Welcome to the first edition of the eventually weekly “what I’m playing this week” post! Where I highlight the gaming that’s taking up my leisure time for the current seven-day cycle.

Right now it’s very late at night. I’ve been taking care of my entirely too sick family for a better part of the evening, so gaming this particular night will be limited to watching a Twitter stream that is moving far too quickly. If I can keep up at 50 tweets/minute, I get to go to bed exhausted in an hour.

Now playing

Blue Dragon Plus – I’m fumbling through this adventure at a rate of about 2 hours a day. I’m forcing my way through so I can write a review for Colony of Gamers, but I don’t think anyone will be pleased with the result. Two words: poo snake. I think I’ve already said too much.

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword – This title is an absolute treasure to play. It’s an experience. The way Team Ninja crammed every possible DS function so seamlessly into the tapestry of the game — it’s magical. And not just ninja magic. Well, okay, it’s just ninja magic. But, still!

This week will see me picking up roughly three new games, which is a first for me. I don’t think I’ve ever acquired so many new games in such a short time period that weren’t purchased with Christmas money from the parents.

Picking up

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars – This game will keep me company on an upcoming business trip. It’s been getting stellar reviews, and from what snippets I’ve read, this is one DS game that’s worth every penny of its decidedly Square Enix-esque $35 price tag.

Peggle Dual Shot – I’m a Peggle whore. Taking it with me to play on the plane? That’s a no-brainer. Wrestling it away from the wife? Might take considerably more strength and willpower than I can possibly muster.

BIT.TRIP BEAT – This WiiWare game is one that I’ve mentioned before, and I’ve been anticipating greatly. Greatly, I say. It’s only $6 on the Wii Shop Channel. I have $9 on there right now, and sometime tomorrow evening — if I’m not hacking up a lung (or heck, even if I am) — I’ll be downloading this.

Okay, so that’s my list. Where’s yours?

A platform that many gamers don’t really deem a platform at all, would be the Nintendo DS.

Brain Training

For some reason it’s an outcast in the hardcore gaming circles. But to me, this should definitely not be the case. The DS should be seen for what it is: a hand held console that brings innovative gameplay to the user. This is evident in games like the very well known Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training. A unique game that helps the user strengthen their brain through brain activities. And bringing games like and the Geometry Wars, Impossible Mission remake to the DS results in a ballet of fantastic gaming, happy feelings and an explosion of awesomeness in your pants.

Why gamers dis the DS, I will never know. But I will always remain a fan of the DS because it fills the gap left by the Game Boy from back in the day. But one thing that’s starting to annoy me a lot though, is the feeling I’m getting that developers aren’t too fond of the DS either. And I base this statement on the overuse of the stylus.

Flashback - The Quest for Identity

Great games are being developed for the DS (or should I rather say great ideas for games). Specifically platform games. And the reason I mention platform games is not because I’m a huge fan of the genre, it’s more because on the hand held console is where the platform game feels most at home. Nearly all Game Boy games were a platform game of some sort and it just feels “right” to play a platformer on these consoles. And platform games from the 80’s and 90’s are available in high number. The original Prince of Persia, Prince of Persia 2, Blackthorne, Flashback; all of these are absolutely brilliant platform games. Which is why it grieves me so much when I see the direction platforming is taking on the DS. Overuse of the stylus….

I agree that the stylus is innovative and presents interesting gameplay mechanics that can be explored when developing games, but relying on the stylus too much for a simple game concept simply brings the idea crashing to the ground. What sparked me to write this entry, was the announcement of the DS version of the upcoming Prince of Persia game. It will be a platform game, yet the entire game will be played with the stylus, and the buttons will serve only as a means to change characters. A platform game where, rather than platforming, you’re pointing ? Gameogically (that’s a new word. Write that down) it just doesn’t make sense! Having a platform game played using the stylus takes away the essence of what a platform game is. It’s supposed to be a test of patience, timing and exploration. Playing such a game using only the stylus feels fiddly. And pretty boring! I’m afraid I’ll most probably fall asleep!

Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword falls into the same sweltering pit of pure unawesomeness (write that down too). The game is great, but the control system just doesn’t do it for me at all. It’s completely stylus-driven as well. Now, I know that there’s probably a handful (maybe bit more than that) people who like the idea of using only the stylus to play such a game (I believe the developers of the games would make up part of that handful), and that’s fine. But why force the idea onto everybody ? Why not give the user the option of choosing the control-system they’re happy with ? Not only are you then keeping everybody happy, you’re keeping them happy in a fundamental area of your game. One that has the biggest impact on user impression of your game. I for one don’t think developers are too dumb to realize this. I feel they just care less about the DS. It’s not such a big deal to them if somebody doesn’t like it. (It might not be true, but that’s the impression I get – i.e rushed game development).

Blackthorne

I’m all for innovation, and the stylus is an (theoretical) innovative gameplay tool. But what all this development boils down to, is actually “messing with a winning formula”. The platform genre works because of what it is: a game where you jump, climb, crawl, cling to/on/around platforms. What the stylus is there for, is to add something new to the formula. Not to re-write the formula. Taking the recently released Bionic Commando Rearmed. It kept everything from the original. Yet it added a few gameplay elements. And by doing this, the developers created a fantastic game. One that is a joy to play.

A very interesting article on re-makes (evolution / mutation, according to the interviewee) was posted this week. The one comment that I really favour though : “We first divided each element of the original game, talked it over with the team and changed the parts so that it fits modern gameplay conditions, then we put it back together“. The key word in that statement being “changed”. Not “removed”. Tadashi Iguchi and his team at Namco Bandai have the right idea when it comes to making games. Other developers could really take a leaf out of their books.

What I think everybody who agrees with me should do, is take their DS stylus, attach a dart (or some sharp object) to the tip and meet me at the developer’s offices. Maybe we can convince them to alter their thoughts (although that’s the one and only thing that’s truly impossible in life – changing somebody else’s opinion).

But for real though, developers should try to find the middle ground. Keep the old, but introduce the new. A symphony of old and new is much better than a cacophony of only new. Hear me, developers of the age. Strain your ears for the unhealthy sound of discord when you create your games. And hear me dear gamers, add your voices to the mix in order to create the harmony that is pure gaming.

När det är sol ute verkar det som de flesta inte har en tanke på att sitta inne och spela spel längre. På Game blir det tommare än vanligt och speciellt på Drottninggatan får man kämpa några extra varv för att få butiken att gå runt. Själv måste jag säga att jag tycker att jag har spelat lite mer frekvent än vanligt nu när sommaren hoppat igång, men det har nog mer att göra med att möjligheterna har blivit större nu när jag har börjat hänga hemma hos Micke i Farsta där de flesta spel och de flesta konsoler finns. Bekvämt nog behöver jag inte känna som att jag utnyttjade honom för hans resurser, nej utan mig så skulle nog 50% av alla spel han köper stå oöppnade hemma hos honom och han skulle bara sitta vid datorn med antingen WoW eller AoC. Så vi kan faktiskt se oss som vänner snarare än något annat.
Under sommaren har jag nu därför fått möjligheten att spela en del roliga spel framförallt till Wii och 360 och de mest nötta titlarna har varit Mario kart och Ninja gaiden 2, samt Dead or alive 4. Ninja Gaiden 2 måste jag säga är ett riktigt härligt spel. Trots att det enligt förutsago ska vara svårare än ettan och att det skulle vara en omöjlighet att klara om man inte var en bra spelare(vilket jag inte för en sekund skulle vilja kalla mig själv) så tycker jag att det nog var mest blaj. Jag har testat ettan och jag vet hur svårt det är och Ninja Gaiden 2 känns faktiskt lättare, faktum att vi nu bara har kommit till 4:e kapitlet så känns det överkomligt på något sätt. Så alla som aktar sig för Ninja Gaiden av oro för att inte klara av det tycker jag ska testa tvåan, det är dessutom riktigt härlig grafik i det spelet.

På tal om Ninja Gaiden så har Daniel som känt inhandlat Dragon Sword, DS varianten av spelet som snart kommer till Sverige och jag har aldeles snart klarat det(jodå jag är på sista bossen). Jag måste säga att upplevelsen av det spelet från början var att det såg riktigt bra ut, kontrollerna var sköna och det passade riktigt bra att slåss med stylusen som man gjorde i Zelda ungefär men nu känns det coolare då man gör fler rörelser än att bara svinga svärdet fram och tillbaka.
Som Daniel sa så tycker även jag att de har lyckats hålla sig tillräckligt “true” till konceptet Ninja Gaiden för att man inte ska känna att det är ett helt annat spel med samma namn, men däremot är utmaningen något som saknas i spelet tyvärr, hittils har jag klarat mig på”ca 6 speltimmar vilket känns lite tråkigt men sant. Dock tycker jag att Dragon Sword verkligen är ett spel att spela då det fortfarande har en så skön stil.

I dagarna har MGS 4 kommit ut till PS3:an och jag vet inte hur sugen jag är på det då jag inte har erfarat någon av de tidigare titlarna så jag låter den kanske stå där, limiterad med gubbe och allt, orörd på Mickes hylla.
Istället hängde jag hemma hos en annan kollega från Drottninggatan härom dagen och spelade Rockband minsann, ingen vet fortfarande när spelet kommer till Sverige och de håller redan på att utveckla en uppföljare till spelet samtidigt som Guitar Hero 4 kommer att komma i slutet av året.  MEN; Rockband var och är så bra som jag trott och det är omänskligt kul att sitta och spela trummor och sjunga, gitarr och bas har man ju redan varit med om liksom.  Igår svängde jag och Daniel faktiskt förbi GameShop i stan där även de hade ett set stående på bänken som vi fick prova. Det hade fått lite stryk dock så Gitarr och Bas var inte det roligaste men trummorna var som de skulle och Daniel tyckte också att det var urgrymt.

Idag styr vi kosan mot Uppsala igen, tittar på kattungar, träffar familjen och förhoppningsvis inhandlar vi någon typ av tält också eftersom jag ska till Gotska sandön nästa månad.

In honor of the new Ninja Gaiden releasing this month for Xbox 360, here is a history of the series . . .

1988 Ninja Gaiden (arcade)
developer/publisher: Tecmo

Many gaming nerds are familiar with the NES games in the series but not with this one – THE ONE THAT STARTED IT ALL. This game is not a fast-action platforming adventure but rather a slow-paced beat-em-up in the vein of Double Dragon and Final Fight. I daresay this game is somewhat better than those as there’s more variety and there are checkpoints. Unlike most arcade beat-em-ups, having a million quarters in your pocket doesn’t guarantee victory as everytime you die you’re sent back to a certain point.

1989 Ninja Gaiden (NES)
developer/publisher: Tecmo

The game that made the series famoussssss. This game fused the platforming action of Castlevania with the high-octane action of Contra. It’s sweeeeet. And it was the first, or at least one of the first, console games to use cinematic cutscenes between levels to advance the story and provide motivation and context for your wacky adventures.

1990 Ninja Gaiden II: Dark Sword of Chaos (NES)
developer/publisher: Tecmo

More of the same and that ain’t bad.

1991 Ninja Gaiden III: Ancient Ship of Doom (NES and Lynx)
developer/publisher: Tecmo

Uses the same engine as the previous 2 games but definitely more changes this time around. New enemies and power ups but still a familiar situation.

1991 Ninja Gaiden Shadow (Game Boy)
developer: Natsume
publisher: Tecmo

Tecmo bought a ninja game from competitor Natsume, changed some of the sprites and the story, and called it a Ninja Gaiden game. Kinda annoying, right?

1991 Ninja Gaiden (Game Gear)
developer/publisher: SEGA

Apparently not content with their own popular ninja series, Shinobi, SEGA licensed Ninja Gaiden from Tecmo and made this piece of shit. Good job!

1992 Ninja Gaiden (Master System)
developer/publisher: SEGA

I haven’t played this all the way through but it’s something of a redemption for the shitty Game Gear effort. It plays much more like the NES games but with some of its own peculiarities and shows pretty clearly how much better looking Master System is than NES.

DEAD OR ALIVE games

The Ninja Gaiden series kinda died after the Master System game but the character did not go unused. In 1996, Tecmo released the 3D fighting game, Dead or Alive, featuring Ryu Hayabasa (the Ninja Gaiden dude’s name!) and he’s been in all 4 installments in the series.

2004 Ninja Gaiden (Xbox)
Developer: Team Ninja
Publisher: Tecmo

1,000 years later, the development team behind the Dead or Alive series was allowed to make a Ninja Gaiden game. Not surprisingly, it looks and feels like a Dead or Alive game. The gameplay has more in common with the original beat-em-up than with the NES games.

2008 Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (DS)
Developer: Team Ninja
Publisher: Tecmo

Like the Xbox game, but with a stylus.

2008 Ninja Gaiden II (Xbox 360)
Developer: Team Ninja
Publisher: Tecmo

The new one, duh!

kicknz

Today WiiWare games were released on the Wii’s Shop Channel for the first time. The opening lineup is strong, and it seems that Nintendo wants to release new titles on a regular basis. The launch games are:

LostWinds

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As a King

Defend Your Castle

Pop

TV Show King

V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack

IGN.com is reviewing all of them quickly, most earning a score around 6 or 7, but so far with LostWinds in the lead with an 8.2 out of 10. Now I kind of wish I saved those 500 points I had on Sunday for Defend Your Castle (the only 500 point game of the bunch), but Super Mario Bros. 3 probably is a much better game…

By the way, Final Fantasy up there has downloadable content features… nice. Nintendo’s finally starting to understand.

And as a final note, the Nintendo Channel was also given an update with new videos (mostly of the WiiWare titles) and DS demos. While it’s a bit disappointing to see Ninja Gaiden gone from the lineup, new demos like Apollo Justice and Iron Man have caught my eye. If the Nintendo Channel keeps getting awesome updates like this every week, I’ll be one happy gamer.

By Josh60502

Now it’s time for some reviews of games that I’ve recently finished. First I’ll provide a school-like grade and then a more personal “conclusion”. Read on. Or don’t.

GAME 1: BULLY SCHOLARSHIP EDITION
SYSTEM: WII
PUBLISHER: ROCKSTAR

This is an upgraded port of a year-and-a-half-old PlayStation 2 game. Is it worth purchasing in spite of that? I would have to say YES, as long as you don’t already own the PS2 original. There are some new missions, characters, blah blah but what really makes the Wii version awesome are the controls. Swinging the Wiimote and the Nunchuk attachment to beat people up on screen is very fun and rewarding. This game was quite controversial on release but it’s nowhere near as violent or vulgar as the Grand Theft Auto teams, developed by the same company. This game has a lot of personality, tons of characters, and exciting missions. Did you hate jocks/cheerleaders/nerds/bullies/greasers/burnouts/etc. when you were in high school? This is your chance to beat them all up. Enjoy!

Grade: A
Conclusion: Surprisingly good

GAME 2: MARIO KART WII
SYSTEM: DUH
PUBLISHER: NINTENDO

If you’ve played the previous Mario Karts you may be wondering what’s new in this game. Here’s the list: 1) 12 competitors in each race instead of 8 2) The option to use motorcycles 3) A steering wheel controller that comes with the game 4) A horrible “rubber banding” system to keep the races close.

Adding four more contestants to each race is a nice touch and makes things even more chaotic than usual. Unfortunately, the motorcyles are nothing special and don’t add much. The steering wheel peripheral sucks and you’re much better off just using the old-school controller scheme. The rubber banding is obvious and awful. If you’re familiar with the previous games, one of the items is a blue shell that goes straight for the 1st place racer and takes them out. They appear in overabundance in this game and maintaining a 1st place position is more of a liability than it ever should be. The Bullet Bill item returns and is also cheaper than ever. It turns you into a Bullet Bill and zips you along, sometimes from 12th place all the way to 1st. Ugh. Unfortunately, unless you’re a terrible racer you’re much more likely to be hurt by the rubber banding than benefit from it.

Mario Kart DS introduced a missions mode that even had boss fights. Sadly, that mode did not make it into this game. Combine that with the fact that the graphics are barely better than the GameCube Mario Kart game and you have an unfortunate product. Still, it’s Mario Kart and it’s competently designed, with 16 new tracks and 16 classic tracks. It’s a lot of fun 75% of the time. The online mode works well and there are many great characters to unlock (except for Funky Kong, he’s a nerd).

Grade: B
Conclusion: Mildly disappointing

GAME 3: RESIDENT EVIL THE UMBRELLA CHRONICLES
SYSTEM: WII
PUBLISHER: CAPCOM

If you’ve played House of the Dead, Virtua Cop or Time Crisis then you’ll know what to expect from this game, as it features first-person, on-rails light-gun action.  You don’t control where your character goes, just what he or she shoots at.  Umbrella Chronicles is divided into four main chapters.  Chapter 1 is a light-gun adaptation of Resident Evil 0, Chapter 2 adapts Resident Evil, and Chapter 3 adapts Resident Evil 2.  Completing these chapters opens up new scenarios that feature new side stories featuring various villains and allies.  Chapter 4 is a brand new story in which the heroes from the original Resident Evil invade a factory in Russia.  It’s all good stuff and fairly challenging.  There’s a lot of variety for a light-gun game and it’s much longer than most of its peers.  The graphics are easily the best I’ve seen on Wii so far.  I’d highly recommend this game to fans of light-gun games or the Resident Evil series but others might not be that impressed by it. 

Grade: A-
Conclusion: A pleasant surprise

GAME 4: NINJA GAIDEN DRAGON SWORD
SYSTEM: NINTENDO DS
PUBLISHER: TECMO

I wasn’t sure what to expect coming into this game because I haven’t really played the revival Ninja Gaiden game for Xbox. As it turns out, most of the connections with the classic NES Ninja Gaiden games have to do with theme and characters but not gameplay.  Dragon Sword is essentially a beat-em-up or hack-’n-slash with minor puzzle elements.  Control is provided almost exclusively by the stylus.  This means you spend most of your time frantically swiping the stylus back and forth, which somehow results in a bunch of bad guys dying. 

The game looks very nice by DS standards but the audio is largely forgettable.  The storyline is basically the same as every Ninja Gaiden game: go save some girl.  The action can be tedious at times but the boss battles are usually pretty fun.  Overall, this adventure is a mixed bag.  For some reason, the story scenes are expressed with lame anime-style drawings that contrast with the fully rendered 3D presentation of the in-game graphics.  Also distracting are the main villainess’ breasts in these drawings; they’re unnaturally large, of course, but they sit about 3 inches too high.  Not appealing!  This game was made by the same pervs at Tecmo that make the Dead or Alive games and supposedly the impetus for Dragon Sword’s production was a request from the producer’s kids, who wanted to play one of his games on their beloved DS.  Awwwww.  God, to think that the guy that introduced breast physics to the video game world and made an entire game that revolves around bikini girls lounging around, exchanging gifts, and playing volleyball (DOA Xtreme) has kids is unsettling.  He also wears sunglasses indoors so . . . . yeah, you know.

Grade: B-
Conclusion: Mildly disappointing

kicknz

Min kära vän Malin gav mig en liten spark i baken idag.
Jag är lite dum ibland som låter mig själv sjunka ner i någon slags halvdepression över att mitt liv inte automatiskt fixar sig. Motivation är något man ansvarar för själv, arbete ärnågot man ansvarar för själv! Så istället för att sitta hemma och känna hur livet inte händer och hur sysslolös man är så är det viktigt att ta sig igenom alla dessa mindre uppgifter(som uppsatsen) för att inbilla sig själv att man iallafall inte står stilla.
För övrigt har jag fått fler timmar på Game nu också och kommer från och med i februari att hoppa in mellan ett och halv åtta på måndagar även. Så det går sakta framåt. När jag väl har kommit in i jobbet ordentligt kommer jag säkert att kunna hoppa in på andra Gamebutiker och iochmed det räknar jag med att ha biffen kirrad. Förhoppningsvis.  Det där med att leva på vatten och bröd är nog inte så tokigt när allt kommer omkring. Jag har fått en elvisp (med degkrokar) av mamma och härmed tänker jag göra verklighet av diverse recept jag hittar här och där. Brödbak är något jag absolut kan tänka mig att förgylla min vardag med sålänge.

Angående spel så l’ngtar jag efter Mars. Då kommer Ninja Gaiden till DS: “Dragon Sword” efter att ha sett den här videon kan jag säga att jag vill ha!

Para que luego digan que la DS no puede dar buenos gráficos.

Estoy deseando que salga este juego para la DS por que tiene una pinta increible y un control muy chulo.