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Bury the Shovelware: Wiffle Ball
Today marks the first pitch in one of the United States' oldest and most cherished traditions. The World Series is a notable custom in American history, as it signifies the annual pinnacle of the nation's de facto pastime. This year, both teams have much on the line. Though similar lines are hurled about before nearly every major sporting event, it holds special weight for this year's World Series participants. The Tampa Bay Rays have made history by being the first team in the franchise's 10-year history to win over half of the games of the regular season, let alone becoming division and league champions. And after finishing the 2007 season as the worst team in all of baseball, they've achieved a miraculous feat by propelling themselves to the top game. After defeating the Red Sox on Sunday night, they've dethroned the previous World Series champions and now have their sites set on claiming that title. With the momentum that they're carrying, it'll be difficult to slow them down. But in their way lies the Philadelphia Phillies, a team with so much tenacity that it can cause bleeding of the soul. After handily disposing of the Brewers and the Dodgers, the Phillies look to bring a World Series title home to championship-starved Philadelphia, a city which hasn't won a major sporting championship title since the Sixers swept the Los Angeles Lakers in 1983. With so much on the line, the 2008 World Series is an event that no fan of the sport should miss. Wiffle Ball for the DS? Not so much. Pedigree Well, I could write a whole paragraph about the publisher / developer Destination Software Inc., also known as DSI Games. But I think all that needs to be said is that they were willing to publish Deal or No Deal, which is perhaps the worst game I've ever played. While that would be fun and easy, I guess I can elaborate by stating that their catalogue is comprised of many shovelware suspects, some of which I never even knew about. Looks like I'll be doing Bury the Shovelware for a long time! (Sorry, Nick) Surprisingly, they did publish the excellent port of kill.switch for the GBA.
Being a Wordmaster won't cost much
It's not often that a game goes on sale before it's even released, not that we're complaining. If you enjoy word games, then, you might want to consider picking up Wordmaster at Amazon. Although the MSRP is $19.99, Amazon is currently offering the game for $13.99, which is as budget as it gets for a new release.The title doesn't even come out until July 15th, but you can preorder now if you want to secure the game for cheap. As for what Wordmaster is? Well, think Lingo or Jotto, only on the DS. On a side note, you can also pick up Petz: Hamsterz 2 as Amazon's "Deal of the Day" for $11.99. Um, woot?[Via CAG]Source: Wordmaster for $13.99Source: Petz: Hamsterz 2 for $11.99 (today only)
Ditch the dictionary, become a Wordmaster
Anyone remember that old board game Mastermind? You would guess a sequence of colors a number of times until you find the right combination, thus making you a mastermind of colors -- always a good topic of conversation. That classic game is the inspiration for Wordmaster, a new DS title using letters instead of colors. Wordsmiths will unite when the game launches this month!You'll be decoding six-letter words by writing your guesses for each letter on the touch screen. Imagine the secret word is "winner". You'll need to enter letters at random, and automatic hints will tell you how many letters are correct. Difficulty can increase by reducing the number of guesses you can take per round, and if you don't correctly guess that the word is "winner", then you are a "loser."It might sound incredibly simple and/or lame, but let's not forget the thousands of people who sit there solving Sudoku puzzles all day. Those guys are the real winners.
Free SHMUPs: OpenTyrian DS and World Reborn
What a great time to be a handheld shoot-em-up fan! On the commercial front, Nanostray 2 just hit store shelves and Ketsui DS is still on the way. Homebrew gamers had their lives changes by Super Wings's release last week, and now they have two more titles to play with -- OpenTyrian DS and World Reborn. OpenTyrian DS (v0.2) is a port of vertical-scrolling shooter Tyrian, originally a PC title. Players pick up cash while blasting their way through stages which they can then spend on ship modifications in between levels. There's a huge variety of upgrades available for purchase -- primary and secondary weapons (with 11 levels), "sidekicks," shields, energy generators, and even alternate ships. If you have a flaschart handy, you definitely need to try this one out.As for World Reborn, this horizontal-scrolling SHMUP (with an RPG leveling system) was originally intended as a commercial GBA release and even had a DS sequel planned for a minute, but the game never made it to the retail market. Though developer NeoPong (now defunct) had plans to publish World Reborn with DSI Games, that deal fell through, and the studio has decided to put up the ROM for free rather than pack it away in a warehouse, Indiana Jones-style. Jump past the post break for a trailer of the game. Read - Download OpenTyrian DSRead - Download World Reborn
DS Fanboy Review: Barnyard Blast: Swine of the Night
It takes a special kind of person to get into Barnyard Blast: Swine of the Night. It's an action platformer parodying the original Castlevania and starring a cowboy pig. If you're one of those readers who comes here every day to read about eccentric titles that hardly anyone else cares about, this one's right up your alley! Even executive producer Yan Marchal wasn't initially fond of the game: "I was busy with other vital issues in the studio while this took place ... Our 3D artist likes designing pigs, while our 2D artists are fans of Castlevania and Ghosts'n Goblins. When I took the project back in hand, I thought it would be unmarketable as such, but the timeline was too tight to reshape it before San Francisco's [2007] GDC."A few of those "special kind of people" took to the concept, however, so Yan and Sanuk Software were able to sell Barnyard Blast to a publisher, and the rest is history. History being a cowboy pig fighting the undead.These are strange times we live in.%Gallery-5241%
Barnyard Blunder
Before we huff, puff, and blow our Barnyard Blast: Swine of the Night review down, let's have a quick look at the Castlevania parody's cover design. Notice anything wonky? Look directly underneath the game logo and awesome subtitle!
Bring home the bacon this Friday
We were quite proud of ourselves for contributing the subtitle to Barnyard Blast: Swine of the Night, but Insert Credit's Brandon Sheffield was actually brought in to help rewrite the script! Why don't developers ever hire us to help plot out their projects? We have this wonderful idea for a game in which you play a cat who has to wake people up from their nightmares. Though Brandon doesn't exactly give the Castlevania parody his vote of confidence, citing its linearity and difficulty as rough points, he does promise a plethora of "retro game meme" references.Robert: Julia, I alone can save our son!Julia: Robert, my love! I just want to tell you ...Robert: No, no, don't try to stop me, Julia!Julia: Get some bread while you're out, okay?Robert: ...Robert: The time for bread has passed ... perhaps forever. I'm off!Julia: It's dangerous to go alone! Take this.Menu: Get equipped with: Slayer WhipJeuxvideo already has an unflattering review posted with new screenshots (viewable in the gallery below) and video from the first eleven-and-a-half minutes of the game's French release. Koji Igarashi apparently tried out the game and gave Brandon advice on possible improvements, so if enough copies sell, maybe we'll see a much-more-polished sequel? Barnyard Blast will be available for public purchase this Friday, but you likely won't find it anywhere outside of Amazon, where it's listed for a bargain $19.99. %Gallery-5241%See also: DS Fanboy interviews Barnyard Blast's Yan MarchalRead - Barnyard Blast out FridayRead - Jeuxvideo review
On sale: Driver and other games of little import
These aren't exactly the best Amazon deals we've featured here, but you can't have gold every time. Perhaps your kids will enjoy these games? Or if you've got a pet robot, you could maybe feed him these discs? Not if you're actually fond of him, though. Driver: Parallel Lines - $14.99 Disney's Chicken Little: Ace in Action - $15.79 Arctic Tale - $19.99 Do robots even eat CDs? Or is that just a myth? We might never know![Via CAG]
DS Daily: Jump on the hype train
It's no secret that certain games excite us (why hello there, Contra 4), and sometimes our tastes are a little off-the-wall. We can't help it; we're suckers for anything with an extra dash of humor, and that's why we're all over Barnyard Blast like flies on ... well ... let's say piles of manure. And you know what? If IGN's Matt Casamassina can conduct a hype train, so can we. This is it. We're kicking off the official Barnyard Blast hype train. Maybe it doesn't have pirates, but it does have monster-slaying pigs in a Castlevania send-up that sounds absolutely hilarious -- and really, what more do we need?Plus, y'know, our own Eric Caoili named it. That makes it extra awesome.
Barnyard Blast porks your DS January, 2008
Not wanting to steal Phantom Hourglass' title as the 2007 Game of the Year, DSI Games politely pushed the release of its Barnyard Blast to early 2008, January 15th to be specific. Yes, that's unfortunate for 2008's GOTY contenders, but there's a kitty with a thirst for its mother's milk whom you can refer your complaints to.Being avid readers of our site, you'll remember that Barnyard Blast is a 2D action platformer styled after the original Castlevania games on the NES. You play as Robert Belmart, a cowboy pig and monster slayer, blasting your way through a variety of parodied horror levels, such as "the old creepy wooden jail" and "the castle of intolerable pain."Developer Sanuk Software revealed more about the game in a recent interview with us just a couple of months ago. If you haven't read it yet, now's your chance to roll around in the mud with it!
Bargain of Fury
Let's not kid ourselves here -- we would be lucky if Balls of Fury DS turned out to be as "good" as the terrible table-tennis/martial-arts film it's based on. Judging by this markdown on the game only two weeks after its release, however, we doubt the title meets even the movie's standards. So why should anyone bother picking Balls of Fury DS up? Amazon is hosting a $12.99 sale for it (Today only) You still have fond memories of Christopher Walken and that Fatboy Slim video he did IGN and GameSpot said it's not so bad if all that you're looking for is a somewhat decent Ping Pong experience You want to support DSI Games, the publisher putting out Barnyard Blast [Via CAG]
