To me, the Ace Attorney series is, by itself, more than enough reason to buy a Nintendo DS. I just can’t praise these games enough, with their quirky humor and old-school point & click adventure gameplay. It also helps that the western localizations are absolutely brilliant.

Now for one of the longest weeks of my life.

What’s new? Well, you have probably noticed the new logo, but there were other changes “below the hood”, to WordPress, K2, and several plugins. I also changed some of the fonts and text sizes; not huge changes, but I find that the text is now a little more pleasant to read. I also changed my author name back to “Dehumanizer”, as it’s the name I use in several gaming forums, and it is more common to use an alias in a gaming site than one’s real name (which isn’t really a secret — just check out my other blogs).

Other than that, the “big news” around here is that I intend to resume writing on this blog again. Really.  No, I have not lost interest in games and the gaming scene in general, or in retrogaming. It’s just that I’ve been… distracted by other things. I’ve also been working (mostly…) at home for the past year, but now I am employed again, and, oddly enough, I find that blogging from work “feels” better to me than doing so from home. I hope I can do that and not let it affect my work.

One tiny problem is that I haven’t had money to buy many new games for the past year, and most of them were for the Wii or the DS. My gaming PC is still the same, and it would probably explode if I installed a new game on it…. or at least make it look like a slide show.  But, hey, many of my posts in the past were about retrogaming, and people read them and commented on them, so there’s an interest in those out there. And those Spectrum or C64 games are, as everyone knows (or should know), timeless.

So, expect new, regular posts in the future, including reviews of classic games, comments about the gaming scene and gaming news, and personal stories about how particular games came into my life. Who knows, there may even be a real new post as early as tomorrow!

I don’t need to tell you how important this little black rubber-keyed beast was to me, during my late childhood and early teens. It was my first “real” computer (technically, it was my father’s, but…), and not only did I spent thousands of hours playing hundreds of games on it, it was also the computer I learned to program (BASIC) on, when I was 9 or 10.

It was a time that seemed magical, with endless possibilities. I still remember the afternoon when my father introduced that (at the time) weird thing at home. I didn’t know it then, but it would be one of the most important and enduring influences on my life.

Twenty-five years. Doesn’t even seem that long ago.

And people are still creating new games for it… who’d have thought?

From everything I’ve seen, this game has had very little promotion, and has been relatively hard to find. But most reviews have been quite good (either 8/10 or 9/10), and most people online speak highly of the game as well.

If I was to concisely explain to someone what the game is like, I’d say the following:

• 50% Bejeweled (the basic “match 3″ game);
• 30% Warlords Battlecry 3 (the setting, the RPG elements);
• 20% Magic: the Gathering (the accumulating of several colors of mana to cast spells, the damage system).

The game is basically an RPG, with classes, character progression, a fantasy world, monsters to fight, skills, hit points, experience, money, weapons and other items, NPC companions, trainable mounts, and a story. However, the battles are basically competitive Bejeweled-like matches. The main difference is, of course, the fact that you are battling an opponent, but sharing a board, so, while you want to play a good move, you have to avoid setting up good moves for your opponent, since you both take turns. And it’s a little more complex than Bejeweled, since, while you still have to match 3 pieces, they have several effects:

• colored jewels give you mana of that color;
• coins give you money (used outside combat, to buy equipment and improve your citadel);
• stars give you experience points;
• skulls damage your opponent.

Instead of switching two pieces, you can also cast a spell, provided you have the required mana. Each class has its own spells, and you can also learn additional ones from monsters.

The story is standard fantasy fare, neither very good nor very bad. The world, however, is quite detailed, since it has been used for several Warlords / Battlecry games so far.

The game is out for the DS (the version I have) and the PSP. Incidentally, there is a PC demo, but the game hasn’t been announced for the PC yet (though it probably will, in the future).

I recommend this game if you like either genre (RPG or “match three”). It has a huge “just one more battle / quest / level” factor, and it’s one you’ll probably play for a long while, even after you beat the main quest (both because there are other classes to try, and because instant battles are always fun).

After rumours that a Wii version of Resident Evil 4 was appearing on the release schedules of Japanese retailers, the latest issue of Famitsu has confirmed the tittle-tattle and gives a few details about the Wii installment.

Imaginatively titled Bio Hazard 4: Wii Edition, this updated version features new Wiimote-specific controls. These include using the remote to aim weapons, moving the control to reload and using a knife by waggling the controller.

According to Famitsu it also features Ada’s missions from Resi 4 on PS2 and comes with a trailer for the upcoming Umbrella Chronicles, which is also on Wii.

A Capcom representative was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.

I hope it includes true widescreen support as well. This is a dream come true.

EDIT: More details (though no definitive confirmation yet) here and here.

EDIT2: According to Famitsu, it is indeed confirmed, at least in Japan… and does include widescreen. Yes!

Yet another EDIT: More info here.

And Capcom could produce it in an instant. They’d just have to:

- use all the content from the GameCube version
- add all the extra content from the PS2 version, updated to have GC-like graphics and lighting (otherwise, the extras would look visibly worse than the rest of the game)
- add widescreen mode (I think the PS2 version already includes it)
- add wiimote + nunchuk support.

Advantages:

- it would look better than most current Wii games (including Zelda: TP and Red Steel)
- most of it is already done, so development time and costs would be low
- the game really begs for wiimote control.

Me, I’d buy it in a second, even though I already have the GC version.

What the news media are reporting is that the wrist straps are “faulty”, which, during play, caused them to break, which in turn made the wiimotes “fly out of the user’s hands”, breaking TVs and possibly simply injuring people.

In reality, this is not more than a bunch of dishonest idiots trying to get rich quickly without working, and taking advantage of the ease (and chances of working) of stupid lawsuits in America. If you can’t produce, steal from those who do.

Just a few facts:

- Nintendo warns users repeatedly not to let go of the wiimote while playing. Indeed, they might not have included the wrist strap at all. They did so as a courtesy, because they knew some people would get too excited while playing.

- Anyone who lets go of the wiimote is not following the usage instructions. In a sane world, this should cause the suit to be thrown out immediately.

- Nintendo has already offered to replace straps. Again, they didn’t need to do this; they could simply say that, if users follow the instructions, straps won’t even be needed. But they are being nice.

- This suit has as much merit as someone sticking a fork in their eye, and then suing the fork’s maker for not putting a “Do not stick in eye“ warning on it. Companies should make safe products, yes, but they aren’t responsible for stupidity. It’s revolting how people can be stupid idiots, and be rewarded for it.

- Finally… You’ve got to see this comic, and this one as well.

However, in one of the last posts, there’s so much ignorance that I’m not even sure it’s a joke or not. I believe it isn’t, however. The post is called Commodore 64 games to join the Virtual Console, and it includes this gem:

All in all quite underwhelming news. The Commodore 64 isn’t even a console! The games have dated too much for them to be worth downloading unless they were 50 or 100 Wii Points at the most. At least that way you could spend your change on a novelty bit of nostalgia and fill up yet another of the 48 channel slots!

I don’t even know where to begin.

Isn’t a console? So what? I’d see it as “the VC isn’t limited to console games! Cool!”. Besides, the C64 was turned into a console in 1990 (by then, it was admittedly too late, and it wasn’t successful), simply by removing the keyboard and disk interface.

Have dated too much? I can’t believe this one - either this is a joke, or the reviewer never had anything but consoles in his life. The C64 compares favorably to the NES! Better graphics, better sound, and more varied game genres. In fact, a lot of C64 games were converted to the NES, and the ports were usually much worse. The C64, meanwhile, could do a Super Mario Bros. perfectly well. If C64 games were to cost “50 or 100 Wii Points at the most”, then they’d have to give NES games for free.

Really, to suggest that the C64 is more “dated” than the NES… Ah, youngsters, these days…

Oh, and one more thing: unlike what the news (and I’ve seen it in other places, too) suggests, this is not “C64 games coming to the VC”. This is a company (System 3) releasing ports and remakes (of their own games, and Epyx’s) for the VC (and they’re releasing some for the DS and PSP, too). The Virtual Console isn’t just a means for playing old console games; new games will be released for it (much like the Xbox Live Arcade), and in this case some of them are remakes or ports of old games. It doesn’t mean that we’ll be regularly seeing new C64 games there, among NES games, SNES games, and so on.

Rake in Grass has just launched an expansion pack for their great game, Jets’n'Guns!!

More of a “ok, the game’s as it should’ve been now” than a “hey, new stuff!” package, the so-called Gold Edition brings new features (well, duh ^_^’) like:

1. the game now supports 800×600 resolution, which means more baddies on the screen, more items onscreen in the shop, etc.;
2. More weapons, more foes, more ships, twice as long story mode and more music from the norse gods Machinae Supremacy (among others)!

If you like side-scrolling, R-type-like shooters with very nice graphics, excellent gameplay and are known to have the occasional bit of spare time on your hands, make your way to the game’s website and indulge yourself on an early holiday gift.

Consider this though: if you already own the “not gold” version of Jets’n'Guns, the Gold Version will cost you $9,95. If you do not (and shame on you if you don’t!), then it’s $29,95.

(Should you find yourself thinking “Weren’t the ads supposed to be on the right?”, I apologize: it’s my fault. I just saw this and made it my immediate priority to share it with the world in the appropriate medium, this blog.

My next posts will be much better, believe me )

[it was already quite good, but… you forgot the link. Here it is: Jets’n'Guns. - Dehumanizer]

I have it at home, since yesterday.

I’ve been playing with it for several hours, now. Unfortunately, my brother (who is the one who bought it for me; I wasn’t in the country on release day) was only able to buy the basic package: the console itself, Wii Sports, one wiimote and one nunchuk.

I haven’t been able to explore Wii Sports thoroughly, as my TV is in my bedroom, and the bed is in the way. I’m going to move the TV to the living room today or tomorrow, hopefully. I’ve won a couple of tennis games (which is much more fun than you’d imagine), but the “real thing” will be when I can play with more room, and with more people (which will require more wiimotes, and they’re completely sold out right now).

Besides disk-based games, the Wii supports several channels, and can go online. Connecting it to the Internet was extremely easy; there were no compatibility problems with my Linksys WRK54G router, which I already use for the Nintendo DS. The wireless range seems to be better than that of the DS, and it now supports WPA encryption (which I’m not using, though, because of the DS - only WEP there). As soon as you go online, the console updates its firmware, which takes a little while, but no effort at all.

News and weather channels are available on the channel selection screen, but they’re not working yet; according to Wikipedia, they’ll be up and running either this month, or in January. Same thing about the Opera browser, whose release date is apparently December 23.

One of the most interesting channels is, of course, the Virtual Console. Apparently, new games will be released every friday. I’ve already bought a few: Donkey Kong (NES) due to nostalgia (even though it’s a relatively poor version, quite inferior to the original arcade), F-Zero (SNES), Super Mario 64 (N64), Donkey Kong Country (SNES), Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Drive), Super Star Soldier (PC Engine) and Dungeon Explorer (PC Engine). A special note about Mario 64: I never had an N64, and, though I had already played the game using emulators, and later on the DS, I had never played it using an analog controller (in this case, a GameCube one) until yesterday. And the game really needs one; it’s like I was playing a different game! Moves and tricks that I had to struggle with on the DS come up absolutely naturally here. The N64 version doesn’t include the DS extras (3 new characters, more stars, better graphics), but this game really requires an analog stick…

A couple of PC Engine games support 5 players at a time. Dungeon Explorer is a more complex Gauntlet clone, and Bomberman 93 probably needs no introduction. Since the Wii can only support 4 wiimotes or classic controllers at a time, and up to 4 GameCube controllers, you need to use a combination of both. I have 4 GC controllers, so I will, hopefully, be able to play 5-player Dungeon Explorer after the next lunch here.

One warning: some (not all) NES, SNES and Mega Drive games (not PC Engine, oddly enough) weren’t, originally, properly converted from NTSC (60 Hz) to PAL (50 Hz); they had black borders on the screen, and were about 13% slower than the original versions. Since they’re perfectly emulated here, and the European Wii uses emulated PAL versions, the problem persists. If you’ve played the original versions and were OK with them, you won’t see a difference here, but it’s a pity that Nintendo didn’t do the extra work of fixing this problem… after all, the Wii supports 60 Hz PAL, unlike the original consoles.

And that’s it for now. When they’re available again, I hope to buy Wii Play (which includes an extra wiimote), a second nunchuk, and a couple of classic controllers. As for games, I want Zelda, Red Steel, DBZ: Tenkaichi 2 and Call of Duty 3. It’s likely that I’ll only be able to get most of those next year, though…

Anyway, this blog’s new address is www.thegamesofmylife.com. Please, update your bookmarks. If you have a link to The Games of my Life on your own blog your site, I’d appreciate it if you updated it as well.

I’ve been playing mostly Nintendo DS games, these days. My PC is too old to play any recent PC game (I’d love to play Medieval: Total War 2. :(), so there’s nothing new there. If it wasn’t for the DS, life wouldn’t have meaning.

On my own, I’ve been playing Gyakuten Saiban 2, also known as Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney: Justice for All. I bought it from Play Asia, as the Japanese version includes a full English translation. I love these games, by the way, and couldn’t recommend them more, especially if you love adventure games with a great sense of humor. You shouldn’t be afraid of reading, though.

Multi-player-wise, I’ve been spending my time with Mario Kart DS, 42 All-Time Classics (called Clubhouse Games in the U.S.) and Big Brain Academy. All those are fantastic with 4 players or more.

I have to say that I’m quite enthusiastic about the Nintendo Wii. Everything I’ve seen about it has been great. I’m in Europe, so it won’t be released until December 8th… well, it’s just a couple of weeks. Hopefully, I’ll be able to buy it on launch day, because unfortunately I live in an ignorant, Playstation-obsessed country, and the Wii will probably be less successful that it’s been everywhere else.

If all goes well, I’ll get Zelda: Twilight Princess on day one as well. And, who knows, some Virtual Console games, too…

Well, I’ve had it for a couple of days now. As far as I know, it hasn’t yet been released in Portugal, but I ordered it from Amazon.co.uk.

If you’ve used Opera Mobile version 8.x, you have an idea of what to expect, as the browser (while it has the “Opera” brand, it’s referred to as “Nintendo DS Browser”) is mostly the same, with the necessary changes for the different hardware, naturally.

The biggest problem, in my opinion, is this: it’s a bit slow. Not unbearably so, but scrolling is far from smooth, especially on more complex pages. It also loads and renders them slower than you’re probably used to, even with a fast connection. It’s usable, sure, but it’s far from the experience of using Firefox on a PC, of course. In fact, Opera in my Nokia 6630 is faster than this one (but, then, modern cell phones are more powerful, hardware-wise, than a DS).

The browser has two vieweing modes: Small Screen Rendering mode (SSR), and Overview mode. The first works mostly like the mobile version: it ensures that you never have to scroll horizontally, by making every frame / column appear on top of each other. You can read pages perfectly, but you lose a lot of the formatting. One problem is that in sites with a menu on the left, the entire menu appears before the content, which means you have to scroll down a lot to start reading. Anyway, this mode is perfectly fine for reading blogs, for instance, but a forum (such as a phpBB one) is more complicated.

Overview mode shows the entire page with the original formatting. You see a “zoomed out” version on one of the screens, and a zoomed in section on the other. You can drag the zoomed in part with the stylus, of course. This way, you can see a site with its original look, but navigation becomes more difficult.

Personally, I stay in SSR mode most of the time, except when a site really requires its original formatting. One interesting example is GameKnot, an online chess server. With Overview mode and maximum zoom out, you can actually have the entire chess board on the clickable screen, and make your moves with the stylus! I’ve tried it and it works, which shows that Javascript support is acceptable.

You can write using a virtual keyboard, in the same way you write your name in a game, or use handwriting recognition. I didn’t like the latter; maybe it’s because I’m used to my old Palm, which recognizes characters differently. Many times, it didn’t recognize the letter I typed, and I’ve found no way to write accented characters. Anyway, the virtual keyboard works quite well, and you can certainly write faster than using T9 in a cell phone.

One problem, though: maybe it’s because this is the UK version, instead of a localized Portuguese one, but, as far as I can see, there is no way to write vowels like A and O with a tilde, like “ã” or “õ”. The browser shows them perfectly in pages, but they’re not available on the virtual keyboard. You can select which national keyboard you want (US, UK, SP, etc.), but there’s no Portuguese one. Maybe it’ll be available when (and if) they release the browser here. It’s not the end of the world, but it can be annoying if you want to use it for writing or commenting in Portuguese sites or blogs.

Personally, I use this browser mostly for reading in bed (blogs and other sites). It’s much more comfortable to use the small, light DS than a comparatively huge and heavy laptop. And I don’t currently have one of those, anyway.

No Java or Flash, but I don’t miss them.

It saves bookmarks and the browser configuration to the card, but not cookies or files. Cookies are lost when you turn the DS off, which means that you have to log in again in any site you access. A little annoying, but, as I said, you can write usernames and passwords quickly using the virtual keyboard.

So far, it hasn’t crashed once.

There are two versions, one for the old DS (”Phat”), and another for the DS Lite. The reason is that the browser comes with a memory expansion, which is inserted into the GBA port, and they include a smaller one for the DS Lite, which doesn’t stick out of the port (like GBA games do). The Phat version works on both DSs (sticking out of the GBA port on the Lite), but the Lite version is for the Lite only.

Curiously, this isn’t out in the US yet… one of the few times us Europeans got a better deal.

Rumors of a portable Nintendo GameCube console, or at least a portable which plays GC disks, have been seen on gaming news sites for the last few days. The cause is that, apparently, Nintendo has got IBM to shrink their Broadway chip recently.

Now, I doubt these rumors are true, for several reasons. First, it would steal the thunder from their October / November Wii launch. Second, they already have a portable console which is selling like hot cakes - in fact, it’s currently the best selling console world wide, by far. Third, I don’t know if current technology allows a console with optical disks to have a decent battery duration, and yet be low cost - just ask Sony. Fourth, while the GC sold as much as the Xbox world wide, and made money for Nintendo, a lot of people still associate the name “GameCube” with failure, and with lost market share.

On the other hand, a portable GC would be interesting:

• Big software library, with many more games than the PSP, including a lot of classics
• GC games have very short load times, unlike the PSP
• The GC is much more powerful, graphics-wise, than the PSP (or even the PS2)
• Most Nintendo fans (like me) already have a relatively big collection of games, and would love to play them on the go

In conclusion? I doubt it’ll happen, but it would be nice.

EDIT: of course, Nintendo wouldn’t call it “a portable GC”, since it would look old, and, as I said, the GC brand isn’t very popular. More like the “Game Boy Ultra”, which, whaddyaknow, is also compatible with GC games.

That image, however, is wrong - and it just shows that people are simply not thinking.

The Wii is said to be “2-3 times as powerful” as the GC. Right? On paper, that seems to be nothing compared to the multi-core, multi-gigahertz monsters that the 360 and the PS3 are.

That’s a way to look at it, sure. But think of it in another way. Do you think that the current generation of games - PS2, original Xbox, GameCube - are absolutely, downright ugly? Ugly in a way that they are unplayable? Do you find games like God of War, Gran Turismo 4, Halo 2, Metroid Prime or the better-looking GC version of Resident Evil 4 “ugly”?

I don’t think so (unless you are SO young that the 360 is your first console ever. :)) Well then, the Wii will beat all of those in terms of graphics. Easily.

For instance, if you were born under a dictactorship, it’s very likely that you won’t see your lack of freedom as a problem, especially if you don’t have any contact with people in more free societies. So kids will be satisfied, while their parents or grandparents may remember a time when you could say what you thought without being arrested, for instance.

But… what does all this have to do with games? (you were probably wondering if you’d arrived at another blog by mistake…) Simple: the lack of originality in today’s games.

Most young gamers (say, under 20) probably don’t see a problem with games, these days. To them, it’s perfectly normal to be able to say “it’s like C&C” or “it’s like Counter-Strike, only with…”. To them, there are probably fewer than 10 game genres, and that’s OK. You like some, you dislike the rest.

If you’re 30 or so, however, and a gamer (not simply someone who plays a game from time to time), you’ll be bored with most of today’s games, and for a reason. You remember the early 80s.

I’ve had difficulty in explaining those times to younger people, because they seem inconceivable (much like having only 2 TV channels, I guess), imposssible. A time when there weren’t just a few defined genres, but in which almost every game was completely original? A time when games were written by a single person, at home, instead of huge teams of programmers, artists, musicians and designers? An era when games were not designed by committees, but came from the imagination of the author - and, thus, weren’t watered down, but could, instead, take risks? An age when games didn’t cost millions of dollars to make, and, so, didn’t need to be similar to other games that had already sold well? When people weren’t obsessed with 3D?

You mean, there was a time when games weren’t simply first person shooters, real time strategy, driving, sports or Tetris/Bejeweled clones? When every game could be - and usually was - completely new?

Nah. Many people, today, can’t even imagine such a thing.

And so, kids are happy buying sequels after sequels, buying the same game over and over, just with better graphics than the previous version. They’re happy, and they don’t see anything wrong with it.

But I remember. I remember the Videopac / Odyssey2, the ZX Spectrum, the C64, the Amiga, and even the NES/SNES.

But try explaining that to kids, these days.

Source: Toys for Bob. The email address is there; please don’t spam it, just tell him, politely, why (and how much) you want a new Star Control.

EDIT: The UQM site now has a petition page, which can simplify the process. Please go there. A new SC by the original authors would be like a dream come true.

This is common in many kinds of games, such as racing games, but in a chess game? It was certainly new to me.

And this got me thinking about unlockables. I’ve seen people saying that they don’t like them - why shouldn’t all the content be available from the start? Why should I have to work to get it all? Besides, a game with 20 cars has as many cars as one with 10 from the start, and 10 which need to be unlocked.

But… I like unlockables. Sure, in the end the content is the same, but unlockables mean that there’s always something new in the near horizon, always one more goal. And when you do unlock it, it’s a novelty.

Using the cars example: if you have 20 cars from the beginning, you probably try 3 or 4, choose a favorite, and use just that one from now on. If you have to unlock most of them, on the other hand, you will probably try out each new one as it’s unlocked. Much better, isn’t it?

So, game designers, please ignore the cries of lazy, instant gratification gamers. To them, playing isn’t a joy, it’s a chore, it’s “work”, which they do just to get to the end and “beat” the game.

As you may remember, the first Medieval: Total War is one of the “Games of my Life”, and, IMO, one of the best strategy games of all time. A second version of it (it’s Creative Assembly’s first sequel ever) should be really amazing.

Here is the MTW2 official page, with lots of great screenshots. Unfortunately, they still insist on showing only battle images, and I’m even more interested in the campaign - which sounds amazing, from the description, but I’d like to see some of it. It’s probably not coded yet, I guess.

The bad news: it should be even more demanding than Rome: Total War, which my puny PC already can’t handle decently. I really must get around to getting rich.

It’s virtually the same game as Path of Radiance, only with different characters, plot and world - and, of course, no 3D graphics, though I still think they’re great for a GBA strategy game. Of course, in this case, “more of the same” is a great thing - I really love these games, and must order The Sacred Stones soon.

To anyone who doesn’t know about FE, it’s a story-based tactical RPG, much like Shining Force. Characters gain experience by fighting, and any one who doesn’t survive a battle is really gone for good (though some characters who are essential to the plot just become “wounded”, meaning that you can’t use them anymore, but they still appear in cut scenes). With such fragility, added to the fact that they really have distinct personalities, backstories and such, you tend to get really attached to them. Which only makes it harder, when, in the last couple of turns of a long, drawn-out, tough battle, one of them dies. Do you continue the game? Sometimes, it has to happen, I think.

If you like tactical games such as Laser Squad or Advance Wars, and have a GBA (or a DS, where I play this game), trust me: buy both Fire Emblems soon. They should be relatively cheap, now, too. And don’t forget Path of Radiance, if you also have a GameCube.

This weekend, though, I finally had some time, and divided my time between 3 games:

• Jets ‘n’ Guns (PC)
• Advance Wars (GBA)
• Disciples 2 (PC)

So, 2 strategy games, and a shoot ‘em up. Not bad.

I really wish I had more time, though…

(no Videopac controller? Heresy!)

The most amazing thing is that I can well believe it. In the 80s, they had the NES; later, with the GB, GBC, GBA and now the DS, they still sell more consoles than anyone else.

And they always make a profit, unlike Sony and MS, which usually sell their consoles below cost.