Leveling Down

Today is the portable awards day! As an owner of both the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP, I am going to share with you the top portable games released this year, as well as what cmfl3x and I felt were the winners of each respective category.

More »

If you need evidence that gaming is alive and well in Asia, check this out: at the Osaka Aquarium, you can download information to your DS.

I spent a few years in junior high living in Hong Kong, which were major formative years – in my gaming life. After playing NES, SNES, Famicon, Super Famicon, and Street Fighter in arcades with my cousins, I was a gamer for life. When Mrs. cmfl3x and I decided to take a trip to Asia this summer (Taiwan, Japan, and Hong Kong), I was curious as to what the gaming scene looks like over there these days – to my more adult eyes. Hit the jump from my impressions.

More »

I just started playing Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker at the end of last week after beating Portable Ops. This past weekend, I took my wife to the mall (as usual) and with the Metal Gear Solid games not working too well for portability in a mall, I decided to bring my DS and Dragon Quest IX instead. After putting about an hour or two into both games now, I’ve started to really enjoy both. I like each so much that I had a very difficult time deciding what to play today on the subway. So…I ended up packing both my DS Lite and my PSP into my bag to bring to work. This can’t keep happening though. Only one will become the victor…who will it be?

Read on for the background behind each of these major portable heavy hitters this summer as well as my very short initial impressions of both.

More »

I decided to drop the PSP from this article because, frankly, I know nothing about it. For the record I’d be interested in WTF and the Metal Gear games on that system and that’s about it.

The Wii and DS operate in a completely different stratosphere when compared to the 360 and PS3. Yes, the PS3 price drop has helped a lot, especially in Japan, but Nintendo’s consoles just appeal to such a wide variety of gamers (young and old, casual and hardcore, male and female) that it’s tough to break down what really sells systems. But hey, I’ll give it a shot.

Nintendo Wii

System Seller: Wii anything
I was tempted to put the Wii itself as its own system seller, because that’s pretty much true. The Wii moves so many units because of all they hype generated around it. People gravitate to all the “Wii” games, Wii Fit sells a lot of systems, but many people are just content getting the Wii for Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort. Even Wii Play sells tons of units, although that isn’t really a system seller as much as it is something that people pick up when they get a Wii (for the extra controller or whatever). The Wii, unlike any other gaming system, sells to the average consumer with its accessibility, which is why it is destroying the competition.

Must Haves: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime: Trilogy, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Brothers: Brawl, Wii Sports: Resort (or equivalent)
The sad thing about this list is that two of the games came out around launch (Trilogy is all the Metroid Prime games with the new Wii controls though, so I guess it’s technically new) and Galaxy came out like 2 years ago. For serious gamers, there’s not a lot to offer on the Wii, especially 3rd party content. That being said, Zelda and Mario, like all Nintendo first party games, are excellent, and Metroid Prime is one of my favorite video game series ever. Metroid also uses the controller very effectively and is the best first person experience I’ve had on the Wii. I threw Wii Sports: Resort on there because if you own a Wii it’s almost mandatory that you own a good party game, but really there are a lot of choices out there: Boom Blox is pretty fun - you could even get away with a game like Warioware: Smooth Moves, and of course almost everyone owns Mario Kart (just check the NPDs). Thankfully, Nintendo is releasing a couple of new Mario games this year and next, so hopefully there will be a reason for me to dust off my Wii soon.

Upcoming: New Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Galaxy 2, Wii Fit Plus

Nintendo DS

System Seller: Pokemon (kids), Brain Age (adults)
It’s no surprise that the average owner of a handheld console is much younger than the average owner of a home console. What better way to keep the kids occupied on long car trips than have them “catch them all”? I played Pokemon on the GBA, and it was a surprisingly deep game, and according to reviews the DS versions are still decent. Regardless, Pokemon probably sells the most DSes to kids, whereas older adults, including very old adults (like my parents) like the DS for games like Brain Age, simple brain exercises that people like to play to keep themselves young. If you’re old, you buy the DS, if you’re young, you buy the DS. No wonder it’s sold the most units in the current generation.

Must Haves: Square-Enix RPGs, Professor Layton series, Phoenix Wright series, Elite Beat Agents (Ouendan in Japan)
The crazy thing about the Nintendo DS is that there is something for everyone. For the most part, the “casual” stuff sells systems, and that’s what a lot of people focus on. But if you like old-school RPGs, there are the re-releases of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, for people who like puzzles, there is Professor Layton, Phoenix Wright tickles one’s adventure fancy, and Elite Beat Agents is for rhythm game fanatics. And if none of those genres floats your boat, there are legions of other game types out there (I’m sure I’ve forgotten a bunch of excellent games). As espion4ge has stated elsewhere, the DS really is one of the best values in gaming and a great investment for any gamer, especially if you’re on the go. If you spend time shopping with your wife (check), take public transportation (check), or like to play games before you drop off to sleep (now outlawed in my household), the DS is a great buy. Just do yourself a favor and go with the Lite over the DSi, so you’ll save yourself some money.

Upcoming: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Ace Attorney: Miles Edgeworth

So that’s my take on the best games out there for the current systems. Of course, most of it is based around my preferences, so I’d love to hear what games you all love to play on your systems! Especially if it’s the PSP…haha.

Dragon Quest V makes use of both the DS screens for the world map

On the DS side of my gaming life, Dragon Quest V was the game that finally succeeded in getting me to put Phoenix Wright away. For those unfamiliar with the series, Dragon Quest is a Japanese RPG series that is equal in popularity to Final Fantasy in Japan. Yet on these shores, Dragon Quest never quite got traction for a variety of reasons, so it is relatively unknown to the common gamer. Thanks to the DS re-releases of Dragon Quest IV and V, Americans can now see what they have missed.

Why is Dragon Quest so popular? It’s kind of weird, really. If you look at Final Fantasy, the game has evolved so much over the years – there are new combat systems, different systems for learning skills/abilities, and even games within the game (Blitzball?). Dragon Quest, on the other hand, has stuck to the same basic formula through nine iterations. In fact, it’s stayed so simple that the latest version, Dragon Quest IX, actually came out as a DS exclusive.

So in Dragon Quest you basically get the same type of game you played on the SNES (or even the NES) 15 years ago. Battles are exclusively turn based, your life is in constant danger even against regular enemies, money is an incredibly valuable commodity, and you can never say “no” to anyone’s request (unless you’re supposed to). Yet Dragon Quest V is such a charming game that once you’re into it, you realize that all the above turn into good things for the most part.

The turn-based battles give you time to plot out a strategy and maximize your fighting efficiency, something I personally prefer to the action-based RPGs that are all the rage now. Yes, you die - and die often. When you do you never lose any progress - just 50% of your gold, so you can throw yourself at the same dungeon multiple times until you finally conquer it. But of course, if you die, money becomes even more scarce, but not having money makes you really think about your buying decisions. And finally, yes, the game is on rails for the most part, but the story is enough to make up for that.

There are two notable mechanics that should be noted. First, the story of Dragon Quest V is broken up into “eras”: you start out as a child, then enter your teenage years, and finally finish the game as an adult. During your teen years you have to choose a wife who will be your companion throughout the rest of the game. I actually found the decision pretty difficult on multiple levels; I wanted to choose the best companion in terms of battle skills, but I also wanted to choose the wife with the most amusing dialogue options, AND I wanted to pick the wife that made sense given the story. In some ways it was more difficult than choosing who to marry in real life!

The second mechanic is you need to recruit monsters to your party if you want to survive. It’s actually pretty fun and even though they barely have personalities, I find myself favoring some over others. It’s basically Pokemon before Pokemon existed. The monsters fight like regular playable characters though.

Overall, I think Dragon Quest V is great, but I also loved Dragon Quests I-IV (which I did play as a kid) so I’m a little biased. You get tons of hours of gameplay for your money like any RPG, and even though it follows the same basic formula, there are enough tweaks and changes to make it interesting. We’ll see how things work out with my “wife” though, maybe after twenty years of marriage I will change my tune! I kid…

Apologies for the short post, but this six and a half minute video should more than make up for it. I don’t think I’m a big enough nerd though, because I couldn’t name all of the songs. Can anyone help me out? Also, they didn’t form a complete Tetris. Come on!

My family is in town so the TV has been relegated to crime drama duty, so it’s been a lot of Dragon Quest V on DS for me. For some reason, in some ways I prefer the Dragon Quest series to Final Fantasy. I think it might be that Dragon Quest is a much simpler game…more on Dragon Quest sometime in the future, I’m 8 hours into it and I don’t even think I’m halfway yet!