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Porterbliss: Aero Porter (3DS eShop)
This is Portabliss, a column about downloadable games that can be played on the go. I didn't think it was possible, but I feel sympathy for the people in airports who deal with my luggage. But only if I imagine all of the sorting is done by one person, in a system exactly like the one shown in Aero Porter. I ... would have to imagine that's not how it really is.%Gallery-171125%
The Tower DS being built in miniature
The Tower DS, the latest handheld version of Vivarium's SimTower/The Tower simulation series, has yet to be released outside of Japan, but it's being re-released over there -- or, at least, the last level of it is. The 1,000 point The Tower DS Classic, out August 26, includes the final stage from the DigiToys-published DS game, with tutorials and explanatory text to help players jump right in. The good news, potentially, is that some company is more likely to translate and release a low-risk downloadable game than a cartridge, so there's a more reasonable chance that this smaller Tower will make the move outside of Japan.
The Tower DS's Japanese release looms
The Tower DS, the latest entry in the SimTower/Yoot's Tower/The Tower series of building simulation games, comes out this week in Japan. Publisher DigiToys released new screens featuring zoomed-out views of entire towers, showing off the incredible amount of detail that frazzled players will have to deal with. We also get to see inside the Mario monument, which is a playable tower like any other, though it has only one inhabitable floor (an observation deck inside Mario's hat).The new game includes some wacky DS options, of course. You can yell into the mic to deliver wake-up calls to your residents, and put out fires with your breath. We should have expected as much from a guy who made a game about talking to fish, and another game about yelling at troops to encourage them to push a pinball around.%Gallery-26111%
Yoot Saito building a Tower on DS
Before he was making games about historical pinball battles and sarcastic fish monsters, Vivarium's Yoot Saito created a skyscraper-building game called SimTower. He put the same kind of quirky, bizarre charm into what seems like a run-of-the-mill Sim game as he did Seaman, leading to a game in which you can read every resident's thoughts as they ride elevators.Saito followed SimTower with a PC sequel called Yoot Tower, and a Game Boy Advance version called The Tower SP that, sadly, didn't get released until 2006. Now, according to a blog post, he's working on a version for a current system -- the DS. The Tower's vertical orientation is a perfect match for the DS's unique aspect ratio, we think. He's hoping to have the game out before summer.[Via IGN]
