Archives

Hidden Gems – Mario Golf World Tour

Genre:  Sports
Platform:  3DS

I don’t really like golf.  But I do seem to like golf video games for some reason.  You probably can’t really call any game with Mario in the title “hidden”, but this one was off my radar for a while.  I popped it in my 3DS one day before a several-hour flight and played for several hours.

The golf game itself is solid.  It’s not too challenging and is easy to learn.  There are subtleties which will make you a better player overall, but it’s not completely necessary to play the game well.  The act of driving the ball is fun and you get rewarding graphics and sounds when you make a solid hit.  Putting is a little tricky at first, but once you figure it out, you’re on your way to birdie after birdie.  You will have to contend with environmental factors such as wind and your typical golf hazards.

While Mario is on the cover (as usual), you can play with any of the major Nintendo characters.  I typically pick Luigi as he is always in Mario’s shadow and is a bit goofier than his famous brother.  And I like green.  (Have you ever noticed that it’s the Mario brothers, indicating Mario is their last name?  So are they Mario Mario and Luigi Mario?)  There are many different courses to play on and they increase in difficulty.

As you play through, you earn coins which you can spend in the pro-shop for better items such as clubs.  Mario golf has been around since the NES days with a game simply titled “Golf”.  He’s come a long way and has improved dramatically.  If you like golf games, check this one out.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Hidden Gems – Alice: The Madness Returns

Genre:  Platformer
Platform:  XBox 360

This game probably can’t be considered “hidden” anymore, but I happened to stumble upon it by accident on Gamefly.  I didn’t know what to expect, but I was quite pleasantly surprised as to the quality of this one.

You play as Alice as she returns to Wonderland.  However, this isn’t your mother’s Wonderland.  Things have taken a dystopian turn for the worse.  There’s a lot of blood and gore here, so it’s definitely not for the kiddos.  This game is a platformer, so you’re making your way through the world trying to get to the next point to update the story.  I did find the story engaging as well.  I have to admit that I didn’t end up finishing it, though.  It’s on my Amazon wish list as I would like to get it and finish it out.

The levels are original and fun.  It has many of the typical platforming elements – bouncy things, moving platforms and targets, minions abound, secret things to find, boss battles and so much more.  The graphics are decent, but maybe not as crisp as they could be.  The soundtrack added to the game and gave it a creepy vibe.  Many of your favorite Wonderland characters are here as well, but certainly not as you might remember them.

This game reminded me a bit of American McGee’s Alice, which was a popular PC game in the 2000’s.  It was a bit of a cult hit and was also very dystopian.  I would recommend playing that one, too, although the graphics are very outdated at this point.

Anyway, if you haven’t played this one and it sounds like something you would like, check it out!  You’re probably looking at 20 hours to play through tops.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Hidden Gems – Puzzler World

Genre:  Puzzle/Word
Platform:  Nintendo DS

This game was close to making my top 25, but I felt I had enough puzzle games there.  This entry on the Nintendo DS is a collection of many different types of puzzles including hangman, picture puzzles, crosswords, word searches, sudoku and many more!  There were actually four games in this series, and they may not be done.  Any one of them is great and they each add or remove something from a previous game.  There was one released for the Nintendo DS, two for the 3DS and one downloadable for the 3DS.

It all started on the DS, however, so that’s where I’ll start, too.  I have spent many, many hours on this game.  It’s great for quick bursts of puzzling fun.  The later levels will start to take longer to solve.  Toward the end, it was taking me 20+ minutes for some of the more detailed puzzles.  The stylus, as usual, is perfect for puzzle games like this.  The crosswords are handled well as you can write the letters on the screen and it is able to detect them.  It may take a bit of tweaking in the settings for it to recognize certain letters, but once it’s dialed in, it’s near-perfect.

The variety of games is nice and will keep your brain occupied.  They are a great mix of logic puzzles and word games.  You don’t have to play any that you don’t want to, which is nice.  Many games only unlock games as you play, but this one lets you have full reign.  There are also challenge modes in some versions, where the puzzles are a bit harder.  My favorite are the word searches (I’m just a sucker for them) and the link-a-pix, which is the ambulance picture above.

You may not have heard of the series, but it’s a must if you like puzzle games as much as I do!

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Hidden Gems – Cartoon Conductor

Genre:  Rhythm
Platform:  Nintendo DS

A lot of Nintendo DS games are making my hidden gems list.  It is a great platform and the use of the touch screen and stylus make for some unique games.  I can’t really say that Looney Tunes Cartoon Conductor is unique as it uses the same game play mechanics as another very good game, Elite Beat Agents.  Elite Beat Agents actually wasn’t unique, either, as it is an American version of the Japanese release, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan .

None of that really matters, though.  Cartoon Conductor combines the great game play of those two games with the silliness of the Looney Tunes.  As you work through the songs, you’ll be treated to funny cut scenes of some of the more famous Looney Tunes cartoons.  Who can forget “Kill the Wabbit?”  All of your favorite characters are here – Foghorn Leghorn, Tweety and Sylvester, Speedy Gonzales, Bugs and Elmer and the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote.  The soundtrack is also great, but it’s all classical music.  I happen to like that, but if it’s not your thing, you may not enjoy this game.

There are different difficulties.  In this type of rhythm game, you tap and drag your stylus with the music to match what is on the screen.  It isn’t always intuitive, though, so it can get a bit frustrating.  The graphics also aren’t great and I think it would have been better if they had used the actual cartoons instead of an attempt at 3D.  Despite this, though, I would recommend playing it at least once.  Not everyone is going to love it, but I found it entertaining.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Hidden Gems – Pinball Quest

Genre:  Arcade/Pinball
Platform:  NES

My parents bought this game for me for Christmas one year.  I loved every new game that I got, but I really loved this one.  It wasn’t until much later that I realized how unique this game was.  Since this is my second post about a pinball game, you could assume, correctly, that I really like pinball.  I’d love to have my own real table one day.

Anyway, this game has three traditional tables – Pop!  Pop!, bowling/pool table; Viva! Golf, a golf table; and Circus, a circus-themed table.  Each had unique elements to them and had some bonus games, which was rare for the time.  All three were very fun and I spent plenty of time on each.

This game really became unique when you played in RPG mode.  This took you to a table that was really a story mode.  When you hit certain characters, text boxes would pop up.  As you played through, you went to new and more difficult tables.  It was a very unique way to present a pinball game and I’ve rarely heard anyone talk about this one.  This is why it’s a hidden gem.  Check it out if you can!

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Hidden Gems – Pic Pic for the DS

PicPicNintendoDS698_f

Genre:  Puzzle
Platform:  Nintendo DS

I only first learned about Pic Pic about a year ago while looking for good Picross games.  This is not a picross game, but a collection of three different puzzle game modes.  It’s got a whopping 400 puzzles for each mode, so you’ll be busy for a while.  This game kept me enthralled for hours and hours and I’m sure I’ll play it more in the future.

The first game mode is Maze Paint.  In this mode, you complete a maze to draw a picture.  The modes all start easy and get harder as you go.  This was a fun mode to play, especially once I got to the later modes.

Pic Pic Maze

The second mode is Drawing.  I had played this type of game before and really enjoyed it.  You paint a picture by drawing lines between two numbers.  The number tells you how many squares that line will use.  It can get challenging, but it is rewarding when you finally figure out that section you’ve been working on for five minutes.

Pic Pic Link-a-Pix

The final mode is my favorite, Magipic.  You are given a set of numbers telling you how many squares around it are filled in.  This creates a picture.  It was also the hardest of the modes and had the steepest learning curve.  However, it’s very rewarding once you “get it”.

Pic Pic Magic Number

This game is really hard to find.  I got mine off of Ebay for around $30, but it’s tough to find now.  It’s a Europe- or Japan-only game and was never released in the US.  Fortunately, the Nintendo DS is not region locked (but the 3DS is), meaning you can play any game from any region on any device.  The 3DS can play any region’s DS game, just not 3DS games.  If you can find it and like puzzle games, I strongly recommend it.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Hidden Gems – 999 for the Nintendo DS

Platform:  Nintendo DS
Genre: Adventure/Visual Novel

999: Nine Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors was a surprisingly good game that I picked up at a Gamestop years ago while on the road for work.  I had never heard of it, but the covers looked interesting enough.  I don’t think I slept much the first night I started playing it because it sucked me in.

In this game, you play as a young Japanese man who suddenly awakens to find himself in a room on a ship.  He has no idea how he got there and it’s your job to help him figure out what is going on.  Once you find your way out of your room, you find that there are 8 other people in the same situation.  Your goal is to find a way off the ship.

This game is similar in concept to that of the movie Saw, but it’s not gory or even scary. However, I still wouldn’t let the little ones play it (12 or under maybe?). There are tense moments and it also feels like a whodunnit at times.  This game has EXCELLENT writing and some may call it a visual novel.  This was my intro to such games and I was blown away.

The decisions you make throughout the game greatly affect the ending.  In fact, there are 9 different endings, so replay-ability is very high.  I have discovered 3 of the endings thus far.  Nintendo DS games are starting to get pricey, but if you can find this one on the cheap, check it out!

0 CommentsLeave a comment