Activision is giving players the ultimate choice on the DS when it comes to this year’s hottest movie tie-in: you can opt to join either the Decepticons or the Autobots in separate Transformers SKUs for the Nintendo handheld. We are obviously biased toward portable games here at PVG, but when it comes to movie licensed titles, sometimes it seems like the handheld versions turn out the best. While it may seem slightly gimmicky to release the same game under two different titles, there could be some practical reasons for this choice. For one, it allows developers to squeeze even more voices and textures onto each cart. Secondly, it allows Decepticon fans to focus on the task of world domination without all of that Autobot garbage getting in the way. The real question that needs answering is, what side will you choose when the game arrives on June 26? Continue reading to check out some screenshots and find out everything we know about the DS Transformers game so far.
Planet Puzzle League (June 4) – Puzzle fans are in for a treat this June, with an addictive and intense puzzler featuring touch screen controls and worldwide multiplayer via Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection service. Check out our preview of Planet Puzzle League here.
Nintendo DS Lite Web Browser (June 4) – Using your wireless internet connection or a compatible hot spot, you can surf the web on your Nintendo DS Lite using the Opera Browser featured in this neat accessory. With the inclusion of Flash and Javascript support, your web browsing experience will be rich and satisfying, just don’t expect very fast downloads. The original, ‘DS Phat’ version will only be available online.
Touchmaster DS (June 11) – Midway takes 23 touch screen minigames and puts them together in Touchmaster DS. Featuring a variety of puzzle, card, and table mini-games, this title promises to keep ‘twitch’ gamers happy, with pick-up-and-play gameplay and easy to learn instructions. You can upload your high scores to Midway’s server, and tournaments were promised, so look forward to some minigames action this summer.
Zendoku (June 13) – Zendoku is some sort of competitive Sudoku game. As you play, you ‘attack’ your opponent and they must successfully finish a minigame to continue working on their Sudoku puzzle. The game features a martial arts theme and seems like a nice take on classic Sudoku puzzling.
Transformers: Autobots / Decepticons (June 26) – Offering first-person action on a 3D environment, both versions of the game follow the upcoming movie’s storyline and feature mission-based gameplay with light RPG elements. Daily extra challenges can be downloaded via Wi-Fi, or you can battle your friends with local multiplayer up to four participants.
LifeSigns: Surgical Unit (June 26) – The popular hit in Japan comes to America this June. A mix of Trauma Center’s operations and Phoenix Wright’s items and characters profiles and adventure-style play promises to be an interesting game for fans of either series.
Video game portablizer Ben Heckendorn has joined forces with a Mexico-based startup to bring a personal retro handheld device to store shelves. For those who aren’t in the know, you can learn more about Ben Heck and his handheld creations in an interview we did with him a couple of months back. Ben designed the case that will house the new unit, and undoubtedly had a part in conceiving the prototype product as well. The device’s creators hope to skirt the legal issues surrounding the use of old ROMS by arguing that the device is not much different from any other commercial MP3 player: users can do with it what they will, mindful of the laws in their own particular jurisdiction. This sounds like a reasonable proposition, but given the ferocity with which rights holders have fought the distribution of ROMS, we hope that the makers are ready for a protracted legal battle. Still, if they can pull it off, we look forward to seeing a new contender in the handheld gaming arena.
Features:
In order to remain faithful to its retro roots and provide an “authentic” experience, the Gameport uses “synthesized versions of the original hardware” to run games supplied by the user.
The Gameport will feature a 480 x 234 LCD display, which the designers boast is smaller than the PSP screen, but much larger than the screens on the Nintendo DS.
It uses SD cards for storage, and will support sizes up to 2GB, more than enough to cart around all those legal ROMS that you, um, already own.
Only Atari 2600 and ColecoVision games are currently supported, but the company hopes to add support for many more retro systems including the NES through software upgrades later.
The Japanese-language trailer for Final Fantasy IV that was shown at this year’s Square Enix Party has finally made its way onto the net. While it doesn’t show any actual gameplay footage, the montage is full of lush backgrounds and some hints about the story and locales featured in the game. The other interesting tidbit of news to come out regarding the Final Fantasy IV remake is that the title has been promised in Japan before the end of 2007. Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long for an English localization. Our European friends likely have a bit longer to wait, considering that they only recently got their hands on the Final Fantasy III remake.
Sony Computer Entertainmnet has given Killzone fans everywhere cause to rejoice. Today they released the much-anticipated downloadable patch for Killzone: Liberation that includes a new single-player chapter as well as added multiplayer functionality. The multiplayer matchmaking service permits friend lists and messaging, and the game is also reported to support voice communication over the official headset. While the title is nearly six months old, this additional material is sure to generate some buzz for this already excellent game, and hopefully draw some fans back to their PSPs for some online action. PSP owners can access this new material using the in-game download menu or by visiting the game’s official website.
Nintendo recently had a meeting with retailers, out of which a bit of news have come. Aside from a few Japanese DS game release dates, Nintendo announced two new Nintendo DS Lite colors for the island nation: metallic rose and gloss silver. Both versions will be available to Japan and anxious importers on June 23rd. With this, Japan has seven Nintendo DS Lite colors, with a few limited edition versions as well. Metallic Rose looks an awful lot like the Coral Pink DS Lite, but the Gloss Silver version looks stylish and downright cool. No word of an American release of new DS colors, but we can always hope…and import, if we must! Meanwhile, PSPers in North America can have their favorite console in any color they wish, as long as it’s black.
We have no idea what is going on in these screenshots, but we like it and we want more. It’s a Wonderful World is a new title being developed by Square Enix in Japan for the Nintendo DS handheld, and it is slated to be released on July 27, 2007. Import fans don’t have too long to wait for this game, but the rest of us are left with fingers crossed hoping that this esoteric project, which draws heavily on Tokyo street style, will find its way to America and Europe in a localized version. For now, feast your eyes on the latest scans, and see if you an figure out what the heck is going on.
For the uninitiated, the level of skill required to dodge the attacks dished out by bosses in the genre of games known as “bullet hell” smups is indistinguishable from magic. The trick of course, is the fact that in games like Ikaruga, the only way to die is to have an enemy bullet touch the very center pixel of Player 1’s ship, enabling skilled gamers to weave a path through seemingly impossible waves of fire. GBA Bullet, by Japanese homebrew coder Takayama Fumihiko, reduces the equation to its bare essentials. This bullet hell “simulator” allows players to test their mettle against over 300 industry standard patterns and practice up for arcade showdowns while on the go. So far, the GBA code has been tested and found to work on the GBA, Micro and DS, so pick your poison and download the game from the official site. DS players will obviously need some homebrew hardware to make this work, but you can find everything you need to get started here.
The fanboys (and girls) over at the Advent Children forums managed to get their hands on a Japanese-language interview with Nomura, one of the developers of Final Fantasy: Crisis Core. Using their powers of translation, they were able to reveal some tidbits of interest to Final Fantasy fans everywhere. Here are some of the highlights that emerged from the interview:
The game is reported to take more than 100 hours to reach 100% completion. This includes 30 hours of regular story missions and the additional time needed to complete side-quests in Midgar and collect all of the various materia in the game.
The game is apparently at the 90% complete mark. When asked what remains to be done, Nomura says that they are currently working on compressing all of the game data down to a single UMD size. This is interesting, since we have not heard of any other developer reaching the full capacity of a single UMD disk. Later on in the interview, Nomura notes that CC’s size is “unlike other portable games”. [drool....]
The battle system, while oriented toward action, will aqlso have a strategic element. Players will do more or less damage depending on their position when they attack the enemy, with rear attacks dealing more hurt than frontal ones.
We can expect a “wonderful” special edition of the game.
Be sure and head on over to the AdventChildren forums to join in on the otaku love-fest for this title. There are lots of other juicy gameplay features revealed in the interview that make us want this game even more (if that were even possible).
Real life sim Harvest Moon gets the RPG touch in Rune Factory. Natsume has taken the famous 10-year old Harvest Moon series and mixed it up to deliver an interesting new take for the franchise. Scheduled to release sometime in July, Rune Factory features the full simulation of Harvest Moon as well as dungeon crawling monster battles and other RPG elements.
The first change from standard Harvest Moon games is thrown at you right at the beginning; the game has a plot. You, a character with amnesia, ends up in the town of Karnia in the Kingdom of Norad. A girl named Mist shows you around town and gives you a hoe and a watering can. As you explore the town, a wild beast appears and you must fight it. Rune Factory is a dungeon crawler RPG. You enter monster-filled caves and dungeons in search for experience and items. You can use physical weapons or magic spells to eliminate your adversaries. Dungeons also feature boss fights. As you level up, your characters stats increase, allowing you to perform more tasks during each day.
Which tasks, you ask? The standard litany of Harvest Moon tasks mixed in with the new gameplay elements. Rune Factory is also a full-fledged real-life simulator a la Harvest Moon. You earn a living by growing crops, fishing, mining, and other franchise-standard activities. As you accomplish certain requirements, paths to other, more sophisticated dungeons are opened. A neat twist is that you can grow crops inside dungeons. You have to keep monsters away from your patch and water might be hard to come by, but dungeon-grown crops are immune to weather effects. Outside of dungeons and into the town, you can make friends and girlfriends that might eventually marry you. Every townsfolk has a particular personality, and by giving them gifts that match their style, you can increase their Love or Friendship Stats towards you.
Graphically, Rune Factory looks beautiful on the DS hardware. Continue reading to check out some screenshots and a gameplay trailer.
Are you still playing Pokémon? I know I am. Ouendan 2 is also taking up a good amount of my gaming time, but sooner or later it’ll be time to move on. Luckily there are a pile of great games coming down the pipeline this month. Summer is upon us, but the Nintendo DS will not suffer from the usual ‘summer drought’ that gamers have come to expect. June and the rest of the summer months include a wide variety of DS releases to satisfy any gamer’s craving, from puzzles to RPGs and many different genres in between. Nintendo’s Planet Puzzle League promises a busy puzzle summer, but other games such as LifeSigns: Surgical Unit and Touchmaster DS are titles worth checking out. The intense heat of the summer makes it even better; turn on the AC, serve your favorite drink, and find a comfortable sofa to enjoy some quality summer DS gaming with the following releases for the month of June:
For the uninitiated, the level of skill required to dodge the attacks dished out by bosses in the genre of games known as “bullet hell” smups is indistinguishable from magic. The trick of course, is the fact that in games like Ikaruga, the only way to die is to have an enemy bullet touch the very center pixel of Player 1’s ship, enabling skilled gamers to weave a path through seemingly impossible waves of fire. GBA Bullet, by Japanese homebrew coder Takayama Fumihiko, reduces the equation to its bare essentials. This bullet hell “simulator” allows players to test their mettle against over 300 industry standard patterns and practice up for arcade showdowns while on the go. So far, the GBA code has been tested and found to work on the GBA, Micro and DS, so pick your poison and download the game from the 
Real life sim Harvest Moon gets the RPG touch in Rune Factory. Natsume has taken the famous 10-year old Harvest Moon series and mixed it up to deliver an interesting new take for the franchise. Scheduled to release sometime in July, Rune Factory features the full simulation of Harvest Moon as well as dungeon crawling monster battles and other RPG elements.