If you ever wanted to see a retro-inspired turn based JRPG done right in today’s age, you don’t have to look any further than Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age on the GBA. Everything about both those games; The story, how it plays, how it used the hardware and how it add onto the barebones hack-and-slash formula made them masterpieces in my eyes. At that time, there wasn’t any other game like it that you could take with you wherever you go.

Camelot and Nintendo’s Golden Sun series garnered a respectable amount of followers. (Though this is nothing compared to another certain Nintendo RPG involving monsters being carried around in balls and fight at your command.) Back in those days, it was said that the series would be made into a trilogy. However The Lost Age ended up finishing the story and hopes of a third game were dashed after a couple of years.

A year and a half ago I thought this game was dead. Then, Nintendo dropped a bomb at their E3 2009 press conference by announcing that Golden Sun DS was coming out in the Spring of 2010.

I did things that I don’t think I’d go into detail here. Let’s just reference a certain satirical song by The Lonely Island and leave it that. In a nutshell, I just ate a grape.

Today, the golden sun rises again. The newest installment of this game is in my hands. Does it stack up to what the original two were like so far?

What is this game like?

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is the third installment in the series, taking 30 years after the end of The Lost Age. In this game you play as Matthew, the son of Isaac from the first game, as he and his friends embark on adventure to save Weyard from impending doom. One thing you must know about this game first, is that the core game mechanics have not been changed at all compared to the first two. Dark Dawn plays exactly like its predecessors before it. Whether or not it’s a good thing or a bad thing is up to you, but to me it’s a good thing because for the type of game it is, it was perfect.

As with the other entries in the Golden Sun series, Dark Dawn uses the old-school JRPG template as its base, with turn-based combat and character-separated inventories. That’s as far as the game’s basic systems go, however. As most series vets know, djinn add a whole layer of complexity and customization to the game. Each djinni belongs to one of the four main elements (Mercury – Water, Venus – Earth, Jupiter – Wind, and Mars – Fire) and has its own in battle ability that can be used by the character its assigned to when it is set to them. Any standby djinn can be used to summon various entities into battle to deal massive damage to your opponents. Having certain djinn set to each character affects that character’s class and what psynergies they can use. There are 70+ djinn total that have to be split evenly between up to eight characters which adds up to numerous possibilities in how to set your party up.

Outside of battle, you will come across dungeons with various puzzles in which you will have to make use of your psynergy to clear obstacles. To solve some of these, you may have to move a giant post with your Move psynergy, burn up a root blocking your path with Fireball, or cause a flower to rise into the air using Whirlwind. Dark Dawn introduces a couple of new field psynergies, except at this point the only one I’ve found so far is Grip, which is a venus element psynergy that allows you to pull yourself to an object across a gap or grab a faraway item that you can’t just walk to.

For those that haven’t played Golden Sun or Golden Sun: The Lost Age, the start of the game makes a semi-brief recap of the story from the first two games so that you understand the story so far. I found this to be a much better touch, especially since back in 2003 I ended up playing The Lost Age first and ended up really confusing me, because it just threw me into the game immediately where the first game left off and giving me no background. (I did eventually go back and play the first one, though.)

The presentation, both visibly and audibly, hasn’t changed very much from its GBA predecessors aside from the obvious upgrades. Dark Dawn chooses not to mess with a good formula and keeps the ambiance alive from the first two with lush environments and very suiting music, the most notable being the traditionally fast-paced battle music which is something that I really enjoyed before.

This game, however, has one seemingly glaring flaw, and that is the lack of backtracking. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn has multiple points in the story that act as a “point of no return,” cutting you off from the world you passed before and leaving you no chance to backtrack and collect any djinn or summon tablets that you missed. It’s possible to miss over half of the djinn because of this, and not all of them are apparent so I really suggest keeping a guide handy and knowing where these cutoff points are. In generally it’s really an annoyance; In most RPGs the game world expands as you advance further, but Dark Dawn closes it off as you finish with it.

Pros
Doesn’t change a formula that was perfect the first time around.
Able to effective take an old system and teach it new tricks for a great game.
Deep storyline

Cons
Lots of dialog, something that Camelot seems to do. Kraden still being alive doesn’t help with that.
World is cut off as you advance, can miss a LOT if you don’t know where things are.
“Onward!” after every cutscene is unnecessary.

Final Thoughts:
This game was a long time coming. It was said back in the days that Golden Sun was meant to be a trilogy and Dark Dawn opens the way for it to move onwards with this. I was really excited for this game, and I am thrilled to see it live up to my expectations and be just as enjoyable and amazing as the first two. Does the golden sun rise again? Definitely. I can’t wait to continue with this adventure. I just hope that these opinions remain the same as I complete the game.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is a game that I have been waiting for since it was announced at last year’s E3. Now out in Japan and hitting North American stores on Monday, I keep looking back to my preorder receipt, anticipating the game that it will get me on the day it arrives.

Earlier this week, I found an article on Destructoid where the developers seemed to draw inspiration from the commercial for the US release of Golden Sun back in 2001. For those that remember the style of GBA commercials around launch time, they usually took real life scenes and created them into something out of the game they’re advertising. The one for Golden Sun was quite bizarre:

Quite sure I’ve never gotten attacked by an opera house chandelier that turns into crystal dragon.

Now, as far as Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is concerned, Camelot seemed to have had a good memory, (especially for a commercial that didn’t even air in their country) and decided to make something of it.

And the rest is all history:

In this day and age, the Internet is bringing everyone together in new ways. From the days of usenet, to AOL chatrooms and IRC, followed by BBSes (now forums) we are now in an age where social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are commonplace.

For most of the past fifteen years, PC gaming has had its place online in one way or another. At the turn of the century, that started to spread to consoles, starting with the Dreamcast and XBOX. Today, every current-gen console and handheld is online and part of its own distinct service; XBOX Live for the 360, Playstation Network for the PS3 and PSP, and Nintendo WFC for the Wii and DS. Nowadays, many console games ship with multiplayer modes that are strictly online, where in the past we would have split screen. As time wore on, the Internet has reshaped the way we play games with other people.

However, this does not mean that the days of local multiplayer are gone forever.

The best example of that came today. Those that are in the know might have known today was the day that meetups for Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies were held today at Gamestops across North America. Taking advantage of this, Gamedeals (the suburban Vancouver independent video game retailer you might have heard me talk about here) decided to have a DQ9 meetup of its own. This store is now twice the size that it was when I went there last, bigger than any EB Games or Gamestop that I’ve ever been in, and converted one of the back rooms into a lounge. A small group of people had gathered to play the game’s unique and somewhat revolutionary multiplayer mode. We all tagged up with each other to exchange maps and players, then split off into a couple of separate groups: A bunch of people tackling some of the more difficult treasure maps, and us lower level people grinding and working through the game’s story. The whole meetup, which was also attended by store owner Brian and the Happy Console Gamer, was a smashing success and reintroduced me what it was like to be surrounded by a bunch of other people, all playing the same game as you and having fun doing it.

It was a local multiplayer experience that you don’t see very often in this day and age, back in the days where kids like myself would be sitting out in the backyard with their Game Boys, or grabbing a bunch of friends and playing Goldeneye. (And if you haven’t heard, the Wii version will have split screen multiplayer, just like its predecessor, the way it’s MEANT to be played.) Back in the days, your specs or ping didn’t matter, only your skill. Your opponent was only across the room, not across the world, and trash talk was completely acceptable in some circumstances. (Though, not like the absolute bullshit trolling you see on XBL)

On the handheld side of things, though, I’ve been noticing a trend: A increasing number of games that are being released on the DS and PSP these days are going local multiplayer only. There are many games nowadays on both systems that probably would’ve worked nicely with an online multiplayer mode do not include these options; Everything is limited to whatever opponents you can find out there, though that’s not always easy. Then again, I’ve found that online multiplayer experiences on handheld games don’t tend to be of the same connection quality as you would see on a console. I tend to find more laggy people playing Mariokart DS than I do playing Mariokart Wii, and seeing how online races on the console counterpart can have triple the number of participants of its handheld descendant, that’s saying a lot. When you think of it that way, it was time to turn back the clock a bit. Even if the 3DS makes improvements in the online multiplayer area, handelds, and most video games in general, are still fit for the local multiplayer experience. It just brings a feeling that you can’t experience online.

And that was apparent in a back room at Gamedeals today, with people collaborating and talking strategy in order to take down a tough boss, or laughing when Zoma flattened half of an average-leveled party in no time whatsoever. Many people have talked about the collective experience, when people come together, for various things, and I think it was shown today in a new light how gamers can be reunited through the split screen.

A more interesting thing actually came out of that meetup today, and that was a group called the “Handheld Gaming Group” for Vancouver-area gamers. The plan is to meet on a weekly or bi-weekly basis and just play a game together for a few hours; All local multiplayer. Even today, where online multiplayer is prevalent, people are sticking to their roots, getting together and gaming together. Some people nowadays might ask “Why?” But I say “Why not?” It’s how I grew up.

….holy shit.

Here’s all that they had to show for us today:

• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011)
  
• Mario Sports Mix (2011)
• WiiParty
• Just Dance 2
• Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (Q4 2010)
• Goldeneye 007 (Q4 2010)
• Epic Mickey
• A Kirby game that I can’t remember the name of
• Donkey Kong Country Returns (This game probably got the biggest applause out of every game there)
• Dragon Quest IX (July 2010)
• Metroid: Other M (August 31st, 2010)
• Nintendo 3DS Reveal
• Kid Icarus Uprising

As far as the 3DS is concerned, Nintendo announced a possible lineup of games including DJ Hero 3D, a Kingdom Hearts game, and even the possibility of a Metal Gear Solid game.

If you weren’t saying “Holy shit” when you started reading this, you are now.

UPDATE: Destructoid has posted a list of games/fanchises that are supposedly being developed for the 3DS here.

In October 2000, Pokemon Gold and Pokemon Silver had already been out in Japan for quite some time. I had a preorder for Gold, due out October 14th. It was a day I couldn’t wait for. I remember I didn’t sleep the night before and I showed up at the mall a half hour before it opened so I could pick the game up right away.  I took it home and played, played, played, and played the crap out of it. So much, in fact, that the only game that I have ever played more than my beloved Gold version is Tales of Symphonia.

Pokemon Gold and Silver introduced a lot of new things to the series that wasn’t around in Red and Blue: A real-time clock, day/night phases, pokemon genders, battle screen enhancements such as experience meters, new plot events, and Pokemon Crystal took it even further by introducing a playable female character, battle animations, a “second rival” (Eusine) and a forced legendary battle after the seventh badge; Something we’ve seen in every game after Crystal.

Nine and a half years later to the day on March 14th 2010, Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver made landfall in North America. Just like before I had it preordered, although I didn’t rush out to get it.  As I unboxed the big package that the game came in (which includes the Pokewalker, which I will get to in a bit) and started playing, I came to realize that not only has all of that been improved on, but things that had been added later on had also been put into this game, along with a few new things.

So, now that I have the remake of one of my most beloved games of all time, what do I think of it?

Game Overview

If you were gaming when Pokemon was all the rage back in the late 90s, then chances are you know what this game is already about. For those that are a bit newer, Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver are remakes of the second-gen games; Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal. Summed up, it’s basically the same game with a lot of updates an additions to bring it into this generation of gaming. Aside from the obvious and necessary visual update there are new things such as enhanced touch screen functionality, (you can pretty much do anything except for moving via the touch screen) and most other things added to complicate the game. (Such as pokemon abilities) Additions from other generations can be seen by simply looking at the new Johto region map: Gold/Silver was the only generation not to have a Safari Zone; This was fixed by adding one by Cianwood City. A Battle Frontier was added where the Battle Tower was in Crystal, and a new type of pokemon contest, a more “athletic”-like competition called the Pokethlon, was added to the national park to try something different from the third and fourth-generation contests. The most apparent addition, however, is one long-forgotten from Pokemon Yellow. When you first start the game, you’ll notice that your lead pokemon now follows behind you as you walk around. You can interact with it in a similar fashion as you could with Pikachu in Yellow, and usually you’ll get a quirky comment such as your pokemon “breathing fire” and whatnot. The game of course features all the multitudes of additions made to the original Gold/Silver that has been seen since, such as the real-time clock, day/night phases, trainer re-matches, etc…

Chances are, old gamers who played the original will like this just as much. If you’ve never experienced the original games, now is the time to get this and see what made me play the living hell out of my Gold version.

How does it play?

I earlier mentioned that you can do just about everything with the touch screen, aside from walking. I wasn’t lying; You seriously can. The menu is now a permanent fixture on your DS’ bottom screen and can be accessd with a single tap. All of the menu screens from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum have been moved to the bottom screen for a more streamlined touch interface, and you can also toggle your running shoes on and off. Any time you talk to someone and a response is required it will pop up on the bottom screen. The only thing that does not utliize the touch screen as I mentioned before is walking. Unfortunately because of the design, it tends not to be very left-handed friendly, so if you’re like me you’ll likely still be using the buttons if you only need to access something on the bottom screen very briefly.

Online functionality was expanded compared to Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. A new Wi-fi plaza has been set up that allows you to just muck around and play minigames with a random group of people, ending with a parade. The Global Trade Station from the fourth-gen has also gotten an upgrade as well, turning into Goldenrod City’s new Global Terminal. As well as having a GTS in the far corner, this allows you to access various functions, such as peeking into PC boxes that people have decided to share online, and viewing uploaded battle videos. All in all, the new online features don’t really add much to the game and maybe aside from being able to upload and share battle videos from your VS Recorder, is pretty much useless. I guess as an added plus, you can enter your Wii number into the game and Nintendo WFC will send a message to your Wii message board whenever a GTS trade is completed.

The general plot, catchable pokemon, and other things hasn’t really changed, although you do have the ability to trade with the fourth-gen as well as import pokemon from any of your GBA games (Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald and FireRed/LeafGreen) given that you’re not playing on a DSi.

Included with every copy of the game is a device called a pokewalker. This fancy pedometer designed to look like a poke ball is in fact a minigame in itself. You can take one of your pokemon out of your box, and transfer it to the pokewalker. As you walk around with the device in your pocket, it will gain experience based on the number of steps you take, as well as watts, which can either be used to try to find items or catch pokemon on the walker, or can be transferred back to your game in order to unlock new “areas” on the pokewalker, which basically don’t really do much other than offer up different varieties of pokemon and items.

All in all, it’s a still well-rounded package. Newbies to the series will indulge in all the extra features added into this game while veterans coming back for a second time will enjoy the nostalgia induced by it, much like with FireRed and LeafGreen six years ago.

Pros:

• Utilization of the touch screen
• Bringing a classic game up to speed with the current fourth-gen games
• Nostalgia

Cons:

• Introduces useless online features
• The overall formula hasn’t changed (Although, you can’t really expect it to for a remade classic)
• No Mudkip (Because we all like them… okay, this one isn’t a real con.)

Do I like it?

Let’s do the math. It’s a classic pokemon game that clocks in as my second-most played video game ever, remade for the DS. Why would I not?  But really, Nintendo did a bang-up job recreating the second-gen in these two titles.

But, without further ado, here are some of the games you can expect between now and the end of the year:

(Note: The following list is only for North America)

Xbox 360
Oct 13th: Brutal Legend
Oct 27th: DJ Hero
Oct 27th: Forza Motorsport 3
Oct 27th: Tekken 6
Oct 29th: GTA4: The Ballad of Gay Tony

Nov 3rd: Band Hero
Nov 10th: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Nov 17th: Assassin’s Creed II
Nov 17th: Left 4 Dead 2

Dec 22nd: Guitar Hero: Van Halen

Playstation 3
Sept 29th: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2

Oct 13th: Brutal Legend
Oct 20th: Ratchet & Clank: A Crack In Time
Oct 27th: DJ Hero
Oct 27th: Tekken 6

Nov 3rd: Band Hero
Nov 3rd: Lego Rock Band
Nov 10th: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Nov 17th: Assassins Creed II

Dec 22nd: Guitar Hero: Van Halen

Wii
Sept 29th: Dead Space Extraction

Oct 4th: Wii Fit Plus
Oct 6th: Spore Hero
Oct 13th: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
Oct 27th: DJ Hero

Nov 3rd: Band Hero
Nov 3rd: Lego Rock Band
Nov 3rd: Rabbids Go Home
Nov 3rd: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Nov 10th: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex
Nov 15th: New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Nov 27th: Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles

Dec 22nd: Guitar Hero: Van Halen
Dec 26th: Final Fantasy Chrystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers

(I also believe that Tatsunoku vs. Capcom is supposed to fit in somewhere here, unless I missed something.)

Nintendo DS
Sept 29th: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

Oct 6th: Spore Hero Arena
Oct 12th:  Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky
Oct 13th: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games

Nov 3rd: Lego Rock Band
Nov 10th: Band Hero
Nov 10th: Call of Duty Modern Warfare: Mobilized

Dec 7th: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

PSP
Oct 1st: PSPGo [Hardware]
Oct 1st: Gran Tourismo
Oct 1st: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona
Oct 13th: Half Minute Hero
Oct 20th: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Nov 17th: Little Big Planet

(And yes, that’s it for now.)

PC
Oct 13th: Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Oct 22nd: Windows 7 [Operating System]

Nov 10th: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Nov 17th: Left 4 Dead 2

As if we didn’t need another interation of the Nintendo DS already, the DSi, which launched in Japan late last year, arrived in the rest of the world over the past weekend. The system, which looks to be the “Game Boy Color” of the original DS, has a few subtle improvements and additions from ths DS and the DSLite, from its larger screens to its two cameras.  At a time where Nintendo would usually be long overdue for a new handheld, they’ve decided to add new innovations to their current one and leave the door open for titles exclusively for this enhancement.

I actually wasn’t looking to pick a DSi up this close to launch. It just so turned out that it wasn’t going to pull a Wii and sell out for the next year and a half on launch day and that I had the funds available for it without causing too much harship. Carpe diem? I guess.

There’s not much that there is to talk about that most people don’t already know about the DSi; the shop, the cameras, the music playback capabilities, and the possibility of “dual mode” DS games that have enhanced features on the DSi and games that will exclusively play on the latest iteration of the handheld are already known by everyone.  If you’re a DSi user, you’ll be happy to know that the power button is no longer in a place where your index finger is sitting on top of it, just waiting for you to twitch and accidentially turn it off.  The DSi boasts a software power button under the control pad that is quite difficult to press.  A little nifty feature that they did with the power button is the ability to hard-reset the system by briefly pressing it. When playing a DS game, this acts as a quick way back to the DSi menu.

Speaking of which, the new DSi menu is probably the first big change you’ll notice after finishing the initial setup. The DSi menu acts as a gateway to the different applications on the system, like the DSi menu, although a tad simpler.  All your applications/channels are displayed in a line along the bottom and it takes just a simple tap to launch them.  Moving things around the menu is a lot easier than the wii, as it involves dragging the application up, finding the two apps you want to put it between, and dragging it back down. (Two strokes of the stylus, compared to the Wii menu where you might have to move things around 4-5 times to get it in the order you want.  You can also move the DS card app to wherever you want it as well, unlike the Wii menu’s disc channel.)  The top screen displays the date, time, username, volume settings, and battery power; The DSi has a legitimate battery indicator unlike the DS/Lite’s that is just a green or red battery in a corner of the top screen.  As well, it will take photos from the camera application that are specially marked and display one of them on the top screen. (You can also take a photo from the DSi menu)

The camera isn’t just there for sitting pretty, though. The camera app also includes some image manipulation features that you can use to do some wacky things with your photos.  I haven’t really dove into the camera app all that much so I don’t really know what to say about it.

The sound app is quite neat, though, and has two purposes; The first is to record a bunch of short clips for messing around with, either with its pitch/speed morpher or the different filters that are included in the program.  For me, though, the sound app shines in its music playback ability.  You can throw your music onto an SD or SDHC card (up to 32GB) and listen to your collection on the go, or even fool around with it with options similar to that in the recording portion of the application.  The only catch is that your music has to be in AAC (.m4a, .mp4, or .3gp; NOT .m4p) format, but converting can be easily done using a conversion tool such as dbPowerAmp.  Some of the visulazations can be quite nifty as well; An Excitebike visualizer is shown in the screenshot, but there is also a Super Mario Bros. one where you can use the L and R buttons to have Mario or Luigi jump and collect the coins that Lakitu leaves behind.

There’s also a little easter egg if you leave the DSi idle on the recording screen:

Another noticable addition to the DSi is the DSi shop. Pretty much, if you have a Wii and you’ve used the Wii shop, and have downloaded virtual console and WiiWare games, you probably already know what this entails.  Here is where small, digitally available  games or applications called DSiWare, will become available.  Looking a the pricing for the current applications they go for as cheap as 200 DSi points, or in upwards of 800, but there are some that are made available for free as well such as the Dsi Browser.  To celebrate the DSi’s launch, or at least to coax you into getting one, Nintendo is giving 1000 free DSi points to anyone who connects to the shop between now and October 5th.  Points cost exactly the same as their Wii counterparts; in fact, I would be willing to bet that you can use a Wii points card in the DSi shop.  Wii points cards will be shortly rebraded as “Nintendo points cards” and can be used with either system, although they’ll still be called Wii points and DSi points on their respective system.

With the games I wanted to get with my free 1k DSi points coming out next week, I ended up downloading the DSi browser, just cause it was free.  (I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Nintendo will start charging 200-500 points for it after October.)  The browser itself, although I wouldn’t know for sure, isn’t much different from what I’ve seen about the Nintendo DS browser. It’s a bit slow and cumbersome so it probably isn’t desirable unless you’re just looking over something quickly or really don’t have any other means. It fully supports Javascript, but not Flash, so although you can still navigate around sites that makes good use of AJAX, you won’t be able to pass the time on YouTube.   You can also enter text with handwriting recognition, but it does seem a bit sketchy, especially when it keeps recognizing my apostrophes as tildes, or my “h” as an “n”.  By the way, this blog looks pretty good on the DSi, as you can probably see by the screenshot.

Nintendo DS games fill the whole screen; That’s every extra pixel on the DSi’s bigger screen. However, despite the bigger screens, you won’t notice any graphical glitches or pixelation as a result.  All games (like GTA Chinatown Wars on the right) look just as good, if not better, as they would on a DS or DS lite and aren’t in any way negatively impacted by the new technology.  You may even notice the better sound quality when you’re not using headphones.  Other improvements include the ability to access a wireless network with WPA security, but it will only work with DSi applications or DSiware. (In other words, if you’re trying to play a DS game online, you’re still hooped unless you’re still using WEP security on your router.)

Praises:

• Increased audio and video quality.
• Matte finish instead of the Lite’s gloss finish means less smudges and accidential drops.
• The ability to use your DSi like a music player
• DSiWare, although small, could eventually open the door to a virtual console for handheld systems. (DO IT, NINTENDO)
• Pretty robust camera functionality

Gripes:

• The touch screen feels a bit rough initially.
• Uses a less powerful battery than the DSLite, resulting in reduced battery time.
• Internal storage is only 256MB, half the size of the Wii’s. This comes out to just over 1000 blocks; Right off the bat the DSi browser takes up 96 blocks, nearly 10% of the DS’ internal storage. Didn’t Nintendo learn from the Wii’s lack-of-storage issues? (Just to note, though, the last DSi menu update happened well before Wii menu update 4.0, so it’s always possible that they’ll try to work in an SD card launching functionality.)
• Do we really need another music player or camera? (The DSi’s selling point for me was DSiware, really.)
• Quite a large number of launch units are defective. Although this is normal for any system (and definitely not bad as the 360) there is a staggering amount of launch units out there with misaligned screens and some with loose hinges.  My DSi has a very slightly crooked touch screen but as I learned, it’s not unusual to see this even on the DS or DSlite.

So, yeah. I’m thuroughly enjoying my DSi. I haven’t taken advantage of it too much yet, but I’m hoping that I’ll get some good mileage out of it.  I certainly like what Nintendo did with it; Although not all the technology is needed, they seem to be getting closer to their goal of making the DS an “all-purpose device.”

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I have a couple of top 10s lined up, but for now here’s something that I can effectively write about.

For once, American Fire Emblem fans had to go through what European gamers go through in general.  Believe it or not, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon has been out in Europe since mid December.  The game finally made landfall in the US early this week, although it sucks to be you if you live in the land down under right now as you still have a couple of months to wait.

Realizing that I had some extra cash to spend, I ended up picking this up.  Although I’m not all that great at this notorious difficult SRPG series, I’ve always picked them up starting with the first, but now how does the latest version of the game that started it all hold out?

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is the latest remake of the original 1990 Fire Emblem. You know… the one with that Marth guy that we only knew through Super Smash Bros. Brawl? This also marks the first time that a Fire Emblem game before the seventh has been released outside of Japan.

The game’s been nicely updated and takes full advantage of the DS, adding in touch controls (possibly running on a similar, if not the same engine that Advance Wars: Days of Ruin ran on.) and online features, making it the first game to do both.  One thing I can’t get used to is having unit information displaying on the top screen, leaving the bottom screen virtually uncluttered, save terrain info and an HP bar that is now placed on the top of each unit.  It’s a difficult transition to get used to after simply hovering over a unit for so long to get detailed stats.  As well, the battle draws out on the top screen while the “quick” version of the fight displays on the bottom. (Although I’m sure you can turn the top screen off, and there are no battle animations for healing, much like it is in Path of Radiance and onwards.)

One of the nice little features that have been brought over from Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn is the ability to highlight an enemy unit’s attack range on screen to allow you to better strategize and place your tank units in an effort to draw the enemy out into an ambush.  The guide functions from the later games are also made available here.  In addition to the original campaign, they’ve also added a short prologue to help ease players into the game, rather than thrust them right in. (As this is the original, I would expect that this will have been the hardest of the series to be released here, so it’s welcome enough for me.)

One of the most prominent features in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is the addition of online play.  For the first time in the series, you can now take your team online in an all-out battle against anyone else in the world.  Unlike in the past where you fought in an arena, this takes place on an actual battlefield and plays out as if it were in single player mode. This is something I would most likely look into, as I found the arena quite dull.  In addition to fighting online, you can also loan your characters out to another player that needs help getting through a harder part of the game. (It’s also a good option if you’re close to the end and your characters stats have been “RNG screwed.”)  The online shop is also there if you’re in need of an item but don’t have open access to an armory or vendor from where you are in the game.  I don’t know if maybe prices are influenced at what other people are buying, but it’s nice to see ways to possibly make the game a tad easier.

Intelligent Systems also added mid-chapter save points on certain maps in which you can save your game. (Instead of just suspending it.)  These save points are usually close to the boss unit which I guess is convenient enough for most.  However, I kind of see this as a double-edged sword, as this would allow you to save and not worry about having to restart the whole map if you lose a valuable unit, but at the same time, as this game still runs on the infamous “random number generator” it could also prove to be a crippler if the next sequence of numbers ends up giving the boss a critical. I would say if you want to use a save point mid-chapter, use it with due caution.

Other than that. This is it for all your Fire Emblem fans out there; An official translation of the original.  The general consensus among gamers so far has been a mixed bag, but I would say that if you’ve liked at least one of the games so far, pick this one up and dive right into it.  It’ll be worth it.

On a day where Canada is marking the one year countdown to the start of the opening ceremonies for the 2010 winter games, Sega decided to mark the occasion in their own way by uploading a teaser video on YouTube for their second Olympic-based game following their Mario and Sonic mashup of Beijing 2008, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games.

A short video, it starts with a computer generated flyby starting with the stone “Inukshuk” (which in reality is prominently displayed on Whistler mountain) culminating with Mario, Sonic, Eggman, and Wario at the boardercross start on [which I would believe to be] Cypress Mountain.  There’s nothing special about the video other than the announcement about the game itself.

The press release on Sega’s website goes into greater detail:

Developed by SEGA of Japan, under the guidance of Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games will take players to lifelike Olympic venues where they can choose from a legendary cast of playable characters, including new faces to the series to be revealed later this year. Following the phenomenal worldwide popularity of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, which has sold over 10 million copies worldwide, this fresh gaming experience will feature completely new Olympic Winter Games events from the official competition schedule including Alpine Skiing and Speed Skating with more events announced throughout the year.

It then goes on to detail some of the new gameplay options, such as co-op play, (which I’m guessing would entail either speed skating relays, figure skating, curling, or hockey) and the ability to use the Wii balance board.

Now, I wasn’t to big on Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games but even though I don’t think this game will be spectacular, I do get a warm feeling about this game; If not for the fact that this is Vancouver’s Olympics or my involvement in them that we’re talking about, then it’s more about the relation to winter sports and the fact that my main source of income involves hockey and that in the winter I ski on a weekly basis at one of the Olympic venues.  Even if this game isn’t all that great, you can probably expect me to be picking up both versions of this game.

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games is currently scheduled for release late this year on the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS.