Gaming on the Go! - 07/10/08

CONTENTS
ARTICLE 1 - Nintendo DSi - All the info you need. + My opinions.
ARTICLE 2 - LOOKBACK: Sega GameGear
ARTICLE 3 - Little Big Planet for the PSP? + My opinions.
ARTICLE 4 - REVIEW: Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (DS)
ARTICLE 5 - Wanna help me out? Of course you do.

Nintendo DSi - Info + My opinion.

Full Details + More pics.
The Nintendo DSi, announced October 2nd, is the third DS to be released.

Here are the most important facts, about the new DS:
LARGER SCREEN: The screen is now 3.25 inches instead of 3 inches.
LONGER STYLUS: The stylus is now 92mm as opposed to 87.5mm on the DS Lite.
BATTERY LIFE: On the lowest brightness, the DSi will last 9-14 hours, compared to the DS Lite's 15-19 hours.
IMPROVED SPEAKERS: The DSi will now have better speakers.
PRICE: Will retail at around $180 USD.
NO GBA SLOT: There will be no GBA slot, but there will be an SD slot.
CAMERAS: There will be 2 inbuilt cameras in the DSi.
MUSIC PLAYBACK: The DSi will be able to play music.

The larger screen, really was needed, because some games required it, since the screen was becoming cramped. Some problems may arise though with stretched graphics, or the touchscreen won't be accurate. Hopefully Nintendo has fixed this though.

The DSi can last 9-14 hours on the lowest brightness setting. The DS Lite can last 15-19. How could the battery life drop so dramatically? The bigger screen could make up for a little bit of it, and the better speakers, but 5 hours? No chance. Nintendo really dropped the ball on this.

2 inbuilt cameras? When am I gonna use this? I use my DS for games, and my Digital Camera for photos. Little kids don't wanna take photos, they wanna play fun games on their DS.

The lack of a GBA slot is the most noticeable difference. So, what now? I sold my GBA to get my DS Lite. So now how will I play my GBA games? Or Guitar Hero? This is one of the dumbest moves I've seen by Nintendo. Backwards compatibility was one of the main buying points for me when I got my DS, now that that's gone, I don't know why people would upgrade to the DSi.

If you don't have a DS, get a DS Lite.
If you only have a DS Phat, upgrade to the DSi.
If you have a DS Lite, keep it.

LOOKBACK: Sega GameGear

Sega GameGear Wikipedia Page
Woah! BLAST PROCESSING IN MY POCKET! Awesome.

The Sega GameGear tried to do what it's console equivalent couldn't, beat Nintendo. The SNES and the NES had undoubtedly beaten the Genesis, but could the GameGear beat the Gameboy? Let's find out.

The GameGear was released with a price tag of $150, compared to the Gameboy's $100. Which made parents almost automatically buy the Gameboy, putting the GameGear behind from the beginning.

Technologically, the GameGear, was far superior to the Gameboy. But, the people who bought the Gameboy, weren't very worried about the graphics of the system. So the technology alone wouldn't put the GameGear on top. So, what would?

Looking back, the GameGear did have an incredible library of games, which included great games like:
Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Mortal Kombat, BattleToads, Galaga, GunStar Heroes, Ninja Gaiden and WonderBoy.
But, I couldn't see many Mums wanting to play these games, so the parents ended up buying their kids the cheaper Gameboy, with more Family-oriented games available for it, such as Tetris, Mario, and Pokemon.

So, why did the GameGear fail?
Many different things caused the failure. The battery life, the size of it, the price, the lack of family friendly games, or just that it wasn't Nintendo. In the end, it was discontinued by Sega in 1997.

OVERVIEW: Great game library, bad battery life.

Little Big Planet for the PSP? + My opinions.

LittleBigPlanet PSP Job Listing
Interview with LBP Boss says a Portable version is possible.

LittleBigPlanet is a 2D platformer game exclusive to the PS3, which will be released on the 21st of October.

LittleBigPlanet, one of the killer apps for the PS3, may soon be coming to the PSP, if this Job listing is anything to go by. Even the LittleBigPlanet boss said that it's possible.

Since I don't own a PS3, if this game is released on the PSP, I'll certainly buy it. Obviously it'll be a stripped down version of the PS3 version, because of the PS3's power, but it'd still be a great experience, if done right. If there's some sort of an Online Multiplayer where you can upload/download levels, and Wireless Local Multiplayer.

This game would, without a doubt, get a lot of sales, considering that the PSP has sold more than the PS3 has. Which would generate loads of sales. A PSP version of this title, would make a lot of people happy, and it'd be a very smart move by the developers.

OVERVIEW: This better be true, if not... I want a PS3.

REVIEW: Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (DS)

Official Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood Website

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is an Action RPG produced by BioWare. It's won quite a few awards, including Best RPG of E3 08, and the Best DS Game of E3 08. But, was it as good as reviewers say?

The first thing you'll notice about this game when you first turn it on, will be it's impressive environments. They're very bright and colorful, which made me stick to this game, since most other RPG games I've played, have been very dark.

When you start the game, it's pretty hard to get used to, but trust me, when you've been playing for 10 minutes, you'll have gotten used to the controls, and then the game really starts getting fun.

It's the little features/extras about this game that I like, such as the Chao Garden, the Battle System, and no Random Battles!

The Chao Garden is a pretty cool feature, which allows me to change my characters abilities/strengths to suit certain battles, and to upgrade them, to help you kick those Sentry Bots asses!

The Battle System, though taken from Elite Beat Agents, is really fun, and engaging. It gives me something to do, even if it's not my turn. It lets me use my special POW moves, dodge their attacks, and make my attacks stronger. The battle system makes great use of the touchscreen, which doesn't feel forced.

Random battles, are what have annoyed me about previous RPG's I've played, because if I want to get somewhere, I don't want to fight some weak creature. Sonic Chronicles takes this feature away, and shows you the creatures, and you can choose to move away from them, and to not waste time.

Each creature has it's own special abilities, like Sonic can go through loops, Amy can smash crates, Knuckles can climb steep walls, Tails & Rouge can fly from ledge to ledge and Big can go through poison gases. You use all of these abilities throughout the game, so you have to stay on your toes and change your party often.

I'm not the biggest fan of Sonic, but I am a fan of RPG's. So, I wasn't sure what to expect from this game, but about 10 minutes into the game, I was hooked. I played for 4 hours straight, and I'm not even halfway through the game. So much stuff to do, infact, I searched through the first 3 areas, just to see what was there, and, I found some pretty interesting stuff. Loads of fun to be had here, thanks BioWare!

BUY OR NOT TO BUY: Certainly buy, this should be one of the games you keep for a while.

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