Fun Friday: Time to Dust off the DS Edition

While I have yet to really play through GTAIV proper, this version for the DS, Chinatown Wars, looks more and more fun every time I see a new trailer for it. I like the look and game play style these videos project, it's very "arcade-like" and looks a lot less serious. This may just be what the series needs; a little injection of that old school fun.

Wii and DS: Made for Each other

This was news a long ways back (give me a break, I bought a house and had a baby). It was revealed that the Wii version of the Ghostbusters will use Wii-DS Connectivity to enhance game play. Essentially, the DS would be used as the famous PKE reader that was used in the movie. I love this design decision and implementation. This is much better than having Tingle drops bombs on unsuspecting foes.

Even longer ago, I attended the Wi Summit in Hollywood hosted by Nintendo and they went over this functionality for the Wii. The presentation was mostly boring but it sparked an idea while I was nodding off.

I've played a few card based games on several platforms, such as Uno on Xbox Live, but was disappointed that there was no way to play with friends in the same room because, obviously, every one's cards would be on the screen to see. With the use of the Wii-DS connectivity, the game could deal the cards to each player's DS and then each player would only be able to see their own cards.

It seems like a simple idea and I'm surprised that some developer has yet to take advantage of this feature in a meaningful way until now.

THQ: DS Past and Future

My first week at THQ was spent testing Ping Pals. In French and German. I'm surprised I made it past that week but fortunately I was snatched up by another team. For those who aren't laughing their ass off right now about my first testing gig, Ping Pals was an ill advised chat game that was no better than the DS's built in Pictochat. Although according to the project manager it was one of our greatest financial successes, it was met with ridicule and review scores averaging at about 0.5 out of ten. The developer, Way Forward, has gone to develop many DS titles and has two on the way that may the most anticipated games of the Holiday season barring Phantom Hourglass: Contra IV and Duck Amuck. In an interview a couple of weeks back with Stephen Totilo, creative director Matt Bozon explains some of the rationale that went behind that ill fated title.

They had just a handful of weeks to make the game. "We needed dev kits desperately, and here was a chance to get them."

But the problem with "Ping Pals" wasn't just time. The DS already had an IM program called "Pictochat" that came embedded into every DS. Did anyone raise their hand and ask about that? "I did that on day one," Bozon said, laughing. "THQ had their plan, and they were going to run with it.

This is quite typical of our philosophy but hey, we had a billion dollars in sales last year, so they must be doing something right.

One of those things right was picking up the publishing rights to Drawn to Life. It's an ambitious project that has the unfortunate timing of being released in one of the most crowded launch seasons ever. Hopefully people will still pick it up and encourage to take more chances like this and we can develop a sequel to smooth out some of the rough edges. In the mean time, check out the first official trailer. And yes, you can draw penises if that's your thing.