Frag You!

When I was in secondary school, the frequency in which I upgraded my PC was determined by id Software's game releases. When Quake came out, I managed to get my hands on a second hand 486 DX4-100 MHz processor. The release of Quake II got me going the Pentium way, with a second hand Pentium 200 MHz processor.

Second hand stuff were considered pretty valuable back in the day, reason being that new parts were expensive and not easy to come by. By the time Quake III came out, I had a brand new AMD K6-2 rig overclocked to over 560MHz and a Permedia 3D OpenGL graphics card with 4 megabytes of video RAM.

This trend of upgrading my PC has continued until last year, culminating in a rig that could run Quake 4. Having gone through so much (games and CPUs), what does a through and through PC-based FPS-games player like me have to say about Metroid Prime Hunters, a first person shooter (FPS) for the Nintendo DS?

A phrase muttered by a friend when he watched me play this game basically sums it all: "It's a revolution!". Now, to elaborate. Metroid Prime Hunters is the first FPS I've played on my Nintendo DS. As an FPS player who loves nothing more than to "shoot anything that moves", this game works for me on so many levels.

The controls, which combine the use of the stylus, d-pad and the left trigger button, are so intuitive that they transplant the accuracy of the mouse/keyboard combination most often found in PC shooters. This is important as nothing breaks a game more than poor controls and MPH's control scheme avoids this pitfall by being intuitive and very easy to get into.

Graphics wise, this game is stunning for a Nintendo DS game. Unlike the newer Tony Hawk game, which was pretty with it's cell shaded look, MPH stuck to conventional textures but with a graphics engine capable of rendering eye-candy reminiscent of Quake III, just grainier.

I've just started playing the single player portion of the game and I'm already loving it. This game is also WFC enabled, for worldwide online play (more on that in another article) and has support for the Rumble Pak.

Since this is a pretty old title, you should have no difficulty finding this title in the secondhand market. Age doesn't affect this title as it is still the definitive first person shooter on the Nintendo DS.

It's a me...Mario, baby-flattener!

If you were to ask me a couple years ago what does RPG stands for in relation to video games, I would have answered "Sure, it means Rocket Propelled Grenada, a weapon most often used in id Software's Quake series". An odd answer as the most common definition would be "Role Playing Games", a genre that I hated, until recently.

The game that changed my mind is Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (PIT for short). An RPG for the Nintendo DS, PIT features the usual cast of characters, Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser and as a twist, the younger (read: baby) versions of themselves. The story line is features the adult Mario Bros. going back in time to save the Mushroom Kingdom from an alien invasion and to save the adult Princess Peach as well. Piggybagging with them are the baby versions of the Mario Bros.

Gameplay takes place in a 2D top-down view, with the action mainly taking place in the touchscreen while a simple map usually occupies the second screen. Occasionally the babies can be split from the Mario. Bros and both screen will be used to show both parties. Moving around the game may involve creative uses of the characters, and some of these moves are bordering on having to be reported to Child Support in real life. Hehe.

For example, the baby Mario Bros. can be thrown, spun and flatten (the horror of it all!) to reach places unaccessible to the adults.

Unlike walking around the map in real-time, combat is turn-based. Characters take turns to attack and defend. Attacking options are pretty diverse, players can be jumping on enemies or use Bros. Items such as green shells, trampolines, ice and fire flowers and many more. The babies have in addition hammers that can be used for both attack and defence.

How does PIT appeal to me? I would say the game has a certain comedic quality to it. The script is funny, the characters are over the top and the uneasy pause indicated by them during the game (indicated by "...") had me at hello.

It helps as well that the game has excellent gameplay and great graphics and animation (albeit in 2D) and for a non-RPG fan, a nice introduction to the genre. Did I mention that this game supports the Rumble Pak as well?

Since this is a pretty old title, dated 2005, you might face some difficulty in looking for a new copy of the game.Try scouring Ebay or forums for a good secondhand bargain and hours of enjoyment!

If you don't mind Japanese text, you can get the Japanese version at Play-Asia (here)

That Rumbling Feeling

As the title of this post might imply, this is not the sequel to "That Rumbling Sound" nor is this about hungry stomachs. This post is about one of the more interesting accessories to go along with the Nintendo DS, the Rumble Pak.

The Rumble Pak attaches to the GBA slot on the Nintendo DS and provides tactile feedback to the gamer when playing supported games such as Metroid Prime Pinball. It is safe to say that Metroid Prime Pinball wouldn't be much of a pinball game without the Rumble Pak, which goes to show how, for lack of a better word, useful such an accessory the Rumble Pak is.

The Rumble Pak not only vibrates, but depending on the duration in which it is vibrating, a certain sound, like a chirp, will be emitted. This might annoy some people and there is pretty much no way of shutting it off.

The vibrations emitted from the Rumble Pak isn't much to shout about, not like the ones that comes from say, a Playstation 2 Dual Shock controller. It is a good thing however that Nintendo didn't go about naming the Rumble Pak somewhere along the likes of personal massagers.

My Rumble Pak came with my copy of Metroid Prime Pinball but I'm not really sure whether it comes with other games. However, I did find several titles that make use of the Rumble Pak:

• Super Princess Peach
  
• Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
• Metroid Prime Hunters
• Metriod Prime Pinball

It is a shame though that Mario Kart DS is not supported. I wouldn't really recommend getting the Rumble Pak by itself, but if you love pinball, go get Metroid Prime Pinball and the bundled Rumble Pak instead.