Say what you will about the wasted potential of the Nintendo DSi platform and spotty third party releases, but May was pretty kind to DSi owners. While not all of Nintendo’s downloadable experiments were entirely successful – see Looksley’s Line Up, for instance – the uniform high quality was enough to make me forget the Game & Watch massive dump from April. However, I’m now left to wonder what exactly comes next. All of the DSiWare games announced at the 2010 Nintendo Summit are available, leaving us in the dark once again. It was nice of Nintendo to drum up a little excitement for once – at least for weirdos like you and I who pay attention to this stuff - but I guess we’ll have to see if E3 brings more goodies in a few weeks.
Anyway, on to my favorites from the past two weeks. Yeah, they’re mostly Nintendo games, but it’s often hard to avoid that. If you’re curious about a game or just want to raise awareness of a hidden gem, please leave a note in the comments.
Metal Torrent
DSiWare/Nintendo
500 Points
While I typically associate developer Arika with the Street Fighter EX and Endless Ocean series, the folks there apparently know how to craft a fun (but brief) shooter, too. Metal Torrent might be one of the most accessible bullet-hells ever; on the easy path, the ship can take several hits before breaking down, and even the harder path offers powerful weaponry and a forgiving hit box. However, even with the reasonable difficulty working in its favor, many will see Metal Torrent as light on content. Instead of stage variety and screen-filling bosses, Arika placed the emphasis entirely on maximizing chains and high scoring. Only pick it up if you live for online leaderboards. (If it were only 200 Points, it’d be a no-brainer for everyone else.)
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