Eurogamer in blog format - DS

War's road to redemption begins.

Croteam's high-def update of the PC blasting classic gets a formal release date.

Rock Band gets light-hearted with the minifigs.

Dotnia experiences an expansion into an entirely new dimension.

Wheee! We're suckers for a bit of dog-fighting, especially with those crazy rear-prop driven Japanese planes.

Sneaky tactics and sharp headshots in the sequel to DICE's jolly battlefield romp.

Blood Bowl gets its first new race in the lithe and dangerous form of the Dark Elves.

As an ancient and powerful Umbra witch, Bayonetta has a few handy tricks up her tight sleeves. Here, learn about her flashy, demon-powered killer moves.

Video on demand streaming is coming to the PS3 very soon, with a massive wedge of entertainment waiting at your digital fingertips.

When you're heading into a life or death battle against uncaring robotic overlords, you want to be wearing the right dress.

Ever wanted a zebra-striped AK-47? Of course you have.

The PSP title slips out, somewhat in the shadow of its big brother.

Meet the two opposing forces of the Avatar world, and choose which one you'll be fighting for.

Series creator Chris Taylor discusses his sequel, and what improvements have been made over the original.

Two short CCTV vignettes with those lovable, psychopathic rogues, Kane and Lynch.

Tecmo KOEI offers a first look at Again, a DS game made by Hotel Dusk developer Cing. Story and contenxt are explained in this clip.

A fantastic job of a sequel, building on strengths and addressing weaknesses - AC II hits the shops this Friday.

The perpetually confined simians return in their first balance board title, jonesing for bananas like the dirty little potassium junkies they are.

A week after we'd heard they were heading West, Cing's DS games Again and Monster Rancher are now secured for Europe.

Tecmo KOEI has signed the licence and will deliver both titles in the spring.

Again follows Cing's Hotel Dusk template; it's a stylish and arty crime mystery with plenty of twists and turns. Read more...

With social network integration a hot topic, Sony pumps up its Facebook app.

The hub of all starship activity, the bridge is where the important stuff happens. That and engineering, but engineering is far less glamorous and doesn't have the comfy chairs.

Rounds, Chains, Lamps, Features; Roulette, Fever, Bingo and Break. Space Invaders Extreme 2 needs a whole lexicon - a strangely camp one at that - to describe its arcane and multi-faceted scoring system. One of the oldest and simplest shoot-'em-ups in gaming became one of the more complex with the original Xbox Live Arcade, PSP and DS game, and in this DS-only sequel, it gets a little more complex yet.

Taito's iconic pixellated aliens have been enjoying a purple patch these last few years, and it was Extreme that set the standard. Unlike the bold reinvention of the iPhone's Infinity Gene or the bizarre table-turning of WiiWare's Space Invaders Get Even, Extreme took Space Invaders into the 21st century by adding innumerable twists and elaborations to a basically unchanged core. Waves of Invaders creep down the screen from left to right, from right to left, faster the fewer they are, as unhurriedly menacing as ever. Your cannon picks them and passing UFOs off.

The basic gameplay was unmistakeable and faithful, not quite as pure a revival as the brilliant Pac-Man Championship Edition, but just as successful at making a faded icon good as new. A Rez-inspired rhythmic techno makeover spruced up the image, but to be honest, the blocky sprites possess so much retro cool that they hardly needed it - stamped indelibly as they are on pop-culture consciousness (and, thanks to French artist Invader, the street). Read more...

Nintendo plans three playable demos for Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, the first of which arrives this Friday 13th November.

A further sampler will appear each following Friday (20th, 27th).

These are DS demos, and they will be available from the Wii Nintendo Channel, which can be downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel. Read more...

Tecmo is bringing DS games Again and Monster Rancher to the US in March 2010.

Again is a mystery adventure made by Hotel Dusk: Room 215 developer Cing. We rather liked Hotel Dusk, so here's hoping for a similar result.

Cing is also at the helm for Monster Rancher, a monster-collecting and fighting with local and online multiplayer. Read more...

Nintendo has revealed that The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks will include sections where you play the DS like a woodwind instrument.

During these Spirit Pipe bits, you blow on the DS microphone and press the screen to adjust pitch.

Nintendo tells us the Spirit Pipe plays an "essential role" in Zelda: Spirit Tracks, just as the conductor's baton did in Zelda: Wind Waker and the flute did in Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Read more...

Nintendo has revealed that the player-controlled phantoms in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks are actually occupied by the spirit of Princess Zelda.

As detailed in our Spirit Tracks hands-on, the game allows you to direct one of the armour-clad phantoms, which should be familiar to players of The Phantom Hourglass, in order to solve puzzles and smash enemies in the face. That's Zelda, apparently.

What's more, Zelda will also ride with Link on his upgradeable train, providing tips to "find new areas, storylines and items", according to Nintendo. Read more...

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is heading to the US this spring under the watchful eye of Atlus.

The DS role-playing game was awarded 36/40 by Japanese super-magazine Famitsu when released there last month.

SMT: Strange Journey, set in the present day, follows a soldier sent to the South Pole by the UN to investigate some strange goings on. From there unravels a dark science fiction tale, encompassing demons, dark voids and mature themes that tap into morality and introspection. Read more...

Nintendo has said the new DSi with bigger screens will launch in Europe as well as Japan.

We'll have to wait, though. "Nintendo today confirms that a new Nintendo DSi XL console is launching in Europe in the first quarter of 2010," the company told VG247.

So how much will it cost? "The retail price of the Nintendo DSi XL is expected to be higher than that of the Nintendo DSi. Further details will be released soon." Read more...

Nintendo has confirmed a new version of the DSi is on the way, complete with bigger screens.

The DSi LL, as it's titled, will feature 4.2-inch screens. It will come complete with two different sizes of stylus, one long and one short. You'll also get two brain training games and a dictionary pre-installed.

A choice of colours will be available - Dark Brown, Wine Red and Natural White. You can take a look at the new handheld over on the Nintendo Japan website. Read more...

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is set "about a century" after Phantom Hourglass and the train you ride around on is upgradeable.

That's all according to Nintendo of America's Kit Ellis, who spoke to G4 (thanks vg247) about the game's setting and new features.

"Spirit Tracks takes place about a century after the events of Phantom Hourglass, so it's a different Link but sort of in the same world, so you can actually see some sort of homages to the previous game throughout the story," Ellis said. Read more...

Majesco has announced that it's picked up Ghostwire: Link to the Paranormal for DSi, which is only the second DSi-exclusive cartridge game that we're aware of.

It's all about using the DSi's camera - and the "ghost tuner" Nintendo somehow forgot to put on the hardware spec list - to find spirits, shadows and demons in your own environment. Time of day and light levels will influence your hunt, as well as the personalities of the ghosts.

"Once you find the spirits, you document them and find out why they haunt our world. They can also give you riddles to solve. Ultimately you can help them to find peace," says the website of Swedish developer A Different Game. Read more...

Nintendo is planning to launch a new DS with even bigger screens, according to a Japanese news outlet.

The Nikkei news service (thanks GameSpot) has reportedly claimed that a model with four-inch screens could launch in Japan this year for 18,900 yen (Ł125 / €138).

NeoGAF has uncovered a scan for those of us without a login for the subs-only Nikkei. Read more...

For the sequel to a game that sold poorly enough to get a Capcom studio shut down, there was a hell of a lot of interest in Okamiden at the Tokyo Game Show recently. Show-goers had to brave a 50-minute queue to earn three minutes in its company. The Ready at Dawn Wii remake of Okami is just about to be released over in Japan after almost a year and a half's delay, so Capcom is presumably hoping the sequel can ride the renewed wave of interest that it will unleash. The game is, after all, far better-suited to the Wii and DS than it ever was to the PS2, as everybody with an index finger has been pointing out since 2006.

On the surface, Okamiden is everything that you'd expect of the sequel to a two-time10/10: gorgeous, playful, inventive, extremely well-made. It turns out that Okami's sumi-e brush-on-canvas style downsizes beautifully. Characters are lively daubs of colour outlined in thick black, and their animation is fluid and energetic. The teensy little version of Amaterasu - Chibiterasu, as he's called - is unbelievably cute, yet somehow retains some of the grown wolf's nobility. Having a puppy as a protagonist is absolutely inspired - Capcom has multiplied female interest in the game by about a thousand in one fell swoop, there.

Little Chibiterasu has a lot of Amaterasu's abilities - the Celestial Brush, most pertinently - but little of her power. He can't go it alone. In place of Issun, who was your inch-tall constant companion and source of affectionate quips in the first game, you team up with partners who ride on the little wolf's back. In our demo, this is Kuninushi, a diminutive warrior who serves as Chibiterasu's voice, hint-dispenser and occasional helping hand - having a mouthy companion to do all the talking is a good way of getting around the problem of a mute main character. Wolf pup and pal aren't completely inseparable though - you can press X to have them jump off Chibiterasu's back, leaving him free to go roaming or squeeze through a narrow passageway. Read more...

Nintendo Europe has distanced itself from strong "rumour and speculation" surrounding a new DSi Speak Channel.

It all started on the Nintendo customer support website, where GoNintendo spotted the following line:

The Wii Speak Channel uses the Wii Speak microphone peripheral to allow people to chat together and in separate rooms if they wish. Mii avatars attempt to mouth what you're saying. You can also leave audio clips on message boards and record audio captions for pictures. Read more...

Super-old laserdisc adventure Dragon's Lair may be about to make a long-overdue appearance on DS, according to details on the German ratings board website.

Curiously, the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle site lists the game for DSi, suggesting it might be heading to DSiWare and not retail. (Thanks GamerBytes.)

It's not the first we've heard of Dragon's Lair for DS, incidentally - it was originally announced in mid-2007 for release later that year, while an equally non-existent PSP version was mooted a few months later. Read more...

Marvelous Entertainment plans to bring more DS Harvest Moon to Japan this winter.

The latest instalment, dubbed Twin Villages and outed in Famitsu (read by GoNintendo), adds raising alpacas and keeping bees to the cutesy farm-management simulation-RPG. Read more...