23 February 2007

Mario Slam Basketball

Finally, after a two months delay, it's out! So I've checked it out and like it very much so far: it's original, fast and beautiful. That's a good news since it has delivered me from a severe "Age of Kings" addiction ; the bad news being that's its just replacing an addiction with another ;)
After a little training, and a couple of hours, I've rather easily won the first three tournaments (though only the first one with the gold medal...) and am learning the special moves from my main players (My team is Donkey Kong - Luigi- Little Bowser). At the beginning, getting used to the different gestures and combinations for the right moves can be a little tricky, but then, with the slightest effort, it becomes rather natural and almost easy.
My only two gripes:
- Minor one : I sometimes lose sight of the ball because the camera wanders in the wrong direction...
- Major one : Why is there no Nintendo Wifi Connection mode? That's something that can be expected since Mario Kart DS, and it would have stretched the game's lifetime infinitely. The way things are, I will forget the game as soon as I have finished it and found something more challenging.
Anyway, for the time being, I like B-ball, I like Mario, so this game is for me.

15 February 2007

Age of Empires / Elite Beat Agents

Not much reading of late, I've been rather busy either working, either playing "Age of Empires" or "Elite Beat Agents" on my good ol'DS.

Ages of Empires on DS is not real-time as on PC, but a turn-based strategy game, which is a nice change. So far, I've only finished the Joan of Arc tutorial but I like it a lot. I wonder whether the AI of the computer players will develop throughout the missions or it it will just compensate with massive attacks that can be twarthed with a little common sense... We'll see...

Elite Beat Agents is very different from what I've played so far since it's a music and rythm-based game where you have to beat the touch screen in sync with the tune : it's very fun and addictive and like nothing I've seen so far.