Ugly Baby Studios » Portable Games

Review: Pokemon Soul Silver

Nathan Blush — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:28:08 +0000

I recently had the opportunity to review Pokemon Soul Silver, the newly remade version of Gameboy Color classic, Pokemon Silver. I have some experience with the series, having previously played through Pokemon Diamond, which was part of Generation 4 of the Pokémon series, along with Pearl and Platinum. The new version of the game introduces 3D animation into the gameplay mix, creating an impressive visual experience.

As a fan of the Pokémon franchise, having played through at least one game from each generation, I really enjoyed this game. There are a number of new and different gym puzzles this time around, which make the game more interesting and fun. The new story line in the game was great, and added positively to the overall experience. You play as a 10-year-old, trainer on a quest to save the world from two very destructive Pokémon™, Dialga and Palkia, who control time and space. You’ve already seen them: they are the mascots for these remakes, appearing prominently on the front of the box. Giratina is the mascot for Platinum, and controls the Distortion World. It’s a little mind blowing that a 10-year-old kid would be given this kind of power and responsibility, however as with any sequel, they always look for bigger and better. And oh how they get better and better!

HeartGold and SoulSilver were released in September of 2009 in Japan, and made their way stateside in March of 2010. These remakes are similar to the GBC games except for some changes. This game includes all 493 Pokémon, and is compatible with the Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum games. The gyms are completely remade including the 3-D elements introduced in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. The gym leaders can be battled repeatedly at much higher levels, giving the player more challenges. Menus are now opened with the DS touch screen rather than a button, making it easier to use items. The battle sequences remain the same as in previous games, wherein you use the touch-screen to order your Pokémon to attack, use items, switch Pokemon or run from the battle. What I do find pleasing, as someone who played the original, is the fact that the PokéGear has a function on its radio that allows you to listen to the original songs on the different routes that you travel through on your journey to be Pokémon Master.

The storyline follows the original with only minor changes. 3-years have passed since Team Rocket took over Silph Co. in Kanto (the region where Red, Blue, and Yellow versions took place) and no one has heard from them since, except for a few minor appearances trying to steal Slowpoketails for profit on the black market, or trying to capture Gyarados from the Lake of Rage. The main goal is to control Pokémon around the world using the Goldenrod City Radio Tower. In Gold, Silver and Crystal, very few of the Rocket admins and executives were given names or had distinguishable features, but this time around each is given their own look and Pokémon so they stand out from their lackeys. Another aesthetic Ienjoyed was introduced in Platinum. Each gym leader, elite 4 member, and Red, are given their unique animated battle sprites and intro. Red, if you don’t already know, is the game adaptation of Ash Ketchum from the anime, and he also represents the character from Red, Blue, and Yellow.

Another aspect I found interesting is the Pokéwalker, which allows the player to transfer Pokémon to a little Poké Ball shaped “Tomagotchi” type device, and as the player walks, the Pokémon gains experience and can travel through different worlds.

Overall I find this to be an improvement from Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. Many of the aesthetic changes are very cool to look at, which makes the game more interesting to play even while evoking a nostalgic reaction for Pokémon Silver. I recommend this game both for the hard-core Pokémon fan and those just starting out.

Now to wait for the upcoming new Generation 5 which is to come out in Japan in the fall. The new games Pokémon™ Black and White.

Nintendo DS My Weight Loss Coach

Juliet Flores — Fri, 08 May 2009 08:20:21 +0000

Everyone at some point in their lives wants to improve their health, but adapting to a more healthy life style entails a lot of details. Eating healthier and being more physically active can be somewhat of a challenge when we’re not used to it. Honestly, I cannot remember nor do I have the time every day to journal about what I ate, how many calories I consumed or if participated in any exercise activities. I’ve attempted to keep track of my daily progress, but in the face of a busy life I haven’t had much luck. Hey, tracking this stuff is important to me, not only to see how far I come in the end, but to focus on my ultimate goal. So, I decided to hire myself the most affordable personal coach a person on a budget-especially my budget, oh paycheck granting gods-can buy.

My personal coach goes by the name of “My Weight Loss Coach” (Ubisoft). It’s a fun way to keep track of your progress to becoming a healthier individual! The game comes with a pedometer which you plug into the Nintendo DS on a daily basis to keep track of the distance traveled throughout the day. In my first two days I managed to climb Mount Everest without even having to pack for the trip…hey what more can a person ask for? It has motivated me to keep on walking, take the stairs at the office, park further away, and to go that extra lap around the block, just to get those steps adding up on the pedometer. I want to see what else I can climb!

In the Daily Session you keep track of on the calendar your pedometer reading, the challenges given to you by your “Coach” in order to track your physical activity for the day. Depending on how physically active you were it will give you a distance bonus to your next milestone…who knows, without even knowing it and without breaking much of sweat you may have completed an Olympic Marathon. Awesome!

Your Daily Session also tracks food balance. Food balance is somewhat genius. At the end of the day you give a detailed account of what you ate and it will give you on the food balance a total of calories consumed according to what you ate. You get to drag from the food groups the servings of food you ate and feed your coach from general fruits, vegetables, different kinds of meats-almost anything you can find on the food pyramid-yes even fast food. This feature of the game has to be my favorite, which probably tells you I eat too much fast food. I always wanted to keep track of my calorie intake and this is as easy as it gets. I am now eyeing the fruit bowl more enthusiastically then I do the cookie jar. Usually.

If you want to invest in a fun way to keep track of your progress, become more aware of your weight and overall gain a healthier life style, go out and get Nintendo DS My Weight Loss Coach. It’s easy to use, not to mention fun, provides you with healthy tips, and personally I look forward to keeping track of my progress at the end of the day. Keep in mind that buying the game and turning it on will not magically make the extra “fluff” around the middle go away; it is up to you to make the changes. The game is a tool to keep track of your progress, see how far all your hard work takes you and motivate you to become a healthier person. So, clip on the pedometer, put on your running shoes, turn up the tunes on your MP3 player and report back to your coach! Soon you will see not only was it fun but it was so worth it.

I’ll try to keep you guys posted on the healthy improvements I make with My Weight Loss Coach. Till then, get out of the way-I have mountains to climb.

God of War: Chains of Olympus PSP Demo Impressions

Jason Ward — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 12:04:36 +0000

Breathe deep, I know you don’t hear this often: I wish it were 2008 so I could snag the full version of a PSP game. Yeah, it was weird for me too. Anyway, so after letting my PSP charge overnight, I was finally able to dig into the juicy morsel that is the God of War: Chains of Olympus demo, and much to my surprise I’m mightily impressed (and kind of pissed that it’ll be so long until the full game hits).

Since it’s just a demo it was, suffice to say, not nearly long enough, clocking in at a mere 20 minutes or so, but what there is to be had was a load of fun, and it completely captured the feel of the PS2 masterpiece it follows.

If you were worried about the visuals, don’t be. They’ve somehow managed to capture all the fidelity of the PS2 version on this tiny screen, and moreover, they even managed to get the controls to work with an incredible amount of finesse. The demo starts as you would be crazy not to expect, with a frak-ton of combat. You’re immediately dropped into the siege on Attica, with Persian soldiers attacking the city by boat and on foot. Your first task is simply to dispatch said soldiers in a brutal fashion, and then destroy one of the attacking boats by firing off a ballista.

From there you drop into the room below, where you fight off more soldiers–of course–and are then faced with what appears to be a large troll. The troll, as it turns out, is really only there to drop off a massive club, which you’ll use momentarily to pummel a gigantic Basilisk in the eye with. Well, I take that back–he’s also there to feed said hungry Basilisk, but that’s neither here nor there.

Like the other God of War games, Chains of Olympus makes use of a locked camera that the player doesn’t control, but it really does a great job at keeping itself in the action and, which gives the player an excellent vantage point at virtually all times. Gameplay is fast and furious, and the enemy soldiers are no match for you at any point. The boss characters present more of a challenge, and again in true God of War tradition end up letting you throttle them spectacularly with a series of well timed, prompted button presses that don’t disappoint. Well, OK, the scenes don’t disappoint, the button presses kind of do, but it all works out for the best.

In any case, the demo so far gives me high hopes for this game, and from what I’ve tasted so far I have to say that it’s certainly looking like a must-buy for me.

Review: Yoshi Topsy-Turvy

Juliet Flores — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 18:38:04 +0000

Have you ever found yourself shaking, tilting, and jumping up and down with your game controller in your hands as if this is going to make a slight difference on the way your game on screen will be affected? Wish that your acrobatic grace would help you win the game? Well wish no more, Yoshi Topsy-Turvy is here to tilt your world around.

Developed by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance or Nintendo DS systems Yoshi Topsy-Turvy is a true tilting adventure. I was skeptical at first that the game would really change depending on how you tilt the system while you play, but boy was I proven wrong! You cannot play this game the conventional way of just pushing buttons; Yoshi depends on you to tilt him around to accomplish the tasks that the spirits assign to him, as he tries to rescue Yoshi Island from the pop-up book world it’s been sucked into.

The graphics in the game are excellent; I really enjoyed the detail they put into making it look like Yoshi is inside a pop up book. As a texture artist who’s created textures for both 3D models and 2D animations I really enjoy looking at the detail that goes into a design, and this game’s artwork is really excellent. What I thought was an excellent design element is the cardboard-like edges on things. The art style flows with the whole concept of the game. The art style is very cartoon-like and the sound effects and music in the game are what one would expect from a Yoshi game.

This game really relies on your handling of the system. One small tilt will determine whether you get Yoshi up to the next level or you bring him to his doom and have to start the level over again. It’s really very enjoyable how they incorporated this type of mechanic into how you play the game. With each level you play, you’ll gain more experience that will help you reach the end and help Yoshi save his world. The game is not multiplayer by design and I doubt it would work well as a multiplayer title anyway. Unless the group you were playing with was really coordinated Yoshi would never get anywhere!

Personally I would enjoy working on designing a game such as this. The art style is to my liking and it really is an addictive game; I couldn’t put it down. It’s a lot of fun to play because it’s very different from most games on the market, where you just sit there and push a couple of buttons to get your character moving.
You actually have to move the entire system to get things rolling with this title, and that’s a cool and entertaining dynamic. The only thing I found to be annoying in this game is “The Spirit Who Loves Swiftness,” and believe me when I say this that this Spirit can be a pain. Check it out for yourself by picking
up a copy of Yoshi Topsy-Turvy.

Quality: 5/5

Sound: 5/5

Game Play: 5/5

Developers Perspective: 5/5

Over all score: 5/5

Review: Tetris DS

Jason Ward — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 09:06:30 +0000

Tetris DS, developed and published by Nintendo, turns out to be much more than just a republication of a classic. Published March 20^th, 2006, the new game features multiple new play modes, an internet WiFi
capability and the ability to wirelessly hold 10 player Tetris matches using just one cartridge. These features and more all come together to make the latest iteration of the puzzle classic far more than your average rehash.

Like virtually every iteration before it, Tetris DS is less like a game and more like a little plastic bag of crack cocaine: once you start, it’s really hard to stop.

Graphics
Presentation:

The colorful graphics, while nothing to write home about in the days of Normal Mapped, high poly characters and environments, are nevertheless a delight to look at and a nostalgia trip all on their own. For
players of the original Tetris, they graphics are certainly cleaner and hold more detail than the original, but the style and symmetry remains the same regardless. Each of the game’s several modes demonstrates a different theme ranging from the classic Super Mario Bros to the original Donkey Kong, Dr. Mario and even Zelda’s earliest adventures.

Score: 5

Audio Presentation:

The audio quality is clean, with music taken from the classic games that also inspired some of the graphical themes. Most of the songs appear to be “remixed” a bit, and while they’re a fun trip down memory lane they can get annoying after awhile. I find myself torn between playing with the sound all the way down or with it turned up, and I tend to alternate between the two extremes.

Score: 3

Gameplay:

Tetris is a classic precisely because of the addictive, fun gameplay that sucks players in for hours on end. That hasn’t changed here at all. In the standard mode you use virtually the identical controls to the original Tetris (no touching needed except in the Touch Mode) and the game plays in nearly the same way. Various blocks of different shapes make their way down the screen and it’s up to you to stack them up, line them up and clear rows of them for points. Ideally you’ll clear rows in groups of four to score a “Tetris”, which will build up your ranking even faster.

In addition to the original Tetris mode, there are others including Puzzle, Push, Touch, Catch and Mission modes. Puzzle is harder than it sounds in some cases: You begin with a prebuilt stack of blocks and it’s up
to you to figure out how to use three tetriminoes in the right order to clear all the blocks. In some cases this is absurdly easy, in others it’s incredibly difficult, but I’m convinced that succeeding at these puzzles will make you a better Tetris player all the way around.

In Push mode you play against the computer or another player, and each of you tries to clear as many lines as possible to “push” the other player either up or down (depending on whether you’re on the top screen
or the bottom). Whichever player succeeds in pushing the other to the goal line wins the match.

In Touch mode you use the stylus to manipulate blocks in a classic game of Tetris, but believe me, it’s more challenging than it sounds. The mode’s blocks have a different appearance than they do in other modes,
offering more of a pastel color scheme and solid blocks rather than the standard tetriminoes that are made up of individual squares. It’s a minor difference, but an interesting one.

In Catch mode you begin with a stack of blocks and rather than manipulating falling blocks it’s up to you to “catch” falling blocks by manipulating your core stack left and right, and rotating it to find the best
position in which to catch the blocks that fall. This mode is fun and very challenging, as it turns the traditional Tetris gameplay model on it’s ear…and it’s butt…and it’s nose…and it’s…well, you get the idea.

Mission mode presents you with a classic Tetris style playing field, but in order to proceed to the next

mission you have to successfully clear objectives according to the guidelines given. Examples are things like “Clear two lines using the [L shaped piece]”, which requires you to use your falling blocks to create a field in which you can use that L shaped piece to clear two lines. If you fail, your blocks are pushed higher up the screen, risking your chances of succeeding in the future

All in all, the new modes add a great deal of replay value to the gameplay of a classic, and will ensure hours and hours (and hours and hours) of entertainment for people who enjoy a good puzzle game.

Score: 5

Multiplayer:

Multiplayer is where this title really shines, and it brings a tremendous new element to the already classic gameplay. Being able to wirelessly play Tetris against any other Tetris DS player on the planet is a huge plus and is surprisingly fun and addictive. In the past the best you could really do to challenge friends was to challenge what level you’d gotten to as compared to them. Now you can match your skills head on in a number of modes. If you happen to have 9 broke friends with DS’s but no Tetris, invite them over and all 10 of you can play the game together wirelessly thanks to support for the wireless Download mode. We’ve
seen wireless games in the past that would let players download the client to play against the “server” on the DS, but to my knowledge none have gone as far as letting 10 people in total play together. Truly this is an innovative and clever feature that adds all kinds of possibilities to the fun you can have with the Nintendo DS and Tetris.

Score: 5

Extras:

While Tetris DS doesn’t have extras in the sense of downloadable addons or expansion packs, the added modes and online play more than compensate for anything you won’t be downloading down the road.

Score: 3

Dev’s Perspective:
As a pseudo developer working on MOD projects and game-engine rendered short films, I tend to spend a lot of effort thinking about what could make a game better, whether that could come from graphics, audio or what have you. In the case of Tetris DS I’m unable to think of anything I would change about gameplay or
graphics. The only thing I really would like is better variety in music, but this is doable easily enough in the case of Tetris DS by turning the sound off and cranking up your iPod. Short of an MP3 player attachment and SD card reader for DS, I don’t see any way to really do that in the context of the system. It’s a minor gripe, though, and doesn’t detract from the game at all.

Score: 5

Overall Score: 4.3

First Look: Metroid Prime Hunters

Jason Ward — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 10:07:59 +0000

The long anticipated Nintendo DS title Metroid Prime Hunters has finally made its way into the hands of gamers everywhere today, March 21^st, 2006. While I work my way through this little piece of portable FPS heaven I’ve decided to offer my first impressions of this landmark title in the growing catalog of Nintendo DS “Must-have’s”. Though the game’s Wifi multiplayer functionality has managed to get all the press since it’s announcement last year, there’s also a deep and engaging single player experience here that’s
well worth playing through.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: METROID
PRIME: HUNTERS

Without going into a lot of detail (I’ll save that for the review proper), MPH looks, sounds, feels and plays fantastically. The controls are easy to learn and a few minutes with your hands on the unit will show you
just how easy it in fact is to manipulate the character and do what needs to be done. The game starts out very similarly to the other two recent Metroid Prime games for the Nintendo Gamecube: Samus Aran, bounty hunter, is assigned a new mission to explore a mysterious planet.

In a scene that should be familiar to all Metroid players, your ship lands on the planet and you are then able to control Samus and begin exploring the environments. So far, the environments are surprisingly well
detailed, as are the enemies. Samus looks excellent here as well, and this time you start off with the ability to morph into a ball and even drop bombs. Ambient sounds are nicely done, with different environments echoing differently, Samus’ boots (or metal skin, when she’s a ball) having appropriate sounds for
various ground types, etc.

In the early part of the game where I am, there aren’t a lot of enemies yet but I’ve already come across a simple puzzle. I won’t spoil it for you, but you shouldn’t have too tough of a time figuring it out. All the
classic gameplay elements are here from the start, however, and people familiar with the Metroid Prime look and feel should be right at home. For those new to the game—and of course, everyone new to the touchscreen controls—you’ll quickly become accustomed to the new control scheme. I highly recommend using the little nub on your DS’s carrying strap for the sake of accuracy and quick navigation of the control scheme. Trust me when I say, you’ll NEED it.

I’ll be back with a full review of Metroid Prime: Hunters in a couple of days, but until then I hope you’ll enjoy the multiplayer but don’t forget to play the single player experience, too!