Mini-Article: Touch screens, motion controls... What's next?

In 2004, Nintendo hit us with one of the biggest developments in gaming in years: Touchscreens. Two years later, we're really playing with power, using motion controls to do our bidding. But what control interface could possibly one-up this?

I've seen some ideas floating about, one of which is incredibly absurd, yet strangely interesting. This concept, called the Virtus Sphere, has the player running around in a giant hamster ball. No, really. A person dons a virtual reality visor, grabs a light gun, and hops in. Interesting, but incredibly impractical. I wouldn't want to have been a hamster-er, guinea pig on this one.

Hamster hamster hamster hamster

And then we have the prospect of taking the Wii remote and cutting out the middleman. In other words, no remote, and controlling the game with our hands. It sure sounds like a good idea. Just wave your hand to manipulate your environment. Close your fingers to grab something. Ball up your hand into a fist and make a punching motion to sock it to 'em. It all sounds good in theory, but then again, so did the Powerglove.

"I love the Powerglove. It's so bad." (Perhaps "bad" wasn't the best word to use...)

Of course, after that, we have the science fiction idea of controlling a game with one's mind. A little cybernetic implant here, some cranial modification there, and you instantly become the ultimate game controller. To take it a step further, the game could be displayed on a virtual reality visor, or even beamed directly to the player's optic nerve. Of course, this, like the above idea, has a couple of kinks in it. Firstly, if something happens while the player is in-game, they may not be able to react properly. House on fire? Sorry, can't help. Too busy grinding my level 70 Tauren.

The only step from here is a full-blown, straight-from-Star-Trek holodeck. In a holodeck such as the one from The Next Generation, the player actually enters the game, becoming part of a huge, fully-interactive holographic environment. Every projection reacts to the player as if it were a solid object, allowing for otherwise unmatched possibilities. The player could actually climb virtual stairs as if they were real, touch objects as if they were actually part of their world, and walk through a park as if it were a real place, feeling the virtual wind on their face. This is the ultimate level of player integration, but, again, it has it's downsides. If the power were to go out when the player is standing at a high elevation, they would plummet down and hit the real, solid floor. Not exactly safe. And then there's the matter of the program going haywire and hurting the user... It wouldn't be a pretty sight. And how impractical is devoting an entire room to a holodeck? Yipes.

Imagine playing Metroid Prime 3 in one of these babies.

As for now, I think we'll have to make do with what we have. Sure, the hamster ball and Powerglove-like interface have their perks, but the downsides overshadow them. Cybernetic implants and Holodecks are even more flawed, and even dangerous. So unless they think of some way to make this all safe and practical, we won't be seeing much of a departure from the Wii remote for quite some time to come.

Feel free to discuss this in the comment section, or in this forum thread.

The Duck Has Spoken.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village review

I went far too long without buying a new game, and just about as long without reviewing one. Luckily, I picked this up on Friday, killing two birds with one stone.


Developer: Level-5
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: February 10th, 2008
ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
ESRB Notes: Mild Violence

It's not every day that a new franchise emerges with brand-new content and characters, and it's even more rare that the release is worth a player's time. But this is not the case with Professor Layton and the Curious Village, the first entry in a new series by Level-5 (Developer of Dragon Quest VIII). Until recently a developer mainly for Sony platforms, Level-5 has made the jump to the Nintendo DS with the Professor Layton trilogy. And personally, I couldn't be happier.

The game begins with a beautifully animated cinematic showing Layton driving his car through the English countryside. He and his apprentice, Luke, are headed off to the village of St. Mystere. Layton has a hunch that an apparent inheritance dispute is really something far more important, and his intuition doesn't often steer him wrong.

Just what is this "Golden Apple" mentioned in the will?

Upon arrival at St. Mystere, Layton's hunch proves right, as a villager is murdered soon after. Furthermore, bizarre sounds are coming from the large (And somewhat bizarre looking) tower at the center of the town. St. Mystere is no ordinary village in the English countryside, that's for sure. As the story unfolds, Layton uncovers many a secret, and there are more than enough plot twists to satisfy even the most rabid M. Night Shyamalan fan, although most of these twists make sense and fit the story perfectly. Every twist serves a purpose other than to catch the player off guard. An excellently woven tale, with expertly written dialog tying it all together.

The villagers in town have a strange fascination with puzzles. To many of St. Mystere's inhabitants, a person isn't worth talking to if they can't solve a riddle. Puzzle solutions are almost like currency in this village, with almost every encounter with a villager leading to some strange and abstract conundrum which Layton must figure out. If players are having a particularly hard time solving a puzzle, they can use a Hint Coin in order to gain a small advantage. Each puzzle has three hints, each of which cost exactly one coin. The first hint is usually a little obvious, with the consecutive two being more and more helpful to the player. Don't go thinking you can buy the more useful hints first, though. Each must be purchased in order. We can't go making things too easy, now, can we?

These Hint Coins are hidden throughout the village of St. Mystere. When players see something suspicious, they can tap it with their stylus to check for Hint Coins, and sometimes even secret puzzles. But beware, as there are nowhere near enough Hint Coins to buy every hint for every puzzle. Players would be wise to save their coins for the real head-scratchers.

Successfully solving a puzzle earns the player Picarats, credits which don't have much use within the story mode, but can unlock bonus features accessible from the "Bonus" button at the main screen. Less Picarats are earned if the player answers a puzzle improperly, making it so players can't just input every possible answer until they get it right. Of course, they could just cheat and turn the DS off every time they get a wrong answer, but that really takes away from the satisfaction of solving a puzzle. Some puzzles can be solved with simple trial and error, and even luck on occasion. But would you really risk your prize on a hunch? It's really not worth answering unless the player is 100% sure that their answer is correct. It's either that, or lose precious Picarats.

Answer this puzzle carefully, or the 10 Picarat prize will dwindle...

If you're really stuck on a puzzle and you're all out of Hint Coins, no need to worry. Almost none of the puzzles in the game are absolutely mandatory, but players will sometimes need to have solved a certain amount in order to advance. For example, at one point it is required that you solve 75 puzzles before you can advance. If you can figure out the majority of them, you should be fine. Just make sure you solve all the easier ones!

However, some puzzles must be solved in order to continue the story. Sometimes you'll need to figure out an abstract riddle in order to open a door, obtain an item, or convince a villager to spill the beans on something. Since there's no way around these ones, it's a good idea to save up your hint coins for just such an occasion.

Sometimes, a puzzle may become unavailable due to the player having missed his or her opportunity. Fear not, for there is a way to play these puzzles later on. There is a special house in town where all missed puzzles go. If you find that you've let one get past you, you can always come to this little building and solve them on your own time. Nobody gets left behind!

The variety of these puzzles is amazing. One minute you may be sliding blocks to get a ball to a certain point, the next you could be using logic and abstract thinking to decode some sort of secret message. Of course, with so many puzzles, you're sure to come across one you've seen elsewhere (In books, on the internet, etc.). Think of these puzzles as freebies. It may feel like cheating to get one right off the bat, but believe me, you'll be thankful that you knew the answer. Players may need all the help they can get to succeed in this game.

Some puzzles may be as easy as just looking for the
matching shape, while others can get quite complex.

Of course, there is more to this game besides puzzles. It's just that puzzles make up a very large part of it! Players will also walk around town on foot, moving from screen to screen in search of clues, Hint Coins and, yes, puzzles. You may be thinking that all these puzzles seem unnatural and out of place, but believe me, it all makes sense in the end.

If there's one flaw with Professor Layton's gameplay, it's that the game is fairly linear. You're almost always told exactly what to do, and the top screen even reminds you of your next objective. You will occasionally have to do some hunting to figure out your next move, but for the most part, you're just going from point-to-point.

Players have a lot more on their plate than working their way through the villagers' puzzles. There are several integrated mini-objectives mixed in, such as collecting shredded pieces of a painting, building a strange gizmo, and furnishing Layton and Luke's rooms at the inn. Although I've only finished but one of these three side quests, I'm fairly sure that they all have some sort of reward at the end.

If there's one thing I absolutely love about this game, it's the amazingly well animated cinematics. I can't even describe how brilliant these cartoony segments are. So here, take a gander at the game's first English trailer:

As you can see, the art style is reminiscent of classic French cartoons such as Tin Tin. It's very smooth, and the picture quality on the Nintendo DS screen is far superior to that of a Youtube video. There's about ten solid minutes of animation in the game, all of it drawn beautifully. The amount of cinematics thins out a bit towards the middle of the game, but there's more than enough animated goodness at the end to make up for it. I find myself going back to watch some of my favourite scenes over and over again (The Ferris Wheel video being the most viewed, no doubt).

The art style of the cinematics carries over to the rest of the game, with each character bathed in an air of liveliness. The animations are smooth on the most part, with a few clunky bits here and there. Hey, nothing's perfect, but Layton sure does it's best.

Also, as you heard in the above trailer, the game's cinematics are all fully voiced, with some fairly talented actors giving more life to the already lifelike characters. The British accent on a few of the characters is a teeny bit shoddy, but thankfully Luke and Layton are quite believable. And the voices sync up with the animation fairly well, especially considering this was originally in Japanese.

The soundtrack is all very calming and suits the situations well. It has a very old English feel to it, and it meshes with the game's setting perfectly. Overall, the sound is quite well done.

The main storyline in Professor Layton took me about 13 hours to finish, so I guess the average play time will be somewhere between 10 and 15 hours. This is fairly impressive for a DS game, especially one with so many cinematics and lushly animated scenery.

However, although I have finished the story, I am not done the game. As I said above, I still have to complete two of the sidequests, and there are even more puzzles available via the Bonus button on the main screen. Furthermore, players can unlock new puzzles by connecting to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (The game says that you're downloading them, but really you're just getting a patch to unlock them). And finally, players may find themselves digging this one up when the next Layton game comes out. Using a secret code hidden in Professor Layton and the Devil's Box, players can access a feature called "The Secret Door". I've found out what this is by doing a bit of research, but I won't spoil it for you. Let's just say that those who appreciated the game's art style will like it.

SUMMARY

Storyline: 9.5/10
Plenty of twists keep the players guessing all throughout the adventure. The plot is very well written, and the character dialog is quite believable. Overall, a great story that every gamer needs to experience.

Gameplay: 9.1/10
The amount of variety in the puzzles is staggering, and even the most clever gamer is sure to get stuck on more than one occasion. However, the rest of the game is fairly linear, and walking back and forth can become somewhat tiring.

Graphics: 9.0/10
I am absolutely in love with this game's art style. Everything all feels so alive, and the cinematics are just breathtaking in their quality. The talking heads during conversations are a little disappointing compared to the lush animated sequences, but it's to be expected on a DS game.

Audio: 8.9/10
The fully-voiced characters add even more to the brilliance of the cinematics, even if the accents are a little shoddy at times. The music is nice and suiting, although not exactly memorable.

Longevity: 9.3/10
13 hours is quite respectable for a DS game, and Wi-Fi Connection puzzles add to it even more. Plus, players can unlock even more riddles on the bonus menu, adding unknown levels of replayability.

OVERALL: 9.4/10
Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a triumph of game development. The puzzles are challenging almost to the point of frustration, but the storyline kept me coming back for more. Animated cinematics are just the icing on this delicious cake of a game. Definitely a must-buy for puzzle lovers and DS owners looking for something refreshingly different. I can't wait for the next installment!

Discuss this article on the forums

The Duck Has Spoken.

Crappity crap crap crappity DAMMIT

Man, I was all pumped up to write a big article last night, and whaddya know, my 'net dies on me. This has been happening so often lately, I think it's about time I invested in a new modem...

And now, since I couldn't finish writing last night (I tried to write more in a Wordpad file, but my frustration sort of stymied the process), I have to write it now with freaking leaf blowers going off right outside my window. For the love of crap, aren't leaves supposed to rot? Just leave them be, dammit!

And if you really must mess with them, how about a little piece of technology called a rake? It's a really amazing invention, maybe I'll show ya how it works sometime!

...*Sigh*... Okay, enough ranting... I'll get to work on yesterday's article after I grab some breakfast...

The Duck Has Spoken.

Poll #36: "How many videogames do you own?" results, banner

"More than 200" 4 votes (14%)
"Between 150 and 200" 2 votes (7%)
"Between 100 and 149" 6 votes (21%)
"Between 50 and 99" 2 votes (7%)
"Between 0 and 49" 12 votes (42%)
"I'm not sure" 2 votes (7%)
"I don't have any videogames" 0 votes (0%)

I don't really have anything to say here, except that my collection now has 155 games in it. A review of the latest addition will be coming soon...

One could argue that this banner's a little late to the party, but dammit, Rabbids are timeless. Anyways, it's again a banner by your's truly (What happened to the reader submitted images?). I decided to mess around a bit with integrating the Rabbids into the text. I think it turned out pretty well, but I guess I'll leave the definitive judgment up to you guys.



As for this week's poll, the topic is "Which of the following Wii game ideas sounds best to you?". Personally, I'm still dreaming of a Luigi's Mansion 2...

New article will be up in a little while.

The Duck Has Spoken.

Mini-Article: Where's all the Mii support?

Tired tonight, thusly, a short article. Sorry 'bout that.



Back in 2006, Nintendo released the Wii, and with it came a multitude of features. One of the features most packed with potential would have to be the Mii Channel. With so many ways to shape your blank slate into a person, new and unique designs are always popping up left and right. You can even take your Miis into games such as Wii Sports and Wii Play and use them as your playable character.

But as I said in August, too few games take advantage of Miis as playable characters. Here we are, eight months later, and the number of titles using Miis in such a manner are still just about as scarce. Is there any excuse for this? Honestly, I think not.

First of all, Miis can be used by any developer when making a Wii game, regardless of whether they're first-, second- or third-party. This has been proven with Electronic Arts' FIFA 2008, which even included a famous soccer player made up in Mii style. So availability to the developer is not an issue.

Second, it's not as if the Miis wouldn't fit some of these art styles. Carnival Games had a fairly cartoony and whimsical look to it, but players still had to make their own characters from scratch when starting up a new file. The art was perfectly suitable to the Mii's animation style, so that isn't a problem in many cases either.

A Mii standing next to this guy would fit in just fine.

So really, most developers don't have much of an excuse for not using Miis. They're available to any Wii developer, they blend in with many of the simpler art styles, and (From my techno-tarded standpoint) they seem like they'd be fairly easy to implement in terms of coding. So unless it's a realistically-detailed game with graphics along the lines of Resident Evil 4, developers have little to no reason not to include Miis in their games.

What do you think of the absence of Miis in most games? Do you think it's justified, or do you think developers are just plain lazy sometimes? Have your say in the comment section, or in this forum thread.

The Duck Has Spoken.