Gaming Blog

Filed under: Video

Okay, so the character art for Prince of Persia: The Fallen King falls between chibi and noooooo. And the bright, colorful environments don’t fit in either the new, serious-business Prince of Persia franchise or the classic side-scrolling series. And, in fact, it doesn’t look all that hot in stills.

Despite all that, and against all odds, The Fallen King looks amazing in motion. It’s somewhere between the original Prince of Persia and a Mario game, with stylus integration (the one part about which we aren’t quite sure). The smooth movements recall the famous rotoscoped animations found in the original game, the levels look interesting and varied, and the aesthetic actually gives the whole thing a sort of storybook feel that fits with the concept of The Sands of Time.

It’s kind of too bad: we were so comfortable hating this game.

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Filed under: Features

I was always a big fan of the first Age of Empires game on the DS (remember when we did these?). When a sequel was revealed, I nearly wet myself with excitement (luckily, nobody can confirm or deny the wetting). Then, E3 hit and my cohort in crime, JC, informed me the game was available for play at THQ’s booth.

I immediately called “dibs.”

Continue reading E308: DS Fanboy summons Gods in Age of Mythologies

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Filed under: Homebrew

You would think that homebrew developers would have learned not to “borrow” Blizzard’s franchises after the company’s lawyers crushed the unofficial StarCraft DS port under their heels, but that’s not the case!

For his first DS project, French programmer Le Rodeur has decided to create Diablo II: Sorceress Adventure, an unauthorized side-story for the dungeon hack featuring the female witch class.

The very early alpha (v. 000.1) released so far has very little worth noting — a tiny sorceress sprite that you can move on an empty, tiled field. It’s certainly not as far along as the StarLite alphas, which had buildable structures, touchscreen controls, and even basic multiplayer support. You can pretty much see everything the demo has to offer in the screenshot after the post break.

Perhaps all of these fanmade games will finally convince Blizzard into developing for the system? Probably not! For now, we will have to settle for these doomed projects and photoshopped images of characters playing DSes.

See also: Wish upon a StarLite: StarCraft homebrew

Continue reading Diablo II project invites Blizzard’s wrath

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Filed under: DS Daily

We know we’re only half-way through the year (well, a little over half, but who’s counting?), and with so many great games having released on the system in the old ‘08, which have been the best? If you had to narrow it down to three, then which titles would they be?

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Filed under: Imports, Accessories

We had no idea that we needed a new system case adorned with undead bees before today, but this latest creation from craftster Mimi helped us identify that missing vital component of our gaming life. She has also created a similar pouch with a Kokeshi doll theme, which you can fawn over in our gallery below.

Mimi’s pricing for the two items have a bit of sting of them — £13.99 each (approx. $27.70), plus shipping from the UK — but it’s to be expected with a lovable honeycomb print like this. In addition to inside pockets and popper closures, the cases feature soft felt lining to keep your DS Lite cozy. Really, it’s the zombee’s knees.

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Filed under: Homebrew

Programmer Multiple: Option continues to release some of the most interesting homebrew titles out there, this time with Game Trivia Catechism. Billed as a casual game for hardcore gamers, this original title takes the bland and basic multiple-choice trivia format, spicing it up with an intriguing storyline, a gaming theme, and a chiptune soundtrack provided by artists like 8-Bit Terror and PDF format.

Instead of solving math equations or recalling historical facts, players will have to put their useless gaming knowledge to work and answer questions like “Which of these games was NOT designed by Yu Suzuki?” or “Which Mario game did Super Mario Advance remake?”

It’s a short game — you can probably finish it within 15 minutes — but Multiple: Option deserves praise for creating an entertaining title that doesn’t rely on the assets or designs of other developers. If you have the equipment to play homebrew games, we definitely suggest you try this one out. Let us know if you’re able to score any higher than a “C” without cheating and using the internet!

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Filed under: News

We recently fretted over neglected Nintendo fans in New Zealand, as the country’s Nintendo distributor had to file for receivorship (effectively taking them out of them distribution picture). Now, though, it seems that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for the Kiwis, and the loss of Softprint Interactive might not be all doom and gloom.

When we last mentioned the issue, we hoped that Nintendo would step up and take care of things themselves, but we never thought they actually would. Yet, current rumors are putting our doubts to rest. While an Australian company called All Interactive Distribution seems to be taking up things on the distributing end, Nintendo of Australia will supposedly support them and promote Nintendo products.

While this is certainly good news for Kiwis, we think it’s also good news for Nintendo, as the company has had trouble gaining a foothold in New Zealand.

[Via GoNintendo]

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Filed under: Video, Imports

How much do you like Pokemans? Technically, this video is a new trailer for Pokémon Platinum, and thus should have wide appeal, since almost everyone loves Pokémon. But we’re warning you that you should probably be quite motivated to see the new Battle Frontier and (we believe) the new Wi-Fi-enabled underground before attempting the challenge of watching this video.

It was captured by someone standing in a crowd with a camera watching the trailer, and thus is pretty much as shaky, blurry, and muffled as it could be while still being basically recognizable. But it’s a Pokémon Platinum video — let us show you it! Or “gotta watch ‘em all.” You’re free to use the catchphrase of your choice.

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