Yoshi's Topsy Turvy

[miffy495]

Did anyone else buy this yet? I like it. I mean, It's not as good as the older Yoshi platformers, and the tilting does seem kind of tacked on, but it's good fun. Definitely not as bad as most reviewers are saying, anyway. Too bad there's nowhere I know of that'll let me rent a portable game, cause this game would be the perfect kind to rent over the weekend, then be done with it. If you're into Nintendo's "re-shaping the industry" kick (I know I am) then this game is worth a try. I'll probably end up mailing it to my little sister once I've played it to death though. She loves everything Yoshi.

ANYWAY... Any other thoughts on this game?

[Chris]

I don't have Topsy Turvy, but I see you are enjoying Kirby Canvas Curse, which I just picked up today and is a blast.

[Roderick]

I've been hearing more often that the new Kirby is awesome. Isn't it too gimmicky? I'm still afraid of that.

I don't have high hopes for Yoshi's tilt and tumble and stilt and somesuch. It feels rushed and I don't like the graphic portraying. Isn't Yoshi a 3D render? Yuck.

[Chris]

What do you mean, "isn't it too gimmicky"? I'm not sure what reviews you've read but, as with you it seems, all the ones I've read have been quite positive, and the main positive point I have seen stressed is that the game takes full advantage of the DS' stylus in a way that no other game has. Tycho perhaps put it best when he notes that "it is beautiful to look at and plays with a sensibility that feels classic from the outset. Imagine that gaming history had followed a very different course - with pen interfaces de rigueur when the immovable tenets of platform gaming had been conceived - and you will be very near the thing." This is in fact the opposite of gimmicky, and suggests that the game is married perfectly with its console host, a judgment with which I agree. Don't assume that just because something is nonconventional it is "gimmicky".

[miffy495]

If you don't have high hopes for Topsy Turvy, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised. I just got it earlier today though and from what I hear, after 52-odd levels of the same stuff it gets pretty dull.

As for Kirby, part of the magic of it is in that although it takes advantage of what many would consider a gimmick, the game itself is so seamless that you don't notice. It just feels right to be playing Kirby with a pen. As Chris said, Tycho is right on with this one. Working on level 7-3 with 137 medals right now, although it's 5 in the morning where I am and I should probably head to bed sometime soon. I'll have to temporarily steal my sister's copy of "Magic Mirror" once I've beaten Canvas to unlock Waddle Doo as a playable character. My ultimate goal is to unlock DeDeDe, but Meteos will probably come out first and there will go my hopes of that.

Anyway, I'm rambling. I need to watch that. To SLEEP!

[Chris]

Oh man I can't wait for Meteos. I played it at E3 and failed to write a preview because I couldn't figure out how to describe it well enough in a couple paragraphs.

[miffy495]

Mmmm... Meteos. Been #1 on my list for a while. (That and Geist. I'm a major Nintendork) Kirby came out of nowhere and brought a great deal of the awesome, but it's sweetness is tempered by the fact that Meteos is only a week away from release where I live.

[Tanukitsune]

Topsy Turvy? I think it's called Yoshi's Universal Gravitation here, and after the Touch & Go fiasco I'm not so sure I'm going to get it....

[Roderick]

Oh I've heard nothing but really good things about Kirby, so it's not the reviews. I guess it's just that I still have to be sold on the touchscreen thing. I'll certainly try out Kirby and hope for the best.

Meteos, there's another one. What is it? A Tetris/Arcanoid thingy? Hah, it's all so out there that I have to have time to adjust

[Kolzig]

I wonder when all these games are going to come to Europe?

Nintendo's finnish pages say that Meteos is still three months away and Kirby is five months?!

Well, I guess there's no hurry to buy the DS yet, even though Another Code will be released in three days from now.

[Chris]

Meteos is a falling blocks puzzle game, but it's one of the most unique ones I've played. When you line up three or more blocks of the same type (using the stylus in a similar manner to using the mouse in Bejeweled) they sort of grow these rocket booster things and start to lift off towards the top of the screen. The whole thing feels like it's governed by gravity and escape velocity; the more blocks you've connected at the same time, the more boost they have but also the heavier they are, and they need to be going a certain speed to break through and actually leave the top of the screen instead of just losing steam and falling back down. If you boost blocks which are underneath blocks that are already boosting upwards, they will hit the already-boosting ones from underneath and the momentum of the two masses will be combined, and the newly-combined mass will gain speed. I don't know if that made any sense. It's very difficult to explain, but it's very fun and VERY frantic. It's from the guy who did Lumines/Rez/Space Channel 5 and one of the high-ups from HAL Laboratory (Smash Bros., Kirby, etc.).

[Tanukitsune]

I wonder when all these games are going to come to Europe?

Nintendo's finnish pages say that Meteos is still three months away and Kirby is five months?!

Well, I guess there's no hurry to buy the DS yet, even though Another Code will be released in three days from now.

I've heard they are delaying most of the big Nintendo releases so they come out the same time as the PSP here...

[Knar]

Here's a video of Meteos for you guys

Meteos!

[miffy495]

A while back there was a Meteos demo that someone made in Flash. It was the same gameplay, but slowed down substantially and with none of the graphical touches. Unfortunately, while looking for a link, everything that I found just ended up not responding, so I don't know if it's been taken down or what happened. Oh well. If you can find it, it's worth a try. Very addictive.