Now Playing 09.22.2011

This week: Kirby attacks en masse. Also, DSiWare that seems pretty nice.

By Andrew Hsieh. Posted 09/22/2011 18:41 Comment on this     ShareThis

Fancy buying a video game or two this week? There’s a lot out there– and that’s where Nintendojo’s Now Playing column comes in. Check out the list, and lean back as we figure out just what these games are all about.


Wii

September 20, 2011
Barbie: Jet, Set & Style (THQ)

WiiWare

September 22, 2011
Aya and the Cubes of Light (Object Vision Software)
3D Pixel Racing Demo (Microforum)

3DS

September 20, 2011
Frogger 3D (Konami)

September 23, 2011
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection (Crave)

Nintendo eShop

September 22, 2011
3D Classics: TwinBee (Nintendo)

Nintendo Video

September 22, 2011
Blue Man Group Foley Part II

DS

September 19, 2011
Kirby Mass Attack (Nintendo)
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 (Square Enix)

September 20, 2011
Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns (Natsume)
Barbie: Jet, Set & Style (THQ)

DSiWare

September 22, 2011
Escape Trick: Ninja Castle (INTENSE CO., Ltd.)
Break Tactics (Agetec)


At this very moment, Gears of War 3 is number one on Amazon’s top 100 best-selling video games list, followed closely behind by Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (why it’s not titled “Combat Even More Evolved,” we don’t know) and Mario Kart Wii (bundled with a Wii, a Wii Remote Plus, a Nunchuk, and $20.00 in Amazon credit). Apparently Gears of War 3 has been in the top 100 for 214 days, which is 83 days more than the Wii bundle has been there. That may demoralize Nintendo fans, except for the fact that the product which has been in the top ten the longest is Wii’s Zumba Fitness, for a staggering 333 days. (It’s #6.) Maybe that demoralizes fans even more. We wouldn’t know, we play Zumba Fitness too much to really care either way. (Three and a half stars on Amazon, and all 535 reviews are from us.) (Ha ha! Not really.)

But Gears of War 3 only just came out two days ago, so it makes sense that it’s number one. Kirby Mass Attack, on the other hand, really has no excuse other than the fact that it’s for DS (“how kiddy!”) and about a walking pink sphere (“how girly!”). Right now, Kirby Mass Attack stands at #41, and has spent seven days in the top 100. Nobody’s even bothered to review it yet, which is just as well, because if this were Gears of War 3, we’d already have plenty of “reviews” from “customers” composed of sentences like “gerz = bets game i evar playd, i like shoting alinz beter on dis than halo combat 2!!.” Seriously though, Kirby Mass Attack continues Nintendo’s tradition of using Kirby as guinea pig for Every Genre Ever (platformer; pinball; tilt ‘n tumble; stylus platformer; we could go on), and in this case it’s real-time strategy platforming. If that sounds weird to you, and if you have a Wii, you can go ahead and download the demo from the Nintendo Channel right now. Go for it, we’ll wait.

It’s interesting, right? Maybe slightly more interesting than Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2, which is a sequel of a sequel of a sequel of a spin-off. (But people will still buy it in droves.)


It’s like Pikmin, but with Kirbys.

Anyway, Kirby’s not the only thing groovin’ onto Nintendo systems this week– Aya and the Cubes of Light is an interesting platformer in its own right, though the graphics admittedly could use some tweaking. It’s at 1000 Nintendo Points, and involves controlling Aya– an alien with rather strange fashion sense– around a rotating, cubic stage. It’s billed as an action/platformer with puzzle elements, which is better than the loads of action/platformers that are already here. It’s nice, actually, to see Object Vision Software try and improve on the usual platform formula, especially on WiiWare. Thanks, OVS!

This week’s also a banner one for usually unseen companies Natsume and Crave, both of whom used to be pretty visible and now only seem to come out of the woodwork for another round of Harvest Moon or vaguely generic budget games. This time around it’s Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns, which is completely un-Charles Dickens-related, incidentally; this time around, players will get to choose one of two towns in which to live, each with their different specialties (Konohana is Eastern-styled and has lots of crops; Bluebell is European-styled and focuses on animals). They’ll also get to raise alpacas, or honeybees. It’s hard to say that this is the definitive Harvest Moon because a new one comes out ever so often, but it’s definitely easy to say that Natsume’s just not really trying to push the formula too far, especially after the confusion players had with the decidedly different 2004 game Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life for GameCube– famously known for being playable even decades after the start of a new game.

Meanwhile, Crave brings us one of two 3DS games, Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection, which actually signals that third-party developers are more than happy to bring casual games back to the fray even after Nintendo’s attempts to make 3DS a “hardcore” system. You may not enjoy Williams pinball controllers, but hey, some people like this kind of thing! They might even buy 3DS systems for it, and Nintendo will thank them for it, and then everybody will thank them for it because of all the games developers will make! Seriously, though, it’s good to see any game come out for 3DS even post-price cut. Hooray, Crave. (Konami also brings us Frogger 3D, which probably plays the same as all the other Frogger games, but we’ll take it.)

There’s also a pair of DSiWare games, including turn-based strategy RPG Break Tactics, which seems like Fire Emblem or Advance Wars, except with generic medieval units. Actually, Break Tactics also employs “Break Points,” which are used to upgrade said generic units– certainly an interesting twist to the war games formula. And each unit has a specific, tactical use outside simple combat, making things that much more complicated/awesome. “A simple mistake could cost you a battle!” Agetec chirps happily on the DSiWare page. While this is true in essentially every strategy game ever, it somehow seems more terrifying coming from the actual publisher.

Meanwhile, Escape Trick: Ninja Castle is a sequel to Escape Trick: Rock City Prison, another DSiWare title that must have done well enough to warrant (we guess) a sequel about ninjas. That, or it did poorly enough for publisher INTENSE CO., Ltd. to switch gears. (Namely, to ninjas.) It’s a puzzle game, though it’s billed as an action-adventure game. And it supports the DSi camera, too, for posting pictures for future need. What need, we don’t know, but considering it’s a puzzle game, it’s probably important.

Also, there’s a classic three-dimensional game now! It’s called 3D Classics: TwinBee, and it’s basically TwinBee in 3D. If you haven’t played TwinBee before, hey, it’s the perfect way to play it now. It’s in 3D, you know.


Thinking of picking up a game or two this week? Kirby too much for you? Let us know in the comments!

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