Shin Megami Tensai: Devil Survivor for the Nintendo DS is a jump into the long line of Shin Megami Tensai games. The series has always dealt with various degrees of biblical ideology; usually involving angels or demons tempting man. Devil Survivor does all that while bringing in a whole new strain on humans, the desire to survive during a catastrophe and what it means to be good or evil.
It’s no mystery, I absolutely loved the first Professor Layton game. All the stories about new Layton games and movies in Japan make me green with envy. But finally, I have Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box in my hands and further in love with these games I fall!
If you played the first game and liked it at all, buy this sequel. If you haven’t played the first, you can actually get the new one and enjoy it just fine. There are some references to the first game, but you won’t be terribly lost on the overall story. The puzzles, though, are all outstanding and it feels like sound, music, graphics, and menus have all been enhanced for this edition. Even the manual contains a physical puzzle. They took something great and made it superb.
Review based on retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.
I never thought I’d ask for my father’s help in a video game, but I was at my wits end – I was 12 over, behind a tree, in the deep rough, and my hand hurt. Tiger Woods PGA 10 had bested me, I needed someone who knew golf – time to ask Dad.
“How do you hold your golf club?” I asked him, “My left hand keeps cramping up and I can’t get the ball to go straight.” He shot me a funny look as I handed him the motion-plus equipped Wii Remote, “first,” his look said, “you need a real golf club.” My father drew back and swung, TONK! The ball flew straight as an arrow and landed right on the green. I had to know how he did it, and what he showed me illustrates exactly what makes Tiger Woods PGA 10 for Wii such an amazing game.
Gamers who grew up with the NES no doubt remember the controller smashing frustration of the 1980s. Games were unforgiving and unfair, but we loved them anyway – extracting far more joy than anguish from our time with that little gray box, the Nintendo. Playing Retro Game Challenge for the DS is a lot like reliving those lazy summer afternoons with the NES, but without the anguish. Anyone who wants to recapture the excitement of the 1980s gaming culture, get in touch with the roots of the game industry, or to simply play a great self contained DS title shouldn’t pass this one up.
Sometimes, the best games are the ones you didn’t see coming.
Those games are special. Without media hype or a franchise to which they can attach, they fly under the radar, and no one seems to notice.
Big Bang Mini is one of them.
I’ll be honest. After the game cartridge made that satisfying, springy click into my DS, the last thing I expected was to be blown away. The game’s generic title didn’t exactly help matters, either.
Big Bang Mini? It’s like one of the developers pulled a handful of wooden letters from a Scrabble bag and did the best they could.
But then I started playing.
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