost every other. Controls are tight, level designs are sprawling and beautiful, and weapon levelling keeps combat interesting throughout.
Boss fights are here too and, as they should be in my opinion, a real highlight of the game.
The lesson here is that if you're going to talk another games talk, you'd better be able to walk it's walk too - and Soul of Darkness positively swaggers through this ode to Castlevania.
Apparently a reworking of a GBA game called Guri Logi Champ, this puzzler nevertheless feels very unique despite the huge number of game that are ostensibly very similar on the DSiWare ecosystem.
The game presents you with an incomplete pixel image and your task is to adding the missing dots. These are fired exclusively from the bottom of the screen, but the image itself can be rotated so that you can fire from all four sides of it.
The necessary challenge is added by virtue of the fact that each dot fired up the screen won't stop until it hits something. Therefore you have to work out which direction to fire from to get the piece into it's desired position.
The first trick you learn is using a dot fired into an incorrect position to act as buffer, and then retrieving it afterwards as it's no longer needed. Clever and fun game elements continue to be added that build on this central conceit, and before you know it you're completely hooked.
Whilst most of the visual style is your standard flavour of puzzle game basic, it's given a slight bit of flair by the inclusion of 'Dotty', a character who strolls across the top screen (looking for all the world like a chibi Ulala) offering the occasional snippet of advice or just a random non sequitur.
When all is combined you have 150 levels of charming and challenging puzzle game entertainment that manages to stand out on a platform rather overrun with them, can't really ask for more than that.
Q Games strike again with a fantastic example of how to do Tower Defence extremely well.
As the captain of a small fleet of spacecraft your task is to protect them from incoming waves of enemy fighters.
Ostensibly the majority of the gameplay here is pretty standard genre fare; kill baddies, earn money, reinforce, upgrade, etc. But everything is elevated by the cleanness of the design and clever balance of the weapons made available to you.
Visually the game is beautifully reminiscent of drawings in a note book. Monochrome line-art depicts the vast majority of the play area and the spacecraft in it. Adding to this crisp, line drawn appearance is a scrolling grid background that looks for all the world like the squares you find on graph paper or in a maths exercise book.
Sound effects are sparse but impactful, and the music suitably militaristic. What both elements highlight, however, is how much more the game is than the sum of it's parts.
There's something about the way Starship Patrol hangs together that make it feel like a premium product on a platform where premium wasn't often an option. Everything is neat, precise, and expertly realised to make this easily the best Tower Defence game on the platform - and one of the best regardless of genre.
Well Known & Wonderful
Only released in Japan, this is essentially a slightly shrunken-down version of Space Invaders Extreme 2. In the context of how most people will be playing this game today it's tough to know how to contextualise it - so I settled on assessing it entirely on it's own merits - which is why it's in the giddy heights of WK&W despite there being arguably better versions available.
Space Invaders Extreme 2 was really more of a gentle evolution than meaty sequel so the same is obviously true of this slimline version. Luckily, the original was a brilliant reworking of the ancient Space Invaders concept that brought the whole thing screaming into the twenty-first century - with a dash of late 90's arcade spice for good measure.
If the name Space Invaders brings to mind a plodding turret and ponderous artilary creeping up the screen to drift past plodding crablike aliens then you're in for big surprise.
Extreme takes the central concept of the franchise and wraps it in enough neon, explosions, and raw speed than a single game should be able to handle.
There's so much going on here that the wise decision has been to expand play over both screens. The bulk of the play takes place on the lower play area and is essentially a hyperactive amphetamine junkie's spin on the old formula. One of the many additions to the core gameplay (there are genuinely too many to mention) is that when special bonus are triggered they take place on the top screen - somewhat similar to those on a pinball machine, only rather more sophisticated.
What all three versions of Space Invaders Extreme offer is that cacophonous bombardment of noise and visual flare that bring back the sticky floored arcades of my youth. And I've said it before, and I'm saying it again here: from me, there is no higher praise.
I don't really know what I can say about Shantae's second outing that would be new or interesting. Back in 2009 the game was exclusive to the Dsi, but it's since been ported to every other system under the sun.
The game holds up very well nearly 15 years after it's initial release. If you're new to the series you'll find the characters and banter a particular treat, if you're an old hand you'll delight in the presence of all your favourite cast members.
Unusually, it's actually fans of the later games that stand to be most disappointed by this entry as many of the 'quality of life' improvements you'll have become used to are missing from this version.
Nevertheless, the writing, visuals, soundtrack, and gameplay will be familiar in both the quality of their execution and the joy to be had from them.
If, like me, you found Seven Sirens disappointing, it's definitely worth a trip back the Scuttle/Ammo Town of 2009 to experience the series just as it was blossoming.
Honourable Mentions
Shadow Army (G.G. Series)
I've been wracking my brains to remember what game from my 'Hidden Gems of MAME' blogging days this reminds me of, but it's still escaping me.
Walk forward, shoot the baddies, rinse, repeat. So why the 'Honourable Mention'? you may ask... 4 selectable weapons, great looking sprites, and a very nifty cover mechanic - would be my answer!
It would be generous to call this a top-down Gears of War; the pace is far too slow and the environments far too boring but the cover mechanic and end of level encounters do just enough to keep this interesting to the end.
I could pretty much copy + paste my review of Dragon's Lair here... actually, that's not a bad idea...
Way back when I was writing up the 'D' selection, Dragon's Lair also landed firmly in the 'Honourable Mention slot, wherein I said:
"I'm not going to waste the skin on my two precious typing fingers with descriptions of the most famous interactive cartoons ever made - but if you've never played them, or if you're a fan and wanted to own these on yet another console, you should know that these are perfectly serviceable ports that, despite a fairly low resolution, play pretty much identically to the arcade original."
It's like I knew this day was coming!
Personally, I prefer Space Ace to Dragon's Lair, but they're much of muchness and actually more interesting for their place in videogame history than they are actually much fun to play... but then, y'know, nostalgia and all that. And the Don Bluth art is still terrific.
Steamworld Tower Defense
The first ever game in the usually excellent Steamworld franchise has saved me the conundrum of deciding if it is well known or hidden by virtue of being entirely too hard to be fun for long periods.
I'm a big fan of a challenge in a game, and I do keep going back to this fairly standard genre effort because it's nonetheless imbued with the typical Steamworld style and high quality delivery.
But boy is this ever a tough game, and one that I fear too many people will get frustrated with long before they see the best of what it has to offer.
Also Rans
Shapo
Basically Tetris on a set of scales, but never quite as interesting as that makes it sound. This isn't a terrible puzzle game by any standard, it's just one that I find impossible to get excited by.
The Spiky Blowfish (G.G. Series)
This one snuck under my radar in the worst way, probably would have been binned with the shovelware were it not for my completionism wanting to include everything under the G.G. Series banner.
Remember Flappy Bird? This is that - but with a Blowfish. Ugh.
Score Attacker (G.G. Series)
A bullethell style vertical shooter that makes Solar Striker on the Game Boy look sophisticated.
It only made it to this lowly status on the basis of there being so few games in this genre on the platform. All of the others are better than this.
Surfacer+
Some of the reviews at the time were very positive about this spin on the old Qix formula. But I'm really not sure I understand why.
You touch the screen to grow flowers while little balls of death bounce around the play area that you're attempting to cover a certain percentage of with your blooms.
That's it. No thanks.
Until next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment