To me, the Ace Attorney series is, by itself, more than enough reason to buy a Nintendo DS. I just can’t praise these games enough, with their quirky humor and old-school point & click adventure gameplay. It also helps that the western localizations are absolutely brilliant.

Now for one of the longest weeks of my life.

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1. Current stuff: DS games, Wii

From everything I’ve seen, this game has had very little promotion, and has been relatively hard to find. But most reviews have been quite good (either 8/10 or 9/10), and most people online speak highly of the game as well.

If I was to concisely explain to someone what the game is like, I’d say the following:

• 50% Bejeweled (the basic “match 3″ game);
• 30% Warlords Battlecry 3 (the setting, the RPG elements);
• 20% Magic: the Gathering (the accumulating of several colors of mana to cast spells, the damage system).

The game is basically an RPG, with classes, character progression, a fantasy world, monsters to fight, skills, hit points, experience, money, weapons and other items, NPC companions, trainable mounts, and a story. However, the battles are basically competitive Bejeweled-like matches. The main difference is, of course, the fact that you are battling an opponent, but sharing a board, so, while you want to play a good move, you have to avoid setting up good moves for your opponent, since you both take turns. And it’s a little more complex than Bejeweled, since, while you still have to match 3 pieces, they have several effects:

• colored jewels give you mana of that color;
• coins give you money (used outside combat, to buy equipment and improve your citadel);
• stars give you experience points;
• skulls damage your opponent.

Instead of switching two pieces, you can also cast a spell, provided you have the required mana. Each class has its own spells, and you can also learn additional ones from monsters.

The story is standard fantasy fare, neither very good nor very bad. The world, however, is quite detailed, since it has been used for several Warlords / Battlecry games so far.

The game is out for the DS (the version I have) and the PSP. Incidentally, there is a PC demo, but the game hasn’t been announced for the PC yet (though it probably will, in the future).

I recommend this game if you like either genre (RPG or “match three”). It has a huge “just one more battle / quest / level” factor, and it’s one you’ll probably play for a long while, even after you beat the main quest (both because there are other classes to try, and because instant battles are always fun).

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1. Back to Puzzle Pirates

I’ve been playing mostly Nintendo DS games, these days. My PC is too old to play any recent PC game (I’d love to play Medieval: Total War 2. ), so there’s nothing new there. If it wasn’t for the DS, life wouldn’t have meaning.

On my own, I’ve been playing Gyakuten Saiban 2, also known as Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney: Justice for All. I bought it from Play Asia, as the Japanese version includes a full English translation. I love these games, by the way, and couldn’t recommend them more, especially if you love adventure games with a great sense of humor. You shouldn’t be afraid of reading, though.

Multi-player-wise, I’ve been spending my time with Mario Kart DS, 42 All-Time Classics (called Clubhouse Games in the U.S.) and Big Brain Academy. All those are fantastic with 4 players or more.

I have to say that I’m quite enthusiastic about the Nintendo Wii. Everything I’ve seen about it has been great. I’m in Europe, so it won’t be released until December 8th… well, it’s just a couple of weeks. Hopefully, I’ll be able to buy it on launch day, because unfortunately I live in an ignorant, Playstation-obsessed country, and the Wii will probably be less successful that it’s been everywhere else.

If all goes well, I’ll get Zelda: Twilight Princess on day one as well. And, who knows, some Virtual Console games, too…

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Anyway, Konami’s Lost in Blue is a very unique experience. To put it simply: you end up on a deserted (so far, at least – I haven’t gone far in the game, yet) island, and you have to survive, and eventually escape. Of course, easier said than done, as you have to rest, eat, drink, take care of yourself, and those are certainly not easy. In fact, I bet that you’ll starve to death a lot, when first playing.

Eventually, you begin to get your bearings in the island, and learn some ways of improving your situation – for instance, it wasn’t until I used a stick and a sharpened rock to build a crude spear, to use for catching fish, that I stopped being almost starving all the time. Of course, the situation still isn’t great. Plus, on the second day a girl also washes up at the island – while she offers a few suggestions, and can cook (much of the food can’t be eaten raw), she also has quite poor eyesight, and has lost her glasses, so you have to take her by hand even just to go to the nearby river and let her drink some water. In short, you have to take care of her as well.

From the manual, I see that there are other things I can do, such as lay traps, or even hunt animals. But I haven’t done that yet.

Still, the game is quite intriguing. And it uses the DS’s capabilities well – for instance, you have to use the stylus to dig in the sand and look for clams, and to build a fire, after you use the L and R buttons to turn a stick around, you then have to blow into the microphone. It works better than it sounds, trust me.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to play it more, in the following days. But I got Nintendogs as a present, 2 days ago… and there’s still Mario 64, and Meteos, and Mario Kart, and Metroid Fusion, and Advance Wars, and… so many games, such little time.

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I’ve never played Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64, only in emulators, but the DS port is technically excellent – the characters, in particular, noticeable have more polygons than on the N64, and the game is perfectly smooth and fast. Even though graphically it’s not a game on the same league as modern ones on “big” consoles (after all, the original is 9 years old), it’s still considered by many people (just google for it) as one of the best platform games of all time, if not the best. The game’s design is brilliantly original, and the game takes us to another world in a way almost nothing else can.

Is it perfect? No. I haven’t tried the multi-player modes yet, but reviews say they’re nothing special – basically, it’s the various players in an arena, competing to catch stars. It certainly won’t replace Mario Kart.

Somewhat more troubling are the game’s controls. The original Mario 64 was created for an analog controller – in fact, the N64 introduced the analog controller to the world (though they announced it too soon and Sony and Sega copied it before the N64 was actually released) because of that game – and suffers a bit because the DS doesn’t have one. Instead, the game gives you two options: use the D-Pad, which isn’t as precise and makes it so that you have to press a button to run; or use the touch screen, which I chose to do.

The control scheme is interesting – it reminds me of laptops’ touchpads, where you drag the finger to move the mouse cursor. Here, however, you don’t have to keep moving your finger to keep moving – when you touch the pad, a circle appears around your finger, and as you move your finger towards the outer end, the character moves – the more, the quicker.

The problem – which is solvable through habit, but it doesn’t happen immediately – is that you tend to keep moving the finger to move “faster”, even though you’re already at the end of the circle’s area, and thus running at maximum speed. That causes the circle to move (otherwise, you’d stop), to keep up with your finger. But then you move it more, and soon you’re reaching the end of the touch screen. You have to get used to staying in the circle, which isn’t immediate for touchpad users.

On the other hand, you get great precision, and are able to move exactly at the speed you want, in the direction you want. It just takes some getting used

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It’s still in the beginning, but I hope it’ll be successful – and I hope that I don’t own the only Nintendo DS in Portugal.

So, if you speak Portuguese, and have a Nintendo DS or are considering buying one, you’ll be welcome there.

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• It’s a puzzle game, as everyone knows. Reminds me of Bejeweled and Puzzle Pirates‘ bilging puzzle, with a little bit of Tetris added to the mix. Basically, pieces (called “meteos”) fall from the top, and you don’t control them there (unlike Tetris); instead, you have to move them, after they’re down, using the stylus, to make columns or rows of three or more identical meteos. When you do so, they “ignite” and move to the top, taking everything on top of them with them. The goal is to make them leave the screen (if you’re competing with another player, or a “bot”, it’s even more important, as they fall into their screen), but sometimes you need to make more than one column or row quickly so they have enough thrust to leave the screen.
• The graphics are really great. For some reason, even though it’s using the same screen(s) as GBA games, the game seems much more colorful and “hi-res” than them. The game’s presentation is fantastic – those guys have put more care into the game’s menus than many developers put into entire games!
• Music and sounds are excellent, too. Dozens of different tunes, in many separate genres – reminds me, in a way, of Star Control 2. I’ve heard techno, trance, rock, even something like country, there. And you can unlock many tracks to play in the “extras” section.
• Each “planet” has different graphic styles, different music, and different rules. Even though the game’s basic rules are the same, in each level you have to adapt to different conditions – for instance, gravity may be lowered (which means you have to make simple rows or columns really fast) or increased (forcing you to plan your moves and make big combos). This is only one example, there are many more variations.
• There are lots of unlockables. New planets, materials, items and tunes. You’ll have to play a lot to get them.
• Can be played with up to 4 players, though I haven’t done so yet.

So far, I’m happy.

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I’m getting better at it – better than I ever was in any previous version (including Double Dash!!, which I’ve had for almost 2 years).

The sense of speed is amazing, especially in such a small screen. No matter what happens in the game, I have yet to experience a slowdown.

I’ve unlocked all tracks in the 50cc difficulty, and will focus on 100cc races next. I’ve also played several games online, though more than half were against just one opponent – it seems that Nintendo still has a few wrinkles to iron out. Also, most people out there seem to be better than me, though I’ve noticed that some of them don’t do the turbo dash at the beginning of a race.

Unfortunately (warning: incoming rant), I live in a country where the idea that “Nintendo is for kids” is stronger than in about everywhere else, which means that I don’t (personally) know anyone else with a DS (I probably would if I was a kid, but I’m 31). I really wish I could play 8-player matches using short distance wi-fi. But Portugal is all about the PS2, and now the PSP. (though most people I know with a PSP don’t use it for games…)

Anyway, this game is more than worth buying – it’s one you’ll be playing for a lot of time, and if you’re lucky to have friends who can see that there’s life beyond Sony, you’ll be in heaven.

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Well, I only have one yet, Mario Kart DS, which came in the bundle I bought. And I haven’t played a lot of it yet (it was late yesterday, and now I’m at work).

Still, some first impressions:

• Graphics, sounds and music are fantastic. Doesn’t look like a handheld game at all. Trust me, screenshots don’t do it justice.
• It’s incredibly fast, with a perfect frame rate. I don’t think anyone can fail to be impressed with at least the technical part of the game, even if they don’t care for the genre.
• Not a lot of racers to choose from – just the “usual suspects”: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Wario, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Toad, Yoshi, and some hidden, unlockable ones. Less than Double Dash on the GameCube, certainly.
• Back to 1 racer per kart.
• The bottom screen is used for the map, and some optional stats. It works very well, since the map is large enough to see everything, including other racers, obstacles, etc.. One of the items in the game is one that “sprays squid paint” on you, and the top screen becomes covered with dark paint, forcing you to “drive with the map” for a while!
• Lots of tracks, though a lot of them have to be unlocked first – except for multi-player.
• Half the tracks are in the “Retro” section, which means they come from past Mario Karts – the original SNES one, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart Super Circuit (GBA), and Mario Kart: Double Dash (GameCube). They come intact, including the original music for each of them.
• 8 players can play (using local wi-fi) with just one copy of the game (but with 8 DSes, of course), though the players without the cart have to play as “Shy Guy”, a character who wears a mask. I haven’t tried it, since I don’t know anyone with a DS… yet.

Now, what about playing online? Well, after some technical troubles, I was able to… and it’s hard to believe how easy it is. You select “Nintendo WFC”, then choose whether you want to play with people worldwide, or just for your region, or of similar skill levels, or you can use “friend codes” to connect with your friends. After less than a minute, it finds you opponents. Then you vote for tracks, and race in them.

That’s it. And it’s perfectly smooth, no delays, no pauses, no “other karts jumping as the game finally updates their positions”. If it wasn’t for the other people playing differently (one of them was easy to beat, but two of them were extremely good, and basically competed against themselves because no one else could challenge them), you wouldn’t be able to tell you were not playing offline.

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