Paging through the magazine, however, we spotted at least two advertisements that we wanted to share with you. As we were tearing them out to throw into our scanner, we thought, "Why not post all of the other DS ads (and the cover)?" Join us past the break for the scanned pages!
Insecticide never seemed like a title destined to set the sales charts on fire, so we're not surprised to see retailers already marking down the noir title. Less than two months after Insecticide's release, Amazon, GameStop, and other shops have chopped the half-adventure, half-platforming game down to $19.99, a two-thirds its original price.
And if that's still too much for you, you could buy Nirvana's Incesticide for only $7.97, less than half of Insecticide's price. What's the difference between the two, you ask? Well, it just so happens that we've put together a lovely comparison guide that should help you with that question.
As you may or may not know, I'm a big fan of adventure games. That's one of the reasons I jumped at the chance to play Insecticide -- it looked like it would be one of the best in the genre this year. And the action parts? Those would just be gravy.
Crackpot, the development team behindthe game, is mostly made up of people who used to work for LucasArts, and it shows. Insecticide contains the same kind of humor and adventure goodness of games like Monkey Island and Grim Fandango. Yet, this title is not only an adventure game but also an action platformer, and when mixing genres, you have to be careful to do it right -- in a way that makes sense, and in a way that works. Unfortunately, though, Insecticide fails in those aspects.
Yes, yes, New Super Mario Bros.is pretty and enormously fun. We get it. But while playing through that otherwise delightful slice of 2D platforming, we often found ourselves missing the challenge of an old-school Mario game.
That's why we're excited when we see stuff like New Retro Mario Bros., one of the downright sweetest Mario hacks we've encountered in a while. Combine the luscious, 3D-on-2D visuals of the mentally popular DS game with the level design and increased difficulty of the peerless Super Mario Bros., and you're talking about our kind of game.
That's essentially what New Retro Mario Bros. is: a landmark NES game wearing fancy new DS pants; everything that appeared in Super Mario Bros. is here, right down to the last item box and Goomba. To see just how accurate it is, hit the break for videos of the original game, as well as the updated version of World 1-1. Oh, and bear in mind that the Machinae Supremacy soundtrack is for placeholder purposes only.
Each month, the EGM rumor mill churns out some very interesting topics of conversation. Well, the latest rumor that will be on the minds of all Nintendo-faithful is Disney's supposed intention to take on Nintendo's platforming plumber with their strongest mascot, Mickey.
Most of us probably played Mickey's Illusion games back on Sega's systems, so we recall that Mickey can be in a good game (some of you probably count those Kingdom Hearts games, as well?). But, does he have what it takes to compete with Mario? Perhaps, with Warren Spector supposedly heading up the project.
It seems silly that anyone would try to compete with Mario, but hey, that's just us. What do you all think?
We've been fascinated by the potential of Insecticidesince it first buzzed to our attention last May. Crackpot's noirish, bug-based title combines an adventure game with platforming, action, and detective elements. As it turns out, this willingness to fuse different genres and play styles seems to have backfired, with reviewers criticizing the action sequences in particular. We're pretty sure that there's a great detective-thriller game starring bugs just waiting to be made, but this doesn't seem to be it.
IGN -- 70%: IGN's Daemon Hatfield awarded the title its highest mark to date (apart from the two users who each gave it, er, a perfect ten on Metacritic), but still couldn't ignore the flawed action segments: "This one is a real heartbreaker. I really wanted to score it higher, but the action sequences get in the way of what could have been an extremely enjoyable adventure game. Crackpot has created an engrossing world with Insecticide, so maybe a sequel will focus more on pointing and clicking than frustrating and agitating."
Nintendo Power -- 65%: Likewise, Nintendo Power seems to insinuate that the game is a Jack of all trades, and a master of none: "Insecticide tries to be a lot of things at once -- platformer, shooter, and investigative adventure -- which is a trick that seldom works well." [Mar 2008, p.89 -- excerpt found at Metacritic]
Game Informer -- 58%: And there's just too much platforming for Game Informer's superbly named Joe Juba: "... Insecticide could have been an excellent adventure game. Instead, it's a platformer, and a bad one at that. The game squanders its stylish setting, writing, and entertaining puzzle solving by minimizing the fun investigation segments, focusing squarely on broken combat and platforming. The fact that you can run through most encounters without firing a shot makes the action element feel even more tiresome and pointless."
It's been quite some time since we've heard from Red Fly Studios' fungal platformer Mushroom Men. We're quite happy to see them showing their caps again! A new trailer has been released, revealing an intriguing side-scroller starring small mushroom guys in the human world -- with a slightly spooky vibe added.
There's an element of environmental interactivity on display that we're interested in -- things like the house of cards suggest that there's more to do than just jump and shoot. Even the jumping and shooting have more going on, in the form of an item-creation engine.
It's not every day that a 2.5d platformer comes along using original characters. We kind of wish it was.
[Update: this got posted on Wii Fanboy by mistake! Take it to mean that we think the game looks really good. And also that IGN posted it on their Wii page.]
As you already know, we're in love with wacky 2D platformers, the crazier the better. You need only look to our romantic exchanges with Barnyard Blast, Sanuk Software's low-budget Castlevania spoof, for evidence of our forbidden flirtations.
At an IGS session yesterday, EA Tiburon's Kyle Gray demonstrated a new DS game, tentatively titled Monkey Business, currently in development and after our own heart. The colorful game's hero, a British explorer named Hatsby, could be seen battling an opera-singing boss and a robotic construct of Big Ben.
The combo system seems reminiscent of The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night, and there's some unclarified puzzle mechanic played out on the touchscreen -- what's there not to love? We were surprised to hear that EA greenlit the project, even if only for its EA Casual Games division, but Kyle explained, "It's this weird new face of EA ... They're actually looking to do new things, now."
Swing past the post break for more videos from the Flash prototype of this very interesting platformer.
We want to love Ignition's Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys, and thanks to its camp title, satirical take on '50s sci-fi, daft storyline, and brain-feasting anti-heroes, Ignition's platformer had already caught our eye from the other side of the bar.
However, just as we were preparing ourselves to waltz over and strike up conversation (this is possibly the worst analogy ever -- sorry), this new trailer appeared. Featuring lead villain Big Brain laughing and joshing his way through dialogue that is -- to put it kindly -- creaky, it smacks of a particularly bad Saturday morning cartoon. Maybe some of you will find that to be part of its appeal. But seriously: the crickets are still chirping after that "snicker" pun.
In our enthusiasm to learn more about Namco Bandai's latest 2D platformers, Kekkaishi: Kokubourou Shuurai and GeGeGe no Kitarou: Youkai Daigekisen, both based on anime licenses, we came across this screenshot for the latter (minus the picard-wtf.jpg photoshop, of course).
Sure, Touch Detective introduced phallic creatures to the DS years ago, but that mushroom thing was cartoonish and nonthreatening. As for this thing? This wrinkled beast? We imagine that if Picard and crew were to ever bump heads with this walking willy, screens would be off-ed, shields would be raised, and photon torpedoes would be fired. "Ensign, get us out of here! Maximum warp!"
Deformed wang monster aside, GeGeGe no Kitarou looks to be a tame platformer with some gliding portions to keep things interesting. Float past the break for a few more of the screenshots we grabbed from Famitsu.
Drawn to Life must have been a success (VGChartz says 200,000 copies), because THQ is localizing the game for the Korean market. We can't tell you exactly what the title is, but machine translation gives us something like "Drawn, to sprout! The world which I make!" which definitely conveys the right kind of idea.
5th Cell's first DS game was definitely one of the most creative and best-made platformers of the year, and we couldn't be happier to see it finding a worldwide audience. Lots of Korean gamers love 2D, as well, so this has the potential to be even bigger over there than in the U.S.
Remember Shantae? WayForward certainly does -- the Contra 4 developer spent two years producing the delightful Game Boy Color platformer, only to see it die a death at retail, its chances cruelly crushed by the increasing obsolescence of its host platform, as well as the rise of the newly released Game Boy Advance. Boasting an engrossing mix of Metroid-style puzzles and neat visual tricks, the game was an unsung gem that emphatically failed to register on the gaming public's radar.
A sequel was planned for the Advance, only for the project to be inexplicably shelved with the game 50% complete, but WayForward hasn't forgotten about the series entirely. With the all-conquering Contra 4 now out on store shelves and begging to be bought, the developer has posted a poll on its site, asking whether or not we'd be interested in purchasing a Shantae follow-up, and what platform we'd like it to appear on.
Hence, we implore all of you to hit the link below and get your vote on. If you're still wavering about giving thirty seconds of your time to one of the best DS-related causes we've heard of in ages, go past the break for footage of the canned GBA title.
Fan-made videos of thisquality are few and far between, but the Super Mario Galaxy DS trailer we've embedded past the post break (for spoiler-related reasons, so be warned) is one of the most professionally produced we've seen to date. Judging by the user comments submitted in response to this over at GameTrailers, many viewers have been duped into believing this is a real game.
Alas, it isn't, but it sure does get the old pulse racing.
In some deeply weird alternative universe, perhaps one in which Japanese people actually bought Microsoft consoles and England's footballers weren't quite so irredeemably rubbish, we might never have experienced Super Mario Bros. as we know it. Instead, we could have been playing Super MarioSisters.
Alas, Nintendo of America never did follow through on a trademark application it filed in February, 1990 for a game called "SUPER MARIO SISTERS." The application was abandoned almost two years later, depriving us all of an estrogen-fuelled version of the world's favorite platformer.
Still upset over Wario's lackluster return to platforming, Wario: Master of Disguise? Why not wash that awful taste out of your mouth with one of the anti-hero's more polished titles? Import shop Play Asia is clearing out its stock of Wario Land Advance (Wario Land 4 in the US) by putting up Japanese copies of the GBA game for $9.99.
This sale ends next Tuesday, so you have several days to ask yourself, "Do I want to play an awesome game or not?" Jump past the break for Wario Land Advance's opening movie and a speedrun of the first level.
Insecticide never seemed like a title destined to set the sales charts on fire, so we're not surprised to see retailers already marking down the noir title. Less than two months after Insecticide's release, Amazon, GameStop, and other shops have chopped the half-adventure, half-platforming game down to $19.99, a two-thirds its original price.
Each month, the EGM rumor mill churns out some very interesting topics of conversation. Well, the latest rumor that will be on the minds of all Nintendo-faithful is Disney's supposed intention to take on Nintendo's platforming plumber with their strongest mascot, Mickey.
In our enthusiasm to learn more about Namco Bandai's latest 2D platformers, Kekkaishi: Kokubourou Shuurai and GeGeGe no Kitarou: Youkai Daigekisen, both based on anime licenses, we came across this screenshot for the latter (minus the picard-wtf.jpg photoshop, of course).
Remember Shantae? WayForward certainly does -- the Contra 4 developer spent two years producing the delightful Game Boy Color platformer, only to see it die a death at retail, its chances cruelly crushed by the increasing obsolescence of its host platform, as well as the rise of the newly released Game Boy Advance. Boasting an engrossing mix of Metroid-style puzzles and neat visual tricks, the game was an unsung gem that emphatically failed to register on the gaming public's radar.
In some deeply weird alternative universe, perhaps one in which Japanese people actually bought Microsoft consoles and England's footballers weren't quite so irredeemably rubbish, we might never have experienced Super Mario Bros. as we know it. Instead, we could have been playing Super Mario Sisters.
