August 2007

Picross DS

August 13, 2007

Puzzle games are right at home on Nintendo’s Dual Screen portable; it already offers Polarium, Puzzle Quest, and two versions of Meteos. But that didn’t stop me from firing up my GameCube with attached Game Boy Player and playing a few rounds of Mario’s Picross, one of the best puzzlers out there. Now you can essentially play it anywhere with the release of Picross DS. The basics are still there, there are plenty of puzzles, and if ever a game begged to use the touch screen it’s this one.

For those of you that don’t know, here’s a quick rundown of how Picross works. You’re presented with a grid of boxes, from 5×5 to 20×25. Each row and column has a string of numbers attached to it detailing how the squares can be filled in to create a picture. Each number represents a chain of filled boxes, separated by at least one space. You must use logic to determine where the boxes go in the grid. The concept is amazingly simple, but that doesn’t mean that the puzzles don’t get difficult. It’s not uncommon to spend 30 minutes or more on a complicated puzzle. Thankfully, you can save at any point and come back to your puzzle at a later time from exactly where you left off.

Picross DS is a simple game with a clean design. It features simple themed levels, from letters of the alphabet to safari animals to flowers to bugs. But the lack of brilliant graphics doesn’t harm the game. Once the concept has clicked it could have been in black-and-white and still be amazingly entertaining, as originally proved by Mario’s Picross. The music, however, is repetitive and generally forgettable. I honestly find that the game is more enjoyable with it off.

Picross DS has two control schemes, stylus and d-pad. The stylus controls are well-suited to the DS’s touchscreen. Hold down the B button and you’ll cross squares out – denoting that they do not need to be filled in, and hold down the X button and you’ll fill squares in. The A and Y buttons zoom in and out — essential for large puzzles. The stylus controls are elegant in their simplicity and they get the job done wonderfully. If you’d rather use the directional pad, though, you have the option. Instead of holding a button and tapping the screen, you’ll move the cursor and press the same buttons to solve the puzzles. The d-pad scheme works as advertised, but the zooming ability of the touch controls is very nice and worth using.

My favorite feature of Picross DS is the WiFi, and Nintendo has also gone the extra mile and is providing us with more Picross puzzles available for download. There is no better way to give a puzzle game longevity than to toss me new levels for free (something other puzzle games should be doing, but often don’t). Picross DS also includes a tracked mode called Daily Picross that is full of training-type games. If your Picross skills aren’t quite up to par and you’re having trouble with Free Play Mode then Daily Picross will help you hone your box-coloring logic skills. And anybody that has played Picross has – at some point- broken out the graph paper and tried to make their own. Now you don’t need graph paper, a copy machine, and stamps to share your personal Picross creations with your friends. Picross DS’s puzzle creation mode is adequate (and the automatic generation of number on the columns and rows is wonderful), and what really pushes it into “great mode” territory is the fact that puzzles can be shared via the Nintendo WiFi connection.

Picross DS is a joy to play and a perfect fit for Nintendo’s touch-centric handheld. If you’ve found yourself addicted to crossword puzzles, Kakuro, or Sudoku, then you owe it to yourself to try Picross DS – especially since it’s a budget title. I don’t remember the last time I’ve played a $20 DS game for this long.

Traxxpad: Portable Studio

August 13, 2007

PSP / Reviews / by Graham Russell /

Music creation games aren’t new: a few titles have been released in recent years. However, 2007 seems to be the year they finally become successful. With games like Ubisoft’s Jam Sessions and this title, Eidos’ Traxxpad: Portable Studio, games are going beyond just being musically themed.

Traxxpad is not a “game” by any stretch of the imagination. There are no goals, points or anything to judge players’ efforts. Instead, it is a utility to customize beats in a way previously only possible on the PC. Players mix together tracks, create sounds and share the results with all their DJ friends.

The game uses an array of acronym-happy modules, like R.T.I.S.T.; S.T.A.C. and MeLOD. Each is specially made to handle a different portion of creating a mix, like putting together samples; manipulating sounds and mixing in real-time.

Traxxpad has a large library of samples for players to mix, including licensed ones from famous DJs. It will take a while to get bored of these, but Eidos has also included the ability to record sounds, as well as to manipulate and save the ones that are already there. Playing the game in public without headphones is almost impossible though, because accurate audio is important for mixing, and the sound from the speakers is not overly loud. Investing in some ear buds is crucial.

The true shortcoming to this title is the control scheme. While it is somewhat navigable after a while, the learning curve is, put nicely, steep. The game’s 50-page manual is a necessity, because nothing makes much sense until after reading it. This is somewhat understandable, since the limited buttons make all the options difficult to access, but there are reasons these applications usually stay on the PC.

Traxxpad is a competent portable music mixer, but there’s nothing here to appeal to the masses. DJ wannabes might want to give this a try, and experienced mixers can embrace the system’s complexity. It might be more appropriate in a music store than a game outlet, though.

New RSS Feed

August 10, 2007

News / by Chris Rasco /

There had been a few people begging for a better way to be updated on the new content here at Snackbar Games so I took some time and reworked our RSS feed to include all of our news, reviews, and features into one nifty feed.

I hope you enjoy, and as always let me know what I broke.

Gaming Unplugged: Taluva

August 8, 2007

Features / Unplugged / by Chris Ingersoll /

In Taluva, your objective is to establish your territory by building settlements on a volatile, volcanic island in the South Pacific. Each player’s turn consists of two steps:

Draw a random tile of three hexes, one depicting a volcano and the other two depicting two less-fiery terrains (grassland, jungle, lake, rock, or sand) and place it on the play area. You may place it adjacent to any hex, or you may place it on top of already-placed tiles as long as you observe the various restrictions: the volcano hex must be placed on top of another volcano hex; there cannot be any empty space beneath the tile; the volcano must “flow” in a different direction than the one it is covering; and you can’t bury an entire settlement. Also, if a hex has a tower or temple built on it, you cannot cover that hex, and the maximum height of a hex is three tiles — although orchestrating a scenario in which you could play a level-four tile is unlikely anyway. Any huts buried by a tile are removed from the game and not returned to their owners’ reserves.
After placing your tile, you must place one or more buildings via four specific options for doing so: you may place one hut on any vacant (non-volcano) one-height hex; you may place a tower on a vacant (non-volcano) hex that is three tiles high and adjacent to one of your settlements that does not currently contain a tower; you may place a temple on a vacant (non-volcano) hex adjacent to one of your settlements that spans at least three other hexes and does not currently contain a temple; or you can expand one of your existing settlements into all vacant neighboring hexes of a single terrain by placing a number of huts in each hex equal to its height. You cannot choose an option for which you have insufficient buildings in your reserve, and if you cannot place any buildings then you are eliminated from the remainder of the game.

Play continues until either the supply of volcano tiles runs out or one player exhausts his supply of two of the three types of building. In the case of the former (and more likely) condition, the winner is whoever placed the most temples, with towers and huts breaking further ties in a similar manner. The player who manages to achieve the second condition claims the “premature” victory.

At first glance it seems like Taluva has a pile of rules that restrict your choices, but game play simplifies once you realize the implied rule of “you can’t place one tile completely on top of another one” — since every volcano hex “flows” the same way on every tile, the only way to achieve the “different flow” condition is to have the new tile span two or three lower tiles. Once that becomes apparent, the other, more intuitive mechanics quickly fade into the background (with the assistance of useful rules summary cards), allowing you to concentrate on actually playing the game.

Taluva is a quick game — even with three of our four players never having played before, our first game only took about an hour; more experienced players should be able to complete a game in about 30-40 minutes. Your choice of tactics is subtle but important, as there is no random element beyond the types of non-volcano terrain on each hex; everything else is dependant on the actions and decisions of yourself and the other players, which makes for more satisfying strategy and conflict. Taluva is also a good-looking game, with the full-color, lightly textured tiles being made out of very thick cardboard and the four sets of wooden buildings painted in red, yellow, brown, and white to make them stand out on the predominant greens on the tiles. The choice to use cardboard instead of wood or plastic for the tiles mitigates both the overall cost and overall weight of the game without sacrificing durability; the wooden building pieces are rather small, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem for most families/playgroups. Overall, Taluva‘s strategic emphasis, quick game play, and general aesthetics combine to offer a rewarding experience that doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Missile Command

August 7, 2007

Reviews / Xbox 360 / by Justin Last /

I know you have fond memories of standing at an arcade cabinet diligently defending cities from unnamed, hostile aggressors using only a trackball and a trio of buttons. Enemy missiles, smart bombs, and ships threaten the pixilated landscape, and it’s up to you to save them. In 1980, the presentation was sufficient, but the concept just doesn’t hold up in today’s market.

Missile Command is played, technically, exactly the same today as it was over 25 years ago. Move your aiming reticule around the screen, time your shots, and destroy incoming enemies and ordnance. Destroy all of the missiles and the stage resets. Lost cities remain lost, but your three missile turrets are rebuilt. Clear enough stages and you’ll start earning more points (x2 score, x3 score, etc.) and extra cities are awarded at score landmarks (the first is at 10,000 points).

The arcade version used a trackball to move the reticule, and it brought a certain exactness to the game. It felt like you were actually moving the sights of your turrets because the reticule speed and the trackball speed were linked. You knew how hard and in exactly which direction to roll the trackball to get where you needed to go, and the same quality doesn’t translate to the 360’s analog stick. This makes normal mode difficult and the unfortunately named throttle monkey mode – in which enemies move at twice their normal speed – nearly impossible.

If these changes make you yearn for the game as you played it in the arcade then you’re in luck. Missile Command features a classic mode, and everything will look just as you remember it. Sadly, the Evolved mode’s control problems are also present in the classic version. Upon realizing that Classic is no more fun than Evolved you’ll find yourself playing Evolved just for the updated visuals. This is one place that Atari really could have stepped up and brought Missile Command into the 21st century. As with the other features in this game, however, Atari took the easy way out. Visuals are updated but the concept is largely unchanged. Cities are lined up on a two-dimensional plane with turrets spread between them. This, in and of itself, isn’t horrible. Changing this setup would fundamentally change the way the game is played (Additional mode? Anybody listening? Atari? Bueller?) The original featured a monochrome backdrop, and the update isn’t much better. Bland deserts and empty skies are all that you’ll have to look at in the distance. Where are the other cities? Where is the infrastructure? Where is anything worth looking at?

Missile Command is a disappointment on all fronts. It’s a lazy update, and Atari is counting on you to purchase it without playing the demo beforehand. Missile Command hasn’t made the transition to the modern day well. It’s true to its roots, but the 360’s controller absolutely kills this arcade classic. If you really have a yearning to play classic Missile Command – and have fun with it – then your best bet is to find an old arcade cabinet.

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