Will the line-up of DS demos available on the Wii's Nintendo Channel change every week? We're not sure, but it's starting to look like it; at least, some of the demos available have been rotated out in favor of fresh meat. If you were looking for something that was previously available, it might just be gone. Lesson? Download quickly rather than putting it off, because the demo you want may just disappear!
Peek past the break for the current list of available demos -- you may be surprised at what you'll find!
Nintendo has an interesting philosophy when it comes to demos -- the company denounces them on the Wii (even though we all know the reason for that is the lack of storage space), but yet offers them for DS games. With the recent launch of the Wii's Nintendo Channel in the United States, many of us have finally gotten a taste of these DS demos, and we have to say -- we quite enjoy the feature.
How many of you DS owners have Wiis, too? Does your Wii have the Nintendo Channel yet, and if so, have you tried any DS demos? Which ones have convinced you to buy (or not buy) a game?
For everyone: what DS game demos would you like to see offered on the Wii? Perhaps you might even want to try the games developed by Japanese seminar students? We certainly do. Of course those aren't technically demos, but we digress.
So, go ahead and share all your demo thoughts here.
Start your Friday with a bit of an English refresher -- and some zombie-dispatching! Sega has created a short Flash demo for English of the Dead, recreating the multiple-choice training mode. In this mode, a zombie will run out and threaten you with two rubber mallets. Then, a Japanese sentence (our Flash player doesn't have Japanese language support, hence the gibberish) and a partial English translation will appear. It's up to you to choose the correct English word on the bottom screen, and compel the zombie to jump into a trap door!
You actually have to wait a long time before the zombie will attack you. Presumably this is more challenging if you don't know English.
Got a Wii? Then boot up the Wii Shop and download the just-released Nintendo Channel so you can get your DS demos! The new channel also features several videos, including game trailers. We watched the Professor Layton information video, which did an excellent job of showing off the puzzling adventure. From that video, users can navigate to a screen with more information, just as game rating -- and a "purchase" button, which redirects to a page in the Internet Channel with links to Amazon, Circuit City, and Best Buy, so that you can order the game from the comfort of your own sofa. Not a bad idea!
Of course, what we're really interested in are the DS demos. It's about time we got some useful Wii-DS connectivity. The list of currently-available demos is short, packed with already-released games, and not particularly exciting, but we hope that will change with time. There's a lot of variety, if nothing else. DS demos from the Wii are just like any other: once downloaded, the demo stays until you turn off your handheld. Closing the DS without turning it off will not affect your demo.
Skip past the break to see the full list of available demos, including the very excellent Ninja Gaiden.
In case you haven't already raided the cookie jar for the last of this month's housekeeping money after hearing of NEVES' universal price drop, allow us to further test your resistance.
Yuke's Company has placed an excellent (albeit brief) flash demo of the elegant puzzler on its site, giving interested parties access to three of the game's 500 puzzles. There's a time limit on each, and we cut it pretty fine with the third, but pulled through like heroes in the end. The controls in this PC demo are a pretty close approximation of those in the DS version, so if you like this, get reaching for your wallet. Just be warned that far harder puzzles await you in the real thing!
We love fans. Not only because we are fans and we're completely narcissistic, but because they always come up with some of the coolest things.
Take, for example, this remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus for the original Game Boy. It may be nothing new for a fan to recreate an oldschool game, but this is one of the best we've seen. DoctorM64 not only did a great job with the sprites, but also tweaked the level design a bit so that the game flows more smoothly.
If you want to try this remake for yourself, it's only a click away. Keeping in mind that this is only a tech demo and not the completed version, we're sure that you'll be even more impressed. Also, you can check out DoctorM64's blog to get a feel for the creation process.
One of the less-discussed features of the DS is the downloadable demo -- probably because a lot of people just don't use it! Whether it's a matter of not being near a download station, or having a download station in an inconvenient location, most gamers we know who own a DS have never, or rarely, downloaded a demo to their handheld. Have you? If so, how often?
In a perfect world, we could download our demos from anywhere (say, the wide world of the internets) and test nearly any game. Can you tell we're waiting (im)patiently? Over the past few months, which games do you think would have benefited most from a downloadable demo? With so many games to choose from, a few titles often get passed over, after all, because you just don't get to try them.
Get ready -- Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is finally set for release this month. We're still sad about that whole November debacle, but hey -- the wait is almost over, and for those of you who didn't (or couldn't) get your hands on the demo at a download station, it's now available in convenient video format embedded above. If you want the full experience, try scribbling over your monitor with your stylus while it plays, but don't blame us for any damage. Sure, model Momoko Tani is playing it instead of you, but exercise your imagination here. Do we have to do everything for you?
Konami is now offering a Flash demo of their time-traveling adventure game, Time Hollow. There's only one problem: adventure games tend to have a lot of text in them, and all of the text in this one is in Japanese. You can think of that as an extra challenge if you want, maybe.
We still think it's worth clicking through the reams of text to experience this demo, if only to have a look at the wonderful presentation of the game. The backgrounds are beautiful, and the music is lush (if a bit overwrought.) You'll also see a short cutscene or two showing the time-travel-pen gimmick.
This thing looks to have had money poured into it, so we wouldn't be too surprised to see Konami selling it worldwide.
Got a few minutes to kill? Spend it killing with your fists of stylus-enhanced rage. Spike has created a Flash demo of the Fist of the North Star game and made it available at the official website, allowing you to first enjoy a tutorial that demonstrates the controls, and then, as Kenshiro, take on some enormous guy in a fight. Just click around the navigation buttons under the DS on the demo page and you'll get to all the content.
The tutorial isn't terribly necessary -- click numbers in order, drag back and forth between lines pointing at each other -- but we recommend it, because it basically amounts to a little bit more game. There's a decent challenge to be found in some of the tasks, mostly because of the timer. The back-and-forth motions, for example, require some decent speed and accuracy. Of course, this is made somewhat more difficult by the substitution of a mouse for the stylus.
With Majesco's environmentally aware RTS, Eco-Creatures, scheduled for the next DS Download Station update, we're reminded of how great it is that we can actually try out some handheld games now before buying them. And it's not all Nintendo-developed titles, either -- third-party manufacturers are putting out demos for quality titles, too.
So, have you taken advantage of Nintendo's DS kiosks yet? Or are you waiting for Nintendo to finally bring Everybody's Nintendo Channel to North American Wiis so you can download demos without ever leaving home?
Those of you who keep current with loli homebrew news might recognize this image from when it first made its rounds on gaming blogs last February. While the photo implied that someone was working on a DS port for Hizashi no Naka no Riaru (In the Afternoon Sunshine), an H-game from mu soft, we haven't seen a playable version pop up until now. Read on for the NSFW details!
Taito has finally uploaded the Flash demo for Exit DS, and we aren't sure if it was actually the best thing to do. We can only hope that the real stylus controls work better than the mouse controls in this simulated version. To move Mr. ESC around in this demo, you click on him and then drag in the direction you'd like him to move, or tap him and tap a destination. To interact with an item or the environment, you click on Mr. ESC and then the item. That part took us a while to figure out, causing our hapless Mr. ESC to make multiple attempts to extinguish a fire bodily.
Rather than making the game's operation either fresh or simple, as the best new control schemes do, this wacky scheme obfuscates what would be some simple movement, and makes tedious chores out of just about every motion. Of course, the DS version also has the option to play with a normal control scheme, so you should look not only at the controls, but also at the demo as a whole when deciding whether to grab Exit DS or to run away. We think the puzzle-adventure gameplay manages to shine through the mess.
Posted Jan 16th 2008 10:30AM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
In anticipation of the English-language release of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Capcom has released an officially translated version of their Gyakuten Saiban 4demo, which covers the beginning of the game, through the first cross-examination.
If you're trying to maintain a spoiler-free life before the release of the DS cartridge, steer clear, because this is a segment of the actual game, even if it is presented as a "mock trial." However, if you don't consider the first few minutes of the first case spoiler material, and if you want to see Winston Payne's new suit (which we think is even better than the haircut), you could find worse ways to blow a few minutes on the Internet than by playing some Apollo Justice.
GameSniped has a roundup of one eBay seller's truly bizarre Nintendo employee items -- not just the usual retail demo units, but stuff like pins awarded for 1, 2, and 3 years of service, and, well, this hat. We can't say enough about the hat.
We'd look like huge nerds wearing a hat like that (being non-cowboys/farmers/people who see sunlight), and Nintendo-logo-emblazoned hats are nerdy as a rule, so this beautiful piece of haberdashery, swag from Nintendo's 1996 semi-annual company meeting in Nashville, is a nexus of nerdity.
Okay, there are actually a lot of retail demo units, too, and a neat Nintendo Powerdisplay stand. We've been jaded by the Internet if we have allowed ourselves to stop being impressed by the availability of old store demo systems on eBay.
Will the line-up of DS demos available on the Wii's Nintendo Channel change every week? We're not sure, but it's starting to look like it; at least, some of the demos available have been rotated out in favor of fresh meat. If you were looking for something that was previously available, it might just be gone. Lesson? Download quickly rather than putting it off, because the demo you want may just disappear!
One of the less-discussed features of the DS is the downloadable demo -- probably because a lot of people 
With Majesco's environmentally aware RTS, 
_thumbnail.jpg "Dragon Quest IV")
