Nine Over Ten 9/10

When it comes to motorcycle games on the DS, I can’t really think of any except for the recent Ducati Moto.

Vroom Vroom

Unlike racing cars (or karts for that matter), motorbikes require a slightly higher level of finesse given that they are lighter and you can always mess up your race by steering poorly into a corner. Ducati Moto does manage to convey that kind of motorcycle racing and along with the rather buxom female character models; it’s a pretty solid game.

Money Money Money

The usual game modes are there and the meat of the game is in the Championship mode. Here you race for money and this moolah doesn’t go to waste as the game has a garage option whereby money can be spent on upgrading your bike or for buying a new one. Money is also spent fixing your bike for the damages incurred during the race.

There’s a small element of gambling whereby an AI opponent will bet some money on he or she beating you, before the start of a race. You can choose to accept or decline this potential side income.

Like Driving Uphill

An unfortunate downside about the Championship mode is the high requirements for unlocking tracks. It’s 20 points per track and finish 3rd in a race will only award you a single point…. You get the idea.

A surprising addition to the game is Nintendo WFC support; this means that players can race with other Ducati Moto racers from around the world. How cool is that? Now you can have your very own Moto GP J

Picturesque

Graphics wise, the game is entirely in 3D and anything on the DS that looks prettier than the first 2 incarnations of the Need for Speed games on the PC would win my vote anytime. The first track of the game looks impressive and maintaining the steady frame rate along with the drawing distance is an applaudable feat.

Summary

As mentioned earlier, Ducati Moto is not only a pretty good racing motor racing game but a pretty good racing game in general; Highly recommended for motorheads anywhere. It is should be available at Play-Asia this July. Click here for details.

July 2005 saw the release of Ouendan, a rhythm game for the Nintendo DS that became so popular that sales outside Japan surpassed that of within Japan. Pretty cool considering it was a Japanese game

The English version of Ouendan, known as Elite Beat Agents was finally released to great acclaim in November 2006. This was then followed by the true sequel to Ouendan, Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2, which also became a huge hit in its own right.

The Ouendan games have plenty of company in the music/rhythm game genre for the Nintendo DS. In fact some of the best and coolest games on the DS belong to this genre. There’s Electroplankton, which was a piece of art first, and game second. Released in 2004, Daigasso! Band Brothers was the multi-instrument band game which boasted its own expansion set which ran off the DS’ Slot-2.

On the other, the Taiko no Tatsujin games decided to stick to what they do best: drums. Jam Sessions DS and its Japanese predecessor Hiite Utaeru had gamers playing the guitar on the DS while Nodame Cantabile gave the Ouendan formula a twist with classical music and some unique gameplay elements.

There’s one recent addition to this genre that buck the trend of heading towards greatness, and instead feels like a rip-off, stock, lock and barrel of Ouendan. Here’s to Looney Tunes: Cartoon Conductor.

Yup, there’s Bug Bunny in the game which would probably be a delight to kids. But other than the Looney Tunes IP (e.g. characters and soundbites), I can’t help but feel that the game plays like a poor-man’s version of Ouendan.

Great for the kids but a case of been there, done that and with less class too, it’s pretty suprising to see Eidos releasing something like this. I guess the DS is now the new home for shovelware.

After spending a substantial part of the afternoon playing Stratego on the Nintendo DS, I realised that the game is nothing more than “capture-the-flag”. Ok. I can hear a collective “Duh!?” coming from Stratego fans.

Anyways, I’ve never played the board game before but that didn’t prevent me from tackling the Nintendo DS version, titled Stratego: Next Edition. Before I go any further about the game, I also realised that European NDS owners are a lucky bunch. They get all the board games on the console! First it was Scrabble, and now Stratego.

A Primer

For the uninitiated, Stratego takes place 10 X 10 tile board. A two player game, one player will play as the red army and the other as the blue army. Each player will arrange his troop tiles, numbering around 40 at their respective portions of the board prior to starting the game.

Troops are divided by ranks; higher rank pieces will always defeat lower ranked pieces where else troops of the same rank will destroy each other. The only exceptions to this rule involves bombs, and spies. The rank of the piece will only be revealed to the opponent once an opposing troop encounters it.

This lends a “gotcha!!”/”I never saw that coming” feel that can amuse (or despair) anyone playing Stratego . This is also why Scout units are so important. Don’t scrimp on their deployment during a custom placement game or else you might regret it.

On the DS

Talking about custom placement, Stratego: Next Edition takes the headache out of placing your tiles by providing an auto-placing feature. This applies to all three game modes available in the game.

The first two game modes, Stratego Original and Stratego 90 do not differ much. The only obvious change I noticed is that the armies start right next to each other in Stratego 90, without the two row buffer found in Stratego Original.

The third game mode, Stratego Duel, is more focused on 10 on 10 set pieces, which makes for faster games.

Graphics wise, you’ll be seeing the Stratego board a lot in this touch-screen exclusive game and potraits are used for encounters between enemy tiles. Your unit’s abilities are handily shown on the top screen, less you forget what they do best.

Multiplayer

The game supports multi-cart play and more importantly single-cart multiplayer play which allows you to play Stratego with another DS owner with just a single cart. Too bad there’s no WFC mode.

In Conclusion

I really like Stratego:Next Edition, but the price tag seems to be too steep to justify a simple premise that is repeated over 3 very similar game modes. It is however, a definite “buy” once it hits the bargain bin.

If you are interested in the game, head over to Play-Asia.com, or click here for further details.