// VIEW: NINTENDO DS ROUND-UP

There’s plenty of choice out there for the DS gamer, as long as you like mini-games and maths quizzes. Alright, alright, there’s plenty of choice full stop (though surely we’re all sick to death of Improve Your Brain Power games by now?), but inevitably an awful of games slip through the general publics collective gaming catch-net. No promises; this won’t be a column of instant classics – no doubt there will be a few games covered in the coming months that are, frankly, utter shite. But that would be missing the point – they can go in here unashamed not because while they may not be good, they’re certainly interesting. Capiche?

OSU! TATAKAE! OUENDAN!

Scientifically speaking, energy cannot be destroyed, only converted from one form to another. When the Nintendo DS was released, gamers pawed at its touch screen function awkwardly, knowing that at some point, the potential of this clever little gadget was going to be realized, and that surely, somewhere, there were developers attempting to capture this potential energy and unleash it as something more…well, kinetic.

INIS have turned that energy into Ouendan! While adorned with all the charming style typical of an eccentric Japanese game, given half a chance Ouendan reveals it’s startling depth and accessibility as a videogame. It’s rhythm action stripped of extraneous guff and impenetrable hardcore appeal that characterizes recent additions to the DDR lineage.

The Ouendan! (literally, ‘Cheer Squad!’) are a strange blend of fascistic design (all black overcoats and red armbands) and benevolent intentions, called into action by various (and varyingly sane) inhabitants of the games’ fictional world when they reach breaking point – be it a boy trying to concentrate on his homework while his family kick up a racket next door, Cleopatra attempting to lose weight, or a pair of hapless policemen fending off an army of stomping robots – who literally cheer them on through their problems. As each ‘level’ gets underway, you get a snippet of story setting up your journey through the next 3 minutes or so. As you play the story progresses through three or four stages in a fantastic comic-panel styled anime on the top screen, while the Ouendan themselves dance away on the bottom screen, guided by your hand.

The mechanics of the game are simple enough, with credit due to the fantastic touch screen control and clarity of your objectives. Your task is to simply tap the dot as an ever-decreasing circle closes in on numbered dots in time to various J-Pop tunes (covers, but so obscure for Westerners they may as well be the original artist). Occasionally circles fill your screen, requiring to be spun as fast as possible, or long ‘tubes’ appear requiring your stylus to guide a rolling ball as accurately as possible – successful performing of which are essential for reaching high-scores. Mess up your timing, or miss too many beats, and your status bar will sharply drop and the Ouendan will hang their heads in despondent failure.There is a very substantial yet very simple joy to everything Ouendan achieves. Much like the Katamari series, it’s almost as if INIS looked at the po-faced nature of modern videogames and set out to create something completely at odds with what’s expected. That’s not to say Ouendan is without some surprisingly tender emotional moments – the story of ‘Over The Distance’, while cribbed from the awful film ‘Ghost’, is still a surprising heartfelt turn after the relative brashness of the games opening half. It’ll last you, too, with the challenge of the S-Ranks enough for anyone considering themselves an expert.

It’s unfortunately not without flaws either. While the stylus control is perfect, responsive and accurate, it’s betrayed by human physiology – our joints unfortunately don’t lend themselves too well to the busier levels, which rely on quick taps in close proximity to one another. Often you unavoidably obscure your view with your hand. It’s not a huge issue, but when it does strike it’s naturally at the most pivotal point in your game – when the difficulty shifts the ease in which you can fail through being physically unable to make your marks can be fleetingly frustrating. The circle-spinning, while often a welcome relief from a particularly intense stage and a good chance to recover some of your status bar can sometimes feel at odds with the music and context of a level. Their inclusion in the aforementioned ‘Over The Distance’ seems slightly perfunctory, as the song itself is simple enough (even on the most difficult setting) to follow that the change of pace is pronounced and even unwelcome in the midst of perfect run.

PHOENIX WRIGHT: ACE ATTORNEY SERIES

Destined to be ignored, this brilliantly written point-and-click series is never, ever, going to look attractive to the typical populous of high street games emporiums, preferring, as they tend to, stuff dat is wikkid sik, man. Maybe with some tits and cars on the box they’d take off in the way they’d deserve, but until then it’s left to you, loyal reader, to gobble all of these superb, witty games until you can’t take even the most waffa theen of mints.You play the eponymous Ace Attorney, pointing and clicking your way through various cases building a defence case for a variety of bizarre individuals (generally revolving around murder). Picking up clues through either touch-screen investigation or (always entertaining) conversation with the consistently brilliant cast, you then take to the court room (chaired by an increasingly belligerent Judge) and act out your case, pointing out contradictions in witness statements and supplying evidence to disprove the assertions of the prosecution. This is the meat of the game – a vast majority of the best exchanges and plot points occur within the courtroom walls – and the steps to victory can be wonderfully satisfying (if, at times, a little too obtuse; too often you’re penalised for pointing out the obvious before the game wants you to).

But it’s in the drama, the histrionics, and the sheer OTT nature of, well, everything that the Ace Attorney games truly shine. At times you’re seemingly propelled on solely by the games effervescence, whether it be your screams of objection into the DS mic (seriously), the party poppers and indoor fireworks lighting up the courtroom after you’ve successfully cleared the accused, the villainous Mwuhahahaa-ing of your courtroom rivals, each with personalities you can’t help but be drawn to – the brilliant Von Karma should live long in videogaming memory. Get involved – you’ve got three games to choose from – the second, Justice for All, probably being the weakest (marginally; any one of the three are worth playing through), and once bitten you should have just enough time to get through the lot before the next chapter – Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney – gets its’ overdue release.

PICROSS DS

It’s a puzzle game! Wait! Don’t run! It’s good. Wait! I promise! With the superb Mario Picross having been released a couple of months back on Wii Virtual Console, the DS version seems ideally placed to take the ‘on-the-bus’ puzzler crown from Puzzle League (also amazing: destined to be remembered as one the best puzzlers of all time), or at least sit on the throne while Puzzle League uses the lav. If you’ve not played Picross, let me explain. A sort-of cross between a crossword, sudoku and a jigsaw puzzle, your playing field is an empty grid lined by numbers. These numbers denote the number of squares that have to be filled in order to complete the puzzle and reveal the image. This can initially be overwhelming, utterly confusing to gamers not generally used to logic puzzles (I count myself among you, brothers!) – ‘what goes there…how does that fit…eh?’ But once it clicks puzzle take a matter of seconds where previously you’d deliberate for a good few minutes on the simplest board (it is much like the stunning Slitherlink in this regard. But we’ll save that for another day).

Unfortunately, poor design decisions mean it plays only a decent game of Picross. The control scheme is terribly ill-advised, with unintuitive clicks of the stylus and button presses required to do tasks that should be instinctive in a puzzler like this. Larger grids require constant scrolling and cross-referencing for success – and by inexplicably electing to combine button and stylus control in the most irritating way possible. The stylus control is too imprecise to be useful, particularly when you’re under pressure of the clock (reach 10 minutes and you fail a grid) – suffering time penalties for no fault of your own is utterly frustrating. Likewise, the button control is used to flick between stylus modes – draw, ‘X-ing’ (marking out dead areas for reference, invaluable on larger grids), movement and zoom – but you’re needlessly denied the opportunity to use the face buttons on the game board itself. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect from a cheap knock-off title (of the ‘Professor Big Brain’s Make You Smart I.Q. Trainer DS Vol. 261’ ilk) than a Nintendo puzzler.

This shouldn’t put you off delving – the actual game of Picross is good enough – but there is far superior alternative available; namely, Hudson’s Illust Logic. It’s utterly brilliant, probably the best version yet on any format. It controls superbly, has an excellent difficulty curve, and let’s face it, who wouldn’t smile upon realisation their completed puzzle is actually Bomberman? It’s the version to get, if you dare dip your toe in the waters of Japanese importing. It’s straightforward enough to decode the menus even if your Kanji is, well, as non-existent as mine, and well worth the investment.

Also recommended:

FRONT MISSION

The squad-based strategy game seems perfectly suited to the portable format – Front Mission, a direct port (even using the same graphics) of the now-ancient SNES version of the ever-enduring series, is no exception. It’s certainly not for everyone. Difficult, unforgiving but ultimately rewarding, you’ve got to give a lot to Front Mission before you start to reap its substantial rewards. The devil here is in the details. Hours and hours of your playing time will be spent fiddling with your Wanzer (seriously), tweaking (ooh!), tightening (aah!) and rebuilding (…eh?) your bipedal battle platform before taking the fight to your enemy. It’s how you spend this time that will determine your success rate – disregard it at your peril. It sounds horribly wishy-washy, but I’m afraid this is a classic ‘if you like this sort of thing’ recommendation. If the idea of spending hours arranging various upgrades and machine-parts into the best possible, if still miniscule, stat bonus, failing after hours of battle only to head back to the garage and do it all over again, appeals to you in the slightest, Front Mission is most definitely for you.

ETRIAN ODYSSEY

Bloody hell, we’re moving into real oldie territory now. Etrian Odyssey is not a Very Good Game. It’s not even Good. It’s Damn Average. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth playing. Etrian Odyssey is an RPG that did not need to be made. The exact same game you get when you click Etrian Odyssey into your card slot could be played with a ream of graph paper, a couple of notebooks and a few hours cribbing from Games Workshop rulebooks. You see, while Etrian Odyssey has all the hallmarks of the RPG genre: Halberds, Beards, women in ridiculously impractical clothing, Beards, Beards and some Beards, it’s more concerned with exploration, specifically, the art of cartography. That’s what you’ll be doing – drawing map after map, one square at a time, plotting a route through a dungeon. Naturally, there are monsters to kill and a guild’s interests to promote; but your primary task is going to be making maps. It’s a glorious exercise in nostalgia to anyone weaned on game cassettes coming with foldout paper maps (remember those?). Just don’t expect much of the game it comes packaged with.

All featured games can be found through the standard channels, with varying degrees of availability. Ebay seems to be the buyers’ friend for Etrian Odyssey and Front Mission, with BuyItNow prices sitting pretty at around £7.95. Phoenix Wrigh: Ace Attorney, Justice For All and Trials and Tribulations are widely available, around £20-25 online but expect to pay just under that second hand. Picross DS and Puzzle League are similarly widespread, £18 each on Amazon but better deals can be found through simple browsing. Illust Logic DS + Colourful Logic (to give it it’s full title) is only available from Japanese importers (Play-Asia etc.) and should be about £30 including shipping. It’s a fantastic game and well worth it. Ouendan! (Ignore the Westernised ‘sequel’ Elite Beat Agents for now; it’s not a patch on the original) is incredibly import-friendly despite being entirely Japanese, and should cost about £20 all-in.