After Nokia announced that they were reviving the N-Gage brand in the form of a new mobile gaming service, I know that we were all counting the days until it was supposed to be released… in November. What´s that? You didn´t know that the new N-gage system was due out two months ago? According to a reuters press release, the Nokia gaming platform is now expected to appear sometime in 2008, once some last-minute software bug testing is completed.
Truthfully, we want this service to be good. For too long, mobile games have occupied a sorry position on the ´fun´meter, right below those LCD toys that come for free in cereal boxes. At least those games have workable controls. So far the major weakness with mobile games, apart from the fact that they generally suck, is that they are really, really hard to control with normal cellphone buttons. Hopefully Nokia´s new line of phones will feature buttons that complement the games they plan to release on the machine. The launch titles curently slated to release with the system include Fifa 2008, Crash Bandicoot, Tetris and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Color us intrigued. What say you, PVG readers?
Are you excited about the new N-gage mobile gaming service?
Although we prefer new games, ports can be worth bringing to a system. For one, players familiar with the original iteration of a game can experience it again on the go, whereas other people can try it out for the first time and enjoy some classic gameplay on their DS. With Nintendo’s Virtual Console on the Wii, the chances for any of these games to make it to the Nintendo DS are slim, but that won’t stop us from dreaming and hoping for eventful ports of these Nintendo 64 titles.
Tetrisphere
Not many were able to enjoy the revolutionary gameplay of Tetrisphere back in 1997. Instead of the standard Tetris style of play, you won’t stack pieces; you pluck them off a sphere to reveal its core. A variety of game modes and a superb techno soundtrack make this game even better. Imagine; well-executed touch screen controls and versus battles via Wi-Fi. Please, anyone, make this happen!
Glover
If you played and enjoyed Glover, we salute you; it was a decent title back in its time, but hardly anyone cared for it. Glover is a mix of platformer / puzzle gameplay, in which you control a glove that can bounce a ball to reach the stage’s goal. A cheerful soundtrack and colorful, bright environments enhanced the experience. Not a masterpiece per se, but a very original and clever title that would fit well on the DS, as long as enough publicity and a fine port made the game worth checking out.
In game industry parlance we call these titles vapourware: games that were announced and hyped by their respective developers but never managed to see the light of day. Every system has its fair share of these games (nobody even knows what system Duke Nukem Forever is supposed to appear on) but it seems as though the PSP has had a disproportionate amount of disappointing cancellations. It could be because the system was hyped way beyond developers´ abilities to deliver, or it could simply be because some publishers eyes were bigger than their stomachs and they have not yet caught on to the notion that handheld titles can be extremey profitable. Luckily for PSP gamers, there are almost too many quality releases piling up for their beloved handheld. Otherwise some of these cancellations might hurt more than they already do. Brace yourselves for our list of games that might have been, if only…
1) Myst
Let me see if I can do this without dropping a single Myst-related pun. Like so many gorillas in the mist, this game keeps disappearing into the… Oh, nevermind, you get the idea. Midway announced that they were working on this game in 2005 and slated its release for 2006. To their credit, the company did manage to get a version of the game out in one territory: Australia. Probably as a result of mediocre reviews and the company´s recent financial troubles, the game has been put on the shelf indefinitely for North America and Europe. Since the game was a straight-up port and therefore available on a multitude of other systems (including the popluar CD-i) it is doubtful that this news will be lamented by too many Myst fans, although if done correctly a game like this could be quite successful on the PSP.
2) Gekido: The Dark Angel
A Devil May Cry look-alike that was in development by an Italian game studio called NAPS team. Although development had progressed far enough to produce some pretty impressive (and blood-splattered) screenshots, the game was unceremoniously canned sometime in late 2006. Billed as ´a fully-interactive 3d action/adventure game´, Gekido seemed to owe a lot of design cues to that other gothic action franchise, right down to the clothing and badass weapon of the protagonist. It is disappointing that this title has been put on hold, particularly since the rumored Devil May Cry PSP project has either been cancelled or never existed in the first place.
We have picked our top DS games for 2007, and surely you have your favorites as well. There are, however, a ton of quality DS titles to choose from, and some are bound to go under the radar from most gamers. Low advertisement budgets, exclusivities, or a release date close to other, bigger titles are all reasons that some great games go overlooked, but fear not; we have chosen the five best DS games that hardly anyone played, so that you can consider picking them up if you missed out on them during the year.
Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon
A summer game that didn’t attract as much attention as it should have, Rune Factory takes the Harvest Moon formula, tweaks it up a bit to make it better, and mixes it well with a fun RPG / dungeon crawler dose. Bringing some of the best aspects of both worlds, this title offers something familiar to some ‘hardcore’ gamers not familiar with Harvest Moon, and also changes things up for those familiar with the franchise looking for something new for it. Tons of things to do and great presentation make this a worthy recommendation for anyone interested.
Custom Robo Arena Arena features exciting Robo battles, lots of customization options, and great multiplayer support including single and multicard battles as well as online play complete with friends-only Voice Chat. Perhaps the series hasn’t caught on as well as Nintendo hoped, but this DS installment is a great game and the perfect jump-in point for anyone not familiar with the franchise.
Puzzle Quest was an entertaining little game, and nobody would deny that it captivated a lot of fans of both genres (puzzle and RPG) when it apeared on the PSP, DS and Xbox Live Arcade earlier this year. Oh, and did we mention that it is available for the PC as well? The game performs admirably on all platforms, although the Xbox 360 version is arguably the best, featuring online multiplayer for the first time. But is Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords the best PSP game from 2007? It is tough to make this argument, not least because there were so many quality titles released for the system this year.
Despite Gamespot´s enthusiasm for the game, there are a couple of points they might have wanted to consider before bestowing such an honor on this title. First, Puzzle Quest is an entertaining game, but it is available for multiple platforms, and the PSP is not necessarily the best platform on which to enjoy the game (personally I like the lazy touchscreen feature on the DS version). Secondly, there were many games that made WAY better use of the PSP´s unique strengths (graphics, storage media, wide screen) during 2007. We like our own list of the year´s best and we are sticking to it. What do you think, PSP fans? Was Puzzle Quest as good as it got for you on the system in 2007?
Hit the jump to check out the full list of Gamespot´s winners
Wipeout Pulse won´t hit US shops until February, but that doesn´t leave North American fans completely out in the cold. Users with a Playstation Network account can access some cool features on the official Wipeout Pulse website, wipeout-game.com. There are a lot of nifty things to play around with, including downloadable wallpapers and an online performance tracking system. But by far the most exciting feature is the skin editor, which allows players to create their very own custom skins for each craft in the game. These skins can be used in both the single player AND online multiplayer matches, so others will be able to see the hard work you have put into your skin design when you enter an online match with the downloadable skin feature enabled.
The online editor seems to be overloaded with users today, as we experienced some difficulty logging on to create our very own PVG-themed craft (look for us online!). Let us know if you have more luck than we did accessing the site. In the meantime, check out some more fantastic user-created custom paint jobs for inspiration, available after the jump.
How is your holiday season shaping up, DS fans? How could it fail to be awesome, with all of the great DS games that came out this past year? This is the perfect time to catch up to unfinished business on your gaming calendar; there are certainly a lot of great handheld games that we missed or didn’t experience completely over the course of the past 12 months.
Earlier, we took a look at some of the best PSP games of 2007, and now we will pick a few of the outstanding DS releases of the year. Few people doubted the tremendous performance the DS would continue for this year, and indeed the ‘DS Fever’ didn’t stop, and shows no signs of doing so anytime soon. Nintendo’s prominent portable system enjoyed a great deal of support from first and third party development alike; so much, in fact, that making this list proved difficult! These are only some of the great DS games released this year, but they certainly merit special recognition, as they managed to stand out from all the great titles out there. Continue reading to find out if you have some of the best DS games of the year.
This January will mark the first birthday of Portable Video Gamer. We have had a great first year, but we are not content to sit on our butts and grow fat from all the celebratory birthday cake. We want to grow in a more vertical direction, and growing means finding new people to contribute to the site. We are currently looking for contributing writers to join our team. The best thing is that just like Karl Marx´s motto, every worker at PVG gets a share!
What we need
There are several places where we would like to increase our coverage: PSP news and reviews, general handheld gaming news, the DS and PSP homebrew scene. An applicant who can write daily on one or more of these subjects would be a good fit here.
Some basic knowledge of HTML and image editing software (Photoshop) would be a definite asset, but not a requirement for this position.
IMPORTANT: We are looking for a long-term commitment (> 1 year) and a somewhat consistent posting schedule. At minimum we need writers who are able to produce 5-10 posts per week. Sure, moonlighting as a video game writer seems doable during the winter holidays, but what about three months from now when midterm assignments are due and a freak tornado has destroyed your house?
What we offer
As a team member at PVG you will benefit directly from the growth of the site. All writers receive a share of the advertising profits generated by Portable Video Gamer and will be paid as a percentage, rather than on a per-post basis. Do not delude yourself into thinking that you can raise a family of 4 on this meagre sum: at present it might get you a small, nonfat latte at Starbucks once a month.
Payment will be made electronically, so you need to be able to accept funds in US dollars via Paypal.
How to apply:
If you feel that you would make a good addition to the PVG team, here´s how to apply. Send us a short cover letter describing yourself and explaining why you want to write for PVG, as well as two writing samples by January 1. Both writing samples should be videogame-related, but one should be a sample blog post that could be published on this site (feature, news item, etc).
Good luck and thanks for your continued interest in Portable Video Gamer.
While it is true that Nintendo loves to endlessly revise their handheld gaming consoles, the notion of a still-smaller Nintendo DS may be a bit far fetched (Last we heard, Nintendo was working on making the thing bigger, not smaller). Nevertheless, this creative marketing student and Nintendo fan thinks the Big N could go even smaller — right into the choking hazard category. We love the James-Bond inspired flip screen mechanism, but considering many people are complaining about cracked hinges on their DS Lites, more moving parts may not be the best idea. We might have to wait until the next generation DS is unveiled before we see anything quite this extravagant. In the meantime, check out the video below and let us know what you think!
This week, Square Enix announed that the western localization of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII will ship on March 24. Predictably, this news has English-speaking fanboys everywhere staring longingly at their PSPs and marking off the days remaining on their calendars. While everyone goes crazy waiting for March to arrive, we thought it might be prudent to take a less fanatical approach and find out what people who have played the Japanese version think of the game, to see if it is worthy of our unrequited adulation. Turns out it (mostly) lives up to the hype, so you fanboys can keep your wall-sized calendars and felt markers handy. However, despite all the praise heaped on the game by these early reviewers, it does not come without caveats: RPG veterans should be aware that the game is not meant to be an epic follow-up to FFVII, but rather an original, action-oriented spinoff.
A few English speaking publications have done us all a favor and imported copies of the Japanese title for the benefit of non-japanese speaking readers. Here are some excerpts from their reviews:
“From the quality of its FMV cutscenes to the finely detailed and richly textured in-game environments and character animations, Crisis Core is technically flawless. And for players who are hoping for a nostalgia trip, Crisis Core delivers by revisiting many of FFVII’s locations, in glorious PSP-vision. It’s like seeing FFVII ’s world with new eyes.” –Computer and Video Games
“Living up to their reputation, Square Enix pumps out incredibly impressive graphics from the PSP with Crisis Core. The game offers graphics of such high quality that it puts many PlayStation 2 games to shame. The character models are beautifully rendered and intricately designed. Environments are meticulously detailed and rich with an amazing amount of variety. The occasional CG movies are also uncanny in visual aesthetics, presenting beautiful full motion videos that at some points surpass even the work of Advent Children. It would be no stretch to say that Crisis Core is the best looking game on the PSP.” – RPGfan
This writer, as well as a number of lucky staff members at IGN, cannot say enough about how good the graphics look in this game. Of course, looks aren´t everything. What are they saying about the gameplay?
Although we prefer new games, ports can be worth bringing to a system. For one, players familiar with the original iteration of a game can experience it again on the go, whereas other people can try it out for the first time and enjoy some classic gameplay on their DS. With Nintendo’s Virtual Console on the Wii, the chances for any of these games to make it to the Nintendo DS are slim, but that won’t stop us from dreaming and hoping for eventful ports of these Nintendo 64 titles.
Tetrisphere
Glover
Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon
Custom Robo Arena
How is your holiday season shaping up, DS fans? How could it fail to be awesome, with all of the great DS games that came out this past year? This is the perfect time to catch up to unfinished business on your gaming calendar; there are certainly a lot of great handheld games that we missed or didn’t experience completely over the course of the past 12 months. 
This January will mark the first birthday of Portable Video Gamer. We have had a great first year, but we are not content to sit on our butts and grow fat from all the celebratory birthday cake. We want to grow in a more vertical direction, and growing means finding new people to contribute to the site. We are currently looking for contributing writers to join our team. The best thing is that just like Karl Marx´s motto, every worker at PVG gets a share! 
This week, Square Enix announed that the western localization of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII will ship on March 24. Predictably, this news has English-speaking fanboys everywhere staring longingly at their PSPs and marking off the days remaining on their calendars. While everyone goes crazy waiting for March to arrive, we thought it might be prudent to take a less fanatical approach and find out what people who have played the Japanese version think of the game, to see if it is worthy of our unrequited adulation. Turns out it (mostly) lives up to the hype, so you fanboys can keep your wall-sized calendars and felt markers handy. However, despite all the praise heaped on the game by these early reviewers, it does not come without caveats: RPG veterans should be aware that the game is not meant to be an epic follow-up to FFVII, but rather an original, action-oriented spinoff. 