The DS version of SEGA’s Captain America: Super Soldier feels like it was an obligatory offering rather than anything the programmers really wanted to code. For the most part a brawly platformer, CA:SS has Cap punching, shielding, and jumping his way through Baron Zemo’s castle, which has been overtaken by HYDRA to further their research. Zemo isn’t too happy about this, so he’s willing to help Cap out despite the fact that the two would normally be at odds. READ MORE
It seems that every system is fated to have late-life gems that get overshadowed by the looming presence of the next generation. We’re sitting here crossing our fingers that Monster Tale, the new game from Henry Hatsworth developers DreamRift, doesn’t meet the same fate.
And it’s quite problematic to type with crossed fingers, so we’d really have to mean it to be doing this.
In Monster Tale, you play as Ellie, a little girl with a bracelet and a bag. She finds an egg and hatches it, and names the strange creature that pops out Chomp. And Chomp follows Ellie around everywhere. You feed Chomp cookies and give him toys and generally help him grow and be happy. At this point in the description, it may be hard to believe that this game is essentially the best Metroid-style game in years. But off Ellie goes, moving back and forth across the same areas, acquiring new abilities and using them to access previously-blocked pathways. She has melee attacks and ranged ones, and while range has its advantages, there’s a meter that depletes with each shot and fills with each melee hit, so a balanced attack is usually best.
Chomp comes into play too. While he resides on the bottom screen with whatever items you end up giving him, this is much less of a pet simulation game than it originally appears to be. Really, you’re just acquiring stat-boost items. (Think Chaos, but without picking them up and hugging them.) Chomp levels up, has different forms and elemental alignments and gets larger. Why does all this matter? He learns different moves in each form, and you can summon Chomp to the top screen with X and use his attacks with the L and R buttons. He’s very powerful, but he can only stay up and fighting until a meter hits zero and makes him rest. With a bit of micromanagement, you can summon Chomp up, use a move, send him back down and repeat, and generally have him when you need him. It’s in the game’s boss battles where it’s a bit more of an issue. (All of these boss battles are against the few other humans in this land of monsters, who have all seized power and divided the land to rule it.)
It’s not a perfect game by any means. Ellie learns new abilities a bit too quickly near the beginning of the game, so that the limited skill set isn’t explored as much as it could have been. The base monsters could have used a bit more variety, as you quickly learn the patterns and take them all out fairly easily. Also, and we hate to say it, but with only five areas, it’s a little short. Thankfully, the multitude of form options for Chomp, as well as the purchaseable upgrades for Ellie’s stats, make it worth a few playthroughs to fully explore, and the game stands up to a bit of repetition.
Generally, though, Monster Tale is impressive. The music is upbeat and, while the soundtrack’s a bit limited, it fades into the background so it’s not an issue. The visual style is clearly late-generation, going with a bright, simple palette that will age well and appeal to the demographic that may not be able to jump so quickly to the next device.
Monster Tale is destined to land on Most Overlooked DS Games lists. Thankfully, though, you’re reading this now, so you can totally go pick it up today. It has an irresistible combination of modern multitasking sophistication and classic tried-and-true exploration gameplay.
Pros: Deep customization, classic Metroidvania gameplay
Cons: A bit short, a few pacing issues
The basic formula and gameplay of Pokemon have remained intact ever since Blue and Red first graced our shores. You play as a boy, or girl, from a small town who is given a Pokemon to raise and train on your way to becoming the champion of the Pokemon League in your region. In your way are 8 Pokemon gyms, the Elite Four, a rival trainer, and a gang of mostly inept ruffians. For the most part, Pokemon White doesn’t mess with the formula; after all, why change something that has sold more than 200 million copies in 15 years? It does, however, tweak the formula just enough to make it a new and refreshing take on the series.
Instead of having a childhood rival, you have two of them, and they’ll play integral parts in the journey you take part in. The story focuses on the more mature theme of freedom and slavery, with the gang, Team Plasma, a fierce animal rights group, taking a more active, and dangerous, role in the story.
As for the gameplay changes, the biggest additions are triple battles and rotation battles, which require more strategy than you’d think. In triple battles, each Pokemon can only attack the foes directly facing them. They can’t attack across the field of combat, so placement and what moves are used are a big factor in your success in these battles. In rotation battles, any of three creatures could attack you in a given turn, so simple type-matching won’t always work. (Black has more rotation battles than White, while White has more triple battles.) The gyms have been reworked as well, with many of them being more puzzle oriented than in the past, and with a beginning gym that is set up to always have a type advantage over your starting Pokemon. Finally, a change that was a long time coming is the ability to reuse TMs as many times as you want.
In each iteration of the Pokemon series, new creatures have been added, to the point where there are now 649 different ones to collect, train, and evolve. However, unlike past games, you only have access to the newly-introduced Pokemon for the main story. This is, I think, one of the best features of Pokemon White, as it makes the game feel entirely new when you can’t rely on your old favorites to get you through the game. You won’t see many of the more familiar monsters until after you’ve become the Pokemon League Champion.
Finally, the difference between each version is also more pronounced this time. In addition to each version having a set of creatures that are exclusive to it, each game also has a post-game area that is specific to that version as well. In White, you’ll have access to the White Forest, an area with over 30 exclusive monsters to catch.
Graphically, Pokemon White is crisper and places more emphasis on 3D environments than past games have. Additionally, the battles are more cinematic, with the Pokemon moving around during battle instead of standing like statues.
The audio also experienced a number of improvements. The soundtrack is higher quality and the annoying beeping that accompanies dangerously low health for your pokemon has been replaced with a much appreciated, fast-paced remix of the battle song.
The online capabilities have also been revamped, with connectivity being improved and new features being added. The GTS is back, improved with the ability to battle random people with it, and a new device, the C-Gear adding online and infrared connectivity to your game even when not visiting a Pokemon Center.
This is the perfect title to get back into the Pokemon series with if you’ve taken a break, or even if you’ve never played it before. As for longtime fans, while the core game is the same that you’ve enjoyed many times before, the story, the Pokemon, and all the trappings that go along with trying to catch them all, beg to be rediscovered once more.
Pros: Lots of great new creatures that you are ‘forced’ to use, crisp graphics, more mature themes
Cons: HMs still exist
The basic formula and gameplay of Pokemon have remained intact ever since Blue and Red first graced our shores. You play as a boy, or girl, from a small town who is given a Pokemon to raise and train on your way to becoming the champion of the Pokemon League in your region. In your way are 8 Pokemon gyms, the Elite Four, a rival trainer, and a gang of mostly inept ruffians. For the most part, Pokemon Black doesn’t mess with the formula; after all, why change something that has sold more than 200 million copies in 15 years? It does, however, tweak the formula just enough to make it a new and refreshing take on the series.
Instead of having a childhood rival, you have two of them, and they’ll play integral parts in the journey you take part in. The story focuses on the more mature theme of freedom and slavery, with the gang, Team Plasma, a fierce animal rights group, taking a more active, and dangerous, role in the story.
As for the gameplay changes, the biggest additions are triple battles and rotation battles, which require more strategy than you’d think. In triple battles, each Pokemon can only attack the foes directly facing them. They can’t attack across the field of combat, so placement and what moves are used are a big factor in your success in these battles. In rotation battles, any of three creatures could attack you in a given turn, so simple type-matching won’t always work. (Black has more rotation battles than White, while White has more triple battles.) The gyms have been reworked as well, with many of them being more puzzle oriented than in the past, and with a beginning gym that is set up to always have a type advantage over your starting Pokemon. Finally, a change that was a long time coming is the ability to reuse TMs as many times as you want.
In each iteration of the Pokemon series, new creatures have been added, to the point where there are now 649 different ones to collect, train, and evolve. However, unlike past games, you only have access to the newly-introduced Pokemon for the main story. This is, I think, one of the best features of Pokemon Black, as it makes the game feel entirely new when you can’t rely on your old favorites to get you through the game. You won’t see many of the more familiar monsters until after you’ve become the Pokemon League Champion.
Finally, the difference between each version is also more pronounced this time. In addition to each version having a set of creatures that are exclusive to it, each game also has a post-game area that is specific to that version as well. In Black, you’ll have access to the Black City, an area with a number of tough trainers and exclusive items you can’t access in White.
Graphically, Pokemon Black is crisper and places more emphasis on 3D environments than past games have. Additionally, the battles are more cinematic, with the Pokemon moving around during battle instead of standing like statues.
The audio also experienced a number of improvements. The soundtrack is higher quality and the annoying beeping that accompanies dangerously low health for your pokemon has been replaced with a much appreciated, fast-paced remix of the battle song.
The online capabilities have also been revamped, with connectivity being improved and new features being added. The GTS is back, improved with the ability to battle random people with it, and a new device, the C-Gear adding online and infrared connectivity to your game even when not visiting a Pokemon Center.
This is the perfect title to get back into the Pokemon series with if you’ve taken a break, or even if you’ve never played it before. As for longtime fans, while the core game is the same that you’ve enjoyed many times before, the story, the Pokemon, and all the trappings that go along with trying to catch them all, beg to be rediscovered once more.
Pros: Lots of great new creatures that you are ‘forced’ to use, crisp graphics, more mature themes
Cons: HMs still exist
The best way to describe Radiant Historia, the latest Atlus-published DS RPG, is to compare it to a “Choose Your Own Adventure” novel. By the time you successfully complete a run-through of Radiant Historia, you will have navigated two alternate timelines, both of which are littered with potential dead ends – which result in the eventual termination of the world under a blanket of lifeless sand – and only one “good” ending. Navigating your way along the “razor-thin path of light” (as one character describes it) will require you to hop back and forth not only between the time lines, but between past and present as well.
Your time-traveling and/or dimensional shifting is courtesy of the White Chronicle, a powerful artifact which is cryptically given to you by your boss prior to a mission. The guardians of this tome forbid you from discussing it or its abilities to your companions, and are themselves forbidden from acting as anything more than your guides, so you will have to figure out how to accomplish the task you are destined to complete yourself. As you progress, you will encounter significant historical points, referred to as “nodes”; you can jump back to any node via a save point (or from the world map), but if you haven’t yet reached the next node (or new Chapter) you will have to replay much of what you have already accomplished, so it is usually best to wait until you are stuck for a solution. When such a situation arises, your guides will tell you as much and suggest that you explore the other time line and your current predicament will become a new node. The Chronicle keeps track of all events you encounter, as well as any side quests you might discover along the way, in a flow chart-like display that is easy to navigate; this also serves as a convenient recap as to what you have already done — and what you have changed — in case you get lost. The narrative can be a bit confusing at times, what with all of the shifting through and across time, so this is a welcome resource.
Radiant Historia also features a neat combat system that makes every encounter a strategic one. Your party of up to three members (selected from a roster of up to seven at any given point in history) line up on one side as normal, but the enemies are arranged on a 3×3 grid similar to that found in the Mega Man Battle Network games. Using various skills, you can shove your opponents around and knock them into each other; enemies that share a space are affected by your attacks as if they were one entity until you stop hitting them, at which point they spread out again. You can chain together impressive combos this way by manipulating the turn order, displayed on the top screen. Normally each participant acts in order according to their speed, but you can change positions with any other participant, friend or foe, on the list so your team can get a bunch of actions in a row. The trade-off is that until a swapped character actually takes an action, he is extra vulnerable to attacks. Some enemies also have special formations that give them additional strength and abilities, as well as the power to enchant grid squares for extra power, defense, or healing, so being able to move enemies around is important even if you don’t want to combo them into oblivion. Of course, certain enemies can’t be moved…
Besides the fun combat system, Radiant Historia also shines on a narrative level. The seven protagonists and their allies aren’t just cookie-cutter RPG clichés, and even the villains have surprising depth in their motivations. The story is equally deep, with a world-spanning war being fought over the few remaining areas of arable land, thanks to a mysterious desertification that is rendering areas all but uninhabitable. This is helped by mature characters who don’t shy away from the fact that this is a war and lives are at stake; when the eventual (and inevitable) world-saving aspect arises it is a smooth transition, unlike the similar shift in last year’s Sands of Destruction. As mentioned, some confusion can arise when it comes to the twin time lines and how changes in one can affect the other, but overall the story holds up as a cohesive whole, especially when you have to consider the machinations of the owner of the Black Chronicle, the White Chronicle’s destructive counterpart.
That said, Radiant Historia is far from flawless. The lack of a quick-save feature is especially noticeable, as save points and opportunities to rest are often infrequent. The game also doesn’t make as full use of the DS’s dual screens as others in the genre; a mini-map would have been helpful, for instance. Early on in the adventure you will gain the ability to move around heavy objects, which later includes explosive barrels; this pushing is awkward, being limited to only forward and backward depending on your current facing, so you will have to constantly reposition yourself in order to get the barrels to their destinations. And as might be expected in a game revolving around time shifting, there will be times when you have to replay the same segment several times in order to complete missions; fortunately the game allows you to fast-forward through dialogue with the X button and skip (most) cut scenes completely by pressing start, but there are still times when you will need to revisit an event at the wrong end of the space between nodes.
Still, these are relatively minor complaints, and none of them really affected my utter enjoyment in playing this title. 2010 was packed with high-quality RPG offerings on the DS, and 2011 looks to continue this trend if Radiant Historia is any indication. This one won’t be as easy to find as, say, Pokémon Black/White or Dragon Quest VI, but be sure not to miss it.
On a side note: the first editions of the game are packed with a 20-minute music CD containing five piano versions of the game’s tracks by Yoko Shimomura, who also composed the soundtracks for the Kingdom Hearts and Mario and Luigi series. As someone who has imported official soundtracks in the past (often at great cost due to them being out of print by the time we get the games here in the West), this is a welcome addition that I would very much like to see become more common in the future.
