The Namco Bandai Games-developed Dragon Ball: Origins for the Nintendo DS attempts to shed light on the origin of Goku, Dragon Ball's prolific spikey-haired protagonist. Controlling Goku is simple: tap the screen with the stylus, and Goku will set out in that direction at a walk or a run depending on the distance between him and your chosen spot. Tapping and holding the stylus will cause Goku to keep moving as you drag your pointer across the screen.
Posts with tag atari
DS Fanboy hands-on: Dragon Ball Origins
The Namco Bandai Games-developed Dragon Ball: Origins for the Nintendo DS attempts to shed light on the origin of Goku, Dragon Ball's prolific spikey-haired protagonist. Controlling Goku is simple: tap the screen with the stylus, and Goku will set out in that direction at a walk or a run depending on the distance between him and your chosen spot. Tapping and holding the stylus will cause Goku to keep moving as you drag your pointer across the screen.
DS Fanboy Review: N+
Metanet's N is a game in which the player is tasked with running very quickly through obstacles and jumping with high levels of precision in order to reach the exit door. It takes place in small, self-contained levels, uses simple, clean graphics, and has no real story to remember.Though it first appeared as a freeware PC game and was then remade and enhanced as an Xbox Live Arcade game, there is no denying that N is an ideal handheld game. You really couldn't come up with a better design for an on-the-go game.
N+ from Atari is basically N, on the DS, with new levels. So, naturally, it works out pretty well.
Back to the beginning with Dragon Ball: Origins
If you've been admiring the footage of Dragon Ball DS, then perk up: it's headed outside Japan this winter. According to a press release from Atari, the game will hit U.S. shelves in November under the title Dragon Ball: Origins, with Europe to follow in December. We expect a few people will peeking under a certain skirt around the holidays.We've got new screens, too! Check 'em out below. Look now and get bonus character portraits, just because we care.
N+ minus $10, plus 2 weeks
We've got good news and bad news regarding N+, Atari's handheld update of the freeware platformer N. The bad news isn't all that bad and the good news is awesome.First, the kinda bad: N+ appears to have been delayed again, from August 12 to August 26. While it troubles us to think that the game is just never going to come out, we're glad it's at least not coming out on the same day as Bangai-O Spirits. The good news is that N+ will now launch at $20, which is an insanely good deal for a new, polished N with hundreds of new levels and a stylus-based level editor.
There's a third bit of news too, which didn't really fit in the "good news/bad news" thing we were trying to do, though it falls into the "good" category: Amazon orders will include a download link for a digital strategy guide.
E308: The Jamie Oliver game is ... really cool?
Yeah, I'm kind of surprised. I passed by a demo of What's Cooking? Jamie Oliver at Atari's booth and I was overcome by curiosity. How abhorrent would a licensed celebrity-chef training game be? The answer, it would seem, is "not very abhorrent." I couldn't really figure out what to do that well, but not because the interface was bad -- What's Cooking is a hardcore cooking training game. Also pictures of Jamie Oliver show up from time to time, just to remind you that it's his game.Imagine (in a non-dirty way) if Cooking Mama and Cooking Guide had a baby. What's Cooking teaches real-life recipes, and then has players simulate their preparation with touch-controlled actions. Without holding your hand, at all. I actually couldn't get past the initial steps of my first recipe, because the thing is so deep. To make a sugar paste (the first step), you have to first get a bowl out of your inventory of kitchen implements, then pour some sugar into the bowl, then mix it with a wooden spoon. To heat something up, you have to move it (via a 'stove' icon) to the stove area of the kitchen, then turn on the heat, and stir it around. The game doesn't really tell you when you're done, or even when you've failed. You just cook, like in real life. You could really learn how to cook by playing this.
Gallery: What's Cooking? with Jamie Oliver
E308: N+ media leaps deftly into our grasp
You can start learning about the mind-bending N+ experience with our hands-on preview, effectively taking "the best platforming engine in Flash, ever," for a ride. The thing is, no matter how many screens and videos you ogle, there's plenty more brand new levels being created constantly. Best of all, the DS version is just as full-featured as any other installment, including a full level creator and Wi-Fi multiplayer. N+ should be a sure-fire hit when it's released in August.
E308: Atari and irritating celebrity chef combine for cooking game
It was, we suppose, inevitable. Nintendo's Cooking Guide released in Japan two years ago (as Cooking Navi), where it shifted a decent number of units. It recently emerged in Europe, and did pretty well there, too (it'll be coming to the U.S. this November). And what happens each time Nintendo releases a successful non-game? Answer: as sure as night follows day, (usually inferior) third-party alternatives appear.
That's what has happened here, with Atari following Nintendo into the cooking-with-your-DS arena. What's Cooking? with Jamie Oliver will feature 100 recipes (Cooking Guide has 245), space for 100 of your own, a shopping list mode, and competitive cooking games. It's very similar to Nintendo's game then (though apparently you can share recipes via WiFi), except you get to look at Jamie Oliver and his smug, squishy, Mockney face a whole lot more.
If, like this blogger, you regard Oliver as an affront to all that is decent about humankind, it might not be your thing. But it might be okay as a game.
Gallery: What's Cooking? with Jamie Oliver
[Via press release]
DS Fanboy Preview: N+
My eyes glazed as I stared at my Nintendo DS Lite which cased the finished build of N+. N, my titular ninja avatar, braced his body as he slid halfway down a wall before springing away, using his momentum to snatch three gold coins dangling in midair. I firmly pressed d-pad left, causing him to again shimmy down the wall slowly, carefully, before again leaping for a nearby ledge. Unfortunately, my momentum wasn't enough in this instance. Though little more than a plump stick figure, I had a vision of poor N desperately straining for the tip of the ledge that was at least (at least) a good six feet away before plummeting, plummeting, plummeting -- and eventually exploding in a shower of square-shaped shards as he cratered into the ground.I grumbled, but the fault was wholly mine, not the acrobatic N's.
"You've got what the indie scene will call the best platforming engine in Flash, ever," said David Geudelekian, producer of Metanet Software's N+. "What N did really well was it presented this incredible platformer with 1000 levels, it was crazy difficult. N the ninja was this lithe, acrobatic guy with all the things developers had learned from other platformers. You can wall jump, you can press along the wall as you're falling to slow your descent. Because it's a full-featured physics engine, momentum can kill you, but if you use a ramp's natural curvature, you might be able to catapult yourself across the level."
N+ knocks it up a notch with new trailers ... BAM
In the spirit of a true ninja master, the perenially popular platformer N+ is still on its merry way to the DS. Many people out there have tried several adventures of the anonymous little hero on the PC, and are better gamers for it. Put it this way -- N+ levels are really, super easy to make, so the DS version features plenty of original creations.
You can check out some of the high-flying gameplay in the new trailer above, along with two more after the break. N+ hasn't been dumbed-down for portable installments at all, and includes a full level editor and downloadable content. If you haven't tried N+ before, it would be in your best interest to slide down to your nearest store on August 28 and hand over the cash for this bad boy. Ninja-style.
You can check out some of the high-flying gameplay in the new trailer above, along with two more after the break. N+ hasn't been dumbed-down for portable installments at all, and includes a full level editor and downloadable content. If you haven't tried N+ before, it would be in your best interest to slide down to your nearest store on August 28 and hand over the cash for this bad boy. Ninja-style.
Continue reading N+ knocks it up a notch with new trailers ... BAM
Saddle up once again
Unfortunately, the original game wasn't the greatest. We have nothing against horse games at all - why, we went nuts for those yappy dogs, and they aren't half as useful. You can't ride a dog, or force it to lug around big bags of cement for construction purposes. Still, something isn't quite right down at the ranch, and the developers can't seem to nail what would make a horse game great fun. We don't know for sure if MHAM2 will be good or bad, but there is one thing we do know -- it'll be bad.
Emulating the gaming world on DS
Just like every other console, the advent of DS flash cards has brought with it a booming emulation scene. And since homebrew is so easy to run on the DS, and MicroSD cards so copious, it's easy to turn the humble DS into a classic gaming Swiss Army System.
We've outlined some of the most important DS-based console emulators below, along with a ton of lower-profile emulators.
Semiotics training in Driving Theory Training
For people growing up in the U.K. who are familiar with all of this signage, Driving Theory Training looks like it will be Obvious Information Training, at least in the lessons focusing on identifying various road signs. At least, we hope, for the sake of our friends over there. For the most part, the road signs are immediately obvious to people who haven't seen them as well, and some are fairly universal. Others ... we'd need explained to us.Speaking of things we'd need explained to us, how does matching two identical signs help you learn anything about driving? We suppose it's important to train your ability to look at things. Or maybe this game of looking at signs is an 'entertaining' break from the business of looking at signs?
Gallery: Driving Theory Training
[Via press release]
Promotional Consideration: King of the Monster Ads
Rawr!
Of the three Godzilla: Unleashed games released (Wii, PS2, and DS), the DS version is, without a doubt, the worst of the bunch. That's saying a lot considering that GameSpot described the Wii version as "the worst thing to happen to Godzilla since getting killed by Mothra's babies." In its review of the DS game, Godzilla: Unleashed Double Smash, Nintendo Power opined, "The slow descent in Godzilla games has finally hit rock bottom."
Nevertheless, publisher Atari had a job to do -- sell copies of the game -- and it did its best to win over fans with monster-sized ads befitting of the radioactive monster. Lurch past the post break to see what we mean!
Continue reading Promotional Consideration: King of the Monster Ads
A pendulous new N+ level
We won't be too harsh on IGN for billing this video of N+ gameplay as the "first N+ DS footage." We'll just casually point over in the direction of, ahem, last month. Nonetheless, N+ video is always welcome. This short clip of a bizarre new level is no exception.
This level's devious design centers around a large open area full of gold that is also guarded, panopticon-style, by a sentry, with a set of switches that forces the player to run back and forth across the area multiple times. You could choose to jump up and grab some of the copious gold, but it may slow you down, and that expanse has nowhere to hide from the targeted lasers.
If that's not enough N-Plussery, IGN also has an interview up with Metanet that discusses the DS version briefly.
Driving Theory Training is bad in theory
Not many things sound as riveting as driving theory; for example, watching paint dry is probably a lot less exciting. You probably don't need our snark to tell you, though, that Driving Theory Training is an awful idea.The entire purpose of this British nongame is to prepare people for their driver's license test. As an interactive study guide, it's probably not a bad thing -- but we'd prefer to study the old-fashioned way and save our money. We don't mind edutainment, but the thought of something as dull as driving theory on our DS seems rather unnecessary.
Should you think differently, though, you better hope that you live in the UK. We're sure learning British driving lessons as a U.S. driver would be a bad idea, as you'd wind up driving on the
[Via GamesPress press release]
