Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky Review

Games in the Pokemon franchise have typically followed a pattern of release. First two game are released simultaneously that have similar story lines with a few differences between them. Then a few months to a year later another game is released in that line that enhances both of those stories and combines the two games together with a few more additional things thrown in. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky is that third type of title. It follows closely behind Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness.

The game follows the same storyline of those first two titles and adds a few things to make it a little different from them. The first is the addition of some playable characters. When you first boot up the game you fill out a quick survey and your answers to the questions determine which Pokemon you’ll play the game as. You can then choose from the remaining Pokemon, not of the same type as you, to play as your partner. You then are thrust into the story where you wake up on a beach unaware that you’ve turned into a Pokemon. You are awakened by your partner, whom you can understand, despite them being a Pokemon. You don’t remember anything that happened before you woke up and the game centers around that point to weave an interesting story.

You are asked to help recover an item that your partner Pokemon has lost and you’ll meet a team of Pokemon that will be a thorn in your side for a long time. After that the two of you decide to team up and join an explorers guild, led by Wigglytuff. That is where you’ll get daily assignments and duties that you are required to complete and after many of them the story will advance. Most of your time will be spent between the town surrounding your guild and the mystery dungeons that are located at different places throughout the world, and there is no traveling between the two. Sometimes, though, to break up the dungeon exploring you’ll be put on guard duty where you play a mini game that asks you to identify Pokemon based on their footprint. If you know a lot about the Pokemon universe that knowledge will come in handy during that time, but it’s not at all necessary. You also find out during your travels that the time gears responsible for keeping time in the world flowing properly are being stolen by a mysterious pokemon. It's up to you to find out what's going on and set things right. You'll meet a lot of familiar faces, as well as some lesser know, such as Shaymin.

The Pokemon mystery dungeon games, for anyone that doesn’t know, are commonly referred to as rogue-like games, meaning they are based off of the game play elements from an RPG known as Rogue. All of the dungeons are randomly generated every time you enter them and travel to another floor. Chances are you will never see the same floor pattern twice, which can be both a blessing and a curse. If you should die while you are in one of these dungeons you will lose up to half your money that you had acquired up to that point as well as a number of the items that you were carrying. Luckily if you survive the dungeon you can deposit these items in banks that will keep them safe for you, and you should do this often, only taking items that you think you’ll need, and never take gold into a dungeon with you. There are very few times you’ll need money while you’re in a dungeon.

The randomness of the game will, as said, be both a blessing and a curse. There is nothing more frustrating than spawning in a dungeon where you’re surrounded by three enemies and you’re almost depleted of all your health. On the flip side, there will be a number of times you thank the developers for having a staircase to the next floor spawn in the tile next to you. As you move through the dungeons every step you take is an action and enemies only act after you’ve taken an action. The entire game is turn based and you can use this to determine the best course through battles. Just remember you act, your partner acts, then enemies act, usually in that order. Many times during your exploration of a dungeon Pokemon that you’ve beaten in battle will ask to join your team. You can have up to two additional Pokemon with you at any time, and the game gets a bit easier when you’ve got the bigger team. Having those extra Pokemon around will be a big benefit and choosing the right Pokemon for the environment could be key to easy victory. The most frustrating aspect of this game is that you can’t prepare for a dungeon and you must guess as what you’ll need when you enter a new area. Be prepared for a lot of deaths and returns to the same dungeons. The plus is that even if you die your progress is still save, any experience gained is kept and levels will not be lost, so you will be stronger each time you enter a dungeon. That keeps the number of replays to a minimum.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky does have a feature that will allow you to call for help over Wi-Fi, or through email and a friend can come rescue you if you die. This will cause all the items and gold you had to be retained and you can continue where you left off. You can set this up to send you messages through email and is a neat feature, but not one you’ll probably use very often. It’s just easier to restart the dungeon, but if you have a rare or powerful item you want to keep it might be nice to receive a rescue.

The game is not quite as nice to look at as the main Pokemon game, but the developers have done a nice job creating a world where you really feel like a Pokemon. All of the characters are easily distinguished and you can tell instantly what types of Pokemon are in the areas that you are. The dungeons reuse the same tiles and after a while you will begin to feel like you’ve seen that same room before, even though everything is randomly created. The in game story scenes have a lot of emotion and despite the small size of the characters it was always really easy to see how they felt. The animated portions of the stories all felt like later GBA titles and maybe could have been done to take more advantage of the DS capabilities. The music, on the other hand was done quite well. Each dungeon has its own unique sound. Party areas all have appropriately cheery music and the moody sections of game had the appropriate emotional feel to them. It’s very well done and fits the tone of the game perfectly.

Once you’ve completed the main story of the game there are bonus episodes that you will unlock as you play through. These episodes can be accessed from the main menu and allow you to play through stories told from the perspective of some of the other members of the guild. They provide some interesting insight to those characters and are more interactive stories than additional game levels, but they’re entertaining none the less.

If you’re a fan of Shiren the Wanderer, or dungeon crawl games in general there will easily be something to find in this game that you’ll like. It’s designed for the younger audience, so it might be a little easier than you’re looking for, but younger players will find the game a nice difference to the standard Pokemon RPG. There’s no denying there is something enjoyable about filling out the survey and the game choosing exactly the right Pokemon for you, though if you know how you can answer so that you’ll get the Pokemon of your choice. The dungeons can get a bit repetitive and irritating at times, but the story is good enough to keep you wanting to know what happens next.  If you played Explorers of Time or Explorers of Darkness, there might not be enough to justify this game, but if you’ve never played the series before or you just really like Pokemon you should look into this game.

Final Score: 3/5 Average

Review copy of the game provided by Nintendo.

More Fresh Screenshots From Cooking Mama 3

EDISON, N.J., October 16, 2009 - Everybody recognizes Mama's moxie with meatloaf, her prowess with pizza and her gift with Gazpacho. But many players have not seen her deftness with doughnuts or her competence with candy apples. To give them a peek at what delectable desserts Mama has in store in Cooking Mama 3: Shop & Chop, Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL) today released some "sweet" screens showing a few of the Nintendo DS™ game's tasty treats. Scrumptious desserts are just a tiny portion of the 80 new mouthwatering recipes available in the latest addition to the popular cooking simulation series that has sold more than 5 million copies.

Mama is back in the kitchen whipping up 80 new recipes - including mushroom quiche, tulip chicken and more. Players use the stylus as an all-in-one cooking utensil to chop, grate, roll, slice, spread, sprinkle and more through over 200 manic mini-games. Eight gameplay modes allow them to shop for fresh ingredients, create custom culinary concoctions, compete with up to three friends in timed challenges and more. Additionally, players can send friends items they grew in Gardening Mama and use them to make meals in Cooking Mama 3: Shop & Chop!

Developed by Cooking Mama Limited, Cooking Mama 3: Shop & Chop for Nintendo DS™ is rated E for Everyone and will release October 20th for the SRP of $29.99. For additional information about the Cooking Mama line of video games, please visit http://cookingmama.com/.
 

Source: PR Email

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story Review

Bowser, he's the one villain in the Mushroom Kingdom that's been universally loved by all. He's also one of the few characters who's never starred in his own game. That is until now with the release of the third game in the Mario & Luigi series also known as Bowser's Inside Story. The game put the Koopa King in the limelight for the first time and he takes that opportunity and runs with it.

For those unfamiliar with the series Mario & Luigi is Nintendo's attempt at putting the plumbers in their own RPG's and the series really started back with Super Mario RPG on the SNES, but has really gotten big with the advent of this set of games. They have starred the brothers alone in Superstar Saga and the past and present version of the titular two with Partners in Time. This third act in the series has the brothers come back in a bit of a supporting role, though they see their fair share of screen time.

The game's story centers on a new disease to the Mushroom Kingdom known as the Blorbs, which is a disease that has caused the Kingdom's residents to balloon to massive size. During this outbreak Bowser is tricked into eating a Mushroom by the villain Fawful that causes him to inhale a large number of things, including Mario, Luigi, Toadsworth, Peach and a new character Chippy. It's because of this we get the clever title and the dual action of adventuring through the world with Bowser and through Bowser with the Mario Bros. who are attempting to rescue everyone who is trapped, discover the source and cure of the Blorbs and stop Bowser all at the same time. The two different adventures with mingle with each other many times throughout the course of the game where actions that one group takes directly affect the other.

Each of the characters is controlled with the D-pad and a set of buttons. The A button controls Mario's actions. The B button controls what Luigi does and Bowser has the X&Y buttons mapped to his actions. IF you are in control of Bowser on the top screen of the DS, but need to switch to the plumbers just hit one of their action buttons and the game switches to the lower screen where their adventure takes place. The same goes for Bowser if you are controlling Mario & Luigi. During the course of the adventure Mario & Luigi will gain access to additional actions that can be used with a quick hit of the R button, which cycles between all the available actions. It's the same style of game play we've seen in the series before and it's very easy to use and keeps the number of buttons you need to access at any one point to a minimum.

During certain parts of the game Mario & Luigi must help Bowser accomplish his tasks by completing a mini game that will affect Bowser in a number of ways. You can clear pollen from his nasal passages that will create a seriously powerful sneeze by swiping your stylus left and right to knock pollen particles on to the walls of Bowser's nose. Riding a raft through Bowser's rump region and shooting the correct colored orbs will cause Bowser to grow to enormous size and lift huge objects off of him. Timing hammer swings to knock electrons into Bowser's muscles will give him super strength to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks. Many of these mini games will be easy to accomplish, but sometimes break up the flow of the game a little much during high action sequences.

The bright visuals have continued and the DS is taken full advantage of. All the characters are amazingly detailed and animated. Even though Mario & Luigi don't have much to say you always know what they're thinking and their actions are exaggerated to help really get the point across. Other than a few grunts, growls and speedy Italian all the story is presented through traditional text bubbles and be prepared to read a lot during this game. The opening takes about an hour to get through and most of it involves reading conversations. The music is probably the best in the series and really helps hammer across the different stories. Battle sequences have the usual fast paced action soundtrack with the appropriate victory fanfare. It's easily the best soundtrack in the series and worth really paying attention to.

Each of the different NPC's in the game has some unique quality to them that really sets them apart from everyone else. There is a quirky French vendor who will sell you items along your journey and he is obsessed with blocks, him being a block and all. The villain, Fawful, has amazingly well scripted dialog that is reminiscent of the poorly translated games from the NES era, spouting phrases like "I have the chortles".

The Mario & Luigi RPG series has been one of the most successful spin-offs to the Mario franchise and Bowser's Inside Story is the latest and is a worthy successor to Partners in Time, which by the way is still my favorite game in the series. RPG fans and Mario fans alike will find something in this game that they will enjoy. It's got all the deep RPG elements like leveling up and item balancing that RPG fans want with the funny dialog and zany situations you've come to expect in Mario's travels. Giving the lead role to Bowser was a stroke of genius on the part of developer Alphadream. The game will take you somewhere between 20 and 30 hours to complete the story alone and there are tons of side quests that you can then go back and complete and I would not be surprised to see many people getting 50+ hours of enjoyment out of the game.

There's no denying that Nintendo knows how to handle their characters and they've really done a great job with this latest adventure. It's well worth picking up if you own a DS and are looking for a solid story and a lot of fun game play.

Final Score: 5/5 Excellent

Game was purchased at Gamestop.

Cake Mania 3 Ships

EDISON, N.J., October 14, 2009 - Pre-heat the oven and have the icing close at hand as Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL), an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, and Sandlot Games Corporation, creator of the Cake Mania franchise and the world's leading developer and publisher of casual games, today announced that Cake Mania 3 for Nintendo DS™ has shipped to retailers nationwide. With more than 100 million PC downloads and 650,000 units sold worldwide of the handheld versions, the Cake Mania series has proven to be a fan favorite that keeps the bakery chaos fresh in each iteration.

In Cake Mania 3, disaster strikes baker Jill Evans as she prepares for her wedding day. A mysterious "time bender" has crashed into the bakery and caused her loved ones to disappear. To rescue them in time for her ceremony, Jill must travel through time and use her cake-making magic on everyone that she encounters - or risk losing her friends and family forever!

Cake Mania 3 puts players in Jill's shoes as they serve 30 hilarious new customers, including Medieval Wizards, Ancient Egyptian Mummies and more. The game's 84 levels of baking bedlam stretch through six different themed environments that each includes its own unique cake style. In addition, players can customize Jill's kitchen with 50 unique upgrades including new appliances like the Fridge and Hot Drink Machine. For the first time in the series, Cake Mania 3 also includes three new mini games that will further challenge a baker's speed and accuracy.

Developed by Digital Embryo, Cake Mania 3 is rated E for Everyone and will be in stores this week for the suggested retail price of $19.99. For more information about Majesco's games, please visit the official site at www.majescoentertainment.com.

Nostalgia Screenshots

These new screenshots of the DS RPG Nostalgia are courtesy of RPG Gamer.com

Lego Rock Band Track List Revealed

The set list for Lego Rock Band has been announced and it's a pretty interesting list.  In addition to these songs it was announced that the game would allow you to transfer these songs over to Rock Band 2 on the PS3 and the Xbox.  It looks like Wii owners are out of luck in that front.  In addition to that you will have access to the Rock Band Store where you can download all the tracks that are labeled as family friendly.  They will be clearly marked and will be the only ones available in Lego Rock Band.  It looks like an interesting mix of songs and definitely a bit more family friendly. 

Consoles:
All American Rejects -- "Swing, Swing"
The Automatic -- "Monster"
Blink-182 -- "Aliens Exist"
Blur -- "Song 2"
Bon Jovi -- "You Give Love a Bad Name"
Boys like Girls -- "Thunder"
Bryan Adams -- "Summer of 69"
Carl Douglas -- "Kung Fu Fighting"
The Coral -- "Dreaming of You"
Counting Crows -- "Accidentally in Love"
David Bowie -- "Let's Dance"
Elton John -- "Crocodile Rock"
Europe -- "The Final Countdown"
Everlife -- "Real Wild Child"
Foo Fighters -- "Breakout"
Good Charlotte -- "Girls & Boys"
The Hives -- "Tick Tick Boom!"
Iggy Pop -- "The Passenger"
Incubus -- "Dig"
Jackson 5 -- "I Want You Back"
Jimi Hendrix -- "Fire"
Kaiser Chiefs -- "Ruby"
Katrina & The Waves -- "Walking on Sunshine"
The Kooks -- "Naïve"
KoRn -- "Word Up!"
KT Tunstall -- "Suddenly I See"
Lostprophets -- "Rooftops"
P!NK -- "So What"
The Police -- "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"
The Primitives -- "Crash"
Queen -- "We Are The Champions"
Queen -- "We Will Rock You"
Rascal Flatts -- "Life is a Highway"
Ray Parker Jr. -- "Ghostbusters"
Razorlight -- "Stumble and Fall"
Spin Doctors -- "Two Princes"
Spinal Tap -- "Short & Sweet"
Steve Harly -- "Make Me Smile"
Sum 41 -- "In Too Deep"
Supergrass -- "Grace"
Tom Petty -- "Free Fallin"
T-Rex -- "Ride a White Swan"
Vampire Weekend -- "A-Punk"
We the Kings -- "Check Yes Juliet"
The Zutons -- "Valerie"

DS:
All American Rejects -- "Swing, Swing"
The Automatic -- "Monster"
Blur -- "Song 2"
Carl Douglas -- "Kung Fu Fighting"
Counting Crows -- "Accidentally in Love"
David Bowie -- "Let's Dance"
Europe -- "The Final Countdown"
Good Charlotte -- "Girls & Boys"
Iggy Pop -- "The Passenger"
Jackson 5 -- "I Want You Back"
Kaiser Chiefs -- "Ruby"
Katrina & the Waves -- "Walking on Sunshine"
KT Tunstall -- "Suddenly I See"
P!NK -- "So What"
The Primitives -- "Crash"
Queen -- "We Are The Champions"
Queen -- "We Will Rock You"
Rascal Flatts -- "Life is a Highway"
Ray Parker Jr. -- "Ghostbusters"
Spin Doctors -- "Two Princes"
Sum 41 -- "In Too Deep"
Supergrass -- "Grace"
Tom Petty -- "Free Fallin'"
Vampire Weekend -- "A-Punk"
We the Kings -- "Check Yes Juliet"

Lego Rock Band is scheduled for release on November 3rd and is rated E10+.

Explore the Mysteries of the Sky With Pokemon

Special Episodes and New Hero Pokémon Deliver More Exploration and Discovery

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today’s launch of the Pokémon™ Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky video game for the Nintendo DS™ and Nintendo DSi™ systems gives players the opportunity to play through a game as an actual Pokémon. This newest installment in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon video game series expands on the fun found in Pokémon™ Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Pokémon™ Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness with new content, original storylines and more Pokémon for players to interact with. Players begin the game as one of 19 different hero Pokémon, which include five hero Pokémon not included in previous games. From there, players team up with partner Pokémon and set off on an adventure to save the world from destruction.

“The Pokémon franchise has delighted fans for more than a decade by providing unique video game experiences based on exploration, storytelling and social play,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky delivers an amazing adventure, with a touching storyline and memorable characters for players to enjoy.”

Throughout Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, players will interact with more than 490 other Pokémon in this dungeon-based role-playing game and uncover an immersive storyline by playing new Special Episodes. In these Special Episodes, players experience new stories through the eyes of some of the supporting characters that first appeared in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness.

The game also includes a number of interactive elements that let players connect with one another. Players can send a demo dungeon to a friend’s Nintendo DS or Nintendo DSi system over a local wireless connection, or access special missions over Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection via wireless broadband Internet access. Up to two players can also trade items over a local wireless connection.

For more information about Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, visit http://www.pokemonmysterydungeon.com/.

Source: Nintendo Press Release

New Cake Mania 3 Screen Shots

EDISON, N.J., October 9, 2009 - What will a soon-to-be-bride do to save her wedding? Will she travel through time to joust with a knight or walk like an Egyptian? World famous cake maker Jill Evans is forced to do these things and much more in the latest addition to the best selling cake making franchise - Cake Mania 3 for Nintendo DS™. Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL) today released 10 new screens that give players a closer look at Jill's exploits in two of the game's six bakery locations - the Renaissance and Ancient Egypt.

In Cake Mania 3, Jill Evans is preparing for her big wedding day when disaster strikes. A mysterious 'timebender' breaks and all of her family and friends vanish. Now Jill must race through 84 time-traveling levels and rescue them using her cake-making magic before the ceremony begins. Using all new kitchen upgrades - including the Fridge and Hot Drink Machine - players can customize their bakery locations while serving 30 demanding new customers like Medieval Wizards and Ancient Egyptian Mummies.

Cake Mania 3 for Nintendo DS™ ships October 14th for the SRP of $19.99. For additional information about Majesco's line of products, please visit http://www.majescoentertainment.com/.

Check out more screens on our Flickr Page.

Madagascar Kartz Release Date Announced

Take a Drive on the Wild Side

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Oct 09, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced that DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc.'s  Madagascar Kartz(TM) video game will be released on October 27 for Wii(TM),Nintendo DS(TM), Xbox 360(R) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and PlayStation(R)3 computer entertainment system. The video game combines the wild world of DreamWorks Animation's Madagascar(R) franchise with over-the-top kart racing, resulting in an outrageous ride the whole family can enjoy together. The Wii(TM) version can be purchased as a bundle, which features a DreamWorks' Madagascar Kartz steering wheel packaged with the game - just load the Wii Remote(TM) into the steering wheel and get your animal instincts in high gear.

Jump behind the wheel and drive yourself wild as you play as Alex, Marty, Gloria, Melman, King Julien or those crafty penguins! You can power-up and perform zany jumps, outlandish flips, and radical rolls on amazing tracks from the world of Madagascar(R), including the New York City Zoo, the plane crash site, the volcano, plus many more. Keep an edge on your wild competitors with cool pickups, such as power boosts, obstacles, and projectiles. DreamWorks' Madagascar Kartz features split-screen head-to-head multiplayer action, allowing up to four players to go bananas and race locally against one another in Championship, Quick Race and Time Trial modes.

"The Madagascar(R) films are packed with personality and can be enjoyed by everyone," said David Oxford, Activision Publishing. "We designed DreamWorks' Madagascar Kartz with the same idea. With the whole family competing against each other as their favorite zoosters, you have never seen action this wild!"

Fresh From the Oven - New Cooking Mama 3 Screens

EDISON, N.J., October 8, 2009 - Ever wonder how Mama selects the perfect ingredients for her delectable dishes? Well, for the first time in franchise history, chefs can go shopping with Mama and help her pick out the ingredients for this year's selection of 80 new recipes. To give players a look at what it will be like to shop with one of the most renowned chefs in history, Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL) today released screens from Cooking Mama 3: Shop & Chop's brand-new "Let's Shop" gameplay mode. "Let's Shop" is just one of the savory new modes in the latest title from the wildly popular cooking video game series that has sold more than 4.5 million units to date.

Mama has left the garden and is back in the kitchen whipping up 80 new recipes - including mushroom quiche, tulip chicken and more. Players use the stylus as an all-in-one cooking utensil to chop, grate, roll, slice, spread, sprinkle and more through over 200 manic mini-games. Eight gameplay modes allow them to shop for fresh ingredients, create custom culinary concoctions, compete with up to four friends in timed challenges and more. Additionally, players can send friends items they grew in Gardening Mama and use them to make meals in Cooking Mama 3: Shop & Chop!

Developed by Cooking Mama Limited, Cooking Mama 3: Shop & Chop for Nintendo DS™ is rated E for Everyone and will release October 20 for the SRP of $29.99. For additional information about Majesco's line of products, please visit http://www.majescoentertainment.com/.

Source: Press Email

World of Nintendo Tour

World of Nintendo Tour Brings Top Games and Systems Directly to Consumers

As the hustle and bustle of the holiday season draws near, Nintendo is making it easier for consumers to sample and experience some of the year’s most talked-about games and game systems. This past weekend, Oct. 2-4, the new World of Nintendo sampling tour kicked off with an appearance at the annual Long Beach Comic Con in Long Beach, Calif., treating attendees to a firsthand look at a variety of recent and forthcoming games for the Wii™, Nintendo DS™ and Nintendo DSi™ systems.

Less than a week after consumers discovered a new suggested retail price of $199.99 for Wii, World of Nintendo participants in Long Beach gathered for hands-on demonstrations of games like Wii Sports Resort™, Wii Fit™ Plus and Punch-Out!! ™, as well as the upcoming New Super Mario Bros. ™ Wii. The event also highlighted new hand-held games such as Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box™ and the highly anticipated The Legend of Zelda™: Spirit Tracks, both playable on Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi systems. World of Nintendo visitors also enjoyed a glimpse into a selection of downloadable game titles on the WiiWare™ and Nintendo DSiWare™ services.

Upcoming World of Nintendo tour stops include America’s VideoGame Expo in Philadelphia (Oct. 9-11) and the Big Apple Comic Con in New York City (Oct. 16-18). Like this year’s traveling Nintendo DSi Mobile Tour and Wii Sports Resort Mobile Tour, World of Nintendo reflects Nintendo’s ongoing commitment to actively expanding the audience for video games, attracting new and veteran players with a lineup of inclusive game titles, innovative motion controls and console features that allow players to stay connected with family and friends.

For more information about World of Nintendo, please visit http://www.nintendo.com/.

Source: Nintendo Press Release

Battle of Giants: Dragons Review

Battle of Giants: Dragons is the second game in the series following last year's Battle of Giants: Dinosaurs. The game revolves around the story of dragons that have created their own world out of fear of extinction. Once they've created this new world, though, one of the races of dragons, the Salmu, seeks the power for themselves and attempt to take over the four different parts of that world. It's up to you to burn crystals, and slay the Salmu in order to bring peace to the dragon race.

Battle of Giants: Dragons opens up with a very well animated medieval style storybook cutscene depicting the creation of the world, that is never really explored again. The story is narrated by a dragon that sounds a bit like William Shatner speaking Klingon. Needless to say it is very poorly done. You explore the extremely barren world of the dragons with the stylus, much like you do in Ninja Gaiden or Phantom Hourglass. You may find, though, that your hand gets in the way of the screen while you're attempting to navigate the world and it becomes very hard to see what you're doing and where you're going. You can traverse the land by either walking, which is very slow, or flying, considerably faster than walking. To take to the skies you double tap your dragon, but it is not always clear if you're in an area where you can take off and so you'll have to move around to a few different spots before your dragon will take flight.

Scattered throughout the different lands are your objectives in helping to restore peace in the form of crystals that need to be burned to unlock new areas of the map. There are also a few dragons inhabiting the land and if you encounter one of them a battle takes place. This is where the bulk of your dragon action will be taking place. Battles are fought between two dragons who are standing in their own seperate combat circles. You can drag the stylus to one of six areas inside that circle and depending on where you are you will attack with a different part of the dragon's body. To attack you simply swipe the stylus towards your opponent, and it is quite responsive. You won't have to make multiple swipes very often to attack. Once you've successfully attacked your opponent you will be given a pattern of dots to trace and depending on how many of those dots you connect you will do more, or less damage. You will find very quickly, through a bit of trial and error that there is one attack that does considerably more damage than the others and you will use it all the time. This will make the battles very repetitive very quickly. There is also not much fear of losing a battle because the AI dragons do not fight back nearly as fast as you do so you will be continously getting the upper hand. If you desire you can choose not to damage opponents but collect orbs that can be used for a special attack, but I found it did not do much more damage than your normal attacks so it's better to just choose to damage your opponent.

The dragons themselves animate very nicely and are incredibly detailed. You can, throughout the adventure, unlock new parts that can be used to customize your dragon and give him or her new colors. It's very easy to tell that more time was spent on the dragons than the landscapes because they are incredibly barren with only a few dead trees and rocks placed conservatively througout. The voice acting, as mentioned before is incredibly bad, and extremely repetitive. The music is just as forgettable.

You do have the option of competing in multiplayer battles either through single cart or multi-cart play. If only one person has the game you can share with a friend who will be given a generic dragon with a few abilities. If both players have the game they can take their favorite dragon into the fight. There is actually a bit of fun to be had here. The only thing you can do is the battles, but they are much more entertaining than fighting the AI opponents as humans generally think about their strategies a little bit.

Between the incredibly ridiculous objectives that you accomplish to bring peace to the world, the overly repetitive battles and the barren landscapes, there is not much fun to be had in Battle of Giants; Dragons. Multi-player is good for a short car ride or a few minutes before school in the morning, but other than that I think it would be best to pass on this title.

Final Score: 2/5 Below Average

Review copy of the game provided by Ubisoft Quebec.

Scribblenauts Review

E3 2009 was a time for hands on with many of the games that are coming out now. The one game that seemed to get everyone’s attention at that time was a little DS game by developer 5th Cell called Scribblenauts. This game essentially lets you use whatever you can think of and put it in the game to solve a series of puzzles. There are some quirks that might get in your way, but overall this is a really fun title that you should check out.

The basic idea behind Scribblenauts seems really basic. There is a starite somewhere in the level and you have to retrieve it. There could be a number of obstacles in the way that you have to clear, but your imagination is the only thing holding you back. There are two different modes of play in Scribblenauts. The first is a puzzle mode where you are given an objective that you must complete in order to obtain the starite. These can range anywhere from getting a cat out of a tree, to getting a lifeguard to jump in a pool or many, many more. They start out very simple to get you into the idea of what exactly they want from you and get more complex as you go along. The second play mode is an action play mode, where you must get past a number of obstacles and “enemies” in order to reach the starite. These will be things like sneaking past security guards in a warehouse to get the star or creating a course where the star has to avoid spikes in order to reach you.

In each level you are given a par, or a number of objects you should be able to finish the level with. Finish below par and you’ll be rewarded with more ollars, the currency in Scribblenauts. Finish over par and you’ll receive less money. You’re also rewarded for how creative you are with the objects you use. There is a meter that looks very much like a thermometer that you use to understand how many objects you can have in the level at any one time. If that meters fills us you must remove something in order to place something else. Aside from that meter there is virtually no limit to the amount of objects that are in the game.

How do you retrieve these stars? Simple. Bring up the games keyboard, or scratch pad by pressing the notebook icon on the top-right portion of the lower screen. You can then enter the name of any object you think of and as long as it’s in the game’s dictionary it will be spawned into the world. There are reportedly over 22,000 objects that the game will recognize ranging anywhere from a puppy to God. These objects interact with each other somewhat realistically. For example, if you spawn a puppy and a cat, the puppy will chase, and probably kill the cat. Spawn in God and the devil and God will smite the devil with his awesomeness. That’s where the game’s creativity comes in. Sure you could spawn a ladder to get a cat out of a tree, but why not spawn an eagle and have it scare the cat out of the tree? The possibilities are almost endless.

5th Cell is most famous for their work on the Drawn to Life game where you created your own hero as well as a number of objects in that world and this game has that same style. It looks very much like a child’s drawings where everything is a bit squiggly and not very clean. That’s also what gives the game its charm. Everything is drawn to look like it fits perfectly in the world. All the items, people and places are a bit stylized and caricatures of themselves. For example, the T-Rex you can spawn has a head that is nearly as big as its body. All the people have big heads, with small eyes and no other features and everything moves like it’s a paper cut out held together at the joints with pins. It makes for a very charming look that you will fall in love with as soon as you see it.

Each level earns Maxwell, the main character, ollars that can be used in the store to purchase new levels, background music and even different avatars that you can play as. If you want to change the look of Maxwell simply go to the store and buy the zombie avatar and you’ll play the game as a zombie. It would have been nice to have some extra customization in that respect, but there are about a dozen different characters you can choose so there’s something out there for everyone. Overall, there are about 220 different puzzles that can be solved in the game. There are 110 action puzzles and 110 puzzle levels. It will take even experienced players a good long while to solve some of the more difficult puzzles in the game.

There are a couple of things that might hold back your enjoyment of the game and one of them is pretty big. Controlling Maxwell can be a bit of a chore. To move him around you tap somewhere on the screen or you can drag the stylus along in front of him to make him move. This does not give you very precise control over his movements and there will be many times you need to make small movements and the game doesn’t recognize that. As a result you will often jump into pools of lava, off cliffs or just move items that cause the work you’ve been doing to go wrong and you have to repeat the level. The d-pad is used to control the camera. I think if those two things had been switched and you had direct control of Max it would have gone a long way to solve that issue.

There were also a couple instances when the game froze and had to be restarted. I was never able to duplicate those circumstances so that could simply have been a glitch that won’t happen to many people. The physics in Scribblenauts are also not completely what you would expect and so some things you think normally wouldn’t happen would. For example ropes dropped on bridges could cause the bridge to move and fall into the area you’re trying to cross. This is something that could be fixed in a sequel and wasn’t too big an issue, but it did happen occasionally.

All in all, though, Scribblenauts is an excellent experience, as long as you don’t let the controls get in the way. The sheer volume of stuff that can be done could be overwhelming, but chances are you’ll find the few combinations of items that work best for you and you’ll use them a number of times. Puzzle games come in a number of different varieties and this really is one of the more unique ones out there.

Final Score: 4/5 Above Average

Dawn of Heroes Trailer

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