Hawaii Flight Handheld Reviews
Aloha! I just got back from Hawaii which gave me 10+ hours to play some new Nintendo DS and Sony PSP titles on the plane. That Nyco PSP chargeable case came in handy! Here you go:
Nintendo DS – Splinter Cell
I wasn’t sure what to expect after comparing Spiderman on the DS to the PSP. I was afraid that the screen shots I had seen were cut-scenes and that I’d be playing a crappy 2D side-scrolling Nokia version of Splinter Cell.
Well, I was very happy once I fired up this incarnation of Sam Fisher. This is easily one of the best looking games on the Nintendo DS. The 3D engine looks great and the frame rate is smooth. But what about the gameplay??? This is mucho fun! Finally someone has used the stylus is a very intuitive way. The directional pad moves Sam around but you can “look” with the touch-pad. It works well. Additionally, the controls for using your gun involve pressing the right shoulder-button to arm yourself and then firing with the left shoulder-button. This is brilliant! You can use the stylus in your right hand to precisely aim and then pop off shots with your left index finger. Wonderful – unless you are a lefty. I loved this one.
Nintendo DS – Goldeneye: Rogue Agent - A 2nd Look Now That I Have Completed The Game
(insert chimes here)… let’s take a trip back in time. Back to the birthplace of 3-Dimentional polygon shooters. Back to a place where only 3 enemy models exist and have been cloned 2000 times. Enemies who lie in wait for you to explore their boxy cavernous levels, spending their days wondering why there are so many grey and brown boxes …and useless ramps in each building. Back to a place where a well placed snipe to the head only aggravates your aggressor. Back to a place we call… Nintendo DS Goldenyears: Rogue FPS.
Okay, imagine if you modded Dr. Mario’s Mean Bean Machine so that you could shift the individual segments of the vertical tiles up and down to change their position. Get 3 in a row and the surrounding tiles blast off to the sky half-way. If you can match 3 more before the floating mass lands it will leave the stratosphere and you will score points. You can play with a large variety of eye-straining tiles also.
With all the fawning over this title by the rags I expected something more innovative – or at least more fun. There’s something odd about a game (I am not making this up!) where I took the stylus and wildly swirled the touch-screen and received my highest score. What I letdown. Chaotic nonsense in higher levels. Most dissapointing of all... there are no bowls of meat cereal anywhere in this game!
Sony PSP – Coded Arms
Could it be… a first person shooter on PSP that doesn’t suck???? No, it can’t be.
1. Enter lame digital fortress room
2. Kill the sparkly dudes with ease
3. Blow up the five million tanks for no apparent reason
4. Pick up the ammo and health
5. Rinse and repeat.
Looks nice – controls suck ass. That little slippy nub on the PSP has to go. Looking to aim at enemies is way too touchy. Load times practically equal playing time.
Why do I continue to drop $40.00 on crappy PSP games!!!! I really thought this one would be good. Damn Sony! Strictly used from now on …probably at least.
Sony PSP – Dead2Rights
Whoa, did you see that! That was spending $40.00 on a game just to beat it in one night. You probably almost missed it because of the craptastic camera! Involuntarily shifts to first person mode when you get too close to a wall. Seriously… it may be time to join GameFly just so I can review these crappy PSP games.
I also finally got a used copy of the US version of Metal Gear Acid. It’s in English this time. Oh yeah, and it sucks. With the exception of Lost Kingdoms on the GameCube, I really hate card battle games.
Oh well, still waiting for that Burnout PSP game to come out. That should make up for some of this lost time/money.
Nintendo DS – Splinter Cell
I wasn’t sure what to expect after comparing Spiderman on the DS to the PSP. I was afraid that the screen shots I had seen were cut-scenes and that I’d be playing a crappy 2D side-scrolling Nokia version of Splinter Cell.
Well, I was very happy once I fired up this incarnation of Sam Fisher. This is easily one of the best looking games on the Nintendo DS. The 3D engine looks great and the frame rate is smooth. But what about the gameplay??? This is mucho fun! Finally someone has used the stylus is a very intuitive way. The directional pad moves Sam around but you can “look” with the touch-pad. It works well. Additionally, the controls for using your gun involve pressing the right shoulder-button to arm yourself and then firing with the left shoulder-button. This is brilliant! You can use the stylus in your right hand to precisely aim and then pop off shots with your left index finger. Wonderful – unless you are a lefty. I loved this one.
Nintendo DS – Goldeneye: Rogue Agent - A 2nd Look Now That I Have Completed The Game
(insert chimes here)… let’s take a trip back in time. Back to the birthplace of 3-Dimentional polygon shooters. Back to a place where only 3 enemy models exist and have been cloned 2000 times. Enemies who lie in wait for you to explore their boxy cavernous levels, spending their days wondering why there are so many grey and brown boxes …and useless ramps in each building. Back to a place where a well placed snipe to the head only aggravates your aggressor. Back to a place we call… Nintendo DS Goldenyears: Rogue FPS.
Nintendo DS – Meteos
Okay, imagine if you modded Dr. Mario’s Mean Bean Machine so that you could shift the individual segments of the vertical tiles up and down to change their position. Get 3 in a row and the surrounding tiles blast off to the sky half-way. If you can match 3 more before the floating mass lands it will leave the stratosphere and you will score points. You can play with a large variety of eye-straining tiles also.
With all the fawning over this title by the rags I expected something more innovative – or at least more fun. There’s something odd about a game (I am not making this up!) where I took the stylus and wildly swirled the touch-screen and received my highest score. What I letdown. Chaotic nonsense in higher levels. Most dissapointing of all... there are no bowls of meat cereal anywhere in this game!
Sony PSP – Coded Arms
Could it be… a first person shooter on PSP that doesn’t suck???? No, it can’t be.
1. Enter lame digital fortress room
2. Kill the sparkly dudes with ease
3. Blow up the five million tanks for no apparent reason
4. Pick up the ammo and health
5. Rinse and repeat.
Looks nice – controls suck ass. That little slippy nub on the PSP has to go. Looking to aim at enemies is way too touchy. Load times practically equal playing time.
Why do I continue to drop $40.00 on crappy PSP games!!!! I really thought this one would be good. Damn Sony! Strictly used from now on …probably at least.
Sony PSP – Dead2Rights
Whoa, did you see that! That was spending $40.00 on a game just to beat it in one night. You probably almost missed it because of the craptastic camera! Involuntarily shifts to first person mode when you get too close to a wall. Seriously… it may be time to join GameFly just so I can review these crappy PSP games.
I also finally got a used copy of the US version of Metal Gear Acid. It’s in English this time. Oh yeah, and it sucks. With the exception of Lost Kingdoms on the GameCube, I really hate card battle games.
Oh well, still waiting for that Burnout PSP game to come out. That should make up for some of this lost time/money.
posted by tacohead at
12:19 PM
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