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Show and Tell: For the love of a character

Posted Sep 16th 2008 12:00PM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: Show and Tell

A big part of Nintendo (and gaming) fandom seems to be linked to the appreciation -- nay, love -- of certain characters, and that's what we're exploring in this week's edition of Show and Tell. It's all about characters and the things we do in honor of them. Take the guided tour, or jump all willy-nilly into the gallery below.

Gallery: Show and Tell: For the love of a character

Show and Tell is all about fan stuff, so long as it's Nintendo-related. We love to see your collections, your crafts, your frosted creations, your t-shirts and swag of all sorts.Just snap a few pictures, tell us what's up, and send it all to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com. We'll take care of the rest. Not a handy type, but found something neat? Send us a link instead.

DS Daily: Your favorite limited edition handheld

Posted Sep 16th 2008 9:00AM by David Hinkle
Filed under: DS Daily

We must admit, we've got limited edition DS Lites on the brain recently. We're wondering, out of all of the wonderful handhelds to pick from, what exactly is your favorite limited edition Lite? Are you a fan of the black Pokemon handheld? Do you enjoy the simple beauty of the Triforce-wielding gold DS Lite? Well, which one is it?

Gallery: Limited Edition Lites: A History of Sadness

Shield your eyes: Premium DS Lite spotted in the wild

Posted Sep 15th 2008 7:18PM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: News, Imports

Remember those Club Nintendo "Premium" DS Lites that were revealed back in June? Well, Nintendo has now sent out the limited edition systems to the 3,000 lucky winners, and Japanese blogger Hatimaki decided to torture us by smugly photographing his Premium Silver model, which just so happens to be unbelievably, blindingly shiny. But pfft, like we care! Seriously: just imagining the finger prints on that makes us feel totally okay about not owni -- gaaah, who are we kidding?

If you're feeling flush enough, a selection of these have already appeared on eBay, priced around the $500 mark. It's an investment ... probably.

Gallery: Limited Edition Lites: A History of Sadness

[Via Kotaku]

Gaming to Go: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

Posted Sep 15th 2008 5:00PM by Matthew Madeiro
Filed under: Gaming to Go

The premiere Puzzle Quest title debuted to generally positive reviews, many of which praised the unexpectedly compelling mix of Bejeweled gem-swapping puzzles and standard RPG elements. Any gamer who has given the title a whirl knows the critical claim doesn't come unwarranted, even with a few niggling things like cheating AI and a complete lack of closure. Those minor complaints are more than made up for with the mind-boggling amount of depth the developers crammed into the cartridge, transforming what could have been just another puzzler into an addicting little package still worth playing over a year since its release.

With the space-age sequel rumored to land sometime in October, now is as good a time as any to take a look back at the sword and stone puzzler that started it all. If you never bothered to pick it up, consider yourself thoroughly shamed -- but don't let the weight of your emotional guilt bring you down. Come along with this week's edition of Gaming to Go for one last reminder that sliding colorful stones around a board is a perfectly viable way to wage digital war.

Gallery: Puzzle Quest

Continue reading Gaming to Go: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades launches November 17 alongside standalone On Tour

Posted Sep 15th 2008 3:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News

There hasn't been an announcement or anything, but GameStop now lists a November 17 release date for Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades, both in its Guitar Grip bundle and alone. In addition, Activision will ship a standalone version of the first On Tour for people picking up the Decades bundle. These standalone games will cost $34.99 each, which is almost as painful to say as it would be to spend.

At least the slightly reduced price of the standalone cards will make collecting both games a bit less damaging to household finances than forced bundles, for those among us in single-DS homes.

DS releases for the week of September 15th

Posted Sep 15th 2008 2:00PM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: News

This week, a pile of games are overwhelming DS shelves, but the real star is Jackass: The Game. Oh yes, Europe. It's your turn. Don't even try and say that we never gave you anything, because after this week, it's patently untrue.

• Animal Paradise
• Bratz Ponyz 2
• Di-Gata Defenders
• Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen
• Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition
• Igor
• Line Rider 2 Unbound
• My Secret World by Imagine
• Red Bull BC One
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
• Unsolved Crimes

Continue reading DS releases for the week of September 15th

DS Fanboy Interview: Griptonite's J.C. Connors on Spore Creatures and more

Posted Sep 15th 2008 12:00PM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: Interviews, Features

Spore has been much more than a game over the years - years! -- that we've been talking about it, and it's tough to produce a companion piece in the shadow of such an epic project. From the reception of Spore and the DS crony, it's sadly clear the two were destined to sink or swim together. But Spore Creatures deserves its own time in the sun, despite what you may have heard; for a handheld title, it's certainly ambitious, and the amazing development team at Griptonite Games has done more with less.

Griptonite Games has worn several nametags in the past few years. When last we spoke with them, they were Amaze Entertainment, and their own identity as Griptonite was shelved. Now, Amaze is a part of Foundation 9 and the Griptonite name has been dusted off. In all the chaos of nomenclature, one thing has remained a constant: this little corner of the development world has been responsible for some real gems. We recently sat down with studio head J.C. Connors to discuss Spore Creatures, our Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (GBA) withdrawals, and the unexpected excellence of Disney Friends (yeah, man, Disney Friends).

DS Fanboy: Spore Creatures is an interesting companion to the main title. What can you tell us about the best aspects of the DS game?

J.C. Connors: Hands down, the creature creator. It's one of the coolest features ever seen on the DS.

Gallery: Spore Creatures

NEXT >>

DS Daily: Phantasy Star on the small screens

Posted Sep 15th 2008 9:00AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: DS Daily

We've had our (first) gushing moment about a Phantasy Star Online iteration on the DS. Now it's time to think semi-critically about the development. We know that we like online gaming on the DS, and we like action-RPGs on the DS. But most of our ARPGs have been single-player, and our online gaming competitive.

Simply put, will the kind of longer-session multiplayer questing work on the DS as well as it did on the Dreamcast and all those other systems? Do you look forward to that kind of experience on a handheld? Obviously, people in Japan dig it (see: Monster Hunter Portable, Phantasy Star Portable). To us, there's something strange about this style of play on a handheld, and yet something quite appealing.

Gallery: Phantasy Star Zero

An audible peek at the Order of Ecclesia

Posted Sep 14th 2008 4:00PM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: News

Castlevania soundtracks are often so delicious, and from the taste Konami has offered up, Order of Ecclesia will take its rightful place as the successor to the franchise's long legacy of awesome. Check out the soundtrack page, and be sure to click the links (in white) that allow you to sample the tracks. They're all catchy, but number 10 on disc one is a good place to start. Conveniently, it's also likely to be the first link you'll click.

[Via 4cr]

Gallery: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Like Castlevania? We do -- to an embarrassing degree. Check out our impressions of Order of Ecclesia from E3, settle in for a trailer, or go Behind the Boxart with a Konami graphic designer. But enough talk -- have at you!

DS Daily: Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest?

Posted Sep 14th 2008 10:30AM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: DS Daily

After talking yesterday about Dragon Quest and the coming (again) of part IV, we thought it might be interesting to backpeddle to a more basic, visceral question: do you prefer Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest? It's Square versus Enix in an RPG franchise fight to the death!

Henry Hatsworth in the Trailer Adventure

Posted Sep 13th 2008 3:00PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Video

Though there've been some great screenshots and amazing art released for Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure, we've had to rely on old indirect-feed videos for previews of the action/puzzle hybrid in motion. Not so anymore!

EA put out this short trailer to show off Henry's upcoming adventures, and it pretty much looks as awesome as we thought the game would be, if not awesomer. The game even has a combo counter at the bottom right, just like one of our favorite 2D platformers, The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night!

Gallery: Henry Hatsworth In The Puzzling Adventure

DS Daily: Re-Quest

Posted Sep 13th 2008 10:30AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: DS Daily

Next week, Dragon Quest IV hits, bringing with it the possibility of the massive franchise finally taking off for real in the US in a way it hasn't since the original Dragon Warrior. Here, Final Fantasy is bigger, but in Japan, this is the real IV.

Have you been following Chapters of the Chosen? Are you interested in playing along with the adventures of Torneko Taloon and the rest of the cast? If so, will this be the first Dragon Quest for you? How about the first Dragon Quest IV? Did you get it back on the NES?

Gallery: Dragon Quest IV boxarts

Metareview: Spore Creatures

Posted Sep 12th 2008 7:30PM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: Metareview

With all the current hype surrounding Spore, even ardent DS fanboys such as ourselves have to strain to recall Spore Creatures. It looks like a totally different game to its PC counterpart, and we quite enjoyed it when we went hands-on at GDC '08. So which is it: the sleek, refined alpha member of its species, or a sloppy afterthought of a game, heading for history's rubbish bin? We copied and pasted some other people's thoughts to find out!

• IGN (78%) gave the game one of its better reviews, praising its sense of fun and creativity: "Spore Creatures isn't intended as a replacement for the core PC Spore experience -- it's meant to compliment that design with a unique experience that lifts many of the core elements. And for the most part it succeeds in that task: this is a fun, involved, albeit more linear DS experience with a few quirks that get in the way, but even with those quirks it's great to experience a game on the more limited handheld with a similar sense of creativity that PC gamers will have in Spore."
  

• Eurogamer (5/10) isn't so keen, arguing the game is crippled by its linear nature: "What it doesn't offer is any sort of Free Play option where you can do your own thing. You can indulge your creative desires or you can play the game. You can't really do both at the same time in any satisfying way, which suggests that "linear action adventure" simply wasn't the right direction to take the Spore concept for its handheld outing."
  

• GameSpot's (65%) Kevin VanOrd just couldn't emotionally bond with his creations: "It's still a cute adventure across multiple planets, and it features a pared-down version of the creature creation tool that helped make the PC release such a success. It has some annoying quirks, and it won't inspire an emotional connection between you and your digital doppelganger, but Spore Creatures is still a pleasant diversion and an appealing, if ordinary, companion to its bigger brother."
  

Gallery: Spore Creatures

This post is a part of our Metareview category, but we also like reviewing things ourselves, and making sure our voice is heard. We're conceited and self-absorbed like that.

DS Fanboy Review: Mystery Case Files: Millionheir

Posted Sep 12th 2008 5:18PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Reviews

Back when I got my hands on Mystery Case Files: Millionheir at E3, I pretty much knew what the final product was going to be. After having several days to play the title, I'm comfortable saying that the game came out just as I thought it would. It's a fair game, but the gameplay can become stagnant fairly easily, and is really only for the younger gamers or folks who love those Where's Waldo books.

Gallery: Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir

Continue reading DS Fanboy Review: Mystery Case Files: Millionheir

Phantasy Star Zero site launches, we totally geek out

Posted Sep 12th 2008 2:48PM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: News, Screens

Sega just launched the official site for Phantasy Star Zero. Although most of the screens on the site were present in scans earlier this week, it's always nice to see them in gallery form, right? (And see them you must, because seriously: this is some of the best 3D on the DS to date).

Throughout these screenshots, we can spot bits of old Phantasy Star Online games (the brightly-colored levels, Rappies, huge bosses, and MAGs), something which delights us. Speaking of which, we really hope Sega-themed MAGs will be included, such as the Saturn, Master System, and ChuChu MAGs that could be found in PSO. Sega included some of its old consoles in English of the Dead, so maybe we'll get to slay dragons with a Dreamcast by our side in Phantasy Star Zero!

The site reveals that the game will support online parties of four players, that characters can be created from three races and 14 classes, and there's also a small section on the ace-looking, sketch-compatible chat system, as seen here. In fact, the only part of Phantasy Star Zero we're unsure about is blowing into the DS microphone to send messages, but we're finding it difficult to object that strongly!

Gallery: Phantasy Star Zero

[Via NeoGAF]

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