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PreviousDS Roundup Review
DS Review by James Lyon
Page 1
Bomberman Land Touch! 2
- Publisher: Rising Star Game
- Developer: Hudson Soft
Typical. Here I am putting in all the work required for reviewing this sequel and I find out most of it's been done for me. As seems to be the case with games like this, this sequel's practically identical to the first. The premise: wander a theme park, play mini-games, indulge in cute, nonsensical story. Same poo, different day. There are times when I don't know why I bother. Now excuse me while I point you towards the original review, say the graphics are a little sharper, and scarper with my cheque.
Oh, alright. Unlike some of the stinkers in this roundup, I enjoyed this one. Sort of. That's no doubt due to this being an unpretentiously jubilant adventure through a mini-game strewn story that never really stops for breath. With an assured sense of progression it drops a trail of breadcrumbs from one location to the other and asks you to follow them to the end accomplishing tasks on the way. There's always something to unlock, a token to collect, a mini-game to play, or an item to use, and you run around from one place to the other tackling it all in a play area that's small enough to find your way around but large enough to discover something new every hour or so.
Where next, Bomberman? Karting again? Bomberman Sports? We dread to think.
As for the mini-games, they're your usual bunch of stylus scratchers, tappers and match the x and y affairs you've come to know and love; intuitive, Bomberman-themed, and nothing new - they've even cheekily taken a few from the first game. To successfully go down the saturated mini-game route requires variety and there's a good selection of games to cycle through that don't overstay their welcome. Aside from an air hockey-style game which crops up several times as a boss challenge, each mini-game only ever needs to be completed once or twice for a token, unless you're after a high score or want to replay them individually with other players.
It's none too offensive, then. There's a good day or so's simple, colourful fun in there for those who can stomach Bomberman's sugar-coated world. To fully justify your purchase, though, Hudson knows that you know that there's only one way you'll ever buy a single-player Bomberman game and, yes, Battle Mode is present and correct. Traditional, brilliant multiplayer Bomberman is available over both Wi-Fi and wireless as per usual. As a matter of fact, it's exactly the same game that came bundled with the bland RPG Bomberman Story, reviewed a few months ago. As we said then, it's your choice what bland single-player game you want to accompany the multiplayer goodness. We're not exactly eating our words now, but in this game's case, we're prepared to upgrade the single-player portion from 'bland' to 'alright'.
7/10
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Comments: 1-28 of 28 in total
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Mmm. Rather harsh Bleach review. Although I do hate that whole card system thing because it distracts from what 2d fighters should be all about: the fighting. It only superficially adds some depth to the fighting, which isn't necessary in the first place because the combo and move system is tight and deep enough to warrant prolongued play. Or something.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 09/04/08 @ 11:56
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JohnnyWashnGo
09/04/08 @ 11:03
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All of these games look bloody awful - still, its good to know what to avoid buying.
Especially Kira Kira as I was thinking of getting that ;) |
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Muddtallica
09/04/08 @ 11:06
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Hmmm...I seem to remember IGN giving the Bleach game a very good write-up. Maybe it's one of those love-it or hate-it affairs.
Fish Tycoon looks hilariously atrocious. |
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StringBeanJean
09/04/08 @ 11:23
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There really is a dearth of decent games for the DS recently. I love my DS but there is very little to recommend coming out it wouls seem. Bear in mind I'm not interested in RPGs, J or otherwise. Well there's Apollo Justice I guess.
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absolutezero
09/04/08 @ 12:36
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Kira Kira is based loosely around the Japanese fashion toys Pinkt St. Its not surprising that the game would have a major dress up feature.
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JenkinsScooby
09/04/08 @ 12:37
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Bleach is a fantastic game. I'm a fan of the anime so the game had a lot to live up to. I own this version in Japanese and the sequel and they're both very good games.
At work we played everyday at lunch 4-way battles over wireless... no lag. |
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@StringBeanJean,
Ninja Gaiden is out on US import (or if you have an M3 then well erm you know ) and its pretty damn nice. Ive been playing it for the last week or so and its decent. Though have to say that there isnt that much to shout about at the mo as you rightly point out. :)
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 09/04/08 @ 15:19
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Half of the levels feel like they went through a random generator, while the other half were designed by drawing pictures of things like swords out of platforms with no thought of how they would affect play... Was this a part of the original design? I sincerely hope not.
Er... yeah, pretty much. Not so much the randomness, but there was quite a bit of the old 'blocky pictures of random items' going on, which didn't always work. Disclaimer: I am not for a single moment suggesting that Bubble Bobble is anything less than a bona fide classic (the original, I mean, not this ham-fisted DS turd). |
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Waffleaber
09/04/08 @ 14:42
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Bleach is IMO the best 2-D fighter for nigh on a decade. The balance between fighters is excellent and the one touch special system is great for beginners or pulling off supers. Having never watched the anime the story mode seemed a bit random but gameplay is top-notch. An easy 8.
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immateriaux
09/04/08 @ 21:04
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Christ on a bike... "Fish Tycoon", are some developers THAT devoid of ideas?
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Death-of-Imagination
09/04/08 @ 22:37
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@immatriaux
This is the unfortunate state of DS development when publishers (not development) want this kind of cheap tat and will only pay 3p for it. Literally a 3 month dev period (or less) with a budget of no more than £20K, sometimes less... They just farm it out to the cheapest contractor. In the present climate, it's really diffiicult for smaller devs to secure funding of more than $150K for DS titles... Over here anyway. |
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Just to chip in about Blade of Fate. I also think it's a great fighting game, especially because Treasure clearly tries to turn the tables and say: 'now you DON'T have to learn all those button combinations by heart, here are the one-press combos and you can start thinking about resources, tactics and strategy'. Perhaps this is not the textbook definition of hardcore, but it is not by any means a shallow button masher or any of the sort.
As for the two player lag, well, I can say I did experience some of it, especially with four fighters on screen and James has a good call on that one - the playing area is definitely too small for that many fighters and everything definitely dissolves into a mess. But one on one is really good. Recommended. |
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James_Lyon
10/04/08 @ 09:46
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A bit of Bleach love going on in here. What can I say? It's solid and dependable, it just didn't grab me as much as it did for reasons written. But that's the nature of opinions, I guess.
Put it this way, though: I'd rather play it again than endure another second of Fish Tycoon. :) |
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Bleach is fun, for the hardcore beat 'em up fan, you can find some joy in stringing some Guilty Gear/MvC Style combos, but you'll (righty) have no use for the ds touch screen command actions because you can't string combos together with them (as they all use the 'Hard' version of the special). The special cards do add a nice mixup in battles.
A nice buffer between hardcore beat em up sessions. |
Comments: 1-28 of 28 in total
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