DS

Glory of Heracles

March 21, 2010

DS / Reviews / by Chris Ingersoll Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Glory of Heracles is the latest game in a series centering around the legendary Greek hero, but the first to make it outside of Japan. From what I understand, usually Heracles is the primary character, and while that’s technically true this time around there are two other characters in the game who are claiming that name as their own as well (one of them is a party member, the other an NPC). This identity confusion is coupled with a group of amnesiac characters who are all immortals but none can remember why they are so blessed/cursed. Their journey of discovery is an interesting one, and there are several twists along the way to keep you guessing. 

The combat system used in the game is as much of a throwback as the source material, but it too has some interesting tweaks that . You give all of your characters their commands and targets for the round up front, and they are generally locked into those choices even if circumstances change during the turn. Sometimes this means that they are attacking already-incapacitated enemies, but the game actually has an “overkill” system that rewards this with replenished MP; if a character’s target is overkilled prior to his action then he will randomly select a new target if any are available. Complicating things a bit are front and back rows for each side, and different weapons have different reaches. There are also various skills (both active and passive) that can be employed for more impressive attacks than basic blows; some of these skills are learned via leveling up after praying at various temples, but a good deal of them are granted by whatever you have equipped. Managing the skills of your gear is a key part of the game’s strategy.

The real attraction to the combat, however, is the magic. The magic bestowed by Prometheus (who famously stole fire — aka magic — from the gods and gave it to man), uses five flavors of ether, indicated by meters at the top of the screen.  Usually ether is converted from fire/water/earth/air into “dark” or vice versa. If there is insufficient ether to power the spell when it comes time for you to cast it, you will suffer a backlash loss of hp that is usually pretty significant. You can also intensify your magic (and some skills) via QTE-like touch screen microgames, which keeps your attention on the action instead of just mindlessly mashing the A button. The effects themselves are over-the-top and crazy; you have the option of full, brief, or no animations, but even if you’ve selected to watch them you can always skip them, which is very welcome.

Overall, I enjoyed Glory of Heracles over most of the 32 hours I put into it; there are some camera issues in the 3D towns, but you just learn to deal with it. There’s also a New Game+ feature, but you don’t actually carry over any skills or equipment; you get to skip the tutorial and some other options are unlocked, but I didn’t really explore it that deeply. It’s a fun adventure and worth your time; nothing really ground-breaking and must-own, but Glory of Heracles is unique enough to stand out in the crowded DS RPG library.

 

Pokemon HeartGold Version

March 19, 2010

DS / Reviews / by Eric Schabel Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Pokemon is back, and this time it’s in the form of a remake of what many people consider to be the best installment in the core series, Pokemon Gold and Silver. 

Even if you have never played the original Gold or Silver on Game Boy Color, HeartGold will still feel very familiar if you have ever played through any other titles in the series. You still start off your adventure in a small lazy town with one of three starter Pokemon, you still battle your way from city to city collecting gym badges, and you still cut, surf, and fly your way through numerous locales. The battle system in HeartGold is the same glorified turn-based game of rock-paper-scissors (perhaps I should say fire-grass-water) of the previous Pokemon titles as well. In other words, HeartGold follows the same addicting formula that GameFreak has been using since 1996. That said, even if you have never picked up a Pokemon title before in your life, HeartGold will still do a great job of easing you into the experience gently. 

Okay, HeartGold is similar to every other game in the core series, so what’s new? Game Freak usually does a good job of revising their Pokemon formula with every new installment, and HeartGold is no exception. Perhaps the most helpful improvement in HeartGold is the revised menu interface; everything is located completely on the bottom screen of the DS, meaning that pretty much every menu in the game utilizes touch controls. Navigating your inventory or trading with a friend online has never been quicker. In the same vein, battles in HeartGold also unfold at a quicker pace, with less lag between button presses and action than we saw in Diamond and Pearl. These small quality of life revisions may not sound like much, but they definitely add up when you’re playing a massive game like this one.

If there’s one obvious new addition to HeartGold, it’s the PokeWalker. The PokeWalker is a device that comes bundled with HeartGold and SoulSilver that is designed to allow you to take one of your pocket monsters with you wherever you go in…what else…your pocket! The PokeWalker communicates with the game via a small infrared strip on the top of the HeartGold cartridge, and it is quite simple to transfer one of your Pokemon over from the main game into the little Pokeball-shaped pedometer. For the most part, the PokeWalker is just a simple way to level up one of your monsters while you are too busy to actually play the main game; you simply walk around with the device in your pocket and it does the rest for you. However, you can also play some simple mini games on the PokeWalker that might score you some useful items or even allow you to catch a new Pokemon that you can then transfer back to HeartGold. The PokeWalker is a neat but largely inconsequential addition to HeartGold, but it does, along with the fact that your lead Pokemon follows you around as a sprite in-game, help you feel a little more attached to your creatures, as nerdy as that might sound.

Pokemon HeartGold is a huge game; most Pokemon titles feature eight gym badges to collect, a few rare legendary Pokemon, and then a battle with the “Elite Four,” a group of bosses that stand between you and becoming the next Pokemon Champion. Usually, all of this takes place in one large region. In HeartGold, there are two regions, Johto and Kanto. That means that there are 16 badges to collect in all, and a staggeringly huge number of Pokemon and trainers to encounter. When all is said and done, most people will probably spend at least 60 hours completing HeartGold, and that is not including any time devoted to online trading or battles and a host of other side activities such as the new “Pokeathlon” mini games, which happen to be quite fun on their own.

There is no getting around the fact that HeartGold is an epic game, even compared to the other lengthy Pokemon titles. When all is said and done, HeartGold doesn’t do much to change the core Pokemon experience, but that’s not what the game was made to do. Since the beginning, Pokemon has been a fun and addicting series, and HeartGold exists just to provide more for people who love it. HeartGold is the most refined and epic Pokemon game to date, and a wonderful way to either revisit the series or take your first step into the world of Pokemon. 

Plays Like: Every other core Pokemon title

Pros: Huge, lengthy game; menu interface improvements; PokeWalker implementation

Cons: Wasting move slots on your Pokemon for those annoying HM moves

 

Pokemon SoulSilver Version

March 19, 2010

DS / Reviews / by Eric Schabel Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Pokemon is back, and this time it’s in the form of a remake of what many people consider to be the best installment in the core series, Pokemon Gold and Silver. 

Even if you have never played the original Gold or Silver on Game Boy Color, SoulSilver will still feel very familiar if you have ever played through any other titles in the series. You still start off your adventure in a small lazy town with one of three starter Pokemon, you still battle your way from city to city collecting gym badges, and you still cut, surf, and fly your way through numerous locales. The battle system in SoulSilver is the same glorified turn-based game of rock-paper-scissors (perhaps I should say fire-grass-water) of the previous Pokemon titles as well. In other words, SoulSilver follows the same addicting formula that GameFreak has been using since 1996. That said, even if you have never picked up a Pokemon title before in your life, SoulSilver will still do a great job of easing you into the experience gently. 

Okay, SoulSilver is similar to every other game in the core series, so what’s new? Game Freak usually does a good job of revising their Pokemon formula with every new installment, and SoulSilver is no exception. Perhaps the most helpful improvement in SoulSilver is the revised menu interface; everything is located completely on the bottom screen of the DS, meaning that pretty much every menu in the game utilizes touch controls. Navigating your inventory or trading with a friend online has never been quicker. In the same vein, battles in SoulSilver also unfold at a quicker pace, with less lag between button presses and action than we saw in Diamond and Pearl. These small quality of life revisions may not sound like much, but they definitely add up when you’re playing a massive game like this one.

If there’s one obvious new addition to SoulSilver, it’s the PokeWalker. The PokeWalker is a device that comes bundled with HeartGold and SoulSilver that is designed to allow you to take one of your pocket monsters with you wherever you go in…what else…your pocket! The PokeWalker communicates with the game via a small infrared strip on the top of the SoulSilver cartridge, and it is quite simple to transfer one of your Pokemon over from the main game into the little Pokeball-shaped pedometer. For the most part, the PokeWalker is just a simple way to level up one of your monsters while you are too busy to actually play the main game; you simply walk around with the device in your pocket and it does the rest for you. However, you can also play some simple mini games on the PokeWalker that might score you some useful items or even allow you to catch a new Pokemon that you can then transfer back to SoulSilver. The PokeWalker is a neat but largely inconsequential addition to SoulSilver, but it does, along with the fact that your lead Pokemon follows you around as a sprite in-game, help you feel a little more attached to your creatures, as nerdy as that might sound.

Pokemon SoulSilver is a huge game; most Pokemon titles feature eight gym badges to collect, a few rare legendary Pokemon, and then a battle with the “Elite Four,” a group of bosses that stand between you and becoming the next Pokemon Champion. Usually, all of this takes place in one large region. In SoulSilver, there are two regions, Johto and Kanto. That means that there are 16 badges to collect in all, and a staggeringly huge number of Pokemon and trainers to encounter. When all is said and done, most people will probably spend at least 60 hours completing SoulSilver, and that is not including any time devoted to online trading or battles and a host of other side activities such as the new “Pokeathlon” mini games, which happen to be quite fun on their own.

There is no getting around the fact that SoulSilver is an epic game, even compared to the other lengthy Pokemon titles. When all is said and done, SoulSilver doesn’t do much to change the core Pokemon experience, but that’s not what the game was made to do. Since the beginning, Pokemon has been a fun and addicting series, and SoulSilver exists just to provide more for people who love it. SoulSilver is the most refined and epic Pokemon game to date, and a wonderful way to either revisit the series or take your first step into the world of Pokemon. 

Plays Like: Every other core Pokemon title

Pros: Huge, lengthy game; menu interface improvements; PokeWalker implementation

Cons: Wasting move slots on your Pokemon for those annoying HM moves

 

Deca Sports DS

March 17, 2010

DS / Reviews / by Graham Russell Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Hudson’s Deca Sports series has been a solid (if unspectacular) supplement to the Wii Sports games on the Wii. They throw in more games, make the controls simple and focus on multiplayer. Unsurprisingly, they’ve now tried a DS installment. (Come on, Deca Sports DS? DSDS? How was that not going to happen?) There are still ten games, the controls are still simple, and single-card multiplayer means you can play with friends. Should you want to, though?

The ten events included are certainly…diverse. First, there’s arm wrestling. It’s a touch-screen quick-time event game that really doesn’t feel like you’re competing with anyone. Clay shooting uses a dual-screen setup with aiming on the bottom and the targets on top, which is just confusing, since there’s no information on the bottom screen and putting things there would have made more sense. Ping-pong is solid, though it’s unclear whether there are any factors other than timing going on. Sky diving could have been a Pilotwings-style game, but instead it’s about moving and rotating a guy into certain positions to create a formation with your team. Wall climbing feels a little like Track and Field, since most of it is alternating pressing two buttons to climb left and right. Rugby is incredibly simplified, and it seems like the only viable strategy is to hold up and press A a lot. Golf isn’t bad, but the minigame nature of the whole thing means there are better options on the system. Bobsled feels a lot like the Mario & Sonic version, where the main goal is to just not run into the sides. Cheerleading is a total ripoff of the Ouendan/Elite Beat Agents games, and ends up being more fun than you’d think, but the music isn’t quite on beat. The tenth event, Sepak Takraw, is probably the only digital implementation of this game. It’s part-tennis, part-soccer and all-obscure. 

It was nice of Hudson to allow single-card 6-player multiplayer. Playing the single-player mode is not captivating at all, though, so it’s fortunate it’s there. The added one-player “challenges” are a nice way to hone your skills for multiplayer competition. 

There’s a bit of customization here: you can create 6-player “teams” in addition to the stock ones, and the detail there is about as detailed as Nintendo’s Miis. Hudson emphasizes that you can adjust their skills, but there are only three options: small characters, which are faster, large characters, which are stronger, and medium characters, which are average. We played with all of them to try them out, and we couldn’t notice a difference. 

The problem with jamming ten sports into one game is that you get a tenth of the quality. There’s still some redeeming value here, and if you’re a Sepak Takraw fan it’s a must-have, but Deca Sports DS won’t stay in the system for long.

Time Hollow

February 14, 2010

DS / Reviews / by Chris Ingersoll Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Konami’s Time Hollow is a point-and-click adventure that trades the genre’s usual emphasis on puzzles and inventory management for some fourth-dimensional thinking. Hero Ethan Karios inherits a strange item from his father that allows him to essentially poke a hole through time to make small changes to the past. Of course, right before he receives this item his parents go missing and apparently perished over a decade ago. Ethan’s ultimate mission is to save his parents and restore the timeline he remembers, but along the way he’ll have to solve several other issues with his friends and family. One thing is for certain: whoever has made these changes is playing for keeps.

Ethan can only open a hole to certain places and certain times. He will occasionally receive “flashbacks” to scenes that are important. As he investigates them, he uncovers details about them (since many of them never happened as he remembers). Once he has all of the details he can open a hole (by drawing a circle with the stylus) and attempt to correct the past, but how he can accomplish this may not be immediately apparent. Further complicating the issue is the fact that it costs him some of his “own time” (as in “life span”) to open a hole, so he can’t just poke around randomly without serious consequences. Finally, the change you make might affect the time line in unexpected ways…

When looking around in the present, you can pan to the left or right a little (using either the stylus or shoulder buttons). Often important details lie at the periphery of a scene, so it pays to look around. And although the flashbacks are static, photograph-like images, once you create the hole you can still pan around within the hole you’ve opened to find things that can’t be seen in the image. You don’t get too many shots at making holes, and later on you’ll need to open several (and have less time left to do so) in order to succeed. You can occasionally find “chronons” around town to replenish some of your lost time, but you still need to be cautious (and probably judicious with your saves).

While the time-altering mechanics are fairly consistent, the game play is sadly linear. You can’t avoid a poor outcome just because you know it’s going to happen, and you can’t experiment with alternate solutions. For example, in one early mission an acquaintance of Ethan’s is killed in a car accident; Ethan changes things so she isn’t there at the time but a dog is killed in the same accident instead. Even knowing that your first change will have that outcome, you have no choice but to “cause” the dog’s death to happen (don’t worry, Ethan soon corrects that problem too). The events surrounding that mission affect future ones, but you can’t intercept them and shortcut the whole process. The “new game+” is something of an exception, but I don’t want to spoil too much. 

Time Hollow is very by-the-numbers, and not really something I would recommend hunting down to own; it was released in small quantities 2008 and copies can be hard to find (although the one I picked up was unopened, so they’re out there). However, it’s definitely worth at least a rent and makes a nice addition to your collection if you’re a fan of the genre. If you liked Trace Memory and/or Hotel Dusk then Time Hollow probably deserves to sit next to them in your collection.

Plays like: Other point-and-click adventures

Pros: Interesting concept

Cons: Static game play; little to no room for innovation

 

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