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NintendoWare Weekly: NEVES Plus brings Art Style to SimEarth
This week's star of the show is undoubtedly WiiWare, which receives the very rare "three-title-update." Playing second and third fiddle are DSiWare and the Virtual Console, which both get the usual one new title. So, without further ado, let's check out what's available to download this week across Nintendo platforms in the latest NintendoWare Weekly. %Gallery-48138%
NEVES plus WiiWare equals NEVES Plus on WiiWare
NEVES, Yuke's Company's tangram-based DS puzzle game, is migrating to WiiWare in Q2. NEVES Plus, published by Yuke's affiliate Akinai Games, features the same gameplay as the DS version, in which players arrange seven shapes to fit into silhouettes. If the explanation isn't clicking for you, just try it!The WiiWare game, which is now Egyptian-themed for some reason, includes 500 puzzles, including some not found in the original. It also includes multiple modes for up to four players, including the ability for players to jump in at any time to help solve a puzzle or just bother you by waving a tiny hand around on the screen.%Gallery-48138%
Gaming to Go: NEVES
Tired of blocks yet?Thinking of expanding your horizons a little? Perhaps you need more from the gaming life than just a few simple squares. Perhaps you want...shapes?Good news! NEVES has them. Seven of them, in fact, which is enough to create like a jabillion 500 different puzzles. You, dear reader, can have these pointy shapes too. There's this demo thing freely available on the net, or you can dig a little deeper in your pockets and shell out two tens for the real deal.Yuke's puzzler takes classic Chinese tangrams into the modern realm with great success. Solving one of the many short brain teasers in NEVES is an experience decidedly different from a typical video game, emphasizing peaceful thinking over sweaty palms and razor-sharp reflexes.Sound appealing? If gaming breaks are the only way you stay sane, NEVES might be just what you need to unwind. Come along with Gaming to Go and see for yourself why a relatively unknown title in the DS library is one worth checking out!%Gallery-5249%
Slot this NEVES demo into your schedule
In case you haven't already raided the cookie jar for the last of this month's housekeeping money after hearing of NEVES' universal price drop, allow us to further test your resistance.Yuke's Company has placed an excellent (albeit brief) flash demo of the elegant puzzler on its site, giving interested parties access to three of the game's 500 puzzles. There's a time limit on each, and we cut it pretty fine with the third, but pulled through like heroes in the end. The controls in this PC demo are a pretty close approximation of those in the DS version, so if you like this, get reaching for your wallet. Just be warned that far harder puzzles await you in the real thing![Via Siliconera]
It's a good week for NEVES
Yuke's Company announced yesterday that their tangram-based puzzle game NEVES was awarded an "Editor's Choice Award" from Children's Technology Review, a magazine about educational toys, games, and software. Not only is it great for Yuke's and publisher Atlus that their game is getting some praise from educators, this award means that someone -- at least one magazine editor -- played their game. And we're not saying that NEVES is forgettable -- with a small release like NEVES on a console with tons of great puzzle games, it's easy to slip through the cracks.Also in the press release about Yuke's Company's good news is some good news for everyone else: a universal price drop has been enacted for NEVES, to $19.99. %Gallery-5249%[Via GamesPress]
DS releases for the week of October 29th
We're just going to have to get used to seeing these long lists of weekly releases. The lazy -- and cheap! -- days of summer are behind us, and the holidays are just around the corner. That means a number of games will be jockeying for our money over the next few months. It's a bittersweet time. Sure, we'll be doing lots of gaming, but, oh, the lack of money ... it's so tragic. Barbie as The Island Princess Bee Movie Game Ben 10: Protector of Earth Cars Mater-National Dementium: The Ward Dr. Suess: How the Grinch Stole Christmas Garfield Gets Real Neves Ratatouille Food Frenzy Shrek: Ogres and Dronkeys The Simpsons Game Super Collapse 3 For the releases in the rest of the major markets, check the lists after the jump.
NEVES: it's 'seven' backwards
Siliconera sat down with Yuke's Company of America representative Ken Koyama to chat about their upcoming puzzle game, NEVES. A DS puzzle game is something of a departure for a company best known for WWE wrestling games (and also known, uh, by me as the developer of the weird Playstation fighting game Evil Zone), so it's somewhat interesting that Yuke's decided to do this.In Japan, where the game is called Hamekomi Lucky Puzzle, it actually carries a license: that of the Hanayama Toy Company, whose Lucky Puzzle is a popular toy. We're impressed that rather than simply cloning their tangram game, Yuke's sought a partnership with Hanayama for the DS game. It's also nice to see Yuke's (and Siliconera) giving some attention to what is destined to fly miles under the radar.
Joystiq hands-on: Neves (DS)
The original Japanese Lucky Puzzle is a classic example of a wolf in sheep's clothing. With only seven pieces, players had to construct a variety of shapes and objects. Should be easy, right? No. Traditional puzzles have painted sides that interlock to ultimately form a rectangle. Unfortunately, players of Lucky Puzzle do not have such things to take for granted: pieces don't lock into each other and more terrifyingly, don't have painted sides. This means pieces can be placed in any way: turned upside-down, flipped around, and placed at any angle. Lucky Puzzle is the inspiration for Yuke's upcoming DS exclusive title, Neves. Their first independently published game in the US, Neves is attempting to capture the brain teasing market that the DS seems to dominate. Like other brain games on the platform, the game is immensely easy to pick up and play. The touch screen is an ideal interface for the game, as it acts as a virtual table for you to move your pieces. Simply drag the seven pieces around, and use your stylus to easily flip them over, turn them around, or change their angle. Because of the ever-present silhouette in the background, the virtual version of this classic Japanese puzzler is far easier to grasp than the real-life counterpart. However, don't expect things to be easy. These challenges are still notoriously difficult, but immensely satisfying. Each puzzle can take a minute, or ten, or thirty minutes, depending on your creativity. Considering there will be over 500 included in the cartridge, there's an abundance of play to experience.%Gallery-7169%
NEVES of steel required to play this puzzle game
Yuke's Company of America announced yesterday that it will bring its grown-up puzzle game NEVES (previously mentioned here as Hamekomi Lucky Puzzle DS in Japan) to the States. According to the press release by U.S. publisher Atlus, players must "think critically as they align pieces and build figures that correspond to a silhouette. Each puzzle features seven wooden blocks, requiring the player to combine them to form specific figures ranging from simple items like a sword or key to more complicated ones such as birds or airplanes." The concept reminds us of a tangram version of the Touch Puzzle mode on Tetris DS, and that was just a single mode in a much larger game. We commend Yuke's for creating games on the more cerebral side, but unique as the concept might be, we hope the title can pack enough variety to warrant more than a passing time investment. There is hope, however, since it will feature more than 500 puzzle pieces to manipulate and game modes including puzzle mode, time mode, versus mode, and count mode. (AH! AH! AH! One puzzle piece! TWO puzzle pieces! sorry, couldn't help it.) Regardless, the DS is looking to be the premiere platform for the puzzle genre, and NEVES will bring a more mature tone when it arrives on American shores later this year. %Gallery-5249%
