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Turn It Around (DS)
by alf_fly
Nintendo's aim with the dual-screen, touch-sensitive DS was to encourage game developers to think in new ways about how the gamer can interact with games in the hope that this would lead to interesting new titles. The developers of Turn It Around did just that - they thought of exactly one new way of interacting with a game and ran with ... it.
Turn It Around is a minigame collection where all of the games are based around a single control method - that of turning. The touch screen is occupied by a wheel which can be turned using the stylus, and all of the games involve rotating this wheel. Some of the games require you to spin the wheel as quickly as you can, while other ask for a finer degree of control, but all of them are centred around this single control method.
There are 25 minigames in total, which doesn't sound too bad - right up until you remember that the only method of interaction at your displosal is turning a wheel. So, in Robo Crush you spin the wheel as quickly as you can, while in Birdman you spin the wheel as quickly as you can. In Ice Dessert, meanwhile, you spin the wheel as quickly as you can. This is opposed to Duck Boat, where, just to be different, you spin the wheel as quickly as you can, or Dragonfly Hunt where you spin the wheel as quickly as you can. Ahem.
There are a couple of appearances from classic retro games. Brick-breaking game Arkanoid makes a brief appearance, as does 1992 SNES game Cameltry (known as On The Ball in the West). These are decent ideas - rotating the wheel left and right moves your bat in Arkanoid, while Cameltry asks you to rotate a maze in order to guide a ball through to the exit - but the problem is that you only get one level of Arkanoid and one Cameltry maze.
The same is true of all the games, in fact. No matter how decent the ideas - and there are some good ones - there aren't enough to last. 25 minigames aren't enough when they all share a limited control method. That could have been mediated by having multiple levels or difficulties of the minigames that are present, but all you get here are the same 25 stunted minigames over and over again.
That this is a low budget game is obvious from the off - the text might have been translated, but the music and speech samples are all the original Japanese ones. This is forgivable - but what isn't forgivable is the low budget programming which leaves your touchscreen wheel glitchy and unresponsive. You can use the directional controls or the A and B buttons if you want, but since the touchscreen wheel is this game's unique selling point you'd have thought they'd have concentrated on getting it right.
The graphics are simple and charming, but there simply isn't enough depth or replayability to make this worth purchasing. It's too simple too shallow and too short.
So, what should you do if you find your hand straying towards this in a game shop? Simple: Turn it around.
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Nanostray (DS)
by Gerben
A long time ago I played a lot of Raptor; call of shadows on an old computer, it was one of the first games I played, When I saw nanostray for 10 Euro it appealed to me and it did not let me down
The story is pretty easy and slightly typical you are a lost fighter pilot who tries his best to fight the nanostray virus, a virus ... wich infects machines and biological matter, there are some pretty diverse levels on different environments and very little repetition in the levels except for the waves of enemies which may be a bit predictable, levels usually lead up to a big boss battle at the end.
the game gets you an overhead perspective on a small fighter ship whit 5 diffident weapons all which have their perks, you can use a special burst of any of the five weapons but this will cost you energy which you replenish trough the collection of tokens you get upon destruction of complete waves of enemies, big enemies also drop coins which add to your score, upon defeating the last level in the story you are given a code which you can check online to see how well you did compared to others, There are also several challenges in which you can for instance play a level without auto fire or get a certain number of points or higher to unlock extras such as concept art.
The weapon switching is a bit weird however and you should not use your stylus, pretty much you should play it holding the DS like a controller and using your right thumb, which you use to fire, to switch weapons.
One of the biggest things about this game is the soundtrack, there is some pretty good music in there which fits the themes of the levels.
This game is a good buy for the Nintendo DS if you enjoyed games like Raptor and Island hopper.
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Age of Empires II: The Age Of Kings (DS)
by Neenawneenaw
I first tried Age of Empires on the PC and was put off because it I found the whole game running away from me at an early stage without having enough time to think. However, the DS version is turn-based, making it a much more attractive option for slowsters like me!
As strategy games go, it is a very good one. You can ... play individual battles, or go for one of five campaigns of increasing difficulty. The ampaigns are based on historical events and figures (and you can rewrite history by reversing the real fortunes of war), each with their own hero. The Franks have Joan of Arc, the Britons have Richard the Lionheart, Saladin fights with the Saracens etc. - this gives the campaigns a nice touch of personality, and there are hours and hours of gameplay. Battles range from small and simple to complex engagements that will take hours each.
It's not perfect - the graphics are normally good but can get a bit overcrowded, the animation of the larger battles can lag a bit, and some people have reported technical glitches when trying to save the game (though I was OK). All in all though, a great game for keen strategists.
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