Recently Mstation was on the tenth floor of a hotel checking out some
adaptations of old games titles for transfer to the Nintendo DS and Sony's
PSP.
It is funny that these two machines are being considered as rivals when
they really aren't. The DS is in a different price and size category and
it has a huge head start on the PSP. In the UK, quite recently, some games
reporters were announcing that PSP was now in the lead - this information
based on the fact that the PSP had managed one month of better sales
whereas the DS has vastly more numbers out there and has sold a ton more
software. In other words the reports were complete BS.
An important side effect of the DS's relative lack of complexity (despite
its two screens) and it's not being part of the Sony control freak culture
is that people can be more daring with their games -- which is to say,
more imaginative. The proof sits on shelves in most every city.
The PSP is a nice object, no question, but it is a less casual thing all
round. You will need to be careful in a lot of places where you use it and
when you've finished you'll most likely have to put it into a case to
protect that nice screen. You just snap the DS closed to protect its
screens -- not all that elegant, but effective.
We saw two games on the PSP, both to be released in March.
The first was Bubble Bobble Evolution from Marvellous Interactive in
Japan and released in Europe through their affiliate, Rising Star Games.
In fact this was a Rising Star day so all these games are from them.
BBE is a platform game with a graphically rich game world
and quite a few puzzles to solve. The idea was to "evolve" the original
title by making additions and changes suitable for the platform.
You can catch a podcast of the game's producer, Tony Byus, talking here.
The other PSP title we saw was a flight sim called Pilot Academy
which has a whole bunch of different planes to fly from WW1
multi-wing prop fighters through crop dusters to modern
airline planes and fighters.
'The game is built upon staggering technology, which represents the
landscapes from 30,000ft down to landing – and with three regions to
explore, each around 64km square, this handheld flight sim packs
significantly more than its home console counterparts. Controls offer
the complexity of piloting a range of aircraft without insisting players
are double-jointed, and the game will provide specific vocal
instructions for those who veer off course.
Pilot Academy begins with a series of training exercises which teach the
basics of flight. From there, players can jump into the cockpit of
commercial, private and military planes in a series of increasingly
tough challenges and missions.'
The first game we saw was the DS version of Snow Board Kids complete
with cute characters "with Mario Kart-style dynamics" which was fun and
easy to play.
Another DS game was an update of Taito's Rainbow Islands. In the
DS version the key-based jumping from platform to platform is
replaced by movements with the pen on the DS's touchscreens.
So, a little retro and a little now in the same box for these titles
in that they're old concepts gussied up for some new platforms.
As far as value goes, there's been enough adaptation work to ensure
the things stand on their own. For people just starting out with a
new DS or whatever, these will essentially be new games.
Mstation Games Review
Sun, 29 Jan 2006
