The first screenshots of Square Enix's DS Style series of nongames have shown up, and they look ... well, functional. The problem with nongames is that it's impossible to build hype for something that is used just for looking at a map of France, or teaching yourself yoga, even if the software in question is extremely well-designed.
These screens answer the biggest question we had about the series: how could a game about listening to classical music possibly fill two screens meaningfully? The answer: dog animations and quizzing you on your feelings about the music.
There seems to be a very positive correlation between ease of use and price in the world of homebrew, and the latest all-in-one product is no exception. The DS-Xtreme 2GB is touting itself as a PSP killer, featuring a decent amount of space for homebrew applications, music, and movies. It's an elegant solution, connecting to the PC via standard USB and fitting in the standard DS-cartridge slot with no extra hardware required ... but the damn thing costs $129.99.
If you're very rich looking to break into the homebrew scene, which is actually quite developed on the DS, this is an excellent option, but we do highly recommend a bit of intelligentshopping before making your decision. The DS-X is not yet released, but it's close, so keep an out at their website for the official date and further details.
Our lives are officially forfeit. At a recent Video Games Live show at Yale's Woolsey Hall, classic Castlevania music was performed on a three-story pipe organ, like it was always meant to be. And we were nowhere near it. What is there to live for now? Oh, right, playing this video of it over and over again.
Check out the video after the break, and gasp along with us as Vampire Killer kicks in. We feel bad for the poor pipe organ, having gotten a taste of Vania music and forced now to return to its former life.
Posted Apr 4th 2007 12:00PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: News
Continuing its praiseworthy support for the Nintendo DS, Square Enix has announced DS Style, a new line of software for the casual gaming audience. According to the latest issue of Famitsu, the company is venturing away from its RPG franchises for a moment, focusing instead on leisure activities like yoga, classical music, and gardening. It might not sound as exciting as SRPG battles or Chocobo mini-games, but different strokes for different folks.
Square Enix will also be releasing DS travel guides based on the popular World Walking tour book series in Japan. These guides will provide maps and other useful information for sightseers visiting countries like France or Thailand. Check past the post break for the full list of destination guides and verbose titles from Square Enix's DS Style lineup.
We've already helped a student pass his exams in Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, and then we reunited a little girl with her dead father in Elite Beat Agents, so what's the next challenge on our rhythm-gaming plate? Turning our eyes towards Namco Bandai Games'Nodame Cantabile, it looks like we'll be conducting music with a ragtag class of students.
The Nintendo DS has been home to many manga/anime licenses, so it's no surprise seeing the shoujo series appear on the handheld. Judging by what we've seen so far, the game plays like a simplified version of Ouendan. Players tap a series of floating notes in time with the music, filling up a "life" gauge with each successful hit. Missing a beat depletes the gauge, ending the level when the gauge is emptied.
A flash demo of the game has been put up to promote Nodame Cantabile DS, and you don't even need to know any Japanese to play! Check it out after the post break.
Why haven't we seen more rhythm platformers since Donkey Kong Jungle Beat? And while we're at it, how come there aren't more games that feature primates? We were on the verge of sending out subpoenas and demanding answers from the video game industry's "top people," but then we stumbled upon Everlasting Love, a charming, monochrome game from homebrew developer Mia (Ninja & Zarbi, Oil Panic DS).
Following the single-song soundtrack (from We Love Katamari) and the monkey protagonist's head movements, players tap the A button to the beat. Just hitting the A button at all makes the simian character bounce around, but he jumps higher depending on how rhythmically accurate you are. You can use the directional pad to face which direction you want to pounce, but all movement is limited to hopping around.
While there's a lot of emphasis on staying with the rhythm, jumping as high as possible isn't the goal of the game -- you're actually meant to complete the levels with as few measured hops as possible. Some of the portions actually require you to jump off-beat, keeping your head down to avoid low-hanging spikes.
Everlasting Love can get pretty frustrating at times, but we're not sure if it's the fault of the game's or our own lacking abilities. Clearing the first pit took us a few tries before we could put it behind us, and the obstacles get exponentially harder after that. At version 0.1 though, Everlasting Love has a lot of potential to be the rhythm platformer we've been waiting for all these years.
One of our favorite touches of the new Phantom Hourglass' trailer shown at this year's GDC event was its use of the reworked Hyrule Castle theme from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. If there's one thing we love, it's retro tracks brought back for another round. That's why we're featuring a medley of songs from the original Zelda game (NES) remixed by electronica musician Ochre, for your Sunday listening pleasure.
We imagine that trying to add anything on top of Koji Kondo's classic work without ruining it is a difficult task, but this arrangement doesn't miss a step. Ochre's interpretation blends the 8-bit pieces with his own playful style, taking the listener through a six-minute daydream of Link's adventures. If you're a fan of lush synths and summery rhythms, we definitely suggest downloading this song along with Ochre's other remixes and original offerings at his site.
We know Electroplankton sort of covered the musical DS toy thing, but we are so impressed with every aspect of Jam Sessions. It sounds great, it looks fun, the interface, while a little homebrew-looking, is just ... pleasant. Look at that floral background!
We now know a little more about Jam Sessions, like that it will come loaded with 20 licensed songs to play along with, complete with lyrics, and that your playing is limited to strumming rather than picking individual notes-- sorry, no solos. You can also change the sound of your guitar, adding distortion and delay effects. There's still no game attached, just songs you can play along with, or freeform strumming.
This game (well, toy) just goes so far against what usually gets released in the US in so many ways. It looks totally fun and totally relaxing.
Posted Mar 9th 2007 10:00AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News
Newsweek's N'Gai Croal, who reported the news that Ubisoft would be localizing Hiite Utaeru DS Guitar M-06 as Jam Sessions, has posted an interview with Seth Delackner of Plato, the director of the "game". The story of how Delackner got to create a guitar simulator is pretty surprising: he was hired to program a sequel to the English training game Eigo Zuke.
But Nintendo decided to handle the programming themselves as they had for the first game, leaving Plato with a DS programmer, a DS development kit, and no projects. The team brainstormed new ideas, and came up with a music game.
As a demo, Delackner put together a little program that allowed the user to "strum" over a line on the touchscreen to play guitar samples. Plato loved it, Nintendo loved it, and Hiite Utaeru DS Guitar M-06 was born.
It's no secret that we love musicgames, so expect more on Jam Sessions as we hear it. We want the story on that beautiful, but random boxart.
Sure, you've probably heard the Mario theme played on a guitar before, or maybe even on a piano, but have you heard it played on a beat-boxing flute? Or have you heard it hand farted? Probably not, so the gathering of all these oddities from Fan Tent is a welcome one. All of the videos are from You Tube, so we've gone ahead and embedded them past the post break.
The DS is a veritable gateway to the professional world. Why, we've gained access to respected career choices such as a litigation, the culinary arts, and even high-stakes surgery. But why stop there? No, for the more romantic of us, a new application from Japan is allowing us yet one more: a guitar player.
No, this isn't quite Guitar Hero for your DS. Instead, the game uses the touch screen to actually allow a player to "freestyle" notes, chords, and tunes, making their own creations as opposed to playing those pre-made. The stylus is used to pick the on-screen strings, and the d-pad allows for tonal switching. It will obviously require a passable knowledge of music, and though the chances are slim of it ever coming to the U.S., it's certainly worth a moment of your time to watch the demo video after the jump. Come on. Mom and Dad would never let you be in a band, but the dream never dies.
If you're a Castlevania fan, then it tends to follow that you dig the music from the series as well, and Konami knows it. If you preorder the newest installment, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, from EB Games or GameStop, they'll throw in a bonus disc, the Castlevania 20th anniversary soundtrack -- a compilation of the best the franchise has to offer, musically. No word on a track listing, but the anticipation is half the fun. Tragically, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin doesn't release until December. In the meantime, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow was re-released this month, so fresh copies are available at many stores. If you can't wait to get your whip on in PoR and missed DoS (shame on you), snag one while you can.
Elite Beat Agents, the wacky English version of music-and-rhythm seizure game, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!, sees the cheerleaders getting replaced by gyrating secret agents who swoop in whenever people are in need of their rhythmic assistance. In the case of this video (higher resolution version here), they're called upon by a frantic film director struggling to complete his latest masterpiece, "Romancing Meowzilla." Looks like the English variant will be every bit as zany and unpredictable as the Japanese original.
Electroplankton was one of the games that appeared during this year's E3 as a downloadable demo from the veritable Wi-Fi nexus that was Nintendo's floorspace. After grabbing it from their ethereal streams of data, I spent some time with it in my hotel room. And by "some time", I mean a period of clock cycles which seemed to stretch on for an eternity. I was plunged into a world where I reigned as conductor supreme over constantly smiling amoeba-like creatures, gently poking and prodding them to elicit unique sounds and instantly create my own music.
Some have expressed unhappiness over Nintendo's current tune, a little ditty that goes along the lines of "For January this release is timed / buy it if you're musically inclined / don't go looking amongst the mortar and the bricks / for it's only available after several clicks / point your browser to Nintendo / listen to Reggie 'cos he says so." No wonder people are so unhappy - it's a really awful tune. It seems that Target agrees, as according to their Get into the Game website, their stores will be selling the game when it releases on January 11th.
Though the game may end up just being relegated to Target's website, there's certainly a fair chance that such a mainstream store would end up carrying a title that would have the most success amongst the Nintendogs audience. There's no reason for such a gaming gem to be restricted to online shoppers only - setting the game up on demo stations in a shop's music section would be a great way to market Electroplankton. What do you guys think?
The first screenshots of Square Enix's DS Style series of nongames have shown up, and they look ... well, functional. The problem with nongames is that it's impossible to build hype for something that is used just for looking at a map of France, or teaching yourself yoga, even if the software in question is extremely well-designed.
Continuing its praiseworthy support for the Nintendo DS, 
We've already helped a student pass his exams in 
Why haven't we seen more rhythm platformers since 
One of our favorite touches of the new Phantom Hourglass' trailer shown at this year's 
Newsweek's N'Gai Croal, who reported the news that 
The DS is a veritable gateway to the professional world. Why, we've gained access to respected career choices such as a 
If you're a Castlevania fan, then it tends to follow that you dig the music from the series as well, and Konami knows it. If you preorder the newest installment, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, from EB Games or GameStop, they'll throw in a bonus disc, the Castlevania 20th anniversary soundtrack -- a compilation of the best the franchise has to offer, musically. No word on a track listing, but the anticipation is half the fun.
Electroplankton
