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Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (DS)
by SWSt The Professor Layton series has proved to be an insanely popular title for the DS/3DS with developers Factor 5 turning out several titles to both critical and public acclaim. The whole phenomena had passed me by, until I acquired a couple of titles last year and got to see what all the fuss was about for myself. This time ... around, the Professor and his apprentice Luke are investigating who killed his mentor Dr Schrader. They are also on the trail of the mysterious Pandora's Box, said to kill anyone who dares open it. Before they can solve either mystery, however, there are lots of puzzles to be solved. Pandora's Box is essentially a series of puzzles held together with a loose storyline. It takes its cue from the old point and click adventures that were popular in the 90s (solve puzzles to gradually unveil the storyline) but updates the format for a new audience and new machines. In particular, the game is very well structured and gets around the traditional frustration that afflicted most old adventures where getting stuck on a particular puzzle effectively prevented any further progress. Instead, the game implements mechanisms to prevent this. If you get stuck on a particular puzzle, you can "buy" up to three hints using puzzle coins that you discover as you move through the various locations. Each hint gives you a bigger and bigger clue as to what you need to do, but stops short of providing the full solution. Even when you have bought all clues, you still need to work out what to do, so you can't just "buy" your way through the game puzzles. The second feature is even better. Pandora's Box has a fairly open structure. If you can't solve a puzzle, you can simply carry on and then return to it later. This has a double benefit: you never completely stuck and unable to progress; and you will often find that when you return to a puzzle, something clicks that you had missed previously and you are able to solve it. The combination of hints and free roaming gameplay goes a long way to removing the standard frustration with this type of game. There's no doubting the long-term gameplay of Pandora's Box either, with around 150 different puzzles to solve, plus additional ones that can be downloaded. Solving puzzles also unlocks additional features or mini puzzles, so there are a lot of challenges ahead. There's also a nice variety in the type and difficulty of the puzzles. Each puzzle is worth a certain number of points (the higher the points the trickier the puzzle). Some logic-based, some are maths-related, whilst others require spatial awareness (like those old-style block-sliding puzzles where you have to move particular piece to a particular location by shifting the pieces around). This stops the game from becoming too repetitive or dull. The difficulty level of the game is perhaps a different thing. Puzzles range from incredibly easy to brain-scratchingly difficult and there's no knowing what you will get next. Traditional puzzle games tend to get harder as you progress; here you can come up against a really easy puzzle and then the next one you encounter is one of the toughest. This does mean that you sometimes feel that there are massive sudden spikes in the gameplay (although the ability to leave a puzzle helps with this, of course). Some puzzles may also cause issues for younger gamers. Although they are generally clearly explained, there were a few occasions when I had to read the instructions several times before I fully understood what I had to do. Even when I understood, actually solving them still represented a real challenge and there were more than a few times when I was reduced to trial and error. Younger gamers might need the help of an adult but in a way, that adds to the appeal since people of all generations can play together. The really disappointing aspect was the story. Although there is a running narrative linked by the puzzles, some of these have only the most tenuous of links to the plot and are integrated in a very clumsy way. The very best adventures seamlessly weave devious puzzles into the fabric of the plot, meshing the two together carefully. In Pandora's Box the links are often quite contrived and (for me) destroyed some of the atmosphere reminding you that you were, after all, only playing a game. Presentation is generally very good, although it's not without its annoying aspects. Graphics are bold and cartoon-like with a slightly quirky look and feel. They reminded me of the old cheap French cartoons that BBC TV used to show during the summer holidays. That's not a criticism, by the way, since the artwork is of very high quality. Cut-scenes are well-rendered and help to break up the monotony of puzzle solving (although they were a little too numerous and lengthy for my liking at times). Sound is similarly strong, with a series of tunes playing throughout. These are fairly innocuous so they don't break your concentration, but there were a few nice ones that you could hum along to. Sound effects were OK, although I find the voice work little short of embarrassing and actually quite patronising. Again, this is perhaps because this aspect of presentation is aimed at a younger audience. Despite its obvious appeal, I did find Pandora's Box a bit of a mixed bag. I enjoyed the puzzle-based gameplay, but did find that I couldn't play the game in long bursts. After a while (despite the nominal plot) I did start to feel like I was simply moving mechanically from one puzzle to the next, with no real engagement with the story. As such, I find that I only play the game in bursts of 30 minutes or so before I lose interest and move onto something else. This possibly tells you more about my preferences as a gamer than it does about the game itself, but I did find it rather too slow-paced at times. I guess it boils down to this: if you like puzzles and slower-paced games, this title will have real appeal; if you're an adrenalin-junkie that prefers shooting and racing you're likely to find it a bit dull. If (like me) you sit somewhere in the middle, then you'll enjoy Pandora's Box in small bursts. I have to say, however, having now played it, I can't for the life of me see why the series is so popular. It's fun enough, but it wouldn't even make my top 100 of best games of all time. © Copyright SWSt 2013 Read the complete review |
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Pokemon Conquest (DS)
by Anti 'Pokémon Conquest' is a Strategy/Role-Playing Game that was published by Nintendo and released in July 2012. Not that it will matter to most of you, but this game is officially a crossover title between the Pokémon franchise and a lesser known, Japan-exclusive series known as 'Nobunaga's Ambition' that has in fact been around since 1983. ... Set in Feudal Japan, this time around you're collecting and training Pokémon...to fight against fellow samurai trainers to conquer Japan. Sounds peculiar? Well, it surprised me that such a niche premise of a game managed to get itself released outside the Land of the Rising Sun, although this is mostly because of the 'Pokémon' brand name attached to it. Nevertheless, when I heard about this game's European release I was ecstatic; I love Pokémon, I love strategy role-playing games and I don't mind the time period- a the perfect combination! So I bought the game a few days after release and got stuck straight into it! ==---Story---== You play the role of a young samurai warlord (boy or girl) in Ransei, Feudal Japan, with an Eevee. In this alternative Japan samurai warriors and Pokémon communicate to each other through a 'link', allowing the former to give orders and develop friendships with the latter. Unfortunately Ransei is not a peaceful place. A legend has said that if all the 16 nations of Ransei are united under one warlord, the legendary Pokémon Arceus (essentially a god Pokémon for those unfamiliar with the franchise) will appear before them. As a result, warlords are fighting against each other to try and conquer the whole of the area and see Arceus for themselves. At the start of the game you begin as warlord of one kingdom and, with the help of your new friend Oichi, aim to conquer all the kingdoms of Ransei to bring peace once and for all. The story isn't anything special. Your main character is a blank sheet of paper and most of your actions are suggested by Oichi, who acts as a mouthpiece/advisor and is your typical female best friend you'd have in any other game like this. The warlords of the other kingdoms however have slightly more interesting personalities. Furthermore they are all based on real samurai warlords of Feudal Japan, including Date Masamune, Tokugawa Ieyasu and, most famous of all, Oda Nobunaga, who ends up as the final boss (well, sort of...) and your biggest rival for power. Save for one minor twist however, the story is very straightforward and not at all the game's biggest strength. ==---Gameplay---== As outlined earlier, your main aim is to conquer Ransei's 15 other regions by sending out armies of Pokémon, who are linked to an individual warrior. There you will fight the enemy kingdom's army of Pokémon on the battlefield. Defeat them, and the kingdom is yours to control. In each kingdom, there are locations where you can defeat both warriors with Pokémon and/or just wild Pokémon, and add them to your party if they are vanquished under certain conditions. It's very typical of a strategy role-playing game, but 'Pokémon Conquest' does have its own little tweaks to gameplay to try and make it stand out. Rather than the usual EXP/Level Up system, strengthening your Pokémon armies means increasing the link between the warrior and Pokémon; the higher the link percentage, the better their strength, so it's a sort of Experience Points Meter. At a certain point they may even evolve and get a more powerful move for battle. Increasing link is done by winning battles with Pokémon and doing certain actions within kingdoms such as mining for gold, raising your energy (gives you stat boosts in battle) or even just buying items in the shop. However, each Pokémon has a percentage cap depending on how compatible their type is with the trainer, ranging from about 40%-100%. This really irritated me later in the game, because most warriors who wanted to join me came with a totally random Pokémon who wasn't compatible with them at all and were already maxed out at the link cap, so no amount of training could get them stronger. An example of this would be a warrior who was most proficient with, say, Fighting and Water Pokémon somehow saddled with a Ralts (Psychic-type) stuck at 42%. On the other hands, it adds a bit more strategy to the game overall, because you have to keep an eye out on which warriors will become the most powerful in the long-term. Thankfully if you find a wild Pokémon in battle that could be more compatible with your warriors you can attempt to start a Link by moving your Pokémon next to them, selecting 'Link' and then play a rhythm mini-game of pressing A when glowing orbs enter a circle. If you're lucky the Pokémon your warrior connects with might even have the Perfect Link potential of 100%. For those who enjoy the 'Gotta Catch 'Em All' aspect of the 'Pokémon' series, this is the most rewarding bit as you try and find what each warrior's ideal Pokémon is. The combat/battlefield parts of the game are sadly the most disappointing. First of all, you can only bring out six warriors and Pokémon at a time. Even if a warrior has more than one Pokémon linked to them, only the one currently 'selected' is deployed. Secondly, each Pokémon only has one move! In the proper games you have a maximum of four, so this is a major step down. Evolving only changes the move, and depending on the damage and square radius maybe less useful than the move you had before (e.g. if your new move attacks every square around your Pokémon it will be less useful if your allies are close enough by to be caught and damaged). These make battles frustratingly basic and lacking the depth of customization and options you find in other games of this genre. As for the AI though, it seems to be good. In battle enemy Pokémon are competent to exploit your type weaknesses and try to frustrate your objectives. On the kingdom map enemy kingdoms will attack your weaker kingdoms after a certain period of time with an overwhelming enough army, keeping you on your toes. ==---Graphics---== The game's graphics are suitable enough for the Nintendo DS, but they don't stretch the console beyond its capabilities. The human and Pokémon characters in cutscenes and non-gameplay art are drawn very well in a typical anime style. The Ransei and menus are very bright and colourful and add to the light-hearted tone of the game compared to the real history- this is a 'Pokémon' game after all! The battlefields don't have as much attention to detail to although there is that "2D on 3D" feel of the map. I did notice moments of lag, especially when turns end and Pokémon pick up treasures chests on the map, but that's nothing that seriously affects gameplay. ==---Sound and Music---== The background music is pretty good in 'Pokémon Conquest', with my favourite tune being the overhead Map one as it's suitably grandiose of a warlord setting out to conquer everything. The kingdom battle maps have specific songs which I find suit the terrain you're fighting on. ==---Replay Value---== Completing the main story game only takes 15 hours, which is pretty weak for a RPG. You'll be pleasantly surprised however, in that once you've finished that you have to take on various scenarios playing as the other various warlords you encountered in the story. These scenarios vary in difficulty and objective. One mission will be to just conquer the few surrounding kingdoms, another is to link 100 Pokémon to your warriors before rival kingdoms do, a third is to conquer seven kingdoms using only certain types of Pokémon, and so on. Not only do these scenarios add much needed variety and challenge, but apparently once you've finished all of these you will go back to a final scenario where you take control of your main character. I've been unable to complete all the missions so far as some are quite cumbersome to tackle and I keep putting them off! That said, depending on good you are at finishing these expect another 50 hours of gameplay added on here, making this well worth playing past the main story. ==---Overall---== 'Pokémon Conquest' is certainly a DS game for consideration as the console gets down to its last legs, but it has some flaws and misses out on aspects that I expected so much more from. 'Pokémon' fans may be frustrated by the simplistic gameplay compared to the main games, while strategy and role-playing fans won't be pleased with a lack of out-of-battle customization. That said, I'm a fan of both and do enjoy playing this game. Gameplay aspects like the Link system make it standout from other games like it and the Feudal Japan setting works surprisingly well as a premise, not to mention the game's longevity. It seems to be one of the better 'Pokémon' spinoffs in recent years and you ought to see it for yourself. You can pick up 'Pokemon Conquest' brand new for a respectable Ł22.99 at most retail websites. Read the complete review |
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Sight Training (DS)
by Novabug The practice of casual gaming was a concept that had a huge growth spurt in the mid 2000s. The Nintendo DS was a major cause of this, with early titles like Nintendogs and Wild Crossing having a big impact. The DS latched onto the more grown-up individuals, with busy hectic lifestyles not having the time for a 3 hour gaming session ... amidst the pressures of work and family. The ability to play a little bit each day in bite size chunks greatly appealed, and so a direction away from virtual pets to tricky puzzles was inevitable. Sight Training came a year after the steamroller success of Dr Kawashima's Brain Training, with a similar idea, interface and presentation. At first it came with connotations of improving your vision and reactions, although Nintendo have clearly stated this was not the case. As such Sight Training should be taken as merely puzzling entertainment and doesn't improve your eyesight radically. Also in keeping with a more relaxed tone, it comes across as a little more fun and approachable with the inclusion of sport based games and overall far less daunting than the aforementioned Brain Training, but keeps the casual element essential for that trip on the bus or a break at the office. Sight Training has a basic set up with a predominantly menu based presentation, bold text and basic shapes. You create a personal profile in one of the four available slots, perform a few adaptations of the included activities to ascertain your 'eye age', and from then on set about improving this score through playing the various games and puzzles. Much like Brain Training, it's set out like a calendar and tracks your daily progress as you play. Everyday, it gives you a pre-set eye workout judging from your current 'eye age'. This is a selection of 4 to 5 games to improve your scores on the 5 parts of vision. These are Hand-Eye Co-ordination, Dynamic Visual Acuity, Momentary Vision, Eye Movement and Peripheral Vision. This is a strict, daily routine according to the game, but you are able to play any activity at will providing you have achieved the level needed to unlock them. Only 17 in total; most people with a degree of decent vision should be able to unlock all of these, it's not all that hard. Once all the games are available and the difficulty level is cranked up, things can get pretty though and challenging. However, the 'eye age' results can be slightly off the mark. My mother of 70, who has only 40% of her natural eyesight, achieved an eye age of 49... Hhhhmm. Needless to say, this score can be taken with a pitch of salt but does provide a target to beat nonetheless. That's the overall goal, to better your scores as it is with any video game. Sight Training likes to tell you your eyesight IS getting better (or worse), and like me you may feel an element of truth to this; however no scientific evidence exists to support this. For a game that focus' on eyesight skills, you would expect things to be presented in a very clear-cut sharp manner. For the most part it is, with pastel colours offsetting against a light blue/grey background. It's not bright or overly colourful, but provides a user-friendly environment that's clean and tidy. The menus are simple to read and understand, with instructions given for every game. It's a shame that these instructions repeat every time you start a new activity, even though the machine knows you have already played it. Eyesight facts and tips always appear after each game too, and quickly begin to repeat ad nauseam. This gets more annoying because the text takes a while to display each time. This aside, it's all easy to navigate around, choosing your daily eye workout or custom game is a breeze. Of the two sets of activities, core skills and sports, the latter is by far the more enjoyable; providing some nice captured animations and realistic settings to pep things up. The core skills are all presented in a black, green and yellow scheme to keep things clear, but it does look a little dull and un-engaging, far removed from the colourful screens of Big Brian Academy or the Professor Layton series. If anything, staring at the same colours constantly puts more strain on the ol' peepers out of sheer blandness. The rest of the graphics are all rather standard, nothing original save for a nice 8-bit style blocky character that accompanies each game. It's the same story with the audio. The usual inoffensive bleeps, clicks and chimes are there to highlight every menu hit or correct answer, the sports games have some decent lifelike samples but I cannot ignore the menu screens' overlaying tune that becomes very irritating. Eventually, you learn to block this music out. In actuality, all the activities are well designed and enjoyable to play. A few are far too simple; such as the basketball task or box tap, and others are a bit temperamental with the accuracy of the stylus. Both the football games being the worst offenders. That said, it is rewarding to beat your own targets and to improve more on your eye age score, you get a feeling that you are doing good for yourself and thusly this can be quite gratifying. Some of the games like the boxing, number flash and number tap are very addictive, and can be more of an enjoyable challenge. Unfortunately, because of the strict parameters of judging the eye age score, all games can only be played once in a 24 hour period. You can repeat them, but any score achieved will be ignored by the system. This makes the time frame in each day very limited, I would say about 30 minutes to get thought all 17 games of play to enhance your score. The sports games are able to be played in the separate option, but I would have liked a way to have a separate score table that records all the games scores. It would have given more life and attention per day so to speak. Sight Training is like the little cast-out brother of Brain Training, wanting to be as subversive but not delivering with the technicalities. The various activities are fine for the most part, but it's those little annoyances that make you want to put it down after a few days and pick up something with more grab-factor. On a personal level, despite the lack of proven research, I have found a slight improvement in my eye movement whilst playing other titles, this I attribute to Sight Training somewhat, as it as helpfully told me on numerous occasions. Not completely useless then and an enjoyable title for casual short stints, but flawed in parts. Not 20/20 vision, but not in need of the bifocals either. Graphics - 6/10 Sound: 7/10 Gameplay: 8/10 Lastability: 6/10 Overall: 7/10 Thanks for Reading © Novabug (This review is also published on The Pixel Empire with full permission) Read the complete review |
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Nintendo DS Game / Publisher: Nintendo |
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Nintendo DS Game / Publisher: Nintendo |
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Nintendo DS Game / Publisher: Nintendo |
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Nintendo DS Game / Publisher: Nintendo |
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Genre: Action & Adventure / Nintendo DS Game / Video Game for Nintendo DS / Release Date: 2012-10-12 / Published by Nintendo |
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1 review Genre: Action & Adventure / Nintendo DS Game / Video Game for Nintendo DS / Release Date: 2012-10-12 / Published by Nintendo |
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1 review Genre: Action & Shooter / Nintendo DS Game / Video Game for Nintendo DS / Suitable for 12 years and over / Release Date: 2012-06-29 / Published by Nintendo |
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146 reviews Genre: Puzzle / Nintendo DS Game / Video Game for Nintendo DS / ESRB Rating: Everyone / Release Date: 2008-11-07 / Published by Nintendo - Professor Layton and the Curious Village involves the game's eponymous character and his assistant Luke searching the village of St. Mystere for the "Golden Apple", a tre... |
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120 reviews Genre: Driving & Racing / Nintendo DS Game / Video Game for Nintendo DS / ESRB Rating: Everyone / Release Date: 2005-11-25 / Published by Nintendo - Want to show off your skills? Then get excited as Mario Kart DS features both online and wireless multiplayer modes. By using the Wireless DS Single-Card Downlo... |
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3 reviews Genre: Puzzle / Nintendo DS Game / Video Game for Nintendo DS / Release Date: 2011-11-25 / Published by Nintendo |
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