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The Bee Game is not what you're thinking
You would be forgiven for thinking that The Bee Game, a DS and GBA title, might be connected to a film you've heard some buzz (lol!) about, Bee Movie. Luckily, Midway has taken every precaution to make sure that you don't get the two confused. Like, for instance, they added a "The" at the beginning, let's see Jerry Seinfeld top that! There are, of course, some things that even Midway couldn't help. For instance, they both just happen to be releasing in November. Purely coincidental. Also, The Bee Game was written by Barry Leinfeld. (OK, we made that one up.) In case you're curious, the game apparently features "completing mini-games to find clues in the meadow, dark forest, blue pond, deep caverns and the garden to locate the other bees." Not listed in the feature set, but implied: A hard-learned lesson about paying more attention to the back of boxes.Update: As some of the more observant of you have pointed out, that is, in fact, Maya the Bee. Why change the name of the game based on the beloved children's series? We have NO IDEA.
Today's potential franchise relaunch video: Crash Bandicoot
Gameplay footage from Crash of the Titans held our interest for today's video pick. The upcoming Bandacoot adventure for all current platforms besides PS3 will be out this fall, and Crash fans may find a new title to love. (We're not talking about you, Action Pack.) Or is Crash looking a little too like The King for his own good?See the new video after the break, and watch a longer GameTrailers developer interview, too.
Import Kururin Paradise for only $10
Long hailed as one of the GBA's best puzzle titles, Kururin Paradise never landed on North American shores, preferring instead to limit its release to Japan. Play-Asia has taken pity on our Kururin-less souls, listing the 8ing-developed game at a dicount price of $9.90! This deal lasts until next Tuesday, so you'll have more than enough time to collect change on the sidewalk for this purchase. Pilot your spinning craft past the post break for a video preview of this simple-but-addictive game!
GBA discontinued at Target?
We'll admit we haven't been in Target for awhile, so this news comes as kind of a surprise to us. Sure, we like to use our DS Lite to play GBA games (even if they stick out some), but sometimes you just can't beat the feeling of pulling a GBA SP out of your pocket, flipping it open and playing some Omega Factor. Apparently, the GBA SP's time on this Earth is limited.Of course, we can understand why Nintendo would discontinue the handheld, but it doesn't mean we're not a tad bit hurt to see the handheld leave our life so quickly.
Because two strange new forms of input just weren't enough
Not content with resting on their sensory laurels, Nintendo decided to just go ahead and make another bizarre form of input (since it seems to be working so well). The upcoming DS title Slide Adventure: Mag Kid (which could use a better marketing team) will feature a "slide sensor" that fits in the GBA slot of the DS. It extends outwards onto the back on the DS, and when the device is placed on a flat surface, the sensor can pick up the sliding motion of the entire unit on said surface. It's a little weird, but it's got some cool potential. It does, however, reduce the true portability of the device, rendering both bus-play and toilet-play completely useless. And we sure do love our toile ... you know what, never mind.[Via Joystiq]
Now is the time to buy some RockMen
Online import shop Play Asia is trying to lighten its stock of mega-robot guys, hosting a week-long sale on RockMan 3 Zero. Capcom's GBA action-platformer has been discounted to $9.90, almost a fifth of its original price! RockMan 2 Zero boasts a similar discount as a limited time offer, but you get an additional dollar off if you bundle the two games together for your order, bringing the total cost to $18.80.And in case you've already forgotten, Renchi has also marked a number of its DS import titles down to $9.99, one of them being RockMan ZX! Geologists, rejoice![Via CAG]
DS Daily: Your GBA picks
You've got to love backwards compatibility -- after all, the fact that the DS can play GBA titles just means that our available library of games is just that much bigger. But that also makes choices just that much more agonizing. With so many games at our fingertips, how can we possibly choose the one or two we'll use to fill our spare hours in any given month? Of course, there are reviews and resources, but the best method for finding games to play is to share choices with like-minded individuals. Let's get our share on, then -- what are your favorite GBA games?
BulletGBA shoots us in the face
With the World's Greatest Shmup Player Tournament coming up, now is the perfect time to try out Takayama Fumihiko's recently updated BulletGBA. The homebrew shoot 'em up simulator has over 300 bullet patterns picked out from genre favorites that you can test your dodging skills against. BulletGBA's 5.0 release adds some new "stages," a remodeled shooting mode, and music tracks from the chiptune champions, Nullsleep. We've got a video of us attempting to last longer than a few seconds with one of the bullet hell patterns, so jump past the post break for a good laugh.
He's finally back to kick some tail
DK! Donkey Kong! DK! Donkey Kong is here! Sorry, we can't think about Donkey Kong anymore without the DK Rap blaring in our heads. Much like how Rare permanently left their mark on DK through his character design, the rap has been irrevocably stuck to the character. Having the horrifying song stuck in our heads is the price we pay for playing Donkey Kong 64 or Super Smash Bros. Melee. Luckily, scanned images don't have audio tracks, so we can live without fear of coconut guns that can fire in spurts.Jeux-France has some magazine scans of Donkey Kong Jungle Climber, the sequel to the GBA's King of Swing, and it looks as good as any game that features a giant talking banana as a character, which is to say it looks excellent. And they kept the shoulder-button control scheme instead of tacking on a touch-screen system! Good Nintendo.%Gallery-3481%
LOCKJAW: Tetris the way you want it
Fed up with Tetris DS's infinite T-Spin? Looking for a Tetris clone with a ruleset and play style that fits your specific needs? LOCKJAW aims to give you that personalized experience, providing over 20 configurable options. While this homebrew release doesn't have the visual flair of Nintendo's recent remake, you can customize nearly every aspect, from scoring methods to line clear delays.Want to limit the amount of upcoming pieces that are displayed? Or try out a narrower well? Load up LOCKJAW, and fashion your tetromino experience to your heart's content. [Via DCEmu]
DS Daily: The lost Color
Backwards compatibility has always been a mainstay for Nintendo's portable systems, with every single new iteration reaching back toward the past to play legacy content. Even the Nintendo DS, third cousin twice-removed of the original Game Boy line, has a convenient second slot to play GBA titles, but it's not perfect. The slot is unable to play original Game Boy or Game Boy Color games, and for us old-schoolers, that's a bit of a buzzkill.Does this even matter to you? Remember, the original Pokemon Red/Blue titles were original GB titles, as were classics such as Metroid II, Super Mario Land, and even the very first Tetris. We also miss out on the brilliant duo of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Zelda: Oracle of Seasons for the Game Boy Color, that system's final swan song. Do you still keep around a GBA (or older) system for playing these titles, or did you trade it in for store credit for your shiny new DS? Which game from the GB/GBC era was your favorite? And remember, if you answer ... we know you're old.
FFIV 3D remake compared with original 2D games
Using the magazine scans that revealed Final Fantasy IV for the DS yesterday, NeoGAF forumer Speedpop cropped screenshots of the 3D remake right next to their respective scenes from the SNES and GBA releases. The juxtaposition gives you a good idea of how different Square Enix's updated game will look from the originals. Compare and contrast after the post break.
Rhythm Tengoku taunts us even more
Rhythm Tengoku, the Game Boy Advance rhythm-minigame collection from the Wario Ware team, is headed to the arcade as a collaboration between Nintendo and Sega. And as an arcade game, it's even less likely to come to the US.Rhythm Tengoku is a collection of weird minigames in the same style as Wario Ware, but all involving performing exceedingly random tasks in time with music. It appears to contain the same minigames as the original, with some new stages, as well as the welcome addition of simultaneous 2-player.If this arcade game comes out somewhere we can play it, we'll take back every bad thing we ever said about minigames and recent Sega games. We'd also take a localized version of the GBA game. We're simple folks.
Unofficial stat line: DS sales surpass GBA in Japan
Certainly, Japan's Golden Week is a triumphant one for Nintendo. The top nineteen titles in software belong to the House That Mario Built, as well as 82% of combined hardware sales. Still, one incredible milestone stands out among the fanfare: according to unofficial numbers, the DS has now officially outsold the powerhouse Game Boy Advance in Japan, 16,913,437 to 16,682,376.It's important to note that these numbers differ slightly from our standard Media Create sales figures used in our regular edition posts. Furthermore, if the news is indeed true, we're sure Nintendo will send out a press release soon enough, touting their own brilliance and humanitarianism. They just love those things.
Complete World 1-1 without looking, get on TV
It got one guy on TV, at least, in Japan. Super Mario Bros. has completely become a spectator event, and deservedly so-- check out this guy's virtuoso performance of the first stage (of the Famicom Mini version of Super Mario Bros. played on a DS Lite). Sure, he wanders a bit, but that's only because he's playing it without looking.We're going to start training to perform this feat ourselves. And then we're going to practice our creepy vacant smile so we'll be ready for our big television debut. Check out the video after the break.
The golden age of ninjas
We won't look down on you if Tecmo's announcement for Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword was the first time you'd ever heard of ninjas sneaking onto a handheld console. The stealthy assasins carry out their orders so efficiently and silently, most people aren't even aware of a ninja's presence until they see their own blood on the wall sprayed from an expert slash across their necks. Modojo has a lengthy feature tracking portable appearances by ninjas like Shinobi and Goemon, following their shuriken-throwing adventures from the Game Boy all the way up to the Nintendo DS. Our favorite game from the bunch is Ninja Five-O, a Bionic Commando-esque side scroller that was released for the GBA. If there's one thing terrorists fear, it's ninja cops swinging through their defenses!
PSP at the top of handheld evolution
We know that the PSP is powerful. But how powerful is it compared to handhelds before it? A lot more, as seen by Pocket Gamer's recent analysis of handheld systems. PSP's 333MHz of processing power knocks makes the rest of the chart seem miniscule in comparison.Pocket Gamer's feature is certainly an eye-opener. Of particular note is a fascinating diagram of screen sizes, overlaying each other. The PSP's wide screen LCD far exceeds the size of its nearest competitor, the Nomad. Even with such impressive statistics, the system remains one of the lightest handhelds created, and doesn't stand out as disproportionately larger than the others. This is a must-read feature for any PSP fan.
eBay seller plays MONEY MAKING GAME with Miyamoto-signed GBA
This limited-edition Zelda Game Boy Advance signed by Shigeru Miyamoto is really damned cool. There's no controversy about that point. But is it $2,157.86 worth of cool? That position might be too shaky for us.It was apparently okay with one eBay shopper, because that was the final selling price for the system. At a price like that, we bet the guy won't even play games on it. And a Game Boy Advance that doesn't play Super Dodge Ball Advance is worth far less than two thousand dollars to us.[Via Game|Life]
Motocross Challenge loses publisher, passes savings onto you
Developer DHG Games poured its heart into completing Motocross Challenge. The small studio built the GBA title from the ground up, hoping to one day see the game on store shelves. Despite months of negotiation, however, Motocross Challenge's planned publisher backed out of the project, citing declining GBA software sales. After having invested three years into creating Motocross Challenge, DHG found itself with a finished game and no way to commercially release it. Not wanting to see its hard work go to waste, DHG has made Motocross Challenge available to the public, offering the GBA ROM for FREE to anyone who will play it. We've already put a couple of hours into the racing game, and it plays a lot like an updated Excite Bike or Motocross Maniacs. There's a slight learning curve with figuring out how to land, managing your boosts, and memorizing the tracks, but it's all worth it when you start hitting ramps at full speed and racking up points with mid-air stunts. The fact that Motocross Challenge's publisher dropped the game says nothing about its quality. If you are a fan of motocross titles and want to support independent developers who slave over a project for the sake of making a great game, it won't cost you anything but a few minutes to try this one out. Head past the post break for a trailer of the different tracks and game modes.
DS Fanboy Favorites: Eric's top five
All this week, the DS Fanboy staff is letting you in on a few of their favorite titles. Each day, a different member of the staff will present their personal top five DS games along with a snapshot of their gaming paraphernalia and habits, in an effort to provide our readers with a little more information on the tastes and personalities of our writers. When my afternoons aren't busied by hours of photoshopping cat heads onto pictures of my friends, I pass the time with puzzlers and plumbers on my DS Lite. But those kitten-free days are few and far between, so I end up being able to only fit either the most polished or the most eccentric games into my packed schedule. Wario: Master of Disguise? Sorry, I've got things to do and feline faces to retouch. Lost in Blue 2? I'll have to pass -- I'm already lost in trying to get these whiskers to look perfect. My collection is a mishmash of AAA titles and niche releases, their cases piled atop one another like a Jenga stack of mismatched blocks, threatening to topple over at any moment. Just pulling a game from the middle of the shaky structure is an act preceded by hours of anxiety and self-doubt. Having my wife provide commentary during the ordeal, remarking "Oh god, it's going to crash this time for sure, I just know it. Why'd you even try, Eric?! Game over, man! Game over!" as I tug out my copy of Advance Wars DS doesn't make the challenge any easier. So when I do manage to put aside the pussycat photos and secure a game to play, it better damn well be worth it. Journey forth and read which of those titles have captured a place not only on my top five list, but in my heart.
