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I finally completed Another Code / Trace Memory yesterday evening, and I must say that the puzzles were very well done, very good designing, I especially liked how the mic was used and also the two screens as mirrors and also the stamping technique.

But the story was quite bad, no real emotion in that.

I also FINALLY completed Sonic Rush yesterday, man I ended up hating that game so much. It could've been as amazing as NSMB, but it ended up being just a new shitty Sonic game with a good engine and graphics. I hate the really awful level design so much and the music and the voices... :(:tdown: :tdown:

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I just finished Aria or Sorrow. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with it. Metroid is way better. I enjoyed the RPG elements or it and the variety of weapons (though they aren't really balanced), but the level design is incredibly boring and Soma's wide array or abilities just aren't utilized. I'm glad I played it, but I doubt I'll be picking up any of the other games in the series.

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Well, that's possible. I agree you'll likely only use one type of weapon and stick to it, but it's the atmosphere I like about it, and the crazy huge bosses.

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If games were suddenly forced by law to warn about their content during the course of the game, they'd be very similar to Touch Detective and then ... we would be fucked :

"And don't forget, you're a kid, you're not allowed to use matches" "Oh yeah... Bummer" is the kind of dialog that will pop in the game without warning.

Thinking about it, the whole game is weird: it tries very, very hard to be extra cute but at the same time, all the minor NPCs are looking like dehydrated corpses.Also, during the course of the game, you'll encounter an ice-pick bearing teddy bear and there'll be clues that Cromwell is sleeping in an iron maiden.

You could think that the game is subtle enough to adress children and adults alike but the puzzle are so illogical and terrible that I doubt such articulated thoughs have been put into it.

The only nice features are the design (though I was disappointed the characters were not in full 3D but only rendered) and the fact you can read what your character says and what she thinks at the same time.

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Just finished Zelda Minish Cap on GBA and I'm gonna break up my mission to play every Zelda game ever for the first time (on GBA, borrowed N64, Gameboy Color emulator, new Wii sometime) with some new DS games.

I've got Star Fox Command and Contact on the way, both of which had some iffy reviews, but Contact in particular sounded interesting enough to give a try.

My friend has Yoshi's Island DS and says that it's technically good in being 'more of the same', but doesn't have that same fine-tuned level design and wonderful variation. I might get round to it eventually but I'm feeling more :tmeh: about that than a space-dogfight-strategy melodrama and a quirky high-concept RPG.

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Even though I'm British I've got Elite Beat Agents, and it's bleedin' great. Despite the fact that a lot of the songs are pop punk (Sum 41, Good Charlotte, Avril Lavigne) they're still the kind of songs that are easy to tap along to, and it's got proper bands like Bowie and Deep Purple on it too. It reminded me a little of Project Rub for some reason, but it's miles better than that.

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Finally purchased Driller Spirits, and it is great, the music, the colours. Totally classic.

Sadly, don't know anyone who owns a copy for the multi-player option.

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If games were suddenly forced by law to warn about their content during the course of the game, they'd be very similar to Touch Detective and then ... we would be fucked :

"And don't forget, you're a kid, you're not allowed to use matches" "Oh yeah... Bummer" is the kind of dialog that will pop in the game without warning.

Thinking about it, the whole game is weird: it tries very, very hard to be extra cute but at the same time, all the minor NPCs are looking like dehydrated corpses.Also, during the course of the game, you'll encounter an ice-pick bearing teddy bear and there'll be clues that Cromwell is sleeping in an iron maiden.

You could think that the game is subtle enough to adress children and adults alike but the puzzle are so illogical and terrible that I doubt such articulated thoughs have been put into it.

The only nice features are the design (though I was disappointed the characters were not in full 3D but only rendered) and the fact you can read what your character says and what she thinks at the same time.

I know! The sheer absurdity of everything makes me love everything. Isn't it great?

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Yay! I got Yoshi's Island DS today from dvdboxoffice. :woohoo:

Now I just need to get more money and order Kirby Squeek Squad too...

Thankfully Christmas is very near. :yep:

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MovieTyme finally processed my order the end of last week [grrr] so I'm hoping Portrait of Ruin will arrive at some point early next week.

I've since been given a £30 Amazon UK voucher for Christmas too, so I'm pondering whether or not to buy 42 All-Time Classics now, or just pre-order Phantom Hourglass instead. That's not to say there aren't plenty of other great DS games available in the UK right now, but my short list (and reasoning) would work out as follows:

  • 42 All-Time Classics - simple, unique, brilliantly portable and very highly rated
  • Contact - looks great, but Zelda will be greater
  • Electroplankton - unique enough, but no long-term appeal
  • Metroid Prime Hunters - I finally grew tired of FPS games after I completed the original Call of Duty
  • Phantom Hourglass - unlikely to be anything short of mind-blowing
  • Tetris DS - ...it's just Tetris!
  • Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble - bit pants, but loved the original (and this one's dirt cheap now, so may get it anyway)
  • Yoshi's Island 2 - Mario platformers and I typically don't play together well

I'm aware I could pre-order games other than Contact or Phantom Hourglass, but I'm not excited by Elite Beat Agents and Rocket Slime doesn't seem that revolutionary.

Yes, I agree it may seem like I'm splitting hairs over this, but I only buy two or three games a year so I want to make sure each one's a justifiable classic. Thoughts, please, Thumbs!

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Yeah, pre-ordering Phantom Hourglass seems like a great idea, especially now that Remo wrote on LNC that Zelda: PH is getting pushed back for October 2007 release. :tmeh:

But I don't mind the wait, now it's going to be even better.

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Yeah, pre-ordering Phantom Hourglass seems like a great idea, especially now that [it's] getting pushed back for October 2007 release.

Ouch...

I knew it was a good idea to post this on Thumbs before racing off to the checkout, so thanks for the notice. Fingers crossed that Twighlight Princess' development schedule hasn't set a precedent for all future Zelda titles! :eek:

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I could kill for a new DS thumb strap, I haven't even touched my Metroid Prime Hunters since I got my DS Lite, because I fail to play it with a stylus, the thumb strap is far more superior than the stylus in that game.

Too bad they don't sell those in Europe, at least to my knowledge... and if they do, they certainly don't sell them in Finland. :(

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The screen gets all fucked up if I use my thumb, strangely the same didn't happen with the thumb strap on the old DS.

And I just liked to use the thumb strap, it was good, especially with MP:H.

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Do you really need the thumb strap? I don't really get it. Can't you just use your thumb, strapped or not?

The thing is that the thumb is too blunt. You want a finer edge to it to get that precision control going.

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Oh ok. I suppose that makes more sense. I've just heard everywhere people saying "If you play Metroid you need th thumb strap" and I've never really understood what special qualities it had

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Nice catch with the stylus. I preordered Phoenix Wright from Gamestop online. However, they tried to lure me into some evil $10/month subscription service with promises of a $10 gift certificate. Objection! :fart:

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I'm hoping Portrait of Ruin will arrive at some point early next week.

Portrait of Ruin arrived this morning!

I've watched the intro - stunning quality FMV for the tiny DS - and I'm so far liking the more arcade-like graphic style of the first few scenes. Music has been quite understated so far, but I'm barely through the opening as yet. Will put in some hardcore hours these coming few days then report back.

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Right, off the back of several hours' play I like Portrait of Ruin so far. Initially I thought the radical, almost dissonant areas of the game quite jarring and unconnected at first. But as you start to get into the story they make more sense and become somewhat coherent. There's one of those great gaming moments whereby you switch from not properly understanding the game to where you're completely absorbed by it, and this happened quite suddenly for me about 3 hours in.

The partner aspect of the game is brilliant. You can switch playing either character solo at any time, or have them fight simultaneously as you wish. Changing partners mid-quest or boss fight is an essential strategy in certain situations, and really keeps things fresh as you shift your mindset from melee to magic and then back again. The special double team moves also vary wildly, as they should in a game with so many different kinds of enemies. Each of Jonathon's and Charlotte's unique spells also contrast between each other, so you can quickly change characters, fire an essential spell or melee attack, then switch back again.

If I were going to compare Portrait of Ruin to another game, I'm surprised and delighted to say it's one of my all time favourite arcade slashers, Capcom's brilliant Magic Sword. And now we effectively have that game in portable form -- hurrah!

As for the music aspect, which I got so excited about on Thumbs back in the summer, it's subtle but varied. It's also very rich, with minimal loops and patterns used throughout. It's just the sort of orchestral arrangement you'd want for a Castlevania game, even though it's put together by Streets of Rage techno God Yuzo Koshiro (not to cast niche-genre aspertions at the great man himself).

The only negative points I have so far are two-fold:

  1. 3D backgrounds look just as stunning as they did in Dawn of Sorrow, but are used not nearly enough for my tastes.
  2. You very occaisionally fight enemies drawn using polygons instead of sprites, which seems pointless and quite jarring when compared to the chunky arcade-like 2D characters used everywhere else.

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I'm pondering whether or not to buy 42 All-Time Classics now, or just pre-order Phantom Hourglass instead.

For the record, I ordered 42 All-Time Classics on Saturday. I'll pick up Phantom Hourglass sometime next year, once it's been released, either on import from the US or a terrestrial UK version (depending on time frames).

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I finally completed Another Code / Trace Memory yesterday evening, and I must say that the puzzles were very well done, very good designing, I especially liked how the mic was used and also the two screens as mirrors and also the stamping technique.

But the story was quite bad, no real emotion in that.

I agree with your review, it could have been so good! The puzzles are good , the use of the console features is really cool and I love the character design, but the writing ruined it all for me, too bland and unemotive, maybe it's just a bad translation from japanese.

It's not worth the 40€ they ask for it, I luckily bought it second hand...

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BTW I got Pirates of the Caribbean as a Christmas gift... And I can't change it cause it's already unwrapped:shifty:

Anyway, it's not completely bad, the graphics are kinda good, although the gameplay is just slash n' slash (and slash again).

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