26+ new DS games on the prowl. Ready your wallets to be emptied.-part 2 of E3 awesomeness
1. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates. Originally for GameCube, this installment promises to improve on the pesky GBA and GBA>GCN cords required for this game. And for a game that was best on multiplayer, that was bad. But w/DS's wireless capabilities, this trouble is now gone. Plus, all map and menu functions simply go to one of the two screens. Four players can play wirelessly Possibly WiFi, but no confirmation yet. Will also feature a single-player mode. Expected release date: October 1st
2. Big Brain Academy. One of the games built off the Brain Age's hype in Japan (and here). If you notice, they stole the DDR chart o.O So instead of measuring a song's difficulty in certain areas, it measures your brain strength in those areas? (Btw, if you have not gotten Brain Age, pick it up now) Expected release date: June 5th
3. Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol. Outdoors spinoff to its GameCube counterpart, which was released only 3 months ago.
"Playground equipment in the park is mysteriously disappearing and the flowers in the park have been transformed by evil monsters. It’s up to Chibi-Robo to save the day and make the park a nice place to visit again.
This time around, Chibi-Robo gets to flex his mechanical muscles in new and interesting ways. He rides buggies, cars and boats across lawns and ponds, fights mysterious enemies with his trusty squirter, dances in the park to give life to the plants there and builds playground equipment to make the park a better place."
My only question is: if he's outdoors, how in the world does he recharge now? I doubt there'll be a plug behind the bench, Chibi-Robo. The last time I checked, see-saws didn't have electrical outlets either. I'm sure Nintendo will answer this eventually.
4. Children of Mana. One of my most anticipated DS games, and part of the nice set of RPGs (good ones) to finally come to DS. Part of the Seiken Densetsu series, this time, you only choose one character for single play mode. Because of this, you get two weapons. But if you link up other DSs, together you can take out anything in your way together. Usually, all your characters had to be on the same screen. But with link-up, the characters can be in completely different parts of a floor, maybe even different floors. The characters can also have custom colors for multiplay, to differentiate duplicate characters. The fighting system, unlike most RPGs but not new to the Mana series, is real-time. Not even real-time like Chrono Trigger. You don't select what you do, you go up there and do it. You also get to summon a Mana spirit that you choose before each dungeon (different from the spell system in previous Mana games). Also added is the ability to choose a Nikita as your character, the merchant cat race we've all come to love (or be ripped off by). With the Nikita comes the hammer, the game's most powerful weapon. The only weird thing about this game (well, other than the spirit summon system, that kinda weirds me out), is that the human characters are named Flick (guy), Tumble (girl), and Pop(sprite). I honestly don't remember the Nikita's name. Expected release date: October 1st
5. Clubhouse Games. A collection of card and board games for the DS. Not much else to say.
6. Custom Robo Arena. Custom robot warriors and holographic arenas. Whether you win isn't simply by skill, but also how well you can design your robot. Oddly enough plays like an RPG outside the battle arena (oh no, this is starting to sound like the MegaMan Battle Network games). Somehow I think this mainly appeals to the younger audiences.
7. DK: King of Swing. Originally for GBA, DK himself has finally hit the DS. But yeah, I know nothing of this game...
8. Diddy Kong Racing. Remade from the N64 version, this game will have WiFi for I believe 4 players. I think I also heard a little something about customizable tracks. Definitely unexpected, yet lots of hype already.
9. DS Air. A flight simulator for the DS. Customize your own planes and weapons (?). Not only supposed to be a flight sim, but actually a realistic flight shooter. Co-op play to take down enemy fighters together is also included. They're going to shoot Nazis, aren't they? Cause you know every game's better when you get to shoot some Nazis.
10. Elite Beat Agents! Originally known as Ouendan in Japan, this has definitely been imported many times, maybe as much as Children of Mana. "Solve the world's problems through the power of music!" Tap the screen and trace rythmic patterns to do things like... save a Peter Jackson-looking screenwriter's career? Much of it in comic book/manga format, this definitely lines itself up with other quirky must-haves like Phoenix Wright and Trauma Center. The only problem is, they seemed to have cut out much, maybe even all, of the J-pop/J-rock to be replaced with English music. Bummer.
11. Hotel Dusk: Room 215. Many say this "Mystery Book" adventure game reminds them of Phoenix Wright. You hold your DS like a book (which is unnew to us Brain Age players) to solve puzzles and mysteries in order to find your missing friend.
12. Guess what? I only mentioned its name twice before, but Capcom announced: Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All! Finally, there's only 3-4 PW games in Japan (they should be working on the fourth right now). New modes and all-new cases in this next installment of the PW series. No objections here.
13. Kirby! Didn't like how you had to use the stylus in Canvas Curse? Well now, you actually use the controls. True to the Kirby way, this promises to be the next Kirby adventure. What cracks me up is the story. Kirby's going to kick ass and take some names over.. strawberry shortcake. You don't want to steal Kirby's strawberry shortcake. You eat Kirby's strawberry shortcake, he eats you. Expect even more Kirby copy-abilities.
14. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Wind Waker graphics. Four Swords inspiration. Completely stylus-controlled. Prepare for the frowns. Previously this game was simply going to use the stylus for the hourglass puzzles (in which you draw out an hourglass) and boomerang, so you could show the boomerang exactly where to go for puzzles. I for one am seriously worried about this game. When I want to play a Zelda game, I want at least some buttonage. Not any of this stylus-only crap. Most people (mainly the younger Zelda fans) are still hyped about this game. But I for one say it just might bomb in my books, at least.
15. Magical Vacation. Student mages go on a strange adventure in space to save their fellow classmates and teacher. Very quirky story. This is also stylus-based, but seems to make a bit more sense. You tap the spell/command. You tap the enemy. Actually makes sense.
16. Magnetica. Puzzle game in which you flick marbles to stop other marbles spinning towards you. Seems interesting, but can't say much about this game yet.
17. Mario Hoops 3-on-3. A Mario sports game finally makes it to DS as well (other than MKDS). The site's picture features Mario about to dunk a flaming basketball of doom. Collect coins on the way to the hoop, use items such as red shells and bob-ombs, play tournaments, minigames, or friends. This might become WiFi as well. We can only hope.
18. Mario VS. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis. Now instead of gathering Mini Marios, you send them out to save the day.. or something. Also Mini Peach, DK, and Toad arrive from the Mario Toy Co. With all the wealth from these dolls, Mario opens up Super Mini Mario World (say wha?). DK "takes Pauline to the top of the amusement park." Well, actually, it's top floor, but it still reminded me a lot of a certain other Kong when I read it. Especially considering Pauline is the love of DK's life in this game. So you're essentially sending out Mini Marios like lemmings to fight DK and save the girl. That's a lot of little Jumpmans.
19. New Super Mario Bros. If you haven't heard of this game, what's wrong with you! Mega Mario will stomp you dead right after he runs over a pipe and plops it on you. Mega mushrooms, Mini mushrooms (for small places and pipes), blue shell, the list goes on. With a blue shell, you can either ride it like a skateboard or swim underwater inside the shell without worry of breathing. Mega Mario can smash pipes and absolutely anything in his way. The first Mario platformer in a very long time, this proves to be a must-buy Mario game, up there with Super Mario Galaxy. Release date: May 15th.
20 & 21. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Pokemon Ranger. In Mystery Dungeon, you are the Pokemon and you talk w/other Pokemon (380 to be exact). But you didn't start out as a Pokemon, you were somehow changed into one. o.O And now you have started what is like the FEMA and National Guard of this Pokemon land. Do you change back to human? Who knows. But Ranger seriously has no news whatsoever yet.
22. Star Fox DS. With WiFi. "Star Fox returns to its roots with a blistering space shooter on Nintendo DS." Programmers and other crew include those who worked on the older Star Fox games, like Star Fox 64. If Nintendo holds true to its roots, this will be a must-have. You have co-op LAN, 8P for LAN, 4P for WiFi dogfights. With co-op, you can assign a commander out of your party. The glorious part? This commander can draw flight paths with the stylus to help show his/her comrades where to go. Absolutely droolworthy. The graphical style is a little odd and different, but this still promises to be a great game for all SF fans.
23. Sudoku Gridmaster. An entire DS game devoted to Sudoku. Enough said. Expected release date: June 26th.
24. Tenchu: Dark Secret. Oh no, it continued with the old tradition of making a game's subtitle = DS. The page for this game actually asked me for my b-day for age verification. Hmm, can these ninja assassins be as gory/violent as Resident Evil: Deadly Silence? This game will actually have an WiFi store to buy shurikens, bamboo traps, and more. Definitely an interesting title. Expected release date: August 21st
25. Yoshi's Island 2. 11-12 years after Yoshi's Island for SNES, and a few years after the GBA port, Super Mario World 3, simply known as Yoshi's Island returns. This game looks EXACTLY like it's ancestor in terms of graphical style. Thank you Nintendo. All the babies and kids from the island school have been kidnapped except Baby Mario, Peach, and DK. Poor Luigi, his sorry ass got kidnapped in Super Princess Peach, too. Save the babies! I bet Baby Luigi is your last saved baby. With each baby out of the 3 survivors come certain abilities. I don't know Baby Mario's, but Baby Peach can use her umbrella, likely to float and such (Perry the umbrella from SPP DS?), while Baby DK can climb vines. Staying completely true to Yoshi's Island, this should be a great and completely unexpected title to be added to the DS's stronghold on portable gaming. Expected release date: March 30th, 2007 :(
26. Final Fantasy III. No, this isn't FF6. That'll be ported to the GBA, along with FF5. But the Japanese FFIII, previously unreleased in America, got the 3D treatment on the DS. And it looks wonderful. You can play all by stylus if you want, but you can also use the controls. Judging by the screens, this will be a beautiful game. It seems to be revered in Japan even higher than FF6, so you know it has to be good. Expected release date: November 1st
I know there's a good 10 or so DS games that I haven't covered, including Harvest Moon DS, Lunar Knights (Boktai) DS, Cooking Mama, and much more. But my hands are tired....
2. Big Brain Academy. One of the games built off the Brain Age's hype in Japan (and here). If you notice, they stole the DDR chart o.O So instead of measuring a song's difficulty in certain areas, it measures your brain strength in those areas? (Btw, if you have not gotten Brain Age, pick it up now) Expected release date: June 5th
3. Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol. Outdoors spinoff to its GameCube counterpart, which was released only 3 months ago.
"Playground equipment in the park is mysteriously disappearing and the flowers in the park have been transformed by evil monsters. It’s up to Chibi-Robo to save the day and make the park a nice place to visit again.
This time around, Chibi-Robo gets to flex his mechanical muscles in new and interesting ways. He rides buggies, cars and boats across lawns and ponds, fights mysterious enemies with his trusty squirter, dances in the park to give life to the plants there and builds playground equipment to make the park a better place."
My only question is: if he's outdoors, how in the world does he recharge now? I doubt there'll be a plug behind the bench, Chibi-Robo. The last time I checked, see-saws didn't have electrical outlets either. I'm sure Nintendo will answer this eventually.
4. Children of Mana. One of my most anticipated DS games, and part of the nice set of RPGs (good ones) to finally come to DS. Part of the Seiken Densetsu series, this time, you only choose one character for single play mode. Because of this, you get two weapons. But if you link up other DSs, together you can take out anything in your way together. Usually, all your characters had to be on the same screen. But with link-up, the characters can be in completely different parts of a floor, maybe even different floors. The characters can also have custom colors for multiplay, to differentiate duplicate characters. The fighting system, unlike most RPGs but not new to the Mana series, is real-time. Not even real-time like Chrono Trigger. You don't select what you do, you go up there and do it. You also get to summon a Mana spirit that you choose before each dungeon (different from the spell system in previous Mana games). Also added is the ability to choose a Nikita as your character, the merchant cat race we've all come to love (or be ripped off by). With the Nikita comes the hammer, the game's most powerful weapon. The only weird thing about this game (well, other than the spirit summon system, that kinda weirds me out), is that the human characters are named Flick (guy), Tumble (girl), and Pop(sprite). I honestly don't remember the Nikita's name. Expected release date: October 1st
5. Clubhouse Games. A collection of card and board games for the DS. Not much else to say.
6. Custom Robo Arena. Custom robot warriors and holographic arenas. Whether you win isn't simply by skill, but also how well you can design your robot. Oddly enough plays like an RPG outside the battle arena (oh no, this is starting to sound like the MegaMan Battle Network games). Somehow I think this mainly appeals to the younger audiences.
7. DK: King of Swing. Originally for GBA, DK himself has finally hit the DS. But yeah, I know nothing of this game...
8. Diddy Kong Racing. Remade from the N64 version, this game will have WiFi for I believe 4 players. I think I also heard a little something about customizable tracks. Definitely unexpected, yet lots of hype already.
9. DS Air. A flight simulator for the DS. Customize your own planes and weapons (?). Not only supposed to be a flight sim, but actually a realistic flight shooter. Co-op play to take down enemy fighters together is also included. They're going to shoot Nazis, aren't they? Cause you know every game's better when you get to shoot some Nazis.
10. Elite Beat Agents! Originally known as Ouendan in Japan, this has definitely been imported many times, maybe as much as Children of Mana. "Solve the world's problems through the power of music!" Tap the screen and trace rythmic patterns to do things like... save a Peter Jackson-looking screenwriter's career? Much of it in comic book/manga format, this definitely lines itself up with other quirky must-haves like Phoenix Wright and Trauma Center. The only problem is, they seemed to have cut out much, maybe even all, of the J-pop/J-rock to be replaced with English music. Bummer.
11. Hotel Dusk: Room 215. Many say this "Mystery Book" adventure game reminds them of Phoenix Wright. You hold your DS like a book (which is unnew to us Brain Age players) to solve puzzles and mysteries in order to find your missing friend.
12. Guess what? I only mentioned its name twice before, but Capcom announced: Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All! Finally, there's only 3-4 PW games in Japan (they should be working on the fourth right now). New modes and all-new cases in this next installment of the PW series. No objections here.
13. Kirby! Didn't like how you had to use the stylus in Canvas Curse? Well now, you actually use the controls. True to the Kirby way, this promises to be the next Kirby adventure. What cracks me up is the story. Kirby's going to kick ass and take some names over.. strawberry shortcake. You don't want to steal Kirby's strawberry shortcake. You eat Kirby's strawberry shortcake, he eats you. Expect even more Kirby copy-abilities.
14. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Wind Waker graphics. Four Swords inspiration. Completely stylus-controlled. Prepare for the frowns. Previously this game was simply going to use the stylus for the hourglass puzzles (in which you draw out an hourglass) and boomerang, so you could show the boomerang exactly where to go for puzzles. I for one am seriously worried about this game. When I want to play a Zelda game, I want at least some buttonage. Not any of this stylus-only crap. Most people (mainly the younger Zelda fans) are still hyped about this game. But I for one say it just might bomb in my books, at least.
15. Magical Vacation. Student mages go on a strange adventure in space to save their fellow classmates and teacher. Very quirky story. This is also stylus-based, but seems to make a bit more sense. You tap the spell/command. You tap the enemy. Actually makes sense.
16. Magnetica. Puzzle game in which you flick marbles to stop other marbles spinning towards you. Seems interesting, but can't say much about this game yet.
17. Mario Hoops 3-on-3. A Mario sports game finally makes it to DS as well (other than MKDS). The site's picture features Mario about to dunk a flaming basketball of doom. Collect coins on the way to the hoop, use items such as red shells and bob-ombs, play tournaments, minigames, or friends. This might become WiFi as well. We can only hope.
18. Mario VS. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis. Now instead of gathering Mini Marios, you send them out to save the day.. or something. Also Mini Peach, DK, and Toad arrive from the Mario Toy Co. With all the wealth from these dolls, Mario opens up Super Mini Mario World (say wha?). DK "takes Pauline to the top of the amusement park." Well, actually, it's top floor, but it still reminded me a lot of a certain other Kong when I read it. Especially considering Pauline is the love of DK's life in this game. So you're essentially sending out Mini Marios like lemmings to fight DK and save the girl. That's a lot of little Jumpmans.
19. New Super Mario Bros. If you haven't heard of this game, what's wrong with you! Mega Mario will stomp you dead right after he runs over a pipe and plops it on you. Mega mushrooms, Mini mushrooms (for small places and pipes), blue shell, the list goes on. With a blue shell, you can either ride it like a skateboard or swim underwater inside the shell without worry of breathing. Mega Mario can smash pipes and absolutely anything in his way. The first Mario platformer in a very long time, this proves to be a must-buy Mario game, up there with Super Mario Galaxy. Release date: May 15th.
20 & 21. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Pokemon Ranger. In Mystery Dungeon, you are the Pokemon and you talk w/other Pokemon (380 to be exact). But you didn't start out as a Pokemon, you were somehow changed into one. o.O And now you have started what is like the FEMA and National Guard of this Pokemon land. Do you change back to human? Who knows. But Ranger seriously has no news whatsoever yet.
22. Star Fox DS. With WiFi. "Star Fox returns to its roots with a blistering space shooter on Nintendo DS." Programmers and other crew include those who worked on the older Star Fox games, like Star Fox 64. If Nintendo holds true to its roots, this will be a must-have. You have co-op LAN, 8P for LAN, 4P for WiFi dogfights. With co-op, you can assign a commander out of your party. The glorious part? This commander can draw flight paths with the stylus to help show his/her comrades where to go. Absolutely droolworthy. The graphical style is a little odd and different, but this still promises to be a great game for all SF fans.
23. Sudoku Gridmaster. An entire DS game devoted to Sudoku. Enough said. Expected release date: June 26th.
24. Tenchu: Dark Secret. Oh no, it continued with the old tradition of making a game's subtitle = DS. The page for this game actually asked me for my b-day for age verification. Hmm, can these ninja assassins be as gory/violent as Resident Evil: Deadly Silence? This game will actually have an WiFi store to buy shurikens, bamboo traps, and more. Definitely an interesting title. Expected release date: August 21st
25. Yoshi's Island 2. 11-12 years after Yoshi's Island for SNES, and a few years after the GBA port, Super Mario World 3, simply known as Yoshi's Island returns. This game looks EXACTLY like it's ancestor in terms of graphical style. Thank you Nintendo. All the babies and kids from the island school have been kidnapped except Baby Mario, Peach, and DK. Poor Luigi, his sorry ass got kidnapped in Super Princess Peach, too. Save the babies! I bet Baby Luigi is your last saved baby. With each baby out of the 3 survivors come certain abilities. I don't know Baby Mario's, but Baby Peach can use her umbrella, likely to float and such (Perry the umbrella from SPP DS?), while Baby DK can climb vines. Staying completely true to Yoshi's Island, this should be a great and completely unexpected title to be added to the DS's stronghold on portable gaming. Expected release date: March 30th, 2007 :(
26. Final Fantasy III. No, this isn't FF6. That'll be ported to the GBA, along with FF5. But the Japanese FFIII, previously unreleased in America, got the 3D treatment on the DS. And it looks wonderful. You can play all by stylus if you want, but you can also use the controls. Judging by the screens, this will be a beautiful game. It seems to be revered in Japan even higher than FF6, so you know it has to be good. Expected release date: November 1st
I know there's a good 10 or so DS games that I haven't covered, including Harvest Moon DS, Lunar Knights (Boktai) DS, Cooking Mama, and much more. But my hands are tired....
posted by Tiff @ 11:08 PM
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