Fat Princess was a silent hit on the PS3.  It took a “cutesy” art-style and it added some blood and it became a slightly mature multiplayer title. Fat Princess was a PSN title priced at $15.00. I was pretty excited for Fat Princess as it had a really cool multiplayer aspect that we’ve never seen before. The main mode is to capture the princess, this is a lot like capture the flag but there is a twist. The twist is that you can feed the princess cake to make her fat, thus making her harder to move. The more people helping you carry her, the easier it is. Fat Princess also came with modes such as team deathmatch, invasion, and a few others. It was a great PSN title, but it was plagued by many online lag issues. I remember playing for 2 hours at a time and only being able to get a few games in. It was a nightmare and it turned a lot of people off of the game. Fixes were promised but they took too long to issue and most of the people were already on to the next game by the time they came around.

He makes it look easy.

Now Fat Princess is on the PSP via UMD and/or download. It’s priced at $20.00 and includes a bunch of new features. In my opinion Fat Princess is a perfect fit for the PSP. The simplistic art style and the online multiplayer make it a great game to lay around in the house and play. The art style is slightly dumbed down from the PS3 version but you really can’t even tell. It looks great. As I mentioned before, Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake comes with a handful of new features including 6 new maps, 4 new multiplayer modes, an Ad-Hoc mode which let’s you do 4 vs. 4 locally and an extended single player campaign.

As in the PSN version, the game has 5 character classes which are the mage, warrior, worker, ranger, and priest. These classes each have their own set of weapons and abilities. For example the worker will go out and chop down trees and mine rocks to help upgrade all of the classes. This is what I love about Fat Princess, the teamwork aspect, and when it all works as it should it’s an amazingly fun game.

Red vs. Blue

This is the main problem, it rarely ever works perfectly. In my time spent with Fistful of Cake I could barely get any games going. Anytime I would search for a specific mode I would always get a return message telling me that no games were found and that I should change modes or search again. I did a search for any mode and was connected to a game but it only had about 10 players total when it can hold at least double that. I had to wonder if there was anyone out there playing the game. Maybe I was checking at the wrong times. I’m not sure, but it was frustrating. If I could get more games going then I’m sure I would have had a lot of great things to say about Fistful of Cake but if I can’t even connect to the mode I want to play how am I supposed to write anything more about it?

Fat Princess is a great concept, one that is a whole lot of fun when things are working correctly. It’s a shame that Fistful of Cake isn’t catching on because I was really in the mood to save some princesses.

With the mixed success of Soul Calibur on the PS3 and the Xbox 360, and the pedigree of good fighting games on the PSP, such as Darkstalkers, Mortal Kombat and Tekken, an iteration of Soul Calibur for the PSP seemed like a slam dunk.  Add in the ability to use Kratos as a playable character right out of the box, and this is a day one purchase to breathe life back into the PSP right?  Apparently some weird choices by Namco Bandai blocked that dunk, and left the player dazed and confused.

The Rundown

Soul Calibur : Broken Destiny for the PSP features 28 characters, including the new Dampierre and Kratos.  Each character has two costumes that can be chosen for fighting, but you can change those appearances with the carry over of Soul Calibur’s famed character creation.  Twelve slots are available for your reinventions of the original characters, or the characters you want to create on your own with a wealth of appearance and costume options-many of which become unlocked through the course of your gameplay as achievements.  The game has five game modes Quick Match, The Guantlet, Trials, Training and Versus.  Versus can only be played via Ad-Hoc, so if you had hoped for some online competition, you will miss out without a friend that owns a PSP and a copy of the game.  Quick Match is pretty self explanatory, and Training is a one on one practice forum where you can practice your moves with any character and set the AI for your opponent.  Oddly, The Guantlet is a similar mode where you progress through a loosely tied together story in a long set of matches where you have limited health and must bloack and counter to complete preset objectives in a 2 to 3 second time limit.  Trials is a survival mode that can be played in an Attack, Defense and Endless flavor, somewhat changing you gameplay to fit a more offensive of defensive playstyle.  Playing through the game will also unlock concept art and visuals, as well as costume elements to be used in the deep Creation system.

Impressions

OK, for the record Soul Calibur features easily some of the most vivid visuals on the the PSP to date, and the controls are poetry in motion.  Unfortunately, that is where the positives for the game end.  The Trials mode can be fun, but the absence of any type of ladder climbing single player campaign with an over-arcing story completely ruins the game.  True to any survival mode fashion, Trials also cannot be continued, so once you are downed you must restart without any saving of your progression.  The Guantlet is repetitive at best, and getting to the second level pretty much shows you all the mode has to offer.  Each round has you required to block one or more attacks with the need to counter using a very specific attack that you are not told.  The result produces an overwhelming desire to fling your PSP frisbee style and watch it shatter into pieces with each new match you advance to.  The character creation toolset is jaw-dropping, and a great source of entertainment-but without any enticing game modes to use your new creations in, you are left with a bittersweet symphony of rich instruments that will never be heard.  For me, Ad Hoc play just isn’t possible and the Quick Match and Training Modes just seem redundant–one without the other would have suited the player just fine as an avenue to familiarize yourself with different characters before taking them for a spin in the Campaign.  I guess, that is if a Campaign had been included.  We, at EDG, don’t use a rent or buy scale, but if we did, I would have to say that with this baffling omission Soul Calibur isn’t even worth the price of the inflated rental fees or the precious spot on your Gamefly cue.  Within an hour I had gotten all I could get out of the game, and it was boxed up ready to be sold back for credit.  Next time Namco, take Tekken : Dark Resurrection for a spin before you layout the design for your next portable Soul Calibur entry.  If you have a portable fighting itch to scratch, look elsewhere on the list of much better and much cheaper fighting games on the PSP.

A horrid disease strikes the land known as the Blorbs. You have never heard of the Blorbs you say well, beware because its not all fun and games. The land searches for a hero. Who knew the hero would be a pair of brothers.

Story

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story has an absolutely amazing and certainly unique plot. This kind of story could only make sense in the  the world of the Bros.  The story starts off first introducing you to a condition known as the Blorbs. The Mushroom Kindgom seems to have become plagued with it. You are then sent to Peach Castle where they await a Starite. To their dismay, this is something even a Starite can’t fixed. They need a hero and they need one fast. Who is the hero you ask, a pair of brothers. As in most Mario games, Bowser ends up storming the castle only to be made into a fool by Mario. With a now dismayed and frustrated Bowser, he finds his way to a mysterious person at a stand who says he has won a “Lucky Mushroom”. Next thing you know, Bowser ends up sucking up the citizens, Mario, Luigi, Peach and more!

Graphics

The graphics are pretty normal for a DS game yet, they seem fresh and vibrant. I kept saying, ” WOW, this looks really good!” and in all honesty, the game looks fantastic.  It just goes to show that you don’t need fancy graphics to make a great game. The bright and vibrant colors seem to make the game pop and bring the characters to life.

Gameplay

They could have very easily screwed up the game controls to feel very cramped and unnatural however, they delivered dead on when it comes to control. Throughout the game, you switch between playing as Bowser to Mario and Luigi. When playing as Bowser, you will typically use x,y buttons. When you play as the Bros., you use the “A” button for Mario and ‘B” for Luigi and somehow, it seems to translate extremely well on the DS. Playing as the characters is just as exceptional. Getting to switch from Bowser to the Bros., I never seemed to get bored of the gameplay. My next aspect is the RPG elements, after all, this is an RPG. I found the combat system to be extremely refreshing and easy to use. It was a very pleasant experience switching to special attacks, selecting normal attacks, equipping items etc.  Leveling up is an overall very satisfying experience, especially when you even get to upgrade the Bros.’s stashes. The combat system while usually composed of one to two buttons, still requires skill and timing.

Overall

This was the first Mario and Luigi RPG I had ever played and I have to admit, I had no idea how good of a game it would be. I was not let down. From the fun and quarky story to getting to play as Bowser when he’s 7 stories tall yet, the story ties up all together at the end. I found myself just wanting to play more and more. Whether it be trudging through the inside of Bowser in search of the Princess herself or battling as Bowser himself, I couldn’t get enough of it This is one of the best Mario games I have played in awhile. The controls translated well, the vibrant colors made the graphics pop off the screen and an unique and inventive story line. Which is why I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

PixelJunk Monsters, in case you didn’t know, is a tower defense game that was originally released on the Playstation Network back in January of ’08. An expansion pack titled “PJM Encore” was then released in May of ’08. PJM took advantage of the remote play function of the PS3 and PSP but it looked blurry and wasn’t even comparable to the crisp look of playing it on the PS3. The way I looked at it was that if I was in the house then I may as well play it on my PS3. A few months back Q-Games announced that they were releasing PixelJunk Monsters on the PSP. Nobody knew whether it was going to be on UMD or if it was going to be digital download only. Later on more details surfaced stating that it would be packed full of new stuff, hence the official name “PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe.” I’ve been siked about PJMD since it was announced and am happy that it has finally arrived. PJMD is available on the PSP as a digital download and costs $19.99. That may seem a little steep to you but to anyone who has played PJM it’s no problem.

PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe is definitely the ultimate version of PJM. It brings new music, new enemies, new towers, challenge modes that unlock goodies, all the maps that were included in the original game and the expansion pack and even a whole new island. While the graphics of PJMD have been redone for the PSP it still looks beautiful. The art style is what makes PJM stand out and it continues to shine, even on the PSP. I was really impressed with how they kept the total download size under 70MB, that’s crazy for how much stuff is packed into the game.

If you would head on over to the About page of this website you might notice that PJM is currently #4 in the list of my top ten favorite games of all time so maybe I am not the best person to be reviewing this game. This is why I am going to cut my review short and say this: If you like tower defense games then you should definitely play PixelJunk Monsters, it’s the game that took tower defense genre to the next level. If you’ve never really given TD games a try PJM is the best one to bring you into the genre. And for all the TD haters out there it may be the game that changes your standpoint. Bottom line – If you have a PSP buy PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe no matter what. It’s awesome. If you don’t have a PSP and you do own a PS3 then make sure you at least buy the PSN version of the game.

Below is a video so you can see PJMD in action:

That game is Chrono Trigger.

Now, there are 5 games I list as the best I have ever played, but even some 14 years after it made its debut on the SNES, Chrono Trigger is still on that short list.

So why does this game stand out so much in my mind? The answer is easy. Chrono Trigger manages to be something many other RPGs have tried to be and failed: epic.

How I got hooked

As I have mentioned before, I did not own an SNES during its popular time period. In fact, until I got the Dreamcast, I never 0wned a console in its current generation, and even then I got it after the release of the PS2. My cousin did have one, though, and I spent many a night over at his place playing it since he lived near Arizona State, where I was attending college.

I do not remember why my cousin chose to buy Chrono Trigger. He tended to try and stay up on gaming news, and he had read something somewhere about it that really had caught his interest. Still, neither of us really knew much about it. It did not take long for him to start telling me I had to play it, however. So, one day while I was over there, I started a new game, with him watching and offering advice from time to time.

Everything seems kind of bland…till Marle vanishes.

I remember not being all that impressed at first. Here you are, this character named Crono, wandering aimlessly around the Millennial Fair. Sure, you bump into Marle and you battle a training robot, but it’s just not that exciting. Then you are informed that your friend Lucca is ready to demonstrate her newest invention, so you and Marle go to see it.

Turns out Lucca is a genius, and she has created a teleport pad. Crono steps into the pad on the left hand side, Lucca and her father flip a few switches, and presto, he appears on the other padon the right. Marle decides she wants to try as well, but something happens. The pendant she is wearing starts to glow, and Marle disappears, leaving it behind. Crono decides he has to go after her, only to find himself back in time 400 years, trying to save Marle’s ancestor so she will not vanish from time.

At that point, I was hooked.

Truly Epic Story

One area many RPGs fail is their storylines just tend to fall flat. Chrono Trigger in no way falls prey to this. As you and your ever growing team (you can get up to 7, though only 3 can be a part of your party at any given time) travel through time, you begin to understand that the whole world is in danger thanks to the nightmare that is Lavos. You must move around through time, completing different quests in different areas to try and find out what if anything can be done to stop this menace.

So you have multiple story threads being woven together through different eras in the game, but that is not all. Square did such a great job of breathing life into every main character in the game, especially your team members. Crono never actually talks in the game, and yet it quickly becomes evident that he is a truly brave warrior willing to lay down his life for his friends. Marle is actually the princess of the kingdom of Gardia, but she prefers to spend her time away from the castle in defiance of her father. Lucca is a brilliant inventor who has been at least somewhat shunned by those who do not understand her. Frog, an adventurer from the past who was turned into a frog-man by a powerful sorcerer, blames himself for the death of his friend Cyrus, the hero of Gardia. Heck, even the cave girl Ayla and Robo the robot from the future are not 2d characters.

An epic storyline and unique combat make Chrono Trigger a must own for RPG fans.

Oh, and I know I said there were 7 possible characters. It’s just for the sake of those of you who have not played the game yet, I do not want to tell you who the 7th is. Trust me when I say he has quite the back story.

So, you have a great plot that spans several eras, characters you grow to care about throughout the game, and one major turning point in the game that not only grabs you but changes the game completely. Like I said, this story is just flat out epic.

Reinventing Turn Bassed Combat

The story is not the only thing that will impress you about Chrono Trigger. The game was truly revolutionary, introducing several of the conventions that are now used in RPGs, especially those that have stuck to the turn based model.

As I said earlier, you control a party of 3 characters at a time. In combat, these three have speed ratings that determine how quickly they will be able to make their attacks. Once the meter fills, you can choose your next move, but choose quickly because the enemy can attack as you make your decision (you can turn the active battle system off so that enemies wait for you to make your decision, but what is the fun in that?).

Seems simple enough, right? Well, at its base, it is, but then there is Tech. Tech is your special attacks and magic. Using Tech will use up magic points, which you have to refill with ethers as per normal RPG rules. Here’s where things get interesting, though. You see, you have 3 levels of Tech. The first level is performed by the person you are controlling. Then there is Double Tech, in which 2 characters team up to attack. For example, Lucca controls fire, and one of her Double Tech attacks is to throw flame onto Crono’s sword so he can do both physical and fire damage to the opponent. Then there is Triple Tech, where all three combine their efforts. The problem is you cannot pull off Double or Triple Tech unless every character involved can make a move at that time.

So what does that mean? It means combat, especially in the latter stages of the game, becomes a balancing act where you are constantly having to decide if it is better to attack with the character who is ready now or wait for the others to perform more powerful combined attacks. This strategic gameplay really helps separate Chrono Trigger from the more standard fare of turn based RPGs.

Oh, then there’s the New Games +.

Just how many endings are there to this game?

Depending on the choices you make and side quests you complete before facing Lavos, you will get several different slight variations of the ending of the game. After it is all done, you are given the chance to start the game over with your leveled up characters and equipment. This New Game + feature may be a mainstay in games now, but it was a relatively new concept when it was done in this game.

The thing is this feature is not just a nice little addition that in the end does not really amount to much. There are 13 unique endings in Chrono Trigger. Which one you get depends directly on when you beat Lavos. You see, from the very beginning of the game, you can go directly to the final fight with the ultimate evil by going to the left teleport pad instead of the right, which means you will face it with only Crono and Marle. If you do not have the 2 of them seriously powered up, you will not last long in that battle. If you do manage to beat it, you will be able to tour through different parts of the game, talking to NPCs who represet the game designers saying things like “You never even got to the part I created.”

These graphics on an SNES were just startling.

So how different are these endings? Some of them are radically different. For example, Frog may turn back into a human, or the world may be run by reptiles. It’s all up to you and when you choose to beat Lavos.

So you have a great storyline, phenomenal gameplay and major replayability. Add to that graphics that were unrivaled by anything on the SNES, and you have the makings of one of the most popular RPGs ever. So popular, in fact, that it was released on both the Playtation and the Nintendo DS. There is also a “sequel” on the Playstaion called Chrono Cross, but it can hardly be called a true sequel. Sure, it is a good game in its own right, but it is only loosely connected to the original and does not carry over the use of Tech.

So, you’ve decided you want to play the game, and now you just want to know which version to play? Well, avoid the Playstation one at all costs; the load times will frustrate you to no end. Really, the DS version is the best, with the inclusion of the anime cut scenes from the Paystation version,  a few new features and a new, improved localization of the game.

As I said earlier, this game is just truly Epic. There is no other way to describe it. Chrono Trigger gets a 5 out of 5.

Just 2 more reviews to go.

To me, Peggle falls into this category. At its heart, this is such a simple puzzle game, but I would dare anyone to spend a little time with it and not get hooked.

All you do is launch the ball

When it comes right down to it, the gameplay for Peggle is extremely simple. You have a little cannon launcher at the top of the screen. You use it to aim at the pegs on the board, the plan being to send the ball ricocheting off those pegs. The majority of these pegs, which in later levels can be bricks, are blue, and hitting them just gives you points. The pegs you need to focus on are the orange ones; to advance to the next level, you must hit all of them. Every time you fire a ball out of the cannon, you use up one of the balls in your stock for that level. Run out of balls before you hit all the orange pegs, and you do not advance to the next level.

That’s it. That is the basic gameplay. Seriously, that is the basis of the entire game. Now granted, you do get the ball slowing down when it is about to hit the final orange peg, and if you do hit it, ‘Ode to Joy” starts playing as your ball travels to the bottom of the screen to get your bonuses, but that is the whole point of the game.

It may not look like much, but Peggle will keep you coming back for more.

It’s the ways the game designers tweak the game from there that makes it so addictive.

Gems, Powerups and Extra Balls

Remember how I said you use up one of your stock of balls every time you fire one out of the cannon? Well, you can gain extra balls in the game, which makes it easier to pass levels. You can gain these extra lives, if you will, a couple of different ways. The easiest is to make sure your ball drops into the little cup that moves back and forth across the bottom of the screen. The other way is to score enough points in one shot that you earn an extra ball. You do this by hitting more pegs in a single shot or by accomplishing skill shots, which are ricochets that occur over a great distance.

Then there are the purple pegs. Before each shot, one of the blue pegs will turn purple. If you hit this purple peg, you get a higher score for that shot. Once you hit a certain number within the level, you are taken to another board where you use the bumpers to bounce the balls and collect the gems to gain more points, which in turn gives you extra balls.

The green pegs are the ones you really want to hit, however. Each level will have two green pegs. Hitting these pegs will activate a special power. The power varies based on what master you ware working with in the adventure mode. They include such abilities as gaining a guideline that shows where your ricochet is going to go, fireballs that will go right through pegs, magic hats that highlight any pegs they touch as if the ball hit them or the zen shot, which adjusts your shot just a touch to give you a better score. These power ups are what really makes this game so addicting.

In the end, Peggle is not some phenomenal, groundbreaking game that makes you rethink puzzle games. It is incredibly addicting, however, and I guarantee you will find it very hard to stop playing. It may not sound like much, but trust me; you just need to try it to get hooked. Peggle gets a 4 out of 5.

I have been a Castlevania fan for years, so I have played several of them. One of the things the more recent versions of the series have been missing is the challenging and sometimes downright frustrating difficulty of the earlier games. So when I started hearing that Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia was bringing that difficulty level back, I was definitely interested.

What I did not know at the time was this was going to be one of the more unique Castlevania experiences out there.

Not your normal Vampire Killer

Order of Ecclesia turns the normal gameplay for this series on its ear. You play as Shanoa. a member of the Order of Ecclesia, a group formed after the death of the last member of the Belmont Clan. The Order has been trying to find a way to deal with Dracula’s impending return, and in doing so has created the glyphs, magic symbols that can be equipped by those trained to use them for combat. Of the glyphs, there are three that reign supreme: Anger, Hatred and Agony, the Dominus Glyphs made from Dracula’s power. Just as Shanoa is about to be made the living vessel for this powerful set of glyphs, her colleague and fellow vampire hunter Albus steals them. Shanoa is left powerless and devoid of both emotion and memory, with no other goal than to get the Dominus glyphs back.

The glyphs completely change the way you do combat in this game. Shanoa can equip three glyphs at a time, one in each of her arms and one on her back. The arm glyphs are either weapon or magic glyphs that are used in combat. The one on the back allows Shanoa to do various physical maneuvers, including creating a magnetic field that will let her launch herself from metal objects or become insubstantial enough to walk through certain types of walls, or they can effect things like Shanoa’s magic resistance or the amount of money received from killing enemies.

Using the glyphs takes magic power, measured in a meter in the left hand corner of the lower screen. The more powerful the glyph, the more magic it uses. The magic power will replenish over time, but if you use it all up, you will not be able to attack till you have enough built back up. On top of that, you can combine the glyphs in Shanoa’s arms to make a Glyph Union. This attack does much more damage, but they use up your hearts.

You obtain glyphs throughout the game by absorbing them into Shanoa’s body. This is no real problem when you run across them in the world or are dropped after you kill enemies, but that is not the only way you obtain them. When an enemy is casting magic, you will see a glyph form, and if you start absorbing it in time, Shanoa will gain the ability the enemy was going to use against her. The problem is she is very vulnerable when she is trying to absorb glyphs, and any damage taken during that time will stop the absorption. In other words, you need to learn how to time this glyph theft.

Now THIS is the difficulty I remember

When reviewers were saying Order of Ecclesia brought the difficulty back to the Castlevania series, they were not kidding. Early on, everything seems easy enough. You face off against the typical fair of enemies, and you advance relatively quickly. Not too long in, however, you run across your first major enemy, a giant skeleton who is rather difficult to take out this early in the game. As if that was not enough, vanquishing it opens up a new area filled with enemies you will have to really be on your toes to deal with, including some that, for the time being, you will just have to avoid.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia brings the difficulty back to the series.

Thing is, these difficult enemies are not even bosses. You don’t face your first real major boss until you reach the lighthouse; there, you will fight a giant crab who is the perfect example of an old school Castlevania boss: hard hitting, pattern driven and broken into several stages. There was a point where I though I had beaten this enemy finally, just to find out there was still one more stage to face. In the end, you end up getting all the way to the top of the lighthouse in this battle and smash the crab to bits with the elevator conveniently placed at the top. As frustrating as it was, there was something that felt familiar about this battle. It felt like the return of an old friend.

Not just stuck in a castle

One problem with many Castlevania games is you see the same level layout repeated over and over again. Portrait of Ruin broke that up a bit by adding the paintings representing different lands, but still, if you have played one of these games, you know what to expect environmentally, down to the watery caves under the castle and the clock tower full of Medusa heads.

This is an area where Order of Ecclesia once again stands out. One of the first places you visit is a village whose villagers have all been kidnapped by Albus. He has taken them to different locations that include forests, snow covered mansions and ship wrecks on the floor of the sea. In other words, you will travel to areas you are not used to seeing in a Castlevania game, making this an excellent blend of the old school difficulty and new gameplay.

On word of warning: make sure you find all the villagers before your final showdown with Albus. if you don’t, you will get the bad ending for this game. That is one Castlevania convention I could have lived without, but it is not surprising that it is there.

The game has such unique environments…until you get to Dracula’s Castle.

And yet there is one catch

Up to one point in this game, I was really loving how different Order of Ecclesia was. It really stood out in the battle against Albus, where not only did you have to memorize his unusual pattern to beat him, but you needed to absorb his Agony glyph or you would never have the chance again. After beating him, Shanoa learns the truth behind his actions and the fact that Dracula is about to return once again. This leads you to Dracula’s Castle, where the old familiar scenes start to play out.

That’s the problem. Up until this point, Order of Ecclesia was unlike most other games in the series. Once you get into Dracula’s castle, however, it starts to feel all too familiar. In a gem where they were so innovative, it is disappointing to see the developers kind of return to form. It almost feels like laziness on the part of Konami, going back to the same old gameplay that has lead to more and more gamers leaving the Castlevania series behind. I guess those of us who like the series are just going to have to wait till Kojima’s Castlevania: Lords of Shadow comes out to find a truly unique Castlevania experience.

That being said, this is still a very enjoyable and challenging game. I would even argue that it may be the most invative Castlevania game since Symphony of the Night. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia gets a 4 out of 5.

A simple premise brilliantly executed

The idea behind Puzzle Quest is actually quiet simple: take the match three puzzle play of Bejeweled and toss in a light RPG element to keep players coming back for more. In the beginning of the game, you are given the chance to choose the type of character you want to play, and you will find many of the fantasy archetypes present and accounted for, including the ranger and the warrior.

Each character has different spells and attacks he or she can learn, so who you choose does make a difference. For example, the ranger will have spells that rely more heavily on the elements, where the knight may have more direct attacks. You gain the ability to activate these spells or attacks by building mana from the puzzle; if you match green gems, you get green mana, if you match red you get red, etc. Each spell requires a certain amount of at least one and often many types of mana, and these spells can range from attacking gems on the board and getting the damage effects to hurting your opponent directly.

Beleive it or not, you can combine a puzzler with an RPG.

After choosing a character, you get into the RPG element of the game. Unfolding before you is a story of an ancient evil that is slowly starting to reawaken. It is up to you and your allies to stop this evil. You do this by moving about the land, doing different quests and fighting different enemies along the way. These battles are fought on the puzzle board, where you match the colored gems to get mana to use for your spells. There are also skulls on the board, and if you match they, you deal damage to your opponent directly. The battle is over when either you or your opponent run out of health.

Seems simple enough, right? It is, yet there is a much deeper element to this game than there appears at first glance.

More hardcore role playing than you might think

For a game with such a simple premise, Puzzle Quest is actually a serious RPG. As you progress through the game, you are given choices that will effect whether or not you gain allies. These allies aid you in battle, doing things like hurting certain types of opponents or lowering their attack capabilities. These allies can help turn the tide of combat, especially early in the game.

If you face off against a creature enough times, you can try to capture that creature. To capture, you must remove all the gems from the board you are given. The harder the creature, the harder it is to make the appropriate moves to capture them. Once captured, you can train the ones you can ride and use them to improve your speed and attack. The ones you cannot ride, you can learn their spells, which you do by matching mana and scrolls in the puzzle.

On top of that, you can lay siege to the cities around you. If you win the siege, you gain control of that city, which means it will produce income for you. Of course the city might rise up against you, and you may find yourself having to beat it again to regain control.

Capture enemies, learn spells, gain allies…. The hardcore RPG fan will find much to love about Puzzle Quest.

Add to this your standard character leveling system and the chance to craft master weapons and armor through the puzzle board, and you find there really is a much deeper game here than meets the eye. The story may be a little cliched, but the rest of the game makes up for it.

The one major flaw

You mat have noticed that Puzzle Quest is in my top 10 games of all time. Only one thing keeps it out of the top five: the one major flaw of the game.

Imagine this: you are facing off against an opponent you should be able to beat. Several moves in, it looks like everything is going your way. Suddenly, the enemy gets a rather convenient combo of gems, allowing it to gain another turn. Then it happens again. And again. In no time, this battle that was going so heavily in your favor has gotten out of hand, and you find yourself losing.

Puzzle Quest has what has been referred to as a rather convenient AI. At too many points in the game, you will find your opponent making just the right move, which leads to a chain reaction that completely turns the tide of battle. This becomes extremely annoying at the end when you are facing against Lord Bane. He is a difficult enough final boss to fight without having to worry about him “cheating.” It is the one major flaw of the game, an it will leave you needing to walk away from it on more than one occasion.

That being said, Puzzle Quest is easily one of the most addicting games I have ever played. I have payed for the DS version twice (and soon will probably get it for a third time), and I also own the Xbox Live Arcade version of the game. I guess I just can’t get enogh of it. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords gets a 5 out of 5.

Sure, they made one of my favorite games of all time with Chrono Trigger, but I personally think the company has had a tendancy to make the same game over and again with the Final Fantasy series. I will even run the risk of upsetting several fans of gaming, one writer on this site in particular, by saying I think Final Fantasy VII is over rated. It is a good game, but I do not think it deserves the adoration it often receives.

That all being said, every now and then the company does something different, creating a game that is both interesting and unique. Few games have fit that description more than one I listed among the most overlooked games of 2008, The World Ends With You for the Nintendo DS.

Our World, Our time

If you have played many games by Square Enix, you know they tend to follow the same formula: a kingdom in some other universe is in moral danger, and you and your team are the only ones who can save it. The World Ends With You breaks that trend completely, however. You play Neku, an angst ridden teen (I didn’t say it was all new) who somehow ends up stuck in a spirit world that runs parallel to modern day Shibuya. You are forced to team up with various characters in the game, competing against the Reapers for the chance at a second life. Neku really does not want to participate in this week long trial at first, but as the game goes on, he starts to find something worth fighting for: the friends he though he would never have.

The characters may be typical Square Enix, but the modern setting is not.

Having modern Shibuya the backdrop for the game really sets The World Ends With You apart from Square Enix’s normal fare of RPGs. Shibuya is one of the fashion centers of Japan, and that sensibility effects the game; your characters can gain attack and defensive bonuses by wearing the hot tends of the area, and you can even influence the trends by what pins you battle with.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Before I start talking too much about pins, I need to give you a basic idea of just how you play this game.

Now this is how you use the DS

Anyone who owns a Nintendo DS knows that many games do not really take advantage of the dual screens. Honestly, most of the games Square Enix makes for the system don’t take full advantage of the touch screen. In the company’s defense, many of them are ports of older games. The World Ends With You breaks that trend. At the start of the game, you are forced to team up with Shiki, a girl who is not what she appears to be. When the two of you enter combat, Shiki is on the top screen, and Neku is on the bottom. You have to control both at the same time.

That’s right: I said you have to control both characters at the same time. You control Neku with the stylus on the touch screen, moving him around the battle area and doing different attack motions to battle the creatures on the bottom screen. You control Shiki on the top screen via the D-Pad (or the x y b a buttons if you are left handed), pressing in the direction you want her to attack and jumping in the air to do combos. The better you are at coordinating these two characters attacks, the more experience bonuses you will get and the faster you will build your special attack meter, which allows you to attack everything on the screen at once.

Sound difficult? That’s only the half of it. Neku can learn different kinds of attacks based on what pins you equip him with. You pick up these pins through combat, in stores and through completing quests throughout the game. As you use these pins in combat, they become more powerful, doing more damage and sometimes evolving into more powerful forms of attack. The issue is each pin has a different gesture on the touch screen you use to activate it, and you need to keep these different motions straight in combat.

That’s not all. You rank up throughout the game as in any RPG, but you can actually drop your effective level in battle in order to gain more XP (you gain more if you are more on an even keel with the enemies you are fighting). The only issue with that is not realizing you are about to enter a boss battle and not getting to raise your level back up beforehand. Take it from me; that can be frustrating.

A great story and innovative combat make The World Ends With You a game worth playing, even if it does become a bit repetative by making you relive the same week three times.

Sound like too much to handle? Well, you can set the game to take some or even complete control of the top screen character, though as you start to get used to it, you will find that is really not necessary.

Oh, and then there is Tin Pin Slamer, a mini game within the game where you use different pins in a kind of strange arena battle. Imagine Pogs with power ups, and you will kind of get the picture. Kind of.

Sounds like an interesting game? It is. You could almost say it is an ideal game, expect for one major issue: the game repeats.

Wait, didn’t I just go through this?

The point of the game is to last out the week as the last pairing of players in the games. When you do this, you win the chance to go back to the real world. One problem, however: only one of you can return. The Composer, the unseen entity running the games, decides that Shiki has come to grips with what lead her to this world and allows her to return. Neku, however, is forced to play through another week, this time teamed up with the enigmatic Joshua.

As if that was not bad enough, once you beat that week, you are forced to play through one more. Basically, you do the same thing 3 times. Even though the designers try to vary up the storyline and gameplay in these other weeks, it still starts to get repetitive. I had to put the game down for a while just to deal with it.

Oh, and you do not get to really understand the ending unless you do the secret missions you unlock after beating it. Thanks a lot, Square Enix.

One thing that never gets old: the music

There is one part of this game, however, that can never get old. It is a little hard to describe just what the music is like in this game. So hard, in fact, I’m not even going to try. Instead, I’m going to post the YouTube link to the best song in the game: “Calling.”

Yes, I will be adding The World Ends With You to my video game soundtrack list.

If you liked that, just look up The World Ends With You on YouTube. Several of the of the songs are there. Oh, you can also buy the songs throughout the game, so you can play your favorites as you make your way around Shibuya.

It’s not often that Square Enix tries something radically different. If this game is an example of what happens when it does, we can only hope the game company decides to give more innovations a try. The World Ends With You gets a 5 out of 5.

There have been many reviews that we have intended to get up on the website. I personally have been needing to get several up, including the long overdue review of Street Fighter IV. It just seems like so many things come up. and the next thing we know, it’s so late that getting the reviews up just seems…cheapened somehow.

So I started thinking about a way to make it all work. To get the various reviews of games, both big and indie, up on the site. That’s when this idea came to fruition. 30 Reviews in 30 days: a challenge to review a game every day for 30 days straight. A chance to review not only some of the major games we missed, but also some retro reviews of older games and maybe a surprise or two.

And so it begins with the review of the DS game I have been talking about on the last several podcasts:

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure

Puzzle games. Platformers. You don’t normally think of these two game types being combined. Then again, you would not normally think of combining a puzzle game with an RPG, and yet Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords proved it can be done. Add to that the fact the Nintendo DS has everyone looking at gaming in a new light. Companies are getting creative, finding new ways for gamers to play.

Enter Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure, a new game by EA.

The premise is simple: take a challenging platformer, cross it with a match 3 puzzle game, add in a little bit of British sensibility, throw in a robot….

Okay, maybe the concept isn’t so simple. Let me see if I can explain a little better.

You are legendary British explorer Henry Hatsworth. Now in your older years, you set out on one last adventure and end up stumbling upon the Golden Suit, a legendary gentleman’s outfit that allows the wearer to rule the world. Each piece the suit gives the wearer different abilities, including the Hat you find in the beginning, which acts as a fountain of youth.

There are two problems with the suit, however:

Problem #1: The Puzzle World

In the game, there are two worlds: the real world and the puzzle world. The real world takes place on the top screen, which is where the platforming begins. This is where the platforming takes place, and believe me, this game is no slouch when it comes to platforming. You will find yourself trying to find that tiny piece of land where you can stand to make the next jump, trying to time it with the enemies you are trying to avoid.

Yes, there are enemies in this game, and they range from the typical canon fodder you see in games like this to much more intriguing ones, like tall ones that if attacked improperly break into four separate ones, or the ones with shields that are harder to take down. Combine these enemies with traps and other platforming pitfalls, and you have a much more difficult game on your hands.

You don’t go into this world unarmed, however. You have your trusty weapons, which include your cane/sword (depending which version of Henry you are, we will come back to that later) , a gun, bombs, boomerangs and more. You’ll use these weapons both the to solve puzzles and deal with enemies.

Balancing your time between the platforming and puzzle play can be a challenge.

These enemies are not normal, however. There is a hole open between the real world and the puzzle one, and these enemies have come through that hole. When you defeat them in the real world, they are sent back to the puzzle on the lower DS screen. This is the puzzle world: a variation of the match three gameplay of bejeweled, with enemies appearing as special blocks in the puzzle. You need to deal with these blocks before they reach the top (puzzle is slowly advancing upward) or they will re-enter the real world and attack you.

This is not as easy as it may sound, however. Remember those more difficult enemies I was talking about earlier?  They become difficult puzzle pieces. The one that breaks into four enemies becomes a huge block that, once matched, breaks into four smaller pieces. The ones with shields you have to match twice, and the first block cannot be moved. To top that off, you can only spend a little time in the puzzle world. You gain time you can spend there by spending time in the real world and by making multiple matches rapidly.

Puzzle matches also give you energy, which is used to power your weapons, and health, allowing you to revert back to young Henry when you have taken too much damage in the real platforming world.

These are not the only enemies you have to face, however.

Problem #2: The Bosses

A treasure worth as much as the Golden Suit had to have more than one person trying to find it. Enter Leopold Charles Anthony Weasleby the Third, Henry’s chief rival in the Pompous Adventurer’s Club. And he did not come alone; he has hired people to try and stop you, including a former actress with a booby trapped wedding cake that throws vines into the puzzle and a singing “pirate” who drops anchors into the puzzle to try and advance it faster.

These boss battles and another unique element to the gameplay, both on the platforming and puzzle. In fact, the bosses combined with the enemies and the puzzle world could make you feel outnumbered.

That is, if you didn’t have upgrades.

The Help: Upgrades and “Tea Time”

Fortunately you have help. Henry’s assistant offers different upgrades you can buy with the jewels and coins you find in the real world. These upgrades include more health, more damage inflicted to enemies, more energy for weapons and more time to spend in the puzzle world. These upgrades are essential for making it through the platforming levels in the game.

There is one other thing that truly helps turn the tide in combat, especially during the boss battles. Build up enough energy in the puzzle, you get to declare Tea Time. Yes, that is right, in the midst of everything that is going on, you can call upon your British sensibility and have tea. This isn’t just about pausing the game for a quick cut scene. Tea Time also calls a robot suit up to the real world: powerful, invincible and able to help even score. You can keep this robot suit as long as you have energy, which drains slowly as you battle (faster as you get hit or use the special weapons) and which you can replenish within the puzzle level.

I told you there was a robot.

The boss battles can be a little crazy, but the upgrades and Teat Time help settle the score.

The Bad

As much as I enjoy this game, there is one thing that makes it frustrating: the spiking difficulty. This game can turn frustratingly difficult at the drop of a hat (no pun intended). The platforming can be insane, sometimes bordering on sadistic. Not to mention the special puzzle pieces that can really be a pain to deal with. Fortunately you can gain extra lives by finding hats that become hat puzzle pieces. You are going to need them.

The Verdict

This game is truly something special. It’s a little hard to put into word just how much fun it is. Just trust me on this one: If you have a DS, you need to get this game. Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure gets a 5 out of 5.

I am a huge Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords fan. I have owned the DS version multiple times, and I even bought it on XBLA. This should really come as no surprise as I have mentioned my love of this game on the site before, but I feel like it needs to be repeated in light of this review. After all, I was looking forward to Puzzle Quest: Galactrix so much I listed it in our article Day One Purchases of 2009. I was convinced the new design and Sci-Fi feel of the story could do nothing but improve on what was already one of the best games on Nintendo’s handheld.

Turns out I was wrong.

The Good

The Puzzles – Not the same old game:

One of the best ideas D3 Publishers had when it designed Galactrix was the redesigned puzzle board. The rounded shape shape of the board changes the gameplay quite a bit. Now puzzle pieces can come in from different sides based upon which piece you moved in what direction. This adds a new strategic element to the game as opposed to something that feels just like the previous game.

The new game board and overall scope of the game are impressive.

The Customization – You can really change up your ships:

Between the different ships you can acquire and the various technologies with which you can outfit them, you can really customize how you approach the game. You can also have as many ships as you have crew members, so you can have different ships for different purposes. For example, I had a shuttle for mining because of the cargo space, and I had an MRI Psionic Array for battle as it is a better warship and has more slots for weapons/equipment.

The Scope – This is one big game:

Just one look at the galaxy map and you know this is going to be one long game, probably longer than the original. You also have several factions you are trying to balance against each other, and the quests you choose to complete along with whom you choose to sell minerals you acquire throughout the game affect your sanding with these factions. You cannot say this game is a ripoff based on the amount of content.

The Bad

Your Hero – What happened to the customization?:

As customizable as Galactrix is, there is one area the game fell short. In the original Puzzle Quest, you wanted to play it more than once because you had multiple heroes you could choose to in the beginning. Each hero type had different things he or she was good at doing, making each playthru feel a little different. Galactrix, on the other hand, only lets you choose whether or not your hero is male or female, with no real difference between the two. Rather disappointing, actually.

The Story – Wait, what am I trying to do again?:

As simplistic and clichéd as the story was in the original Puzzle Quest, it at least had one. From the very beginning, you knew you were fighting to keep Lord Bane from trying to once again gain control of the world. I played Galactrix for hours and still had no real clue as to what was going on. Toward the end of the time I was playing it, I got a sense of some bio-engineered weapon I was going to have to track down, but that really didn’t tell me much. I began to lose interest in what was going on, something that never really happened in the original.

Despite it’s attempts to improve the gameplay, Galactrix just does not live up to the original Puzzle Quest.

Loading Times – Are you kidding me?:

Loading times on a DS game? Seriously? That makes no sense. The whole point to having a cartridge based system is to avoid load times. Sure, it’s only 2 or 3 seconds long, but this is a portable system designed to let me jump in and out of playing quickly. Constant 2 to 3 sec load times kind of break that up.

Secondary Puzzles – Maybe the hex board wasn’t the best of ideas:

One of the original’s strengths was the different styles of puzzles you faced throughout the game. When you went to capture a mount, you had to make all the pieces on the board disappear by matching them in the right order. When you learned a spell, you had to get a certain number of scrolls, which appeared when you matched four or more of a color together. Galactrix tries to bring this gameplay element back with the mining of asteroids, hacking of leap gates, haggling and crafting items. The leap gate hacking works, making you match a certain number of tiles in a certain order within a certain time period to open the gate. The haggling, crafting and mining…not so much. Haggling is easy enough as long as you work from the outside edges in, but mining feels completely random, and crafting just does not work as well as learning spells. No matter how carefully I tried to make sure not to get too many unusable hexes, it seemed a matter of pure luck to get enough of each material you are trying to mine to get the bonuses. I can’t decide if this frustration stems from the issues with designing puzzles like this on the new board or just from poor design, but either way I do not like it.

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix is not a bad game, despite my objections. It’s not really a good one, either, Maybe if I did not like the first one so much, my view of this game would be different, but I find it hard not to take the original into account when doing this review. The verdict: rent this one first before you buy, or better yet get a hold of the original. I sure enjoyed it much more.

WaterField Designs, a bag manufacturer located in San Francisco, has answered the call of adult gamers across the globe, and has developed a case for the Nintendo DS that not only looks good, but provides unrivaled protection. So what exactly do you get with this WaterField Case?

- Ballistic nylon construction
- Double layer genuine leather flap
- Soft scratch free interior lining
- Game compartments with enough room to carry up to six games
- Spare stylus holder
- Accessory pocket with self-locking zipper

All of this in a great looking package that is customizable to your liking. While most gamers will enjoy the stylized front flap that mimics the DS’ face buttons, WaterField has also provided the option of keeping the front flap as a solid black leather design. The pouch is available in black on black, black and kiwi, and black and pink. The demo unit that WaterField provided for us was the black and kiwi with the cut out style front flap. It’s a great unisex look that’s a perfect fit regardless of your gender.

Easily the most important part of any carrying case is how well it protects the device that you are carrying. With this case there is no need to worry, because it’s built like a tank! The ballistic nylon outside, and double layer leather flap provides enough protection that you will never have to worry about where you take your DS. The rugged, durable outside makes way to a felt-like interior that proved to provide perfect protection during my hands on time with the case. Never before have I experienced the type of protection that WaterField has provided with this product – in fact I enjoyed this case so much that it actually made me want to take my DS with me more often.

The nice compact design of WF’s case does not compromise it’s functionality. Located on the front is three slots with room for two games each, but during my hands on time I found that more than one game in each compartment made for an uncomfortable fit – at least for me. Located underneath the game slots is a tiny sleeve made specifically for carrying around a spare stylus. On the back side of the case is a small, but nice size pouch that will easily fit a few more games, headphones, microfiber cloth, but not much else.

While some may bulk at the $39 price point, I can say without question that this is money well spent. There really is no downside to this case, but if you’re looking for something a tad bigger you may want to try one of WaterField’s many other gadget bags. If every one of WaterField’s products are built this well the only thing I can say is to go check out their full line of products at sfbags.com. Their wide array of bags has you covered no matter what type of device it is that you’re toting around, and the good news… they’re working on a case for Nintendo’s newest DS iteration The DSi.

Whether you’re looking for a case to carry around your MacBook, or you just need something to protect your DS look no further than WaterField Designs. Style, durability, and design all built into one product that’s ideal no matter your age or gender. So, throw out that old DS case, you know the one with the picture of Mario on the front – this is your perfect solution!