Archive for the 'Nintendo DS' Category

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The Dawn of Sorrow, or Joy you gamers in this case..

October 7, 2005, 3:39 pm, Games and Nintendo DS

Castlevania DoS Box art The Dawn of Sorrow is the FIRST Castlevania game for the Nintendo DS, which as of late has been getting a steady increase in 3rd party support. This game is one of the many top notch games coming for the little doppelganger. The game itself is the second one in which Soma(main character) has starred in. Normally this attention goes to the Belmonts(vampire hunter clan) but they took a back seat view to the handheld series so far.

Let’s cut to the chase.

You continue the story started in the previous GBA game Aria Of Sorrow, which was a breeze to plow through. This time however, Konami didn’t make it as easy as the first. There were many changes to the way things are played. New abilities are abound including the super strike ability that costs about a quarter of your magic bar to perform. First boss in the game At the beginning of the new multiplex castle/lab, you meet up with Julius Belmont and his girlfriend who later becomes your weapons upgrader. All of the usual characters and monsters make a return. Though you will notice immediately the quality of the new sprites and some changed attack patterns for old favorites like Quatzacoatl. Some new weapons are also accessable like Axes, Mace, and some new sword variations. The first bost that you fight(image above) will be ultra easy to get through if you played even 0.1% of the GBA game. BUT after you will soon realize that this game is NOT to be taken lightly since the monster get more vicious the further you get into the complex.

…Yes, it even uses the Touch Screen.

Immediately you will be taught the significance of Magic Seals. These magical items are the things that seal up monsters that are infused with the magic given to it by the crazy cult leader. And YES you will HAVE to seal them by initiating the seal using–THAT’S RIGHT, the touch screen. (People who fail to realize that the touch screen is more than just a simple gimmick by now, should be shot in the foot.) You have to trace the points in the symbol to the correct “rune” in a certain amount of time. If not, then the magic infused into the boss WILL revive it and you will have to fight all over again. What makes it even more challenging later on is that the “runes” become even more harder to initiate as the patterns become more complex. I haven’t gotten that far into the game yet(about 34% as of 10-07-05) but there are a number of things to do in this game while trying to progress the storyline. Like actually having to FIND the seals and souls inorder to keep moving forward.

Even in 2D, this game is in a league of its own. 3D fanatics might even like this since the animation is really fluid, not to mention being able to interact with certain objects in the background. This is a MUST BUY for anyone with a DS in their pocket.

Newest Aquisition of Dual Sets (DS. Get it? :P )

September 12, 2005, 3:01 pm, Games and Nintendo DS

Yes that’s right, a NintendoDS. I bought this little blue blazer about a week ago. I would have had it sooner but UPS held it hostage on account of Hurricane Katrina.
Even after it came I had to wait the normal 4 hours so that it could charge. Unfortunately, my wishes did not come true since it had a dead pixel on the touch screen.But it did not bother me much until I noticed it when the screen would turn dark in the game. Then it started nagging at me like never before. I hear that I need to send it to Nintendo to get it fixed but it would take a week.I don’t even know if its gonna cost me money to send it or not. But if it does, then I’ll live with the dead pixel. Because, if I get another one with more dead pixels, then its another chunk out of my wallet.

GAMES!

Ok…um well, just one game. It was a hard decision to pick a game for the DS. So I looked for answers in the forums like usual, getting well thought opinions on different games. Eventually I set on buying Kirby: Canvas Curse with my DS. Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
I picked the game because I still had pleasant memories about Kirby: Superstar for the SNES. Let’s say that Canvas Curse has not let me down in this respect. I know that the “3D” Kirby games has NOT been too good. But that is the same with just about any 2D character/game that was force raped into 3D. The game is challenging, and fun with a few suprises like classic music and different styles of ink used to propel your character.

Hidden Extras?

One thing that suprised me is that the DS has some options that I didn’t read about in the inital reviews of the handheld. The DS has an option to “share” games wirelessly. Not only can you and someone else play the same game against eachother, but they usually only NEED ONE CART. I did notice that some games didn’t support it, but many of the multiplayer capable games have this option like Advance Wars DS.

All in all, I am glad that I chose to buy one. IT barely leaves my side now. The only thing now is to build up a library of new and usually “used” games. I think that my next purchase might either be Advance Wars DS or Meteos, depending on if Fire Emblem(DS) makes it out later on.