The Video Game Revue

DS Games to Look Forward To

One thing that has disappointed me about the Nintendo DS is that it has suffered from the summer gaming drought along with the rest of the industry. This year is/was supposed to be the "year of the DS," and while it started out really promising with the DS having several solid titles for it (Metroid Prime: Hunters, Mario Kart DS, Tetris DS, to name a few), combined with the fact that the DS Lite is simply an amazing product all-round, the summer months have been really slow for noteable DS releases (along with releases for every other platform.) It's a shame that the DS wasn't able to capitalize on these slow summer months when it wouldn't have had much competition.

Things will pick up in the fall, for the DS as well as for everything else. Will the DS still be able to claim the this year as its own by Christmas time? A lot of that depends on the strength of the forthcoming DS games versus the strength of what's expected for the PS2, XBox 360, Wii, and possibly even the PS3. Let's have a quick peek at some of what's expected for the DS. The given release dates are from the EB Games web site.

Star Fox Command (Aug 28th)

While the idea of a Star Fox game for DS is certainly appealing, I'm a little bit wary of the Star Fox franchise these days. Star Fox is one of those Nintendo franchises that, like F-Zero, commanded a great deal of novelty and magic when it first came out, and hasn't been able to top itself since then. Compared to Nintendo brands like Metroid and Zelda, Star Fox just doesn't seem like a lot to get worked up about these days. We'll just have to wait to see what the critics say about this one.

Mario Hoops 3-on-3 (Sept 11th)

I have a soft spot for basketball games, although Mario-branded sports games aren't always the greatest. Then again, sometimes they are great, and I really like the idea of a 3-on-3 basketball game for the DS. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this one ends up being anywhere nearly as worthwhile as NBA Street. Again, whether or not I take a closer look depends entirely on what the critics have to say about it.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 (Sept 25th)

The original Mario vs. Donkey Kong (GBA) is a fantastic little platformer that combines puzzle elements with challenging gameplay. I didn't love it enough to think that it necessarily warrants a sequel (to be honest, I'm not even really finished with the original game), but since the sequel is for a different platform, perhaps they'll find novel new uses of the DS technology to improve on the game's formula. This is yet another game that has promise but needs critical support for me to buy into.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (Oct 1st)

Personally, I think that Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles is brilliant. Not so much as a Final Fantasy game, but more as an action-RPG along the same lines as... uh, Secret of Mana and Illusion of Gaia, I guess. Why is it that I have to reach all the way back to the 16-bit generation to think of a solid action RPG? There was Alundra, but that was a little less like an RPG and lot more like Zelda. My point is that FF:CC is a great multi-player action-RPG in an era where games of that genre seem to be scarce. I would almost go so far as to say that FF:CC is going to be difficult to screw up, in that as long as it vaguely resembles its GameCube ancestor and does a good job of supporting multiplayer, it will be worth having. I'm willing to take enough of a risk on it to get hyped up about it before the critics have even weighed in.

SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighters (Oct 2nd)

This is a silly game for me to look forward to. Really, I've never enjoyed the sort of scaled-down fighting game offering that portable devices provide, although I imagine that the PSP would be up to snuff. So much of the fighting game experience comes from the gorgeous sprites and rock solid game controls, which are two elements that are frequently lost in the conversion to a minature platform. On the other hand, the Nintendo DS is fairly powerful (it's no PSP, but it's at least as powerful as any 32-bit era console), and the draw of wireless multiplayer is not to be taken lightly. I love the SNK vs. Capcom series, and if the DS can do it justice, then I'm all in for that. If the DS version turns out to be severely scaled down and looses a lot in the process, then I'll be disappointed--but probably not surprised.

Children of Mana (Oct 30th)

The Seiken Densetsu series returns! Actually, this isn't such a big deal--there was the Legend of Mana game for PlayStation and Sword of Mana for GBA, neither of which was particularly worthwhile from what I've heard, although I do lack first-hand knowledge of these games. Secret of Mana absolutely rocked my world back in the day, though, and I remain utterly betrayed and devestated by the lack of an official release of Seiken Densetsu 3 in North America. Well, it looks like Square-Enix is serious about resurrecting the Seiken Densetsu series with its new "World of Mana" series, of which Children of Mana for the DS and Dawn of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 4; Legend of Mana is a "gaiden" or side-game in the series and it not actually Seiken Densetsu 4) for the PS2 are the beginning. This could be the start of a new era for action RPGs, or it could just be Square-Enix shamelessly milking an old franchise. Either way, I need to find out for myself.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (Nov 21st)

At this point in time, there's not much point in explaining the deal with Castlevania. If you haven't already tried Castlevania for GBA (get the Castlevania Double Pack!) and/or Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, you absolutely need to do that as soon as possible. If you like those games, you will like Portrait of Ruin, and if you don't like them, you won't. Personally, I think that the Castlevania series has been absolutely incredible over the last two years and that it's a brilliant staple of portable gaming. I have every reason to invest myself in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Yoshi's Island 2 (Dec 1st)

Hey, a sequel to Yoshi's Island--the vastly underappreciated "Super Mario World 2" game! Given the excellent visuals and gameplay of the original Yoshi's Island, combined with the recent success of New Super Mario Bros., I'd say that Yoshi's Island 2 has some pretty big shoes to fill. It's ambitious for Nintendo to tackle this title now, which leads me to hope that they have some sort of plan for it and that it's not just a money-grab. At the very least, it's something to keep an eye on, I guess.

Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Mar 1st, 2007)

Zelda, of course. There hasn't been an unremarkable Zelda game since... well, ever, actually. Okay, there were those "Oracle" games for GameBoy Color, and those weren't too exciting, but otherwise you really can't fault the series. Zelda games tend to come in three varieties: good, great, and totally awesome. Here's to hoping that Phantom Hourglass manages to be worthy of attention in the midst of all of the awesome next-gen gaming that's going to be happening on the Wii.

The Surprise Factor (Tenchu? Bubble Bobble? Mage Knight? DS Air?)

As much as I've already listed games and said "this could be great, but I'll need to wait to see what the critics say," I've overlooked or chosen to skip a whole mess of other DS titles that have the potential to be great but are by no means a sure thing. Keep your eyes glued to sites like Metacritic in case there's a surprise hit that rises through the ranks to become "the" DS game to have.

posted by Parappa @ 10:09 AM