Blogcritics Category: Gaming: Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS Review: Gourmet Chef: Cook Your Way to Fame

Tall Writer — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:48:08 EDT

French restaurant simulation cooks up a medium blend of creativity and colorful characters while glazing over some expanded play opportunities.
This Nintendo DS exclusive title simulates the operation of a French restaurant as players advance through tactile challenges to become a master chef. This cooking encounter has high challenges and excellent touch interactions, but more modes, music and game content and could have catapulted this casual game into the stratosphere. The game's...

Nintendo DS Review: Petz Dogz Fashion

Tall Writer — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:09:33 EDT

This title stresses the fashion accessories but young players will love all dog life simulations and mini games as well.
This Ubisoft title continues the Petz game series, a continuation of the 2006 Dogz Fashion, where an adopted puppy takes center stage. Players get all the aesthetic controls plus a nice training/activity menu for their proud puppy with an 11-year-old girl as the main character. The graphics are strong compared to comparable titles, evening beating...

Nintendo DS Review: Teenage Zombies "Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys"

Matt Paprocki — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:08:38 EDT

When you think about it, the idea of a teenage zombie is kinda depressing...
Hearkening back to a bygone era in gaming, Teenage Zombies should have been a pleasant adventure following along the lines of The Lost Vikings. The player controls zombies, teenagers of course, that roam the land to look for an escape to each level. The problems are that the challenges are lacking, solutions are obvious, the action is clunky, and...

Nintendo DS Review: Crosswords DS

Tall Writer — Sun, 6 Jul 2008 19:37:34 EDT

A challenging game with 1000+ word puzzles and nice touch screen capabilities, but nothing highly innovative.
Word lovers rejoice! This all ages casual game eliminates hard copies with a high amount (1000+) of puzzles to solve. A fine game if the only goal is slicing through these word puzzles with some helpful assistance including an option that reveals wrong answers in red text. If not, players won’t find anything highly innovative, only adding...

Nintendo DS Review: River King: Mystic Valley

Peter M. J. Gross — Mon, 2 Jun 2008 03:02:18 EDT

It's fishing. Lots and lots of fishing.
River King: Mystic Valley is a game about fishing. It's about becoming the best fisherman you can be in order to catch the legendary, one-of-a-kind River King, but if you don't like the idea of a fishing mini-game drawn out to a game-length endeavor, then you should steer clear. Be prepared to spend a lot of time with a rod, because the main...

Nintendo DS Review: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Brian Szabelski — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:06:20 EDT

A whimsical and fun handheld adventure that is (so-far) the best game on the DS in 2008.
The DS is in a period of uncertainty. As the handheld becomes more bottled up with quick collections of mini-games and other games geared towards the casual gamer (Imagine Babiez, anyone?), it's becoming a little harder to find true quality games on the DS.Thankfully, Professor Layton and the Curious Village is one of those titles, with appeal to...

Nintendo DS Review: Insecticide

Peter M. J. Gross — Mon, 5 May 2008 20:27:10 EDT

Probably the most fun you'll have with a game full of bugs.
Insecticide, published by Gamecock Media Group and created by Crackpot Entertainment, is a game for the Nintendo DS that takes a bold risk, trying to straddle the gap between adventure and action games. It's a hard-boiled detective mystery containing both action and adventure elements, set in a futuristic city full of anthropomorphic bugs.The...

Nintendo DS Review: Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword

Mark Kalriess — Fri, 2 May 2008 17:06:39 EDT

Stylus scribbling replaces button mashing.
The Ninja Gaiden series comes to the DS in a novel way. Instead of a being precise button masher like its Xbox brethren, the DS debut is a pen scribbler. See, almost all controls are performed by dragging the stylus across the screen. You hold the pen down where you want your ninja to run. You slash vertically and horizontally to attack enemies....

Nintendo DS Review: Nanostray 2

Matt Paprocki — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 09:56:25 EDT

Another excellent outing for this fresh shooter series.
With its spectacular visuals and hardened veteran-style scoring system, Nanostray won over the scrolling shooter crowd on the DS upon its release. The lackluster touch screen implementation aside, Majesco’s original title was otherwise a success. Nanostray 2 fixes the control problems and delivers more of everything to make it a compelling...

Nintendo DS Review: Lost in Blue 3

Tall Writer — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:10:41 EDT

This third installment might charm new fans while veteran players will enjoy new challenges, expanded game play and improved graphics.
This third installment might charm new fans while veteran players will enjoy new challenges, expanded game play and improved graphics. The familiar, selective play mirrors several other role playing/unique titles, but this series sticks to its roots as players progress to different areas/temporary homes into more environments including jungles,...