I should have been a pair of ragged claws

Picross DS was just released in the US, and if you like puzzles like Sudoku it's well worth your inspection. I've been playing the UK version (thinking that it would never come out in the States) and there are tons of puzzles and a surprisingly good online competitive mode. Picross (officially known as nonograms ) have been around a while; it's frequently part of Games Magazine. Here's a free flash version to try out!

It has taken me three attempts at playing Resident Evil 4 (twice on the Gamecube and now on the Wii) before I finally realized that everyone was right and I was wrong . Resident Evil 4 is a fantastic game. I love the aiming the gun with the remote. While Nintendo did a good job of translating Twilight Princess from a GameCube game into a Wii game, Resident Evil 4 gun battles feel like the game was designed from the ground up to be played with the remote. It's easy to switch between targets quickly and "juggle" a group of oncoming cultists/zombie/crazies through quick kneecap shots. Capcom plays the tension of "too many zombies, not enough ammo" like a violin. Other aspects of the game lack the elegance of the aiming; the inventory screen is obtuse and frustrating by using some rather obscure buttons (the + and the 'c' button). It certainly doesn't ruin the game, but it's a missed opportunity to not use the remote to drag and drop in the inventory...

I should never have entered my credit card number into my Wii. In the last two weeks I've already purchased four games: One sublime classic (Gunstar Heroes), an interesting Sonic Team platformer (Ristar), one of the first console turn-based strategy games (Military Madness), and a nostalgia-fueled waste of $5 (Ice Hockey [ 1 ] ). The Virtual Console lineup started with some fantastic games (Mario 64, the NES Legend of Zelda), but the most tempting nectar are the Monday releases of Genesis and Turbo Graphics 16 classics that I've never played before. Part of my enthusiasm for the virtual console comes from my bizarre laziness when it comes to changing games. Inertia is overly involved with my gaming choices; if the disk is in the system, then I'm probably going to keep playing that. It's as if taking out game disks is so hard . The Wii lets me play all these games without having to get out of my seat! It's great! My PC theoretically has the same feature, but it requi...

These impressions are from ~30 minutes of play time. I got it today from a co-worker. The controls feel almost uncomfortably loose; it takes a while to go from the analog stick to tilting of the wiimote in a racing game. It's seems closer to an SSX than a typical racing game in that it's more about crazy jumps than riding a tight line. It rewards "style" driving more than any other racing game I've seen. Progression through the game is based on the number of points you accumulate through the level. You get points for doing stunts, jumps, and smashing up others cars as well as your finish position, so theoretically you can come in last and still "win" and get an S rank. (It's certainly easier to get an S rank with the 1st place bonus points, but it's possible otherwise.) There's also these bizarre power ups that deform the terrain; typically they make steep ramps for some ludicrous jumps, but sometimes they just make a ditch. (Maybe some are b...

Todd: This game needs a Tingle [ 1 ] ! DeathMonkey: :& DeathMonkey: what game? Todd: My game. DeathMonkey: hmmm Todd: Come on, every game needs a character that just freaks you out in it. :) Todd: Hope he's in the new Zelda [ 2 ] . Todd: If he's not I'm gonna be UP-SET! DeathMonkey: I'm sure he will be DeathMonkey: Though I'm really concerned about him being realistically rendered. :& Todd: And this time he'll be "realistic". :P Todd: Hahah Todd: Nintendo should pull a MGS2 [ 3 ] . :) DeathMonkey: :& DeathMonkey: NOOOOO Todd: Buy a Zelda game 3 hours in you're Tingle! Todd: On an epic fairy quest! DeathMonkey: NOOOOOOOO Todd: Best joke EVA. [ 1 ] Tingle has always been disturbing. He's a 35 year old "fairy" that's appeared in the Legend of Zelda series. His catch-phrase is "Tingle-Tingle, Kooloo-Limpah!" [ 2 ] Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess is the next game in the series. [ 3 ] Metal Gear Solid 2: ...

Just when I think that I'm somehow less nerdy that I was before, I do something that not only fastens the geek badge to my chest, it shines it up and makes me puff my chest out. That's how I felt at 8 a.m. this (Sunday!) morning driving around to various Targets and WalMarts trying to get my hands on Nintendo's revision of it's workhorse handheld. I wouldn't have felt the nerdiness as pronounced if I didn't have company. When I wandered into Target, there're four other people awaiting the system's release. A father and his 10 year old kid, and a young Asian couple. The Target said that it would release on Tuesday instead of Sunday, despite people arguing that Nintendo's own website listed it as releasing today. (I heard the manager say that they sold some of the systems early, and Nintendo may have fined them and forced them to release it at a later date. Who knows.) So I headed back home, called around trying to find the system somewhere. Called a W...

Paul Barnett of Mythic Entertainment gives an inspired pitch for Warhammer Online. Barnett is a master; it is hard to watch his funny, involving, and informative spiel without getting excited about his game. Brilliant!

Names, by their nature, are definitive things and perception is more potent than reality. In the most crucial moment of Nintendo's existence, they cover the shoulders of their best hope with an albatross of a name.

November. Second controller can play rhythm or bass guitar.

I was going to write a reasonably big 2005 wrap-up post, but being mid-Feburary I don't see the point. I did write a couple of short reviews and I'd hate to see them go to waste. So here we go! Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney ds Who said adventure games are dead? There's not much game there really - Capcom avoids the dreaded adventure game "getting stuck" by making a linear path with limited choices. The amusement comes from great characters and dead-on comic timing. It's 3/4ths Matlock with 1/4th of wacky Dragonball Z thrown in. Don't expect to learn anything about law, but you're sure to laugh and have a good time. Yoshi's Touch & Go ds Maligned as a throw-away tech demo, YT&G is the most refined touch-screen arcade game I've played. There's none of the structure, the bosses, the fire/ice/jungle levels that players tend to expect of platformers, but there's a surprising richness to the game in balancing the needs of clearing t...

I love the Nintendo DS and it has been blessed with a growing mountain of great, interesting games, but it has lacked a killer app to point to and say "here's why this is such a great system." Mario Kart DS is the system's Halo. Its Soul Calibur. It's the best in the series and its new tweaked rules and weapons, incredible track design, and multiplayer content make a stunning package that no DS system should exist without. Slipstreaming, the most substantial addition to the core gameplay, introduces an excellent risk/reward component to the series. Tailing another driver is typically a dangerous practice in Mario Kart games; most items can be dropped behind characters to force any tailgaters to spin out. In Mario Kart DS, driving in a character's wake provides a moderate speed boost. Remain there a few moments, and you're rewarded with a larger boost that often slingshots you in front of the character you were tailing. There aren't many changes to the ...

In Shadow of the Colossus, you assume the role of a young man trying to reverse the death of his lover. He travels to a temple at the end of the world and is tasked by a mystical voice to defeat 16 colossi to bring his beloved back to life. These colossi are awesome, giant beasts made of stone, hair, and metal. Some tower over you like living skyscrapers and the ground cracks as they walk about. Though they have an unfamiliar shape, they aren't exactly monsters. You don't find them attacking villages or setting fields ablaze; they are most often pacing about a remote cove. While their scale is jaw-dropping, their gaze can leave the deepest impression; while some throw looks with squint-eyed malice, many look with open, empty eyes like a bear at a zoo. Your quest to kill these creatures doesn't allow you the unassailable moral high ground as other games do. You are told to kill all 16 of these creatures to bring your lover back; exchanging sixteen (arguably) innocent lives f...

I've been rocking out to Guitar Hero for the last two weeks and wrote the following fan mail to the awesome folks at Harmonix: Wow; Guitar Hero is awesome! The music selection is sublime, the art direction is inspired, the difficulty progression is smooth (ok, maybe not with Bark at the Moon), and the whole feel of the game is great. The loading screen help text is hilarious (the first time I saw the "Freebird" one I almost cried), everything about the game is great. I hope you sell millions of copies of the game and I can't wait for an expansion! Good luck! Soon after I send my message, Mike Dornbrook, COO of Harmonix, replied: Hi Scott, Thanks for the kind words - reactions like yours are the reason we do this. If sales keep up like they have so far, there's no doubt we'll be doing sequels. We've got *lots* of ideas for improvements! Rock on, -Mike Digging around a bit on the company web site, I found out that Mike worked on the Infocom classics Zork, Le...

This post could also be titled: What I've been doing the last few years Why I haven't posted in a while (and probably) Why you probably won't hear much from me for a while longer I've been working hard on Rise of Legends , the next game by Big Huge Games. Technology, magic, RTS! Being completely biased, I think we have an amazingly talented development team and I hope you agree after checking out the media at the bottom of the article. Previews PC IGN GameSpot ">GameSpy Screenshots (all) Glass Dragons over a Vinci City The Doge Hammer fires away. . . and you don't want to be at the wrong end of it A towering Vinci City The outer map for our campaign

Well, close, but not exactly. The developers that of X-Com (as well as Laser Squad Nemesis) secured a publishing deal with Namco for a 3rd person squad based tactical game for the Game Boy Advance. The press release mentions a number of multiplayer options offered (hot seat, link play), but I can't help but think this would be suited far better to the DS when internet play is available. Regardless, I'm glad it is getting made. images

Q Entertainment's Lumines has become the outstanding game of the PSP launch, and their Meteos looks to deliver a complimentary experience on the DS. Where Miziguchi's Lumines creates Rez-like synesthetic epiphanies by merging sight, sound, and gameplay, Sakurai's Meteos appears to be a more workman-like piece, true to the designer's Nintendo heritage, that looks to be a faster, more tactical puzzle game. Both titles are distinctly appropriate for their platform; Lumines provides a spectacle on the PSP, Meteos utilizes the DS touch screen for its main game mechanic. 1up has a lengthy preview of the title and a Tokyopia interview with Miziguchi provides a bit of insight into the development of Meteos. I've also dug through Meteos's Japanese web site to get more information. These translations are using Google's translation tool; while it could hardly be considered readable English, the combination of images allows you to get an idea of how the game works. Te...

shuffling awkwardness "That's not scary. It's just dumb." same crap, different view

Metal Gear Solid 2 was a fine game spoiled by creator Hideo Kojima's creative hubris and lack of editing. In the third MGS game, Snake Eater, Kojima reigns in his post-modern showboating and gets back to what we like; making thrilling games that tell fun stories. Snake Eater's 1960s jungle setting teems with vegetation and wildlife, making the most convincing virtual jungle I've seen. A number of gameplay tweaks create a survivalist feel: Snake must hunt wild animals for food, perform medical care on himself, and use camoflague to sneak through the brush successfully. These additions do much to establish the setting. Unfortunately, the core gameplay mechanics have not aged well. Controlling Snake is needlessly complex and fussy for tasks like climbing on top of boxes or crawling in the intended direction. Moving stealthfully is now a daunting task due to the zoomed in camera and a "realistic" lack of radar. Stealthy play often requires more effort than many are wi...

girlfriend, more puzzles first Joe thrilled, now indifference Crapcom strikes again

Metal Slug Advance is the best possible realization of SNK's run-and-shoot series on the GBA. It is a technical marvel; the rich, over-exaggerated animation that made the series stand out in arcades is achieved with vastly inferior hardware. This portable entry in the series suffers only rare slowdown and a few lost frames of animation. While the game looks like the early arcade entries, the gameplay is modified to fit a handheld. A health bar replaces the arcade's one-hit death system. The arcade versions of Metal Slug can be conquered in less than an hour given a few pockets full of quarters. (Or a PC capable of emulating the hardware.) Metal Slug Advance addresses the inherent brevity of their rich worlds with an adroit card collection system. Cards are hidden throughout the game worlds. Most of the cards are trinkets, but others provide benefits like increasing the armor for your vehicles or doubling your ammo supply for a weapon. The catch is that in order to keep the card...