Hello!
Here is my review for the NDS-APP section, also just-in-time, but actually it is before midnight in my own timezone. I am participating in this section too with my program DSwiki, but I will review it along with the other programs. And yes, I'll include it in the final ranking. I know all the discussion about other people doing so, but I hope to dissipate all doubts with a detailed explanation for my decisions.
I am open for constructive criticism, I may adjust the points for my own program (even taking it out of the list), if some people have good reasons for me to do so, but I will not adjust the other scores. I don't want to insult anybody, so I am sorry if my review hurts anybodys feelings, but again, I'll explain all my given points in detail.
My review will have the following point-scheme:
Pros/Cons/Personal Notes [-4...+4] ( 20%)
Graphics [-3...+3] ( 15%)
Sound [-3...+3] ( 15%)
Idea/Innovation [-4...+4] ( 20%)
Usability [-4...+4] ( 20%)
Motion support [-1 / +1] ( 5%)
Original entry [-1 / +1] ( 5%)
==========================================
Total [-20...+20] (100%)
I also could have made the points going from 0 to 40, but I like the idea of a "neutral" value 0, and taking positive and negative aspects into account (but mathematically equivalent to the normal scheme).
Ace Attorney DS by B12Core
Pros/Cons/Personal Notes [ 0]
I think I am going to like this program, if I dive deeper into it's many configuration options. But the program did not start on my card. I found the solution to this problem in the thread, but it was submitted after the deadline. The solution is not that hard, so I think it is fair to penalize this with a neutral score in this section.
Graphics [+2]
It is hard to judge the graphics in an objective way. The graphics are not original, they are just copied from the original game. But the effort to implement all the look-and-feel was good.
Sound [+2]
The sound is OK, but the beeps that go along with the text are a bit distracting, because they are some kind of random. The original game featured a much more synchronous and pleasant sound.
Idea/Innovation [+4]
Very good idea, implementing a real authoring system is an enormous task. Respect!
Usability [+2]
It's hard to fiddle with all these text files, and the interface is well copied, but sometimes it lacks some comfort you have intuitively expected.
Motion support [+1]
Original entry [+1]
Total [+12]
Ands-pdf by albinofrenchy
Pros/Cons/Personal Notes [+4]
What can I say, as a programmer, I have the deepest respect for this archievement! This is very impressive, everybody always hoped for a PDF viewer on the DS, now there is one that renders common text documents, and all people are just complaining. About the interface, about the speed, about not rendering 17MB documents with images, ... I think this app has more potential than most other, it definitely needs much tuning in the future, but it already has improved a lot from the first public release. It is a port of mupdf, but I think porting anything to the DS must be honored. Taking a deep bow to this!
Graphics [+2]
The rendering of the documents I tested looks VERY good. The interface is simple, but OK for the moment.
Sound [ 0]
Has none, but there is no need for it.
Idea/Innovation [+4]
Like I said above, I really like the idea. And it IS innovative to the DS world.
Usability [+3]
It is slow, that's correct, but it is getting faster. The interface lets you navigate the document in an intuitive way, and it has key strokes for most navigation tasks. So not the full points, but nearly.
Motion support [-1]
Would be nice in a future release to take the orientation of the DS into account.
Original entry [+1]
Total [+13]
DSBash by leinad
Pros/Cons/Personal Notes [ 0]
I'm neutral towards this program. Not that I would use it, but I think it is OK for those that seek a little distraction.
Graphics [ 0]
Not that great, but adequate for a simple text viewer. I don't like the fonts from the PAlib-examples that much, but they are at least proportional and easy to read. Maybe some topic-related highlighting would be nice.
Sound [+2]
MP3 support is a good idea, and with the volume control, everybody can decide if sound distracts him from reading. I don't know if that is necessary.
Idea/Innovation [+1]
It's OK, a nice feature is caching the files to the DS for offline usage. The idea itself is not revolutionary.
Usability [-1]
I miss a button for going back to the last quote (for whatever reason, personally, I'm flying fast from text to text, deciding fast if I want to read on, but sometimes I skipped an potential interesting read). I'm not that deep into those websites, so I don't know what type of navigation would be best. Scrolling is too slow.
Motion support [-1]
Original entry [-1]
Total [ 0]
DSision2 by spinal
Pros/Cons/Personal Notes [-3]
I am no fan of new menus for the DS. I'm just using any menu to start my programs, I don't have to like them or spend much time in them. I like the ones that came along with my cards. But this one even contained a bad surprise too, it activated my original Rumble Pack in Slot-2 to rumble without break on the highest speed. And looking into subfolders was impossible too.
Graphics [+3]
It looks fabolous, alpha blending of icons, different skins (I really like the Layton-skin). I may even forgive some glitches with the icons, disappearing and coming back sometimes.
Sound [ 0]
Has none, but there is no need for it.
Idea/Innovation [-2]
Nothing that innovative, every card already has one menu.
Usability [+2]
Quite OK.
Motion support [-1]
Original entry [+1]
Total [ 0]
DSwiki by ollipolli
Pros/Cons/Personal Notes [+3]
My own program that I have worked on a lot in the last time. It is a very good companion if I'm not at home, just to look up something quickly in the Wikipedia. I find it useful and I think it has potential in the future, anybody can implement his own encyclopedia. It is open source, a big plus in my opinion, anybody can see how I implemented this or that. It has some bugs when dealing with user generated content, there are just so many possible cases that are hard to detect. Thats why I'll give not the full points in this category.
Graphics [+1]
It has no 'real' graphics, but painting all dialogs is OK. The icons are taken from another project, but I think the best graphical feature is the clean looking font and the rich typography in this release.
Sound [ 0]
Has none, but there is no need for it.
Idea/Innovation [+4]
I think the possibility to offline-access the whole(!) Wikipedia on the DS was quite a big step, and releasing the indexer gave anybody the chance to prepare his favourite wiki, even if this dump did not exist before that.
Usability [+4]
I tried hard to make the wikipedia as accessible as possible on that small device, most navgational tasks should be possible to perform by both stylus and keypad control. The table of contents makes locating a certain information as fast as a blink of the eye.
Motion support [-1]
None, but rotating the display according to the orientation of the DS is a feature I have planned for the future.
Original entry [+1]
Total [+12]
Health Monitoring Tool Kit by arrpirate
Pros/Cons/Personal Notes [-1]
I am no diabetic, so it is a little hard to judge this program. But I tried most of the things, and I think it may have potential as a good helper, but not in this version. I don't know if the sugar-level or whatever-this-was-called is a real help. Seemed to me that this was just a nested if-clause. If there is a minimum and a maximum value for all of the four segments of the day with no other conditions, then there would be only eight(?) values to remember. If you have diabetes, I think you know these values after one week. In future versions, a visualization of values over a longer period would be nice and a better use of the DS's graphics abilities.
Graphics [ 0]
OK. I don't understand those bars, but anyway...
Sound [ 0]
Has none, but there is no need for it.
Idea/Innovation [+1]
Good idea for those people who need it. I think that most people have specialized medical devices for monitoring something that important, but it is always good to have alternatives.
Usability [-3]
The program is hardly usable, no fast navigation through the menus, the number-keypad has keys with no use and you can't abort the input easily. I give additional minus points, because the program needs to be started from a certain location, I don't like programs that conflict with my folder hierarchy.
Motion support [-1]
Original entry [+1]
Total [-3]
HWOS2 by funkystuff
Pros/Cons/Personal Notes [-3]
Most things I said about DSision2 hold for this program as well. But some additional remarks: This program wants to dictate a folder structure to me, a big sin in my eyes. I am the master of my folders, no program. It even moved on an online-update. I was not able to start the wiki-viewer, the part that raised my interest the most.
Graphics [+3]
Near perfect, has commercial quality.
Sound [+1]
Nice sound effects and background music, not necessary, but they fit perfectly to this application.
Idea/Innovation [ 0]
A menu is not that big innovation, but some other ideas like the RSS reader or the homebrew database make up a neutral score in this section.
Usability [+2]
The usability is good, you always have the impression of a lightspeed-fast reacting application. It has a lot of options when inside a module, but the icons are too small, my touchscreen is some way off from being well calibrated, and calibration is not better possible.
Motion support [-1]
Original entry [+1]
Total [+3]
Mario Paint Composer DS Paratroopa Release by bassacegold
Pros/Cons/Personal Notes [+1]
It's fun using this, I see the potential when loading a prepared song. But if I am doing my own song, I always end up by placing random icons on random places and listening to the mess I created ;-). So personally, I can only give one positive point.
Graphics [+2]
Looking good, consistent feeling of a well designed application. It's using sprites that came from a different program, the same reason as with Ace Attorney above that I'll not give all the possible points.
Sound [+3]
A sound application that makes no big mistakes should get all the points in this category. And this application did not make any mistakes.
Idea/Innovation [+1]
Good idea, no real innovation at all, but a nice distraction.
Usability [+3]
The interface is clear, self-explanatory, and placing the notes is possible without problems. Even the problem with the small icons is solved in a clever way.
Motion support [-1]
Original entry [+1]
Total [+10]
myPiano by BranMuffin
Pros/Cons/Personal Notes [-4]
This application crashed on every card I tried it. I always failed to load the sounds it needs. So I cannot judge it.
Graphics [+1]
The keyboard showed up before the crash, and it looked clean and nice.
Sound [-3]
Not possible to judge.
Idea/Innovation [-3]
Not possible to judge.
Usability [-4]
Not possible to judge.
Motion support [+1]
Original entry [+1]
Total [-11]
SutraDS by Cid2Mizard
Pros/Cons/Personal Notes [-3]
This one is very 'hard' (you got the joke? ;-)) to judge. The idea itself is not that bad as I thought at the first moment, but I dislike the program because of its immature appearace. The author said "The kamasutra is not pornography", so I expected an application that worthy of this topic, with some style, artful and pleasant. But the menu was no indic-style menu with pleasing typography but consisted of scary, big letters, drawn with *****es all over. So all style of the original book was blown away (you got the joke again? ;-)) in a moment. The impression of selling cheap *** pictures with such a name continued in the main program as well (the forward/backward arrows are - who would have guessed - *****es). I believe that the slogan "*** sells" was in the designer's mind, but I cannot honor that with more points, sorry.
Graphics [-1]
Apart from the menu or the navigation, the general graphics of this program is not that bad. The character animations are short, but it's enough to get the point. I dislike the inconsistency in the visualization (real/animated), the statistics are good to read, but black text on a such a background is not pleasant to read.
Sound [ 0]
Has none, but there is no need for it.
Idea/Innovation [+1]
The idea itself is good, spreading knowledge is always noble.
Usability [-1]
The program lacks some features I expect from a encyclopedia, like an index. The navigation of a certain position could be better too, you always have to go back to go to another sub-page.
Motion support [-1]
Original entry [+1]
Total [-4]
Wee Basic by marovada
Pros/Cons/Personal Notes [-3]
I like programming, of course, but I never, really never, would use the DS for that. I think this application is a nice proof-of-concept, but not that useful.
Graphics [-1]
Appropriate for such an application, but the font has to be cleaner for an application dealing with text.
Sound [ 0]
Has none, but there is no need for it.
Idea/Innovation [-2]
Hard to say, I'm sure porting some kind of parser/compiler/whatever to the DS is quite hard, but I think the idea of doing so was not good in the first place.
Usability [-4]
Entering a program with the Palib keyboard is a big pain to me. I hear you all, saying "You are using it too!". That is correct, but you can navigate the index with the keys of the DS, after you have inputted three or four letters. But for longer texts, it's unusable.
Motion support [+1]
Original entry [-1]
I'm not quite sure about that, I think the author got something wrong from another person.
Total [-10]
Final Ranking:
1. [+13] Ands-pdf
2. [+12] Ace Attorney DS
2. [+12] DSwiki
4. [+10] Mario Paint Composer DS Paratroopa Release
5. [ +3] HWOS2
6. [ 0] DSBash
6. [ 0] DSision2
8. [ -3] Health Monitoring Tool Kit
9. [ -4] SutraDS
10. [-10] Wee Basic
11. [-11] myPiano
I hope you liked my long and detailed review of the NDS-APP-section, even if you are some of the other authors ;-)
Ciao
