While playing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, something happened to my attention span…It just disappeared. Or maybe not “just disappeared” but rather “beaten into submission by multiple boss fights.” Do you guys ever have a moment after you’ve just spent an inordinate amount of time beating a challenging boss, and there’s another, different yet more arduous boss battle immediately following, when you toss up your hands and think “Screw this mechanical spider laser monster. I just want to run around and play for a while!”? Well, I had that moment with CLoS.  It isn’t a matter of a lack of desire to continue sitting on my couch playing video games until my eyes can’t shut due to dryness. It’s more, I’ve been operating under a serious amount of tension for an extended period and if I don’t commit some silly fun now, I may actually pass out.  (I feel that there has been this theme of “blowing off steam” recently in my posts and I will have to address my feelings on what that means in a later post.)

For now, just know that Donkey Kong Country Returns was there for me. And it can be there for you, too.  I received DKCR as a xmas gift and, besides a few 2-player games with my boyfriend, hadn’t really gotten into it.  I had seen all the positive reviews and I like Super Mario Brothers Wii just fine but, with all my super hardcore adventure death dealing gameplay, it really didn’t register on my radar.

That, folks, has changed dramatically over the last few days. DKCR is awesome. It is difficult and beautiful and charming (just like me!). It beats the snot out of SMBW through sheer charm and joy. That’s right. Donkey Kong’s joy beats Mario. Call your shrink if this upsets you.

Why am I so enamored with our simian friend? First, the platforming is superb. It has a great mix of nail-biting maneuvers and eureka puzzle solves. I am further impressed by how much humor can be expressed without words. We’ve been making a game that has really complex ideas, a young audience (5-10) base and a total lack of voice over.  Let me tell you that this particular game has tons and tons of reading but I would love for it to work akin to DKCR. I bet it could if we had 100x the budget. (any takers?) Also, DKCR is actually funny. Sorry plumber pals, but your butt as the crack of jokes does not appeal to me. Kidding. Mario and Luigi are definitely gentler humorists when it comes to the Nintendo World but Donkey Kong has more humor in his raised eyebrow than the straight-laced Peach or gender-confused Birdie. A small confession- when I restart in DKCR and our monkey heroes celebrate excitedly, I feel warm and good inside. It’s like when I figured out how to place the tape back on wrapped presents so no one would know I peeked. (sorry ma)

The 2-player mode is fun and great for a date but if you really want to get a feel for the game, 1-player is the way to go. Not only is there a chance for more health hearts, you can team up with Diddy Kong and his jet pack to help navigate especially tricky passes. Diddy rides Donkey (watch out for that monkey on your back, eh?) in such a way that it’s almost like Donkey is naked without his buddy. I should not be this attached to virtual monkeys. Oh, well.

This does not mean that I am kaput with CLoS but rather, I now am switching between the two games for variety and peace of mind.

Jess Grade-O-Rama: A

As is the inherent nature of gamers, we love a good console war. We take sides and defend our platforms of choice. There’s no rational reasoning for any of it. In the end, isn’t it really all about the games? Nonetheless, we have our favorites and will defend them to the death. Gamers are an eccentric bunch.

In the span of a couple of weeks, Nintendo revealed more information about their groundbreaking glasses-free 3D portable–the Nintendo 3DS–and Sony unveiled their next generation PlayStation Portable–tentatively titled the Next Generation Portable. We won’t see the NGP until the end of 2011 while the 3DS will be in consumer’s hands in March. Nintendo gets a bit of a head start but, one would have to say that Nintendo isn’t really ready to launch in March–their launch titles span a launch window of about 3 months with Kid Icarus Uprising and Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D not available on day one. The 3DS “launch” is effectively a launch in name only.

Assuming Sony will have their ducks in a row for the NGP launch, the real showing is going to come at the end of the year when both the 3DS and the NGP will be in full force.

Let the Battles Begin

Sony has not announced a price for the NGP although GameStop decided $999.99 was a good guess. The actual price will probably fall around $300 and $350 taking into account past Sony practices and the technological beast that the NGP is. This will make the Nintendo 3DS look like a much more affordable purchase even though the $250 price tag isn’t sitting well with many.

While the price is important, we all know that both portables will fall to much more acceptable price levels within a few years and then it’s going to come down to the games. The question then is: will 3D portable gaming enough of a revolution to best a modernized super PlayStation Portable?

The Nintendo DS offered features that were more than just a visual gimmick: dual screen, microphone, touch screen, and wireless connectivity. The 3DS is really just a more powerful DS with the ability to display 3D without glasses. Yes, it has two cameras and better wireless connectivity but, the NGP has all of those things minus the 3D capabilities.

I am still excited by the 3DS and first hand accounts does make it sound pretty awesome to play games in eye-popping 3D. However, if there’s one thing that I learned in the last five years, it is that Nintendo has generally left the more serious gamers in the cold. I enjoyed Twilight Princess, Metroid Other M, Super Mario Galaxy, New Super Mario Bros. DS, etc. but, my Wii collected more dust than it logged play time. I own more PS3 and XBOX 360 games each than I do Wii games.

Granted, I am not much for portable games anyway. I don’t own a PSP and probably wouldn’t play it any more than my DS. I play games on my iPhone about as much as do on my DS. For me, portable gaming is more or less a crap shoot. I don’t game on the go. However, the NGP looks like it can occupy a space much like the iPad. That intriques me.

I don’t own an iPad but, if I did, it would never leave my house. The NGP is bigger than the PSP which I thought was already pretty big. It looks like it is capable of current generation console gameplay experiences and then some with the dual analog sticks, front touch screen, and back touch pad. It just needs some amazing games and I think it can occupy the unchallenged third space of a portable home console.

Bottom Line

I love how the gaming industry continues to revolutionize technology and interactive experiences. No matter how we want to slice this, the 3DS is an impressive consumer innovation. Retailers have been pushing 3D TV’s that require you to wear glasses–who is going to watch a movie at home with silly glasses? 3D viewing should be glasses-free and the Nintendo 3DS will deliver just that.

The NGP is little short of a super computer in the palm of your hands. In proper Sony fashion, all their products have more raw power than whatever their competition has. (You have dual screens? We have quad cores! Eat it.) The games are going to look and perform even more incredibly than they did on the PSP.

I believe technology isn’t going to be the deciding factor. It is going to come down to how developers can best utilize each platform’s traits to create engaging and memorable experiences. If the 3DS allows for a Mario experience that I’ve never had before and will never forget–like Super Mario 64–then the 3DS will be golden. If the NGP does something similar then it will be golden.

It all comes down to the games. Speaking of which, wouldn’t it be nice to play Propaganda Lander on the NGP?

It is official! The Nintendo 3DS will be launching March 27th with a price tag of: $249.99?! Too high? Too low? I really don’t know.

Nintendo is being fairly coy on what games will be out on launch day. We know there is a 30 game launch window spanning roughly 3 months. So the 3DS doesn’t have as much of a launch date as it does a launch window. Gaming hardware–no matter how technologically groundbreaking it is–is of little use if there’s no games for it to play.

I’d feel pretty safe betting the house that Nintendo isn’t going to drop the price shortly after launch so we’re stuck with this price until the holidays at earliest. And even then I doubt a price drop will happen. Maybe holiday 2012. So deciding if the 3DS is worth it based on a reduced price is a moot discussion. And without knowing the launch titles, it is a moot point discussing whether it’ll be worth it on launch day.

So, I’m going to judge it’s worthiness through the launch window and assume that Nintendo will live up to their word and release all the games they plan to in those 3 months. Based on past history, we can be pretty sure that some games will fall through the cracks–especially first party Nintendo ones. A good deal are just remakes of older games so there is a lesser chance of delays.

3DS 125% Better Than the Wii?

The most obvious oddity–for a Nintendo product–is that a handheld gaming device is going to cost more than the home console. Is there a logical reason to why this is strange? Not really. There’s just been no historical precedent–that I know of–by Nintendo. Granted, there’s also no precedent for glasses-free 3D games so, precedence doesn’t account for much here.

The worth of a $250 3DS is in the eye of the beholder–and that beholder will need both eyes working. The most die hard Nintendo fan will be in line for the 3DS on launch day’s eve. There’s no stopping them. They are going to get their hands on it come hell or high water. These are sales Nintendo can confidently expect.

The real question is whether everyone else will pay $250 for a portable gaming device. The launch window titles suggest that Nintendo is aiming broadly. This isn’t the Wii launch where they clearly aimed for the less serious consumer. There are some serious games in this launch window like the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D–or what I’d call the Greatest Game Ever Made 3D–and Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D plus games like Animal Crossing and Nintendogs + Cats.

This is a broad spectrum, bait for everyone kind of launch.

For the more serious mobile gaming consumer, there are no other products coming soon to compete with their game buying dollars. The holidays have passed and no one else is launching new hardware. This price tag will be easier to swallow for them. There’s also enough games for this audience to justify the purchase: Resident Evil, Madden NFL, Street Fighter, and Splinter Cell to name a few and all in eye popping 3D! This audience isn’t just drawn to franchises they know but, also the magical new technologies that these games pioneer.

The real test of this price point’s success is going to lie with the less serious mobile gamer. Nintendo knows that they are competing with Apple. The iPod Touch is $229. Not very different price wise but, there’s enough apps in the Games category alone to drown Nintendo several times over. Nintendo isn’t a game factory and the App Store model is going to win in sheer magnitude every time.

Can the adorableness of Nintendogs + Cats, the coziness of Animal Crossing, and the often irresistible charm of Mario be enough to entice the less serious gaming consumer to shell out close to $300–3DS and a game–compared to $250–iPod Touch, Propaganda Lander, and a handful of other games and apps?

It is honestly too close to call.

Bottom Line

It is entirely unlike me to avoid making a stand but, I am torn myself! I am not a serious mobile gamer. I may not even be a casual mobile gamer. I do not mobile game. I have a DS. I have an iPhone. I don’t play games on either with any regularity. I am a Nintendo fan and the glasses-free 3D is exciting. I haven’t seen it in action so I can’t judge if the product is as mind blowing as I want to think it is. And I can’t make a stand based solely on my imagination.

I am sure that Nintendo will sell a lot of 3DS units. There is little doubt that there will be impressive numbers during the launch window. If there aren’t, Nintendo’s PR team will spin some up. However, I cannot confidently forecast the success of the device 6 months after launch and into the holidays. The launch itself is going to play a large role in building anticipation for the product during the holidays.

It might seem like the holidays are far away in March but, a poor launch will be anything but helpful if Nintendo wants to share stories of 3DS inventory shortages 8 months later.

I was sure of the success of the DS and the Wii. I don’t have that same sense of certainty now which may be telling but, I can’t bring myself to damn the product and the price. I will forecast a successful launch. Everything else I leave to the gods.

Lander-style games have been a long standing tradition in video games ever since Lunar Lander pioneered the sub-genre. There hasn’t been another lander game as iconic since 1969. While the concept is simple, executing it well is deceivingly complex. The mobile games revolution brought about by Apple’s App Store would not be complete without it’s own set of modern lander-style games.

For purposes of full disclosure–if it was’t already obvious–we are the game studio behind one of the games on this list: Propaganda Lander. There aren’t any conflicts of interest here as there really is no other game quite like Propaganda Lander available for the iPhone. After having played virtually every lander-style game on the App Store–certainly the most popular ones–I can confidently say that Propaganda Lander stands alone. That isn’t to say there aren’t other good lander games available as well. There are and that’s why we were able to make this list.

Every game on this list is worth their price tag and most are free or have a free version for you to try. I’ve forked over the money to try all these games so you don’t have to! Each best lander game belongs to a different category: adventure, puzzle, simulation, Lunar Lander remade, and Lunar Lander reimagined. These 5 were whittled down from an original list of 15 candidates so the competition was fairly tough.

Let’s kick this off with the Best Adventure Lander:

Best Adventure Lander

Propaganda Lander is a lander game unlike any other on this list or any other on the App Store. Propaganda Lander features five different worlds with different obstacles on each planet plus one of the most epic boss battles of any App Store game. Along with all the gameplay and action is a heartwarming story of David versus Goliath told through a series of animatics featuring a hilarious and professionally-voiced script. Once you’ve heard the things that the key villan, known as The Rickster, says, you’ll never forget them. You might even find yourself repeating some of them!

I realize that all this praise for Propaganda Lander coming from the people who developed it is going to have a little bias so I’ll quote from a review by AppSpy:

“Propaganda Lander isn’t the only Lander style game available for the App Store, but almost none can claim as much charm and style as ‘The Rickster’ on his universal campaign of glory.” -Andrew Nesvadba, AppSpy (4 out of 5)

By all means, read some of the reviews on the App Store itself and check out this thread from Touch Arcade. We’re proud of our game and we’re not afraid to show it! It is the most expensive game on this list at $4.99 but, this is an experience you cannot supplement with any other app on the store. Get it here.

Best Puzzle Lander

Gravity Lander is another lander game unlike any other. It is really a puzzle game that borrows lightly from the idea of landing a spaceship. The game comes with 52 missions and has a pleasing aesthetic look. Personally, I got stuck at level 45 and had a fun time getting there–I am still unsure of how anyone can pass level 45. The objective of each level is to get your lander from one part of the level to the landing zone by removing various obstacles, tilting the phone, and using a limited supply of thrusts.

If you like puzzle games, this is probably a much overlooked one. It is also free so there’s little commitment. It won’t hurt you to try it. I had a great time playing it. Get it here.

Best Simulation Lander

Lunar Module 3D is less a game and more a simulation of landing an actual lander. This game is done in 3D so you have free range of motion in 3D space. The object is to simply land your lander on the landing zones. I’m personally not a fan of realistic simulations but, for those who are this may be the best one available.

The controls felt good to me and is probably a good fit for fans of the original Lunar Lander who want to play it in a 3D world. The ability to swing not just left and right but in, out, and every other direction adds a new level of challenge to steering a lander. The game is $.99 and I’d only recommend it to people who are interested in more realism and less game. Get it here.

Best Lunar Lander Remake

Touch Lander is basically an exact remake of Lunar Lander. It is difficult like the original and uses vector style graphics like the original. The changes would be the use of the accelerometer to steer the lander and touching the screen for thrust. This is not a game for the light or heart much like the original.

Much like how the original arcade Lunar Lander was a coin robber and did little to comfort those without soft hands, this one is pretty much the same. The game costs $.99 and is as accurate a version of the original as you’ll find on the App Store. Get it here.

Best Lunar Lander Reimagining

Retro-X is like Touch Lander with a little modernization. While the art style could use improvements, it does employ 3D rendered environments so the game is possibly done in 3D but you can only move in 2D like class lander games. Retro-X is much more forgiving than the original Lunar Lander and uses scrolling levels. It employs the same accelerometer and touch screen system as Touch Lander.

Retro-X shares some gameplay similarities with Propaganda Lander in that you pick up little guys where you land and bring them back up to the mothership. Retro-X is available for free so there’s no harm in giving it a try. Get it here.

All right. I had a moment with this game. A moment that I am not proud of but happened none the less. It happened after Belmont sees his dead wife for the first time. I totally swooned. totally. This is a difficult admittance for me. That is why I felt the need to open up publicly. Belmont is brown-eyed dreamboat. There. I said it. Now I will sit and fret whether I will be condemned to the girly girl player’s camp or not. I usually have a hard time finding my video game avatars to have the necessary components to elicit sweetheartery. The Final Fantasy guys are too pretty. Dante from DMC is too flippant. Leon Kennedy could be cute but only if he learns how to simultaneously shoot and run. (I have to admit that I only make characters in Mass Effect that I would court.) But Belmont. Wowza.

Perhaps the reason I reacted to Belmont so “loinsingly” is that I am a long time Castlevania fan and Lords of Shadow is doing a great job of transferring what I imagined everything in Castlevania to look like to a new format. I have always had a crush on those from the Belmont clan. Back in the pixel art days I had a mental image of Simon Belmont that was vaguely pulled from his on-screen image. Lords of Shadow is just extending my deep-seated love of all things Belmont. This new Gabriel Belmont, somehow, fits the mental image I already had of an typical Castlevania protagonist. This is a good thing. This makes Castlevania: Lords of Shadow feel like a Castlevania game.

Apart from the mythology, Lords of Shadow plays very similar to a God of War game. Combos, mini-games, special battle power gauge that is filled by executing enemies, and a robust upgrade system are just a few of the Kratos inspired features. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as combat is truly awesome in God of War but it isn’t exactly innovative. It did make it quite easy for me to get into. The “metroidvania” mechanic of revisiting levels and areas as Belmont earns new skills is intact but without a map, things get a little confusing at times. I have always liked the chance to revisit areas, as in Metroid. This is because I am obsessive and need to get 100% complete on everything. That issue needs a whole other blog post but offering the chance to revisit areas seriously cuts down on my anxiety that I missed something important. The levels have been fun so far and I dig the enemies, so going back hasn’t felt overly grindish. Oh and the game looks great. The camera can be a little jittery. It, again, reminds me of the camera work in God of War I. The camera stays out of the rocks but occasionally there is such dramatic switch in perspective it seems that the whole world shimmied and moved a little to the left.

Overall, I have been enjoying Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. It’s a fun entry into the Castlevania world, much better than the other attempt at a 3D Castlevania, Lament of Innocence. Jeez. What a stinker that was.

Jess’s Grade-O-Rama: B+