Sure, there have been some developers that toyed with the idea along the way. The Paper Mario series often features pipes that bring you to hidden items in the background, and Donkey Kong Country Returns features some dynamic set pieces that make frequent use of the temples and trees in the distance. Last year’s Shantae sequel for the DSi and iOS also springs to mind, though the layered levels are too confusing for their own good. I’m sure that you, the reader, can rattle off a few examples as well. However, to see Mutant Mudds in motion is a thing of beauty, and that’s largely because of the way it uses the 3D display and alternating planes.

Mutant Mudds confirms what I’ve often suspected, that 2D, sprite-based games often look better in 3D that their polygonal counterparts. Your own eyes might see otherwise, but you’d have to admit that the graphics really pop here. When swinging spiked balls or hammers are set to attack, the appear to fly out of the screen in a way that is very striking and immediate. While Mario Kart 7  or Pushmo go for subtlety, Mutant Mudd embraces its gimmick with all of the tricks that VB Wario Land and many of its crimson peers used years ago.

What really makes everything come together though are the three layers of of each level. From designated jump pads, the player can leap into the foreground or deep into the background, becoming “bigger” or “smaller” based on the virtual proximity to the screen. All of these layers move with parallel scrolling, giving an amazing sense of depth with 3D turned on or off. There’s a richness here that has yet to be matched, and it makes me excited for the future possibilities.

We already know that a new 2D Super Mario game is on the way, and I’m assuming that this game will use 3D in a similar fashion. In fact, with the Vita set to dominate the fancy graphics space, I’m hoping that we see a return to the sidescrolling wonderment that we had on the original DS, only souped up with better resolution and some of the effects we see on display here. Hopefully, Mutant Mudds is just the beginning. Whether this is the start of something more or just a single great game that fades into obscurity, I ultimately appreciate Renegade Kid’s nods to the past in the form of “VB Land,” a series of deep-red levels that aren’t nearly as blinding as the technology that inspired them. Still, it’s nice to know that I wasn’t the only one who remembers Wario’s lost chapter.

As the title implies, pushing walls in is a major element of Pushmo, but just as important is pulling them out. Each levels starts off with a flat surface, and the challenge lies in figuring out which colored segments to move in what order, keeping in mind that there are three different planes along which you can move. Early on, this push/pull technique is used to make basic stepping stones leading to the goal (and a random living puffball in need of your aid). It’s fun, but you’ve seen similar block puzzles in games like Catherine and Cuboid, among many others. However, as the puzzles get taller and wider, the stakes become much greater as well. A handy rewind feature ensures that Pushmo is never too frustrating, but you’ll need to be patient and methodical when climbing up a multi-screen Christmas tree.

Though developer Intelligent Systems definitely had a “right way” in mind when creating this game’s puzzles, I was happy that the more expansive levels feature multiple paths to victory. Pushmo is not so rigid that you can’t experiment with different solutions, and because you’re hopping from platform to platform as you would in a standard platformer, you can sometimes finagle your way out of certain traps. That said, when the game introduces switches and manholes, the difficulty quickly spikes. Four-star challenges and beyond are brutal, but conquering them is incredibly rewarding.

Though the game would work just find on the regular ol’ DSi, Pushmo puts the 3D effect to good use by making it easier to differentiate the depth of each part of the wall. Coupled with the game’s very bold colors, it’s much more of a looker than the screenshots scattered throughout this  review suggest. The color palette’s richness greatly benefits the create-a-level portion of the game,  which gives you all of the tools you need to bring your totally appropriate creative vision to pixelated life. It’s too bad that this doesn’t support StreetPass, but overall, Pushmo continues Nintendo’s trend of pushing user-made content.

Maybe that’s how this game will build momentum. Or maybe Pushmo just needs strong word of mouth. Either way, this is the game that the eShop has been waiting for, something around which to rally 3DS owners that have dismissed the service up until now. It’s not the first Nintendo downloadable game worth owning or even necessarily the best, but it’s an absolute crowd-pleaser and one that I hope is destined for  moderate success.

If you’ve listened to some of our more recent episodes, you may have heard about our holiday season video game fantasy draft. At the beginning of last week’s show, some of our Podcast Nation chums joined us in officially selecting from a pool of upcoming blockbusters. Standings will be based on an algorithm devised by Kaz that takes into account each game’s Metacritic score and the number of reviewers.

The notion may be silly, but the stakes could not be higher. The winner will officially be declared “World’s Best Person,” a title indisputable under any circumstances. Our picks are displayed below, and we’ll be updating from time to time so you can follow the rankings along with ourselves.

Game on!

Official Standings (as of 12/14)

Score Breakdown:

Instead, Wizorb’s fresh air comes from the fact that every aspect has been crafted to fulfill the purest classic gameplay experience possible. Here is the naked art of the arcade game elevated to the highest level – the challenge of a player’s skills in an arena of singing equations and mathematical variables masked behind attractive, colorful pixels.

As soon as the title screen boots, the graphics immediately dazzle. Rendered completely in an 8-bit style with an enhanced 128 color palette, the game looks like the most rose-tinted memories of childhood NES games. Surfaces shimmer, animations run fluidly and never look blocky, and effects always resolve in an engaging way using fades and extra frames instead of simply disappearing. Jonathan Lavigne, also responsible for the look of last year’s Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game, utilizes every last pixel to conjure memories of wood-paneled dens or basements where gamers once worshipped at the humble grey altar of the NES.

The richness of the experience is in a large part due to the myriad of tiny details that enhance the menu and game design. It’s one of the rare games that proclaims “Press Start to Play” on the title screen and honestly means it; a callback to a time when “Start” and “Fire” might be the only two buttons available. This philosophy extends to every element of the game’s design: highlighted text shimmers attractively, the ball ricochets off hard surfaces with a satisfying digital “ting!”, the paddle itself bounces back from the impact of the ball and the controller emits a faint, pleasing rumble. As it bounces around the stage vaporizing blocks and smashing stones, crates and bushes, the ball is imbued with an artificial heft that embodies each loss with a palpable impact. The portrait of the eponymous ‘Wiz’ (in true retro fashion, only identified with a proper name in the short text scene following completion of the game) in the upper right corner of the screen imitates the same disappointed, eyes-clenched “ooohhhh” face instinctively made by the player and observing audience as the ball sails past the paddle into the abyss below. The small staff at Tribute Games has tapped into the most primal language of what makes this style of game satisfying and weaves it all together into a satisfying tapestry.

Each addition to the Breakout formula serves a distinct purpose to make the game more fun and avoid the previous failings of the genre. For example: we all know getting the power-up that lets you shoot lasers in Arkanoid is awesome. Everyone also knows the feeling of defeat that comes with a bungled death resulting in the loss of the laser power-up. Much like losing the remote bombs in Bomberman or the spread gun in Contra, it makes playing the “regular” game again a chore. Instead of relegating useful gameplay modifications to temporary power-ups, Wizorb always grants access to an arsenal of magic abilities. One shoots a fireball to destroy that last pesky brick; another allows temporary control or teleportation of the ball to a specific zone on the board. Each ability takes a percentage of the magic bar depending on how useful it is, but collecting potions or bouncing the ball a certain number of times without hitting anything will refill the meter. Because of this simple inclusion, a player never finds themselves in a situation that feels unwinnable. Difficult perhaps, but never completely hopeless.

Other additions include falling gold coins and gems that can be stockpiled and used to buy temporary bonuses such as a longer paddle or multiple balls at shops scattered through each world. Or, if you prefer, you can funnel your gold stash into a destroyed village to slowly rebuild each building and earn rewards from the grateful residents. Treasure chests hold either keys to locked doors where bonus rounds await or terrible curses that temporarily cripple your paddle if mistakenly collected. Each world is capped with a boss battle that, while never quite as challenging as the regular levels, will add a little twist to accompany the beautifully-animated extra-large boss sprites. Once again, the love put into the graphics is inspiring – each boss has a unique death animation that makes getting that final hit so much more satisfying. My favorite: a muscle-bound werewolf howls in defeat and turns into a regular, confused-looking puppy… then explodes.

Finally, extra lives are imbued with a value not seen since the earliest days of the arcade. The loss of each ball is inevitable – every bounce on the screen adds a little bit of speed and unpredictability that will eventually overwhelm you. The little tune that plays when you catch a falling 1-up heart becomes the sweetest possible melody. There is a reason every gamer can recognize the 1-up sound effect from Super Mario Brothers: it used to actually represent something. It’s a vestigial relic from a time where an extra “x1” at the top of the screen represented a little more value out of each quarter dropped in the slot, a little more time you’d be allowed to spend in a new and exciting digital world. Where so many other games reward you with extra lives to the point where they become utterly meaningless (see every post-SMB3 Nintendo game), Wizorb never failed to send me scrambling as soon as those hearts appeared.

You might be tempted to put this game on the back burner due to the upcoming deluge of big name sequels, promising to save your purchase for leaner times to come. Believe me, I’m just as excited to dive head first into upcoming holiday blockbusters. But perhaps the release window of Wizorb is an advantage. In our current age of obsessive unlockables, achievements, and stat tracking, it’s lovely to play a game simply for the unfettered joy of the experience. To attain a high score not just to topple a friend on a leaderboard or Facebook, but to enjoy the feeling of your skills improving, becoming a little bit faster with every play.

Your mileage may vary depending on which era you first picked up a controller, but playing Wizorb reminded me why I love the medium so much in the first place. Instead of undermining its big-budget brethren or sparking a yearning for a simpler time, it made me think about the “why” and “how” of game design and the common language we all speak as gamers. We’ve come a long way since the first digital paddle hit the first digital ball, but the resulting echo is still resonating through the ages.

Release Date: September 28, 2011

Developer: Tribute Games

Price: 240 Microsoft Points ($3.00)

Buy Now: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Wizorb/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550981

Most players could easily rattle off a list of famous gunslingers who would fit perfectly in the gritty world the game presents: Jeremiah Johnson, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Grizzly Adams, Wild Bill, anyone Clint Eastwood has ever played; the list goes on.  But why stop there? If Rockstar itself is already throwing zombies in the mix, let’s pull out all the stops and consider any character who ever made his home on the range as potential DLC fodder. Here’s my own personal ‘most-wanted’ list of outlaws, banditos, cowboys and quick drawers.

10.  Brisco County Jr. (from the “Brisco County Jr.” television series)

Long before Carlton Cuse became a Comic-Con staple as the executive producer of “LOST” with Damon Lindelof, he was already immortalizing himself to nerds everywhere by co-creating a sci-fi western starring Bruce Campbell. Running for 27 episodes in the early 90s, the series was a loopy mixture of classic western, slapstick comedy and science fiction mysteries involving ghosts, time travel, rocket cars and a mysterious orb. Much like anything ever graced by Bruce Campbell’s chin, the series is a cult hit full of memorable characters and self-aware gags – the pilot alone somehow pulls off the classic Wile E. Coyote ‘landscape painted on a brick wall on the train tracks’ goof with a straight face – that tells an engaging story without taking itself too seriously. I’m already of the mind that Bruce Campbell improves anything (movies, television series, soup) with his presence, so why should a video game be any different?

9.  Doc Brown (from “Back to the Future III”)

Speaking of sci-fi and westerns, what could be better than adding Dr. Emmett Brown and the rest of the 1885-era “Back to the Future III” cast to Red Dead Redemption? For all of Christopher Lloyd’s poor acting choices afterward (“My Favorite Martian” and the Sundance Film Festival favorite “Camp Nowhere” spring to mind), the character of Doc Brown has enough charisma to forgive any future transgressions. Think of the possibilities: a new all-acoustic soundtrack of ZZ Top/Huey Lewis covers, hovering steam trains equipped with flux capacitors, shootouts with Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen, winning the heart of Clara Clayton and all the manure carts you can handle. Although usually known as “the ‘Back to the Future’ movie everyone likes the least but is somehow on TV the most,” the third entry has a lot of redeeming qualities.

If there was a jail for nerds in the future and you had J-U-L-E-S and V-E-R-N-E tattooed on your fists, introducing people to them would certainly get you a lot of cred.

8.  Woody (from “Toy Story”)

You didn’t think these would all be real flesh-and-blood cowboys, did you? If this choice offends you, I suggest you go no further, gentle reader; what lies ahead is sure to make you groan. Back to our favorite plastic deputy – if you saw “Toy Story 3″ this summer and didn’t have your goddamn heart warmed to capacity you are a monster, plain and simple. Woody’s diminutive size could be troublesome for incorporating into the game, so using the latest in computer technology, I’ve prepared a picture of what a life-size Woody would look like.

The soothing voice of Tom Hanks and the plump body of present-day Tim Allen?  All my dreams have come true.

Other features of the “Woody’s Roundup” DLC pack include: all in-game music replaced with Randy Newman narrating your character’s actions to a bouncy piano and clarinet tune, new ridable mount Bullseye, Etch-a-Sketch shootout mode and a brand-new villain – it’s Six Shooter from “Puppetmaster III!”

Not quite as good as “Retro Puppetmaster,” but hey man, the remote is all the way over there and there’s probably nothing better on anyway.

7.  Wylie Burp (from “An American Tail: Fievel Goes West”)

Voiced by James Stewart in his final role, Wylie Burp is a legendary soldier who went on to fight as a member of The Boss’s elite Cobra Unit in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. During the events of “Fievel Goes West,” he oversees numerous training montages and offers helpful quotes like the following that sound like someone filled in the word “dog” for every noun and verb in a mad-lib: “I’m tired of leading a dog’s life and fightin’ like cats and dogs against cats and dogs. A young pup’s doggin’ my trail tryin’ to become top dog. I’m going to the dogs in a dog eat dog world, son.” He’s mostly known for ridding the west of something called the Cactus Cat Gang and helping Fievel prevent the insidious ‘mouseburgers*’ plot. *Not to be confused with the rodent social disorder of the same name.

“I’ve been doggin’ a dog ’til the dogs come home tryin’ to dog my dog-eared pup copy of Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch. Also, dogs.” -Wylie Burp

6. The Stranger (from “The Big Lebowski”)

Giving a narrative bookend for The Dude’s adventures, The Stranger (played by Sam Elliott’s mustache) would be a perfect addition to the world of Red Dead Redemption. Downloading his DLC adds narration to the beginning and end of John Marston’s story, an opportunity to drink White Russians with The Stranger in any saloon, roving gangs of nihilists to battle and a special “Bar Eats You/You Eat Bar” all-or-nothing hunting mode. He also pops up in the corner of the screen, à la Dan “Toasty” Forden, to issue a gentle complaint any time a character cusses. (This feature cannot be disabled.)

The greatest mustache on film.

5.  Mr. Benjamin Ernst and his son, Buddy (from “Hey Dude”)

Mr. Ernst is a good-natured but somewhat bumbling… shit, I can’t do this. I wanted to somehow include a reference to old-school Nickelodeon in here because it’s kind of my forté, but there’s no good way to shoehorn this in because I never could sit through a full episode of this show. Here is everything anyone ever needs to know about “Hey Dude”:

1) It was on immediately after “Salute Your Shorts,” meaning sometimes you’d get tricked into watching it or at least hearing the opening theme.
2) Sometimes the TV Guide would say “Salute Your Shorts” was going to be on and you’d wait around for it, but then it would end up being a goddamn episode of “Hey Dude” instead.
3) Something about killer cacti.
4) If an actor ever appeared on one show like this and then nothing else, someone will claim to have scored pot from them recently on the actor’s IMDB message board. There will also be a topic thread titled “Still alive???”

Yippie kai yai WHAT?

4.  Twinkie the Kid/ Marlboro Man/The Frito Bandito (from various advertisements)

At first I was just going to include Twinkie the Kid, but I figured he needed some back-up from other western-inspired heavy hitters in the advertising industry. According to his entry in “Tobin’s Spirit Guide”: “Twinkie the Kid is an anthropomorphized Twinkie appearing as awrangler. He wears boots, gloves, a kerchief and a ten-gallon hat.” Apparently, he has a friend named Fruit Pie the Magician, but the less said about him, the better. Downloading this DLC spawns billboards all across the landscapes of America and Mexico, unlocks decals of corporate logos for your horse, turns all native flora into cigarette bushes and fauna into roaming cupcakes and zingers, and adds special town vendors who aggressively market Hostess, Marlboro and Frito-Lay products. This same DLC is included as a free mandatory update with all new copies of Alan Wake.

The Magnificent Three.

3. Jim West and Artemus Gordon (from “Wild Wild West”)

There is something you need to know about me: the only song I know all the lyrics to is Will Smith’s eponymous “Wild Wild West” – but I have a damn good excuse. You may remember this classic mash-up of Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish” and Kool Moe Dee’s “Wild Wild West” from 1988. Other than adding a few whip crack effects and the dulcet tones of Dru Hill and Sisqo, Will Smith also managed to personally see to it that a cassette tape of the single for the song became permanently lodged in the tape player of the first car I ever owned, a 1995 Ford Windstar. No matter what techniques I tried or Faustian bargains I entered, the cassette would not disentangle itself from my tape deck, but don’t worry – it played perfectly fine and could self-rewind. Rather than risk breaking the deck or bother taking it apart, driving my car became equivalent to entering a world where time and space lost all meaning. Metric distance no longer had any information to offer me – all distances between locations were measured by the number of times I could listen to Wild Wild West. Need to get from school to the Taco Bell down the street?  No problem, that’s only 1.4 WWWs. Want to take a road trip to Canada? I hope you like glimpsing at eternity four minutes and seven seconds at a time, chief.

Up to sundown, roamin’ around, see where the bad guys are to be found ‘n make ‘em lay down.

But anyway…oh yeah, Jim West and Artemus Gordon. They could have gadgets and shit, or the whole mode could just be speed-running the game trying to stay one step ahead of the saw blade zooming after the magnetic collar on your neck. Also the big steam-powered spider and inexplicable robot man who works the bellows (I’m serious – what the fuck? Was that guy really supposed to be a robot or what?) of it that Will Smith fights in the movie could be included.

2.  The Three Amigos (from “The Three Amigos”)

Initially, it was a really tough decision whether to include characters from “The Three Amigos,” “City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly’s Gold,” or “Wagons East!” (AKA the film that killed John Candy). This is probably the only time in history that the words in the previous sentence will ever fall together in that particular order – savor it while you can!  What eventually won me over, in much the same way that the opera scene in Final Fantasy VI inevitably places it a few notches higher on “Best of” lists than the other games in the series, was remembering the scene where Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and Martin Short gather around a fire at dusk and sing “Blue Shadows” on the world’s most purposely fake set. By the end of the song, it’s a ridiculous pastiche of the classic western prairie – coyotes, owls and bobcats are tossed onto the set, stars are streaking across the sky, horses are inexplicably singing and there’s a talking turtle, to boot. It also credits Randy Newman as a singing bush. Let’s see Billy Crystal compete with that!

Back to the Red Dead Redemption universe…teaming up as one of the three amigos for co-op missions specifically made for three players would be pretty amazing.  You could pretty much replace the entire middle part of the game with the “El Guapo” plot from the movie and I don’t think anyone would notice.

1.  Cowboy Curtis (from “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse”)

Do I even need to say anything? This is an incredible character. Let’s look at the evidence:

1) Cowboy Curtis is the owner of the finest jheri curl mullet I have ever had the privilege of viewing.
2) His lasso is made of rotoscoping magic and is thought to be a powerful artifact stolen from a mighty wizard king.
3) You would think Laurence Fishburne would look back on his Cowboy Curtis days as silly or with a little bit of regret after rebranding himself with the Matrix series. You would be dead wrong. Fishburne gave his blessing for another actor to portray Cowboy Curtis if “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse” returned to the stage or as a TV show, but says if another movie is made he will once again proudly don the mantle of Cowboy Curtis. Incredible.
4) His best friends include a genie and a king.

5) If you do a Google image search for “Cowboy Curtis,” the vast majority of results return this picture – a candid shot taken immediately after Cowboy Curtis created the heavens and earth, posing as if it were no big deal.

Horses With No Name

The following characters were considered, but ultimately didn’t make the cut for the Top 10 for pretty obvious reasons:

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
Punch & Judy (from “Big Shot” on “Cowboy Bebop”)
Flint (from Mother 3)
Mad Dog McCree (from The World’s Best Arcade Game)
Otis, the owner of the Dude Ranch that they go to on that one episode of “Malcolm In The Middle”
BraveStarr (Look it up, I dare you!)
Cowboys of Moo Mesa (Hahaha, this is too much fun.)
TinStar (Okay, I’m done, I’m done.)

Time to hit the trail. See ya next time!

For those of you bombarded with updates about how many times my Sim has gone to the bathroom today (apologies!), it might be tough to see the appeal. These games are traditionally less interactive and more compulsive than typical console fare, and there’s no shortage out there of uninspired puzzlers with popular licenses attached. But I’d argue that just being able to access some part of your game from the office or morning commute is a powerful motivator, and a recent batch of franchise tie-ins actually seem thematically appropriate and ambitious.

Below are just a handful of social media games that get the small stuff right, beyond just unlockable extras:

Assassin’s Creed: Project Legacy – I remember this being one of the first Facebook games to make waves in my circles, and it’s not hard to understand why once you’ve played through a few chapters. As an Abstergo recruit, you inhabit the memories of various assassins, whose stories are told mostly through text. The individual plot lines don’t have much of an impact, but getting to use your own version of the Animus operating system is a neat visual hook. Even though the game is mostly text-driven, you have a number of gameplay options – combat against friends, territories to buy, items to craft, and more. You’re unfortunately limited to so many units of usable energy per day, but players who can deal with the frequent cool-down periods will be able to tweak their own assassins from Brotherhood, a nice perk.

Dragon Age Legends – Admittedly, I haven’t spent as much time with this game as some of the others I’ve touched upon lately. Tom and Kaz’s apathy towards Dragon Age II, as well as my general dislike of high fantasy, ensure that I was never going to stick with this for long. However, as the “first real game on Facebook,” Legends also enjoys high production values, a deep turn-based battle system and a world that feels in keeping with the overall series. I may not like how EA monetized this project, but it’s still another slice of role playing for fans on a more manageable scale.

Global Resistance – My favorite of the bunch (and the inspiration for this article), GR is global, online Risk with Chimera and sci-fi trappings on the board. There are tons of achievements to unlock (with rewards transferable to Resistance 3), but more importantly, there’s a persistent battle online with an active community, and after some amount of play, you can amass enough troops to feel like you’re turning the tide of war. The presentation evokes more of that mid-20th-century wartime aesthetic, and everything just feels really well thought out.

Of course, there are definitely games that I’m missing. (A number of you pointed out the Madden 12 Facebook card game as quality stuff.) But I think the picks above are representative of a general shift in attitude towards these games. Each one of them has attracted hundreds of thousands of players, definitive proof that “real” gamers won’t automatically dismiss social media extensions of their favorites. And with this shift, I think we can look to a future in which developers take these games much further.

Assassin’s Creed: Project Legacy lets you take contracts for your assassins and earn a couple capes, but there’s a huge real estate component to those games that’s just waiting for a PC interface. Dragon Age Legends is a fun side story, but what if your Facebook characters could be weaved in and out of the main storyline? And as for Global Resistance, I could totally see territorial influence on the global map having some influence on team skirmishes in Resistance 3. I think you can run the risk of putting to much emphasis on these outside experiences, but as long as Facebook and browser games (and hell, iOS/handheld stuff too) are an option to enhance the main experience rather than something forced upon players, I don’t see why multiple styles of play can’t coexist.

In other words, no offense taken if you need to take me off of your social media news feed in the near future.

The Sims Social throws out many of the series’ conventions in order to make it work within a browser. Job trees have been reduced to in-home art projects, the town has been reduced to a single “street” of friends and managing a Sim’s needs is no longer the give-and-take tedium it once was. In order to make the experience more manageable for the casual set, energy limits have been put in place so that you’re only doing menial tasks for 15 minutes at a time – Animal Crossing comparisons aren’t too far off. However, while I’m totally in favor of making the experience more approachable, all of the little tweaks mean that suddenly this take on The Sims has lost its creative spark. Social has been reduced to a game of keeping up with the Joneses.

One of the many joys of The Sims 3 was how such a seemingly mundane setting could produce some of the most outlandish stories I’ve encountered in gaming. My time as head of the “Hemanway” household was the very definition of emergent gameplay. One day, Fred Hemanway was a paunchy young go-getter with the potential to become a famous astronaut. The next, he was suddenly an octogenarian writer with an evil wife plotting his demise. I realized that I had fallen in love with the game around the time I had his daughter, Gertrude, get a part-time, afterschool job at the cemetery so she could track down Fred’s ghost. My virtual Walter White in The Sims Social can do none of this. All he can do is get on the writing or painting treadmill and make enough money to buy the best furniture. In some ways, that’s even more addicting for this collecting fiend, but the whole experience feels hollow.

The Social element is the game’s most distinguishing feature, but even that is mired in the spammy tactics found in some of Facebook’s most exploitative games. You can share items with friends, help them build additions to their homes, interact with them socially and more, which definitely creates an interesting cooperative/competitive dynamic. (For instance, I’m willing to help Tom build an addition to his house, but only because the cheese he offered me in exchange will help me surpass everyone’s cooking abilities.) But while I like seeing all of my friends’ homes and befriending their Sims, constant notifications beg you to share every little milestone on your feed. Worse yet, The Sims Social basically requires you to reach out to your friends like this in order to meet quest requirements, with buying your way out of these quests as the only other option. (These fees, as well as those for premium furniture, are exorbitant, but in the game’s defense, I’ve had plenty of fun without spending a dime.)

I’ve been playing The Sims Social for about two weeks now, and I’d be lying if I said that it hadn’t become a compulsion to see how Walter White is doing every time I turn on the computer. But it’s interesting to me how this is The Sims game I always thought I wanted, and yet the results are not nearly as satisfying as I had anticipated. Stress may have eventually driven me away from the franchise, but at least I had some memories to look back on. Without that stress, The Sims Social basically becomes an interactive furniture catalog.

I’ve taken a lot of requests of things to check out and I’m going to spend all Saturday playing those games and talking to the developers if at all possible and that’s it. It’s far too easy to make your PAX a blur and miss out on enjoying anything in favor of trying to see everything. I’ll make a note of what I see and dump raw audio and photos in this article as fast as I can.

When the 3DS debuted, you may recall that most reviewers were more taken with the numerous bells and whistles than they were with early software like Pilotwings and Steel Diver. Between the AR Cards, Face Raiders, 3D photos, SpotPass and more, the general consensus was that these apps would offer limited replayability but maximized laughs. However, the one feature that seemed like it could have legs beyond the novelty phase was StreetPass. Because this function is always on, and because developers can tailor it to fit all sorts of game types, there’s a lot of potential for passive interaction between users. Street Fighter IV and Nintendogs + Cats used it in pretty meaningless ways, but like the old Game Boy’s link cable port or the Xbox 360′s achievements, StreetPass seemed like it could end up being the most integral feature you never knew you needed. Luckily, as someone who has used it extensively during my daily commute, I think it still can.Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said in interviews that one of the company’s major failings was not educating the public about the benefits of the 3D display, and going a bit further, about how the 3DS is different from the DS. The added visual depth is still cool in this blogger’s book, but the bigger misstep has been failing to educate the public – and developers – about why StreetPass is not just another worthless tag mode. The initial way to do so is to push the Mii Plaza games.

I began my own Mii Plaza quest back in May, stuffing my 3DS in my front pocket so that it could broadcast my funny hats to the world. Mii Plaza is designed to let you show of your Mii and very simplified gamer profile with those around you. There are two games within – a puzzle collection quest and gaming’s simplest RPG. It’s a far cry from Words with Friends, but it was enough to get me to charge my 3DS every night for a few consecutive months.

It should be noted that my experience is not at all typical; I live in New York City, one of the most bustling cities in the world with one of the most widely used public transportation systems in the world. I hope that my experience would be the ideal that more of you would get to experience as the handheld’s sales rise. Regardless, I found myself entranced by the puzzle exchange half of the game early on. The game is about a collective experience. Unlike Street Fighter IV‘s trophy mode, you aren’t trying to show off how awesome you are by clobbering people with your all-Rufus lineup. You share pieces with each other to create 3D images of your favorite Smash Bros., and if someone has more pieces than you, that just raises the likelihood of finding a sliver of Yoshi that you don’t already have. It’s passive cooperative gameplay, and it was great to think that I was helping others as much as they were helping me. I completed that one back in June – thank you Ocarina 3D launch event – and have been happily helping the occasional passerby ever since.

From there, I moved onto Find Me, in which you enlist other Miis and free agents to rescue your captured king. This half had an added bonus of wearable hats to show off to friends, including a yellow pikmin hood currently attached to my Mii. Despite this incentive, I began to notice that I was StreetPassing far less often, despite being crammed in the front car of the F train each morning with at least a couple folks with whom I had connected earlier. Eventually, I made it to the end of the castle summit on my own, mainly thanks to the brute force method of dropping Play Coins for CPU-generated helpers. But without new software support, the limited Mii Plaza content just wasn’t holding people’s interest. I doubt most made it even half as far as I have. However, for a couple glorious months, I was able to discover the one feature that could set the 3DS apart in the market.

Now that the price drop has spurred sales some, it’s time to give the grand experiment another, bolder chance. Iwata has already said more StreetPass software is in development, and that’s fantastic news. I think giving folks a reason to keep charging their 3DS systems every night is crucial, and just seeing that green light blink whenever I’ve secretly exchanged information still elicits a thrill. But from what we’ve seen of the retail stuff, it doesn’t seem like Nintendo’s pushing StreetPass nearly enough in its retail games. As far as I’m concerned, StreetPass should be in every single first party game if the feature is to turn into a system seller.

Case in point: Ocarina of Time 3D was a huge missed opportunity. The game somehow sold several hundred thousand copies to a very small user base, meaning that we were all playing the game at the same time. I know that most of the Miis I’ve been bumping into have been carrying Hyrulian shields with them. Why not let us share the experience somehow? At the bare minimum, I’d love to know how far everyone has progressed, but what about an exchange of in-game masks or customized ocarina melodies? What about map doodling – think Phantom Hourglass – to share secrets in the overworld? None of this would have been that hard to implement, and I suddenly would have a reason to pop in a Zelda game after completing it, a series first.

User generated content is always tricky when it comes to Nintendo, but StreetPass is practically begging for it. Super Mario 3D Land is almost guaranteed to be worth a purchase based on pedigree alone, but platforming games can only last for so long. I wouldn’t mind Mario taking a page from Sackboy and offering very simple customized levels. Hell, I would even be willing to use existing levels if I could alter enemy/coin/item placement. Again, there’s an unique thrill to a mutually beneficial exchange, and I think “unlimited levels,” in a sense, would be a hard-to-refuse bullet point.

There’s no reason why developers can’t be more ambitious with the feature. One of the advantages of handhelds like the Nintendo 3DS is that you can take them with you. (Duh.) But like the iPhone with its GPS tagging, the 3DS can help put things in pretty cool geographical contexts. According to Mii Plaza, I’ve connected with people from Japan, France and even Canada. I suppose those distinctions are meaningless on their own, but what if a developer were to include a viral “achievement” of sorts in his or her game? You see these a lot in console multiplayer games, but it’s not that big a deal when I don’t have to leave my house to get one. However, if I could trace an item’s path back to its origin after acquiring it through StreetPass, that journey would suddenly seem incredible.

Now, I already hear some of you asking why I’m not opposed to 3D-less games on the 3DS but insist on shoehorning StreetPass into everything. Trust me though – the feature is potentially that versatile. Mario Kart 7? Share your favorite track ghost. Star Fox 64 3D? High score challenges and multiplayer bots with recorded voice samples. Luigi’s Mansion 2? Hidden Mii ghosts strewn about the map. I’m not a game designer, but I can see dozens of possibilities quite clearly.

I’ve walked over one million steps, I’ve maxed out my Play Coins, I’ve completed my Pokedex 3D, I’ve exhausted Mii Plaza and I’ve walked my Nintendog around the neighborhood more times than I care to admit. I’m hungry for more StreetPass content, and I think you’ll find this fall that so are a lot of other 3DS owners. When we’re on the train, we may not be able to launch Angry Birds at each other, but I know I’ll never tire of seeing someone else’s funny hat.

Anyone who’s still bemoaning the stagnancy of the Japanese gaming scene hasn’t been paying attention this summer. From El Shaddai‘s beautifully bizarre take on the Dead Sea Scrolls to Child of Eden‘s kinetic synesthesia, there’s been more creative output from that country lately than its likely to get credit for. But perhaps most outlandish of all would be Catherine, Atlus’ not-exactly-an-RPG experiment that broke the publisher’s own sales records last month. Sure, it may feature a weird puzzle game at its core and an art style familiar to any Persona fan, but Catherine‘s greatest feat is that it finds the perfect sweet spot between the linear, cut-scene-driven narratives of Japanese games and the more expansive, open-ended worlds of games like Mass Effect and Fall Out. It’s a game that features well-drawn characters and tight plotting without completely sacrificing player influence and interactivity.

Take, for instance, the frequent outings with Vincent’s friends each night. After each nightmare, you’ll find our hero (or anti-hero) sitting down at a bar, the Stray Sheep, with three of his friends discussing the day’s events. This usually amounts to him getting chewed out — rightfully so –  for cheating on his longtime girlfriend Katherine with a floozy…named Catherine. But this is neither completely passive nor active. The banter goes back-and-forth for a bit, but these aren’t lengthy cut-scenes by any stretch. And while you may not be able to control the words that come out of Vincent’s mouth, you do have control over the flow of the conversation. You choose whom to talk to in which order, and in between, you can send text messages, order drinks or watch the barroom television for news on the latest mysterious murders. OK, so this may not sound like the most scintillating stuff as I type this, but I loved the execution. (It also helps that game is full of surrealist touches and a great sense of humor. This is seriously one of the best localizations I’ve seen in a while, and there’s a vibrancy to this world that really draws you in, even when the imagery is macabre.)

Better yet, while you don’t necessarily have to leave your little booth, each night gives you opportunities to meet your fellow barflies, and it’s here that the game offers even more choices. These guys won’t stick around all night, and as far as I can tell, you can’t talk to everyone in one play-through. Catherine isn’t so subtle about letting you know that the bar patrons’ fates are in your hands, and the folks you end up saving will likely be those whose lives you become most invested in. While I love Mass Effect and other games of its ilk, I often feel like I’m going down a people-of-interest checklist as I talk to NPCs. If you’re patient enough, everyone will be willing to stand around and just wait for you to help them solve their problems; Catherine does not give you that luxury. Because people come and go from the Stray Sheep, you can easily lose track of them, and thus they won’t have you as a confidante willing to listen about their sins. The game forces you to make choices with real consequences, and it certainly was a punch to the gut to learn that I couldn’t save the police officer and the journalist from their demons.

Of course, Vincent (the character) has other things on his mind, as he tries to juggle his rocky relationships. Catherine hinges almost entirely on this central dilemma, and if you can’t buy into it, then you’re unfortunately going to have some gripes. To the game’s credit, Vincent is not a blank slate. He may have typical commitment issues, but even if you bring out his slimiest tendencies, he seems to want to minimize hurt feelings for all parties involved. It’s frustrating to see him unable to break things off with one of these girlfriends sooner, but I’ll always prefer an interesting-but-flawed character over some silent, anonymous avatar. More problematic are the two leading ladies. For all of Vincent’s internal monologues about how much he loves Katherine, we never really get a sense of his reasons. Throughout my time with the game, I never got a sense of chemistry between them. She softens some after a cold, domineering introduction, but I can see why Vincent would be reluctant to pop the question. Catherine isn’t much of an alternative though. She’s painted with broader strokes than any other character in the game, and while it was clear by the end that the writer intended for us to have some sympathy towards her, she never really ends up being more than an object of desire for Vincent. (Thankfully, there’s at least more going on to Catherine than the provocative PS3 box art would suggest.)

The game may offer a choice between Catherine and Katherine, but it never explicitly asks you to pick one or the other at a given moment, as something like Heavy Rain might do. Instead, the outcome of this plot line (and several peripheral plot lines) is tied to a “morality meter” of sorts. It’s definitely Catherine‘s greatest failing, but it’s not necessarily as limiting as you’ve been conditioned to believe from other games. The two extremes here are not “good” and “evil,” but “order” and “chaos.” The former features an angel and the latter a devil, but based on the chaotic outcomes towards which I leaned, I didn’t feel as if the developer was judging me for making bad decisions. After all, the Persona games lean heavily on demonic characters and imagery, so it makes sense that this realm is not necessarily the “wrong” one.

You’ll notice that I have barely even touched upon Catherine‘s puzzle game core. It was an afterthought on the podcast, and it’s an afterthought here. It’s not to say that the cube climbin’ isn’t fun — at least on easy — but the plot offers so many strange pleasures that the puzzle stuff gets bumped from my memory. It’s neither as sweepingly epic as a Final Fantasy or as immersive as an Elder Scrolls, but Catherine‘s smaller scope and small choices end up being its greatest strengths. Who needs endless expanses and battles when the cozy neighborhood bar is just a few nightmarish puzzles away?

Justin:

After graduating in May 2007, none of us were really sure what form the show would take. Instead of the cushy, padded recording booth in the CWRU library, we would suddenly be chatting through Skype with hundreds of miles between us. Luckily, we were in it for the long haul. We rebranded ourselves as The Rumble Pack — Kaz’s non-copyright-infringing suggestion, I believe — brought Tony on board and here we are now.

There have been a few bumps along the way; my year in China, Tony’s first year of medical school and of course Nick’s new Sony gig all come to mind. Even so, the inside jokes, gaming anecdotes and crappy movies have made our weekly gatherings worth all of the hassles. If nothing else, the past 200 episodes have provided countless memories, and below, we share some of our favorites with you.

Tom: One of my favorite Rumble memories is kind of a cop-out — it doesn’t include the entire cast and it didn’t even happen while recording an episode. However, the feat detailed herein is too heroic to remain untold. Consider it a Rumble side quest.

King Tony and I had decided to attend a local meet known as the Cleveland Classic Console & Arcade Gaming Show for the first time after hearing about it in a local newspaper; to call the event a “show” would be erroneous. After arriving and paying our $3 entry fee we were shepherded into a room at a local VFW containing long tables stacked end to end with merchandise. Each table was what you secretly hope for whenever you stop for a garage sale in an unknown neighborhood: the chance to buy someone’s shattered childhood dreams for pennies on the dollar. Instead of typical garage sale fare like baby clothes and worn-out shoes, the treasures we found must have come from some dethroned supernerd’s coffers. Arcade marquees, game carts in all shapes and sizes, posters and pretty much every cheap piece of plastic to ever have a mustachioed plumber’s face grace its surface were all available. Pale, bearded men stood wringing their sweaty hands behind each table ready to haggle away this precious nostalgic cargo. And haggle they would…

Kaz: My greatest Rumble memories occur almost every week without fail, which sounds like even more of a cop-out than Tom’s answer but it’s the honest-to-goodness truth.

The moments before and after each show as we catch up with each other, taunt each other and generally pal around are the best reasons for doing what we do. The podcast may have started as a glorified excuse to imitate “1up Yours,” but it quickly became the best lifeline I’ll ever have to the best group of friends I’ll ever have.

Every week we record a podcast about video games, and every week you listen in and hopefully laugh along. But the dirty secret behind it all is that we are cheating you. Between the inside jokes and borderline idiocy that we share, I sometimes wonder if anyone could possibly laugh along with us. If you do laugh along, I hope you enjoy the same little slice of nostalgia and friendship that we do.

That’s why those little moments before and after the show sometimes “accidentally” end up crawling from the cutting room floor back onto the reel. And that’s why they’re my favorite moments.

Justin: Like every other gaming podcast out there, we’ve tackled most of the big issues. Are games art? How long should a game be? Is Activision mean?* But most of my favorite Rumble moments were those in between the standard industry stuff. Tom and Nick especially are quite adept at picking apart the minutiae of video games, and while that doesn’t always make for the most enlightening discussions, we’ve certainly had some fun with it. The example that leaps to mind would be my epic battle with Nick over the Devil May Cry‘s Trish in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. For the record, I still stand by my impassioned argument that she’s a generic fighter and takes up a roster spot that could have easily gone to somebody from Power Stone or Rival Schools (among dozens of other series). But honestly, did that ever even matter? No! At the time, the total headcount in that game was 38, and her presence was just a minor complaint leveled against an otherwise wonderful game. Yet somehow, Nick and I spent a 15 minute eternity arguing about this, using comprehensive lists and flowcharts to make our cases.

*”Ugh” to all three.

Skype or not, the tension in the “room” was palpable. I could feel the sweat on my brow, and I’m pretty sure Nick would say the same thing about himself. If ever there was a rivalry among our core cast, it was forged in that incredibly stupid moment. But after some reflection, it dawned on me just how ridiculous — and hilarious — “Trishgate” truly was. That a Devil May Cry supporting player could drive a wedge between us is the height of our absurdity. Apparently, many of you agree; whenever friends of mine admit to listening to the show, they always cite Trishgate as a “classic.”

If we want to talk about more favorite pointless discussions, I could also direct you to our in-depth analysis of “The Room,” Louie Anderson as the Halo announcer, the infamous B&T and countless others. But we’ve also used the show as a platform to talk to some our industry idols. It started with Nick Suttner back when 1up.com imploded, and since then we’ve had guys like Runic Games’ Max Schaefer and Gaijin Games’ Alex Neuse. I’m always shocked when the gaming gods come down from the heavens to speak with us, but over time,  it’s gotten so much easier to reach out to people. My personal all-timer though goes to our interview with Roger Craig Smith, voice of Ezio, Chris Redfield and “Say Yes to the Dress.” It may not have been our best conversation — we were rookies then, even though Smith was a great sport — but that session did result in that amazing intro, in which “Ezio” performed our trademark opening. “Leonardo, you didn’t tell them about the Rumble Pack, did you?!” Priceless.

Oh, and one more special shout out for Tom’s amazing Link’s Crossbow Training custom box art. He took my somewhat crummy Secret Santa idea and turned it into something terrifying. That Link’s hideous, leathery visage will forever haunt me.

]]> http://www.therumblepack.com/2011/07/29/rumble-roundup-our-fondest-rumble-memories/feed/ 1 http://www.therumblepack.com/2011/07/28/gaming-at-the-moma-a-look-at-kill-screens-arcade-exhibition/ http://www.therumblepack.com/2011/07/28/gaming-at-the-moma-a-look-at-kill-screens-arcade-exhibition/#comments Thu, 28 Jul 2011 20:00:32 +0000 Justin http://www.therumblepack.com/?p=1350 For considerably better pictures of the event, I suggest that you head on over to Joystiq’s gallery.

This past Wednesday, the editors of the magazine “Kill Screen” helped put on a show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. This isn’t the first time that video games have been displayed in a museum, but the MoMA’s a pretty ritzy place, and so it was seen (by me, at least) to be a pretty big deal, a means to bring some of the industry’s more avant-garde fair to the masses. And for the most part, I think the evening could be called a success.

Starry Heavens

Admittedly, if I were curating that shindig, my list of games would have looked a lot different. Kill Screen’s selections seemed to be more about the beauty of mechanics, while I tend to prefer a little more graphical splendor when I’m gripping a controller. On the other hand, the event tied in beautifully — probably intentionally so — with the incredible “Talk to Me” installation, which compiled dozens of modern technologies that humans potentially use to communicate with one another. Some of the wackier devices on display like animal-sensory simulations, a fifth dimensional camera and a metal pair of underpants that simulate menstruation for folks who don’t menstruate (like guys) will get the most buzz, but the entire collection as a whole was just awe-inspiring. It’s so cool to see such technological innovation in one room, and I’m glad that video games could be lumped along for an evening.

So what games were on display? A lot of them have already been commercially released, including Limbo, Bit.Trip Beat and Echochrome, as well as a bunch  of iOS games on the top floor. But there were some game designers who took advantage of the huge space, putting together games that could never really fit in your living room (assuming that you don’t live in a mansion). Favorites included:

B.U.T.T.O.N.

• B.U.T.T.O.N. – This stands for Brutally Unfair Tactics Totally OK Now, which sounds about right. Up to four players stand in front of their giant buttons and are given a series of instructions. For instance, my group was told to run to another room and then play dead. After a few random prompts, the game then asks you to screw over your friends in order to win. My girlfriend ended up knocking me out when we were asked to hold down the loser’s button for 10 seconds. B.U.T.T.O.N.‘s frantic pace reminds me a lot of WarioWare on the GameCube, and I would love to bring this to my classroom next year. This is such a killer party game, and one that would be friendly to any age group. The only problem is that if and when the game is ported home, you won’t have the oversized buttons to smash, and that was half the fun.
• Starry Heavens – This gigantic board game in the sculpture garden was designed by Eric Zimmerman and Nathalie Pozzi. It played a bit like an over-sized game of Twister, and again, the rules were designed to encourage backstabbing and ruthlessness. (I noticed that this was  a subtle theme in many of my top picks that night.) The balloons overhead offered a nice atmosphere, but I don’t know how much people bought into the thematic background stuff about the lord of the sky (or something like that). Perhaps our board game experts Kaz and Tom would have appreciated it more.
• Tentacle – While my Android didn’t take the greatest photos — as you can see — it at least allowed me to spawn my own tentacle in this multiplayer take on FlOw. Players could download an iOS/Android app that synced up with the game and created new avatars for everyone. From there, it was a race to eat as much organic matter as you could, though I guess I missed out on a cooperative element along the way. This game was one of many projected onto the wall, and I loved seeing the action up on such a massive “screen.”
• PXL PUSHR – I’m not sure if this will ever see a commercial release, which is too bad, because I think designers Matt Boch and Ryan Challinor of Harmonix are on to something here. One player sets down squares on a grid displayed on an iPad, while the other stands in front of a Kinect and tried to touch all of those squares in the space around him or her simultaneously. Here, the set up was competitive, but I could see this setup working cooperatively, too. Switch the iPad out with an Xbox controller, and I think you have a potential indie hit.

As with any good Kinect game, you’ll look just a little silly when you play PXL PUSHR.

So overall, a fun show. I hope that if Kill Screen attempts this again next year, we see more games and more outlandish ideas, but this is a great way to lay down some inroads.

]]> http://www.therumblepack.com/2011/07/28/gaming-at-the-moma-a-look-at-kill-screens-arcade-exhibition/feed/ 1 http://www.therumblepack.com/2011/07/15/1275/ http://www.therumblepack.com/2011/07/15/1275/#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2011 22:02:50 +0000 Justin http://www.therumblepack.com/?p=1275

According to our Steam stats, the Rumble Pack somehow managed to put 108.6 cumulative hours into Terraria in just a single week. Granted, that’s split among half a dozen people, but still – that’s a lot of time devoted to digging holes in the ground. The Minecraft influence is pretty clear, but everyone has brought their own reasons for playing this wonderful little sandbox title. I’ve heard comparisons to LEGO sets, Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, Dig Dug and more; with a game so expansive, it’s only natural for it to evoke memories from a bunch of different sources. For me, though, Terraria offers everything I always wanted from Nintendo’s Animal Crossing, fulfilling that game’s potential for amazing social interaction whether your buddies are playing online or not.

Back in 2001, when Animal Crossing was a non-gaming novelty, I had these lofty dreams of maintaining a village with my entire family. There were four houses available for my parents, brother and I, and we were to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity for those furry chatterboxes that populated the game. Though Animal Crossing doesn’t offer simultaneous co-op, you can take turns with the upkeep. Anything that one player does – either good or bad – will have consequences for anyone else who boots up the game. And when you’re not playing, the game “plays itself” – plants grow, villagers leave and mail arrives at everyone’s doorstep. If I were to leave a note for my dad or plant a tree next to my mom’s house, they’d  eventually discover my good deeds on their own time.

Unfortunately, the grand experiment of “Yetisburg” never got very far off the ground. My dad and brother wanted nothing to do with the babyish dialogue and feng shui interior decorating, while my mom, the other big gamer in the family, had little patience for paying a virtual mortgage to a crooked raccoon.* Seeing as I was left stranded, not even the allure of NES games could sustain my interest, and the village was soon taken over by weeds. (Tom knows this phenomenon all too well.)

Yetisburg’s tragic demise was but a footnote in my gaming career, but the memories came flooding back when Terraria was included in Steam’s “Summer Camp” sale. I’m not a big PC gamer and Minecraft has left me confounded in the past, but I’m not one to turn down a popular game when it’s under five bucks. Upon booting Terraria up and entering my randomly generated new world, I was asked to chop down lumber and gather supplies for a small house. Doing chores in a video game? That sounded awfully familiar. I dug a few tunnels, fought off a couple blobs and planted some torches before shutting it down for the afternoon. It seemed fun, but I could see that other Rumble Pack group members were picking it up and I figured I’d wait until we were all playing that evening.

When I signed in after dinner, I was invited to a friend’s server. I could already see that the group had put a fair amount of time into their world, but I was completely unprepared for the progress they had made. The first thing I saw was their towering, multi-story base with multiple NPCs and multiple doors for them to open. The tunnels were expansive and well-lit, and all of my friends had decked themselves out with colorful armor, hook-shots, double jumps and other wild stuff. In just a few short hours, it felt like Terraria had completely transformed into something that was both wildly exciting and intimidating at the same time.

Now, if you know me well at all, you’re aware that I burn that midnight oil almost every night. I pick up the controller long after the rest of you have hit the pillow, and this makes for some fairly solitary gaming habits. (Don’t feel bad for me – I much prefer my single player adventures.) So after everyone sheathed their swords for the night, I was free to tinker with the world as much as I wanted. Not being an ass, I kept almost everything in tact, but I did build myself a little above-ground fort, and I left a sign with a hidden message deep underground. (Nobody has found it yet.) Though my pick axe was only of the dull, copper variety, I was able to carve out a path to some untapped iron ore, and I then I too retired.

Since that opening evening, my play sessions have been sporadic. I’m still plugging away at games like Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and Ms. Splosion Man, which leaves little time for an endlessly fun timesink like Terraria. However, I felt oddly satisfied about my small contributions to my friends’ world. My little fort had apparently been converted into a makeshift nursing station, my own tunnels had extended to the lava-filled depths and my little avatar helped down the Eye of Cthulu in the group’s first major boss fight. I’ve been wanted to craft a virtual world ever since user-generated content became de rigueur, and now thanks to Terraria, I’ve finally helped do just that. And unlike Yetisburg, I think its future looks quite bright.

]]> http://www.therumblepack.com/2011/07/15/1275/feed/ 0 http://www.therumblepack.com/2011/07/06/justins-favorite-dsiware/ http://www.therumblepack.com/2011/07/06/justins-favorite-dsiware/#comments Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:59:30 +0000 Justin http://www.therumblepack.com/?p=1218 If you’re one of the few early adopters of the 3DS, you’ve probably racked up a massive pile of play coins, street passed dozens of commuters (or not) and maybe even conquered Donkey Kong ’94‘s 100 levels by now. What more could a cool guy or gal like you want out of your handheld? Well, some games would be nice. Though Ocarina of Time 3D was a welcome addition to the 3DS library, the early months have been especially rough for Nintendo’s latest hardware, and I wouldn’t hold it against you if you decided to hock yours on eBay.* But before you make any rash decisions, let me ask you this: have you checked out any DSiWare?

*(glaring menacingly…)

Believe it or not, a surprisingly high percentage of DSiWare is not horrendously bad.** In fact, as we’ve said on the podcast a few times, the service is one of Nintendo’s best kept secrets, since the company refuses to advertise it at all. Games like the Art Style series and Shantae have earned accolades from both ourselves and the big sites, but the problem here is that only a very small audience has had access to them — that is, until now. The vast majority of DSiWare is compatible with the 3DS and can be found on the eShop, making this the perfect time to check out what you’ve missed. And to help you get started, I humbly suggest that you direct your attention to the following.

**Even if most of it is!

The Art Style Series: I’d argue that this is the cream of the crop, especially if you’re into puzzle games. The majority of the series was developed by Skip, the studio behind the brilliant Chibi Robo. Art Style: Pictobits is arguably the developer’s finest work. You gather up pixels in a “well” using the stylus and place them directly below falling blocks of the same color to create pixel art from Nintendo franchises like Mario and Zelda. The unlockable chiptunes tracks help sweeten what was already a great deal at $4.99. Art Style: Box Life is also a winner. Here, you cut out patterns from a constantly rolling sheet and assemble them into cubes. If these sound a bit hard to grasp, I probably shouldn’t even bother trying to describe Q Games’ contribution, Art Style: DigiDrive. Trust me when I say that while it may be a bit incomprehensible on paper, but it’s mesmerizing in practice. There are other Art Style games in the collection that aren’t quite as successful, but they’re all safe bets if you’re sick of the typical match-3 formula.

Aura Aura Climber: Nintendo has been outspoken in recent months about pricing and perceived value — that cheap downloads somehow translate to subpar experiences. As a counterpoint, I would offer up the company’s own Aura Aura Climber, in which you control a cheery spark latching onto grapple points in order to rise through the atmosphere. The grapple mechanic isn’t nearly as fluid as PixelJunk Eden’s, but the sense of freedom that comes with swinging through the air is still thrilling. The emphasis is placed on high scores and precision jumping, which has kept me coming back ever since its release. At only $1.99, you won’t find a better bang for your buck.

Link ‘n’ Launch: This could have very easily been a welcome Pikmin spinoff, but I’ll cut Intelligent Systems some slack since the results are still pretty grand. Another puzzler, your goal here is to propel a rocket ship to its destination. Doing so requires quickly spinning tiles to connect pipes to fuel supplies, which is slightly reminiscent of Pipe Dream from back in the day. It’s more mentally taxing than some of the other puzzle games listed here, but I’m sure some of you would welcome that.

Q Games’ Sci-Fi Trilogy: These game don’t seem to have any direct ties to each other, but they do share an outer space motif and addictive gameplay. Trajectile is the most straightforward of the bunch — you line up rockets to ricochet off walls and clear blocks — but you get a lot of content for five bucks. It plays a bit like a combination of Bust-a-Move and Breakout. Starship Defense may be my favorite tower defense game ever, with balanced weapon choices, varied missions and a cool graph paper art style holding things together. And most ambitious of them all is X-Scape, the sequel to an obscure polygonal Game Boy game that served as a precursor to Star Fox. The campaign spans over a dozen planets and offers one of the most satisfying experience you can find on the DSi (and 3DS, for that matter).

My losing pose, witnessed by literally tens of people.

Photo Dojo: Part of me wonders if I should leave this out because Face Raiders renders it a little obsolete. That said, the gimmick of using photos of your friends to create a custom fighting game still elicits smiles, and the custom voice quips are guaranteed to be hilarious.

The WayForward “Trilogy”: These games are also very tenuously connected, but they are all just as vital as the first party stuff. Mighty Flip Champs got many people to take notice of DSiWare when it came out a few years ago, and even more will get to see it when it arrives on the PSN as a Mini this month. I’m also partial to Mighty Milky Way, which I reviewed not to long ago. Lastly, Shantae: Risky’s Revenge might be the very best DSiWare of all. This “Metroidvania” game can easily stand with the best in the genre, with fluid animation, vibrant colors and the ability to traverse multiple planes.

R.I.P.: I would have loved to include the Art Academy games and Flipnote Studios, but these games sadly did not make the transition to the 3DS. On the bright side, the former is at least available at retail and the latter is rumored to be coming back slightly retooled.

I’m sure I’m just scratching the surface, too. A Kappa’s Trail, Spotto! Mario vs. Donkey Kong and more narrowly missed the list, and I’ve heard some praise for games like Glow Artisan and Inchworm as well. I’m sure our readers (and Tom) can offer a few more suggestion. In the meantime, remember that not all of these random puzzle games should be dismissed outright. For every dozen miserable Bejeweled clones, you might actually stumble onto a hidden gem.

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