DSi

This week we got a few interesting choices. Any fan of the Square Enix series Dragon Quest has a quick distraction with Dragon Quest Wars for the DSi.

Personally, I’m the most excited with Arkanoid Plus! which continues the wonderful paddle/ball/brick classic. There’s been a lot of changes since the original and I can’t wait to try the boss battles.

For the Virtual Console, I’m wary suggesting Altered Beast because I know it’s part of Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection . But if you don’t have a PS3 or an XBox360 and desperately want to play this game, it’s now available for you. I find the game to be insanely hard, but I try it out whenever I’m bored because it’s part of the collection.

More information and pricing after the jump.
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 As the Summer draws near in the US, children are getting out of school. Many go to camps, while others just lay around and play a good video game. You know, attempt to finish that Metal Gear Solid, or Zelda, or start playing GTA: Chinatown Wars. There’s even the few that dust off the Wii Fit in hopes of getting a beach body (it’s too late!).

Instead of giving us anything really noteworthy, Nintendo also is going through the summer slump. We have some games that have a “summer” feel to it: a board game (better known as Othello), Sudoku, a fishing game, and a first person water-gun game. None of them sound horribly appealing for a gamer. The only standout this week is the release of Fantasy Zone II. I’m personally not a follower of the series, but it’s a Sega classic. It’s a colorful side-scrolling shooter, so it may not be for everybody.

More information after the jump.

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I am almost shocked that we have something that is worth talking about that isn’t a classic video game. This week we have the release of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. Although it has a little bit of a cheesy name, it’s a look at what happened to four’s world after the events of the first game. Graphically, it seems like the game looks about the same, with the exception that the game looks wide screen friendly. For 800 points, it seems like a good investment. Any fan of Final Fantasy should definitely take a look at this one.

On the other side, we have a few standard games. Yet another poker game. Yawn. Puzzle Game. Yawn. Boulder Dash is one of those games that seems too both gravity and time defying when you look back at it. In real life, you wouldn’t be able to dodge boulders or wait patiently as boulders shift from above you. If you’re a fan of the classic though, kudos to you.

More information after the jump.

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Here’s the list of available downloads this week. I’m actually impressed seeing that both Bubble Bobble and Adventure Island, two classic NES era games have gotten something for the WiiWare. Although I’m not totally impressed by Bubble Bobble, Adventure Island: The Beginning looks like a fun 2D side scrolling romp.

As for  the Virtual Console, the Geneisis classic, Clay Fighter is now available. This one resonates from my childhood, but looking at it now, I don’t think it aged that well. It’s still a fun fighting game, but I’d suggest things like Street Fighter (especially the HD Remix that came out) miles before I’d ever suggest Clay Fighter.

I’m reserving any judgment for American Popstar for the DSi. The concept seems hokey to me, but it does use the microphone features and is something original for the DSi that isn’t a clock or calculator.

More information below:

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The pickings are quite slim today, only three new downloads this week. I’m personally prepping for summer, but that doesn’t mean that Nintendo should slack off. It’s that season in video games where the games start thinning out until Christmas/Holiday season kicks in again. The summer is a great time to catch up on some of those downloads or games that you may have skipped over in the last season, especially because several of the games went down in price six months later.

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After Nintendo’s big week of DSi Downloads the pickings look a little slim. We have one Virtual Console, one WiiWare, and two DSi downloads. I’m very wary about both DSi downloads. The Master of Illusion series is questionable in my book. It’s really not a game, so throwing money on it just doesn’t seem like the answer.

Mixed Messages seems like a fun game, but only if you have several friends on hand. It’s a technologically advanced version of the childhood favorite game Telephone. One person writes a sentence, one person draws the sentence in picture form, and then the third person has to interpret the picture as a sentence.
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