GBA/NDS games review

[Ben2303]

	Electro
7	Presentation Complex puzzle game. You must connect both sides of the screens using the given tiles in puzzle mode, and falling one in classic mode. The game is nicely polished.
7	Graphics Colorfull pieces, sober interface, evrything is ok.
8	Sound Very good musics... Would you be mad if I use your game only as a jukebox ?
5	Gameplay Forget about DS Motion controls, not accurate enough, stick with the stylus, it works great. Game IS complex though.
6	Lasting appeal Game is particulary complex. Puzzles are not as rewarding as you could think.
6	Overall (not an average) Nice polished game, but nor the puzzle nor the classic mode is actually fun. Maybe that's just me, so I'm not giving up, I'll try again another time. +0.5 for DS Motion support.

Gallery :

Two different game modes. That's a good point.	Many colorfull tiles... Can I build a castle with'em ?

[Ben2303]

	Star Wars Battles
7	Presentation Naval battle revisited in Star Wars world. Place your ships, fire blindly at opponents map, and be ready for some dogfights if you hit !
6	Graphics Ships are simples, interface reduced to the minimum. Dogfights have cool lasers and explosions.
8	Sound Great music, great laser sounds, great explosions. Who would have think a naval battle could be so noisy ? Well except perhaps people who had the talking one made by MB... Brrr, It stills creep me out...
6	Gameplay Ships placement sometimes doesn't work properly, dogfights are simples, targetting ennemy on map is with dpad (come on, there's a touch pad down here !!). Anyway the game's core is solid.
6	Lasting appeal Good for single kids, cos no multiplayer here...
6	Overall (not an average) Good overall realisation, too bad there's no multiplayer (probably in next version) and that you can't target on touch screen.

Gallery :

Tatatataaaa taaaaaa tatataaaaata !	Everybody's ignoring the Falcon... That'll teach him !
"piou, piou, piou, brrrrooom"	The green spot is NOT a rotten Ewok.

[Ben2303]

	Ultimate Sliding Familly
7	Presentation Puzzle game with pics cut in tiles, you must put them in the good order using only one free spot to move. You can slide a tile using stylus, pad or DS  Motion.
8	Graphics Puzzles are beautifull, but interface is too bright and colorfull for my old eyes. But the main thing is here, puzzles pics are great.
6	Sound Not much here. Music does not fits the game style.
5	Gameplay I don't really like the way it plays, even with DS Motion... I think I'm too attached to the old plastic game...
6	Lasting appeal Many, many puzzles, 3 packs with different flavour, polished game. Nice work, nice slideshow, but the game is not meant to be played this way...
6.5	Overall (not an average) Polished game, but definitly not the good media for me. A rom and a selectable resssource file instead of 3 versions would be nice too.

Gallery :

"Freeze, or I let giant cat do its job ! "	"Where are you from miss ?" "The 80's !"
Google will find you nude pics much faster.	The actual Arkanoid was a pretty entertaining game.

[Ben2303]

	JaPong
6	Presentation Clever multiplayer Pong clone, up to 3 players and multiball ! CPU players are here too if you don't have enough friends...
5	Graphics Pong pads and pong ball just like the old times.
-	Sound Sadly no "ping" sound...
8	Gameplay The 3 players game is actually fun. Good pads movement, good collisions. You can play with more than one ball, add CPU players, ... Watch out, CPU players are unbeatable.
6.5	Lasting appeal 2 players mode won't catch you as long as the new 3 players one.
6	Overall (not an average) Good Pong variation. The second of this compo. I actually prefer this one, but by DS Motion supprt lacking, they both come to the same note...

Gallery :

Several game modes on a text menu.	3 players mode is fun ! without a CPU though...

[Ben2303]

	Area Ten
6	Presentation Agility game, you must keep the blue balls and the red balls on their respective sides, sides separated by a moving opening. This opening can be move with DS Motion for a little more fun.
6	Graphics Once again too colorfull for me although the menu looks good, little planets are not very good looking
4	Sound Reminds me some old Magnetic Fields game. I used to like those musics, but this one is just aggressive. I prefer it turned off.
5	Gameplay DS Motion works great and make the game funnier than pad. Sadly not fun enough to catch me. Some collisions weirdness occurs here and here.
5	Lasting appeal I don't think I'll play it again, game is well made but not fun.
5.5	Overall (not an average) Menus and interface is appealing, game is less. It's very repetitive, not very challenging, not as polished as other Kukulcan's production.

Gallery :

Great futuristic menu !!! Can't wait to play this shmup !!	Well, where are the ships, the aliens, the explosions ??

[Ben2303]

	ASCIIWAR 0.9999
7	Presentation Kind of adventure game, you must fight some odds memory things to prevent CPU from burning. Game is quite deep once you've passed the ascii repulsing look.
4	Graphics Not an easy one to judge, yes it's ASCII, so there is no real graphics... Menu and interface could have been cheered up a little to balance the ASCII part.
-	Sound Sound is not compatible with ASCII, that's why people invented ANSI.
6	Gameplay Many things to do, but bringing a whole keyboard just for a few letters is frustrating, I always need to consult help before doing anything. Ok, maybe I'm not the smartest guy around...
5	Lasting appeal Good ideas, but ASCII graphics are rude, and interface not very intuitive.
5.5	Overall (not an average) Put the same game in some other universe and with another interface, and I'll buy it !

Gallery :

No, your DS didn't actually crashed.	Now it's time for a spell ! Heu... What is the letter for "kill the green thing spell" ?

[Ben2303]

	DiceSoldiers
5	Presentation Looks like a Risk clone. Armies from different countries are fighting each other to gain world domination.
6	Graphics Graphics are ok.
7.5	Sound Nice musics.
6.5	Gameplay Once you have human players the game is nice. 2 players mode is not challenging enough, and you will need to have multiple CPUs against you to find difficulty. Army movments are not really "visual", adding small numbers for example would help understanding and remembering what you're doing.
7	Lasting appeal Now that's what I call a Risk clone ! Some will love it, and some will just hate the dice unfairness ! Strategy is quite basic with CPU, but I guess against another human it must be really nice. As I said before, interface could be better and make the experience frankly more enjoyable.
6.5	Overall (not an average) Read the readme for this one or you'll end up watching the world's future in your DS hands. And believe me, the DS is not smart enough to handle that. Neither are humans, but cats are already busy chasing mice, so they're all we've got... Seriously, try this one if you like 50% strategy 50% random.

Gallery :

"The World is mine ! BUAHAHAHAHAHA !!!!"	I win !!! I didn't play but I win !

[Ben2303]

	Dual Shooter
6	Presentation A shmup that can be played with pad, stylus or DS Motion (didn't work on my slot 2 DS Motion).
6	Graphics Nice colors, backgrounds are really good looking. Ships are a little bland, and bullets very old fashionned. All moces smoothly, although backgrounds transitions are rough.
6	Sound Discreet nice music. Explosions are a little weak in front of shootings.
5	Gameplay It's hard to play that one after Super Wings. Main plane movements are too fast and not really accurate (forget stylus, keep it with dpad), level design and ennemies patterns needs work too.
6	Lasting appeal You will find yourself playing that game just to discover the next background. Once you've seen them, you're done.
6	Overall (not an average) Nice graphics, good work, but in a very early stage. Keep up the work on this one, include some super wings experience and that will make a great game. +0.5 for DS Motion.

Gallery :

Backgrounds are beautifull	The green one will not shoot blindly like the others.

[Ben2303]

Mystery post... for now 

[minishlink]

Whoha ! You have a great reviews design ! 

For my game (PongClassicDS) :
Graphics : yeah, completely agree with you, I've planned to add some effects in the future release (maybe in the next next release, the next release is the Wifi Mode )
Gameplay : Ok, I will correct the collisions for the next release,  thanks !
Music : I'll add some Pong sound (find a one to help me if you want). Which music do you think it's agressive ? Menu I think, isn't it ?

Many thanks for your review, you have used time to do it, so I'm going to use time to correct my homebrew

[MagNet]

I love IGN style scoring . Also I'm surprised I got ranked higher than Legion but you've got your reasons solid. Anyway about the why question for my game, there's a little background story I've got in my head, MarbleMan, the world's roundest superhero that can fit flush in any ball has been kidnapped and thrown into a pit which is the playfield and tries to survive . Yeah there's just score challenge so far yes, I have something in the style of Tilting Labyrinth planned but let's not run too far yet. The control scheme and pacing of the game was the main goal and it paid off I'd say. Also it's spelled "dexterity".

Good reviews overall.

[rogerpoco]

Hmmm.
Absolutely,you've played each of these games.
Your insights are great,and I like your sense of humor a lot.
Thanks for the effort!!
Good Job!

 

BTW-I pride myself on my humor.Yours is really good,don't lose that,ever!

[MagNet]

By the way in Dice Soldiers select human player by touching the yellow circle after selecting the country, ingame end the turn by tapping in the red upper part of the screen.

And could you tell me how to use the stylus controls in the Ultimate Sliding Puzzle pack? I can't figure them out, not that I'd really like the game but I have the lack of stylus control as a con in my reviews and don't want it to be inaccurate.

[t4ils]

yeah i'm so sorry guys, i tottally ruined my game by giving a readme full of mistakes ... 

here is the real one :
http://t4ils.free.fr/Projets_NDS/DiceSoldiers_NeoFlash/readme.txt

[sumiguchi]

yeah i'm so sorry guys, i tottally ruined my game by giving a readme full of mistakes

lol - I'd hardley say that ruined the game...though I did reboot a couple times wondering how to end my turn....it was on the screen but only at the start :p