Picross
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New Nintendo eShop releases: Mario Kart 8 DLC, Sonic Boom
Mario Kart 8's first major content pack is available now, and for $8 and 1GB of Wii U space you can fill your racing roster with the likes of Link, the Master Cycle, and a circuit based on F-Zero's Mute City. Or, to summarize for numerophiles, three characters, four karts and eight tracks. Don't forget, you can also get the DLC as part of the $12 package that bundles in a pre-order for the second pack, due in March 2015. The eShop's not just about Mario Kart 8 this week... 'cos Mario Kart: Super Circuit brings GBA racing to the Wii U Virtual Console. We josh, kartophobes, there's plenty of other stuff to download. There are the console and handheld editions of Sonic Boom, the Wii U port of pop-up beauty Tengami (check out our impressions of it on iOS), and the belated stateside arrival of Pokemon Trading Card Game on 3DS Virtual Console. Since it's November and another one of those content-packed weeks, our digestible list of new releases should prove handy. You'll find that below the break. and if you're after sales and permanent discounts, point your clicker here.
Report: Picross e4 heading to 3DS eShop in April
3DS eShop puzzler Picross e4 is headed stateside next month, developer Jupiter confirmed in a statement to Nintendo Everything this week. Picross e4 updates the series' number-crunching gameplay formula with new 20x15 puzzles, in addition to smaller-sized challenges. Players who purchased any of the three previous Picross e games can also unlock extra puzzles in Picross e4 by importing their save data. Picross e4 will hit the eShop in North America and Europe by the end of April. [Image: Nintendo]
Review: Picross 3D
I hate picross. I've never been able to figure out the "trick" to the traditional square picross puzzle, driving myself to frustration any time I try to teach myself how to fill in the correct number of squares on a grid to draw a picture. As a result, I've had to let games like Picross DS pass me by while others raved. Picross 3D, then, seemed like something of a nightmare: the same idea as picross, but applied to three-dimensional structures, adding another layer of complexity. And that's why I was very surprised to find myself hopelessly addicted to Picross 3D. And I mean addicted, in that way that only a puzzle game can hook someone. I've been up later than intended every night since I got it, in unintentional marathons of "one more puzzle." %Gallery-86436%
Picross 3D shaping up for May 3 release
If you've been looking for a way to tease your brain into an overloaded, catatonic state while on the go, Nintendo and HAL Laboratory will soon deliver an application that should aid in your endeavor. Picross 3D, the DS puzzle game that hit Japanese retail last March, will be released on May 3 in North America. The announcement came during today's Nintendo Media Summit and added that the game would receive DLC in the form of extra puzzles, à la Professor Layton. With continued support like that, Picross 3D could be capable of frying our brains for the foreseeable future. We can't wait. %Gallery-86436%
Rumor: Picross 3D in Europe this February
Picross 3D for DS was one of the titles announced by Nintendo at E3, but not dated or mentioned again, like Line Attack Heroes, Monado: The End of the World, and, until recently, WarioWare DIY. According to posts on Cubed3 and NeoGAF, the puzzler will be out on February 5 -- in Europe. Though Nintendo UK still lists the date as "TBA", Cubed3 reports that Nintendo has confirmed the February 5 date. Picross 3D, developed by HAL Laboratory, is based on the familiar Picross puzzle, in which players make marks in squares based on clues about how many in each row or column should be numbered. But Picross 3D starts with cubes instead of squares, with each mark chipping away at the cube to reveal a voxel-based 3D object. There is no release date, rumored or otherwise, for North America, though the game was announced for release here. %Gallery-65414%
Swag Saturday: Picross and CrossworDS (DS) [update]
Update: Comments have been closed and winners will be contacted tomorrow (or, ya know, pretty soon). Thanks for playing, every one! Check those inboxes and please by all means join us next week.Interested in using your Nintendo DS for a ton of puzzle solving this summer? We'll bet you are, you little puzzle solver, you! That's why we're offering up a duo of puzzle games this weekend for Swag Saturday with Picross DS and CrossworDS. We're not so much for the crossword puzzles, but we do love a good handheld puzzle game (we're looking at you, Planet Puzzle League), and so we're hoping you could suggest your favorite overlooked handheld puzzle game, dearest reader. You'll have 24 hours to tell us in the comments section after the break so get rambling, ramblers! Leave a comment with your favorite overlooked handheld puzzle game. (That means it can be on DS or GameBoy or PSP or the iPhone, etc. -- any handheld!) You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada, excluding Quebec. (Kisses, citizens of Québec!!) Limit 1 entry per person. This entry period ends at 8:01 pm ET on Sunday, August 9. We'll randomly select two winners at that time to receive: one copy of either Picross DS (ARV $11.50) or CrossworDS (ARV $19.99) (first to answer email gets to choose). For a list of complete rules, click here %Gallery-4773%%Gallery-3413%
3D Picross causing meltdown of Japanese brains in March
Quiet as you like, Rittai Picross (Picross 3D) recently slinked its way onto Nintendo of Japan's release schedule, with a launch date of March 12th. As a puzzle game, Picross has never really relied on lashings of dialog, so this may just be import-friendly enough to consider buying!That said, we do sort of fear this funky-looking update to the excellent first game. If any puzzle game on the DS has made us feel thick as mince, it was the later stages of Picross. Adding a third dimension risks driving us ever so slightly mad, as we attempt to wrap our mushy minds around the concept.%Gallery-33412%[Via Siliconera]
Gaming to Go: Picross DS
Math is fun! Or something. Normal people likely don't put much stock in the words, but every now and then a complex equation or three can be a great way to get the mathy part of your brain up and going. You could also just play Picross DS, an interesting take on the puzzle genre that emphasizes numbers and clever calculations over explosions and unbridled quirkiness. That probably paints Picross in one of the least interesting ways possible, but, uh, just run with it, okay?Picross is fun. I didn't fully expect it to be the first time I fired it up, but wonders never cease when a refreshingly different kind of puzzle and the charm of Nintendo's Touch Generation series unite in nerdy, digital glory. With a ton of puzzles to conquer and numerous different modes of play, Picross certainly has a bevy of content to work with, transforming it into a title definitely worth snagging for your daily commute. Sure, some of those later puzzles might take longer than your lunch break, but Picross DS is still a supremely portable title, and one definitely suited for this week's edition of Gaming to Go. Want to hear more? Click that big button there and start believing in the power of numbers.%Gallery-4794% #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >>
Nintendo goes trademark crazy, Picross 3D and others heading west?
Nintendo recently filed a veritable smorgasboard of DS-related trademarks in Japan. How many is a smorgasboard? In this case, it's forty. All but three of the terms are preceded by either "DS" or "DSi," and the mind can only boggle at the potential of some of these: DSiMovie, DSiMusic, DSiMail, DSArcade, DSBook, DSCreator, DSLive, and DSPhone were among the names that excited us the most. A full list is after the break.Siliconera dug all of these up from the Japanese trademark database, along with a couple of other interesting tidbits, including potential English names for Tomodachi Connection (in which players get to be friends with Mii versions of Miyamoto, Reggie, and Iwata!) and Ritai Picross (Picross 3D), which we definitely wouldn't rule out for a western release.Obviously, none of these might mean a single damn thing. Companies indulge in trademarking all the time, simply to protect future ideas. Time, as always, will tell.%Gallery-33412%
DS Fanboy's Media Summit screen round-up
The worst bit about big industry events for impatient bloggers and readers? The game assets. Oh Lordy, the assets. An absolute landslide of screens, usually scattered about across, ooh, dozens of pages. But not at DS Fanboy! Not on our watch! Because we wub you, readers, we've collected a big old stack of new screens for your viewing pleasure and placed them all after the break of just one post. This post, in fact. From the well-known to the obscure, we'd be amazed if there's not at least one game that appeals to everyone past that line of blue text. Mario & Luigi 3, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (right), Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel, Shining Force Feather, and Picross 3D is only scratching the surface, so make the jump!
New DS games make their Stage Debut
The DSi wasn't the only DS news out of Japan. A video showing Nintendo's upcoming lineup just happens to reveal several upcoming games for the handheld, all published by Nintendo themselves. It makes E3 look like a cruel joke. We've culled the totally new games from the video and listed them here, along with the games that we knew about but haven't seen video of yet. We'll have more info about each of these games when ... it exists! In the meantime, oh man new Mario & Luigi! Wagamama Fashion Girls' Mode: a fashion game from Nintendo! Neat. Aruite Wakaru Seikatsu Rhythm DS: The fitness game with the pedometer. Sekai no Gohan Shaberu! DS O-Ryouri Navi: a sequel to Cooking Guide that is based on recipes from around the world -- we're guessing the exact ones featured in other regions' versions of Cooking Guide. Some kind of fortune telling thing involving tarot and palm reading. Taboo: The Sixth Sense 2K9! Tomodachi Collection, some kind of thing that lets you interact with Miis. This looks like none other than a resurrected Stage Debut! Mario & Luigi RPG 3!!! Made in Wario/Wario Ware, although Wario's name doesn't actually appear in the tentative title. It's, like "Made in Series" or something. But it's clearly Wario. A brutally insane 3D Picross.
DS Fanboy poll: Demos: do you dabble?
The Wii's Nintendo Channel, then. It's enjoyed a somewhat shaky start if you ask us, particularly where DS demos are concerned. Although we love occasionally receiving bite-size portions of games such as Arkanoid, most demos are ... well, to be frank, they're old. Not just regular old, either, but Jesus and his pet triceratops trekking across the ravaged plains of Pangaea old.The situation is especially grim in Europe, where Tetris DS (original release date: April 2006) has just joined a list that includes (amongst others) the ancient likes of Big Brain Academy, Brain Training, Mario Kart DS, 42 All-Time Classics, and Sight Training. Needless to say, we've only downloaded a small handful of games since the service debuted. To us, a demo of Brain Training is about as useful as a plasticine climbing frame.Then again, maybe we're being overly critical, grumbly bastards. Maybe some of you good people actually get quite a lot of use out of the service. So we thought we'd throw this issue open to you, our beloved readers, and ask: how often do you use the Nintendo Channel demos? %Poll-15495%
PAL Nintendo Channel DS demos are training-tastic
Training, training, training. That's all us Europeans and Aussies want, right? Day in, day out, there we are, blurting "blue" into our handhelds like obedient farmyard animals, and being told that we're doing it wrong and that we're thuddingly simple. We know this happens, because the sales charts tell us so, and now the first DS demos on the local Nintendo Channel (released on all PAL consoles today) reflect the self-improvement obsession that has swept many PAL countries.So, instead of getting demos of totally rad, new games such as Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (which is what the U.S. got), we get four training games (only one of which came out this year) from the seven titles available, and adverts for Nintendogs and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. The only bright spot? A couple of tracks from Mario Kart DS, and a Picross demo, but those are hardly fresh titles.We're not usually the types to look a gift horse in the mouth, but there's a stunning lack of variety on display here, Nintendo. Hit the break for the infuriatingly vanilla list.
More picross comes to the Wii
Assuming you have the Opera Channel and an internet-capable Wii, there are sites that let you play picross with Wiimote compatibility for free. We wouldn't mind paying for a picross game, though, as long as it offered fun gameplay and came at a budget price. That's why we're once again jealous of Japanese gamers, who are getting not one but two picross-esque games for us to envy.The first comes from Hudson, and is a part of the company's puzzle series. This disc-based game (called Puzzle Series Vol.2: Illustlogic + Colorful Logic) offers 600 picross puzzles, only some of them are doubly hard since they involve multiple colors.The second title is a WiiWare game that we already told you about, called Oekaki Logic. Is there a likelihood of either of these games getting localized? Probably not, unfortunately, but we really hope that Hudson comes through on this one.[Via Siliconera]
Compile Heart goes puzzle crazy
Japanese developer Compile Heart, which contains members of Compile (who developed Puyo Puyo and just about everything else we have loved) plans to release a three-part (so far) series of puzzle games for the DS, called the Puzzle Mate series. Crossword Mate features Japanese crosswords, Nanpure Mate is a "number place" (also known as sudoku) game, and Oekaki Mate is a picross collection. These, however, differ from other such products in one important way: the puzzles are large. All three collections feature larger playing fields than usual, which leads to things like the nightmarish multi-screen picross puzzle seen in the screenshot here.And speaking of nightmarish, coulrophobes will be terrified to see the mascot for this series, a clown drawn by Famitsu artist Susumu Matsushita.Read - Crossword MateRead - Nanpure MateRead - Oekaki Mate
Best of the Rest: Kyle's picks for 2007
kdice (Web)Take Risk. Simplify the rules and create a bunch of new maps. Add an intuitive web-based interface and a complex worldwide ranking system. Make the game entirely free to play and attract a solid stable of online players, available at all hours of the day. The result is one of the most addictive strategy games you've probably never heard of.
Best of the Rest: Zack's Picks of 2007
Phase (iPod)A must-have game on the iPod? Yep. I'm as surprised as anyone. Apple's music player puttered through Tetris remakes, solitaire, and other obvious clones until Phase established some gaming muscle. (And sure, Musika gets some credit for being unique, but it's more visualizer than game.) Developed by Harmonix, Phase is a simple Guitar Hero-style beat-matching game. Tap a fifth-generation (video) iPod, Classic, or recent Nano's left, center, and right buttons in time with the music and on-screen prompts. Slide a finger around the wheel to catch falling dots. And that's it. The game becomes so much more because of its quirky visuals and ability to sync to your own songs. Nearly any genre works, especially music with a percussive bass line. While the console rhythm games let you buy new track downloads, Phase's unlimited replay with your own songs makes it a no-brainer for a portable music player.
Best of the Rest: James' Picks of 2007
Pac-Man Championship Edition (XBLA) If not worthy of a Top 10 spot, then certainly Pac-Man deserves Joystiq's 'Comeback Player of the Year' award. I covered Pac-Man CE's overblown launch in early June, but it wasn't until I became a devoted player at home that I realized the sheer genius of the first true Pac-Man sequel since 'the Ms.' hit the maze in '82. Designer Toru Iwatani managed to scrape off a quarter-century of rust and fashion a remarkably relevant game that held me down during an otherwise punishing summer drought. Geometry Wars might be the most celebrated, but Pac-Man CE is Xbox Live Arcade's true star.
Bad for your health, bad for your DS
You can easily predict the next couple of panels in this strip, but that doesn't make it any less funny! This cautionary comic reminds all the smokers out there why they shouldn't play with their Nintendo DS while sucking on a cigarette -- like smoking, it's just not a good idea in general! Put out that cancer stick, spray some Febreze around you, and join us past the break for the rest of this tragic, NSFW tale.See also: Cheap stylus gifts that aren't really styli
Readers' Choice: The best of 2007
It was a good year for games with titles beginning with the letter "P" -- at least, according to you guys. When asked, you didn't hesitate to rattle off some of your favorite titles of the year, from Phantom Hourglass to Puzzle Quest, and now the time has come to crown the winner. Just to make things interesting, we're allowing you to choose more than one game -- and to vote more than once (though only once per day). So get in there and duke it out, DS fans. There's a title at stake.Tomorrow, we'll take a look at some of the year's other great games, those selections that didn't receive quite as much attention when we asked you to name your favorites, but all the same, games that are deserving of a little extra time in the spotlight. What's your pick for the best game of 2007? Bleach: Blade of Fate Contra 4 Etrian Odyssey Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass Picross Pokemon Diamond/Pearl Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
