Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo

Release Date: 06/05/2006

Available Exclusively On

Brain Age was an incredibly popular game for the DS. It was the system’s Wii Sports. Everyone, young and old, got a DS just to play this game. The portrait-style mode plus the need to only play for a few minutes a day were great for casual gamers. While this is seen regularly on mobile phones these days, it was a new concept in 2006. Instead of expanding on that game more, Nintendo thought it was a good idea to make another game that’s just the testing part, and you can do it all day if you want. Sure, that’s great, but it needs to have a lot of content due to the gimmick being taken away.

You’re going to notice this just 30 minutes into playing. You set up your profile (not as robust as Brain Age either), and you take your first test. You are tested in five different categories to see how much your brain weighs. Thinking, Memorizing, Analyzing, computing, and Identifying. Each category has three mini-games that are mostly similar. The memorization category has you matching things from the top screen or playing a form of Simon Says. Thinking has you drawing lines to solve fast puzzles; analyzing has you doing similar tasks, such as solving math problems. There are other mini-games, such as counting currency as fast as you can and picking the one with the highest amount. They’re simple problems, but the game loses the charm of the Brain Age games quickly. No portrait mode, less handwriting, no use of the mic, and the analysis of your brain seems silly and trivial. It doesn’t feel like a brain-training exercise.

That’s also quite a shame because this could be the WarioWare of thinking games, and it could work. With only 15 mini-games, the content feels old fast, and the puzzles are dry and not very fun. I felt like I was taking an entrance exam due to the lack of pizazz and flashiness that dress up these kinds of games. Sadly, there aren’t even any other modes besides verses and practice. It feels like a demo or a portion of a much larger game. The difficulty is adjusted on the fly as you play. Answer correctly, and harder questions appear, but fail, and they get easier again. While you can’t memorize answers due to their randomness, you can at least get better at these tasks over time.

The presentation is also lacking. It looks colorful but is dull and boring. There are minimal sound effects and music, and it feels like an early mobile game, to be quite honest. I can’t see this being fun for kids, and adults will grow tired of it quickly. The best part about this game is multiplayer, as these kinds of games are best played with others. However, solo players will grow bored in about an hour. The staying power that made Brain Age games so great is gone here. Anyone who paid full price for this game would probably be upset due to only having a couple hours of gameplay, if that. At the end of the day, what you’re left with is a brain-teasing sampler with fun multiplayer.

Publisher: Atlus

Developer: Noise Factory

Release Date: 11/06/2007

Available Exclusively On

The DS was made for rhythm games. The touch screen is a perfect way to implement fun new ideas, as physical interaction with music is usually a good mix. Ontamarama tries this with cute visuals and the touch screen combined with buttons. Sadly, it doesn’t pan out quite how the developers wanted. The game is just too distracting and causes artificial inflation in difficulty when the actual rhythm part never gets very hard.

The combination of using the face buttons and the touch screen isn’t designed very well here. You have to tap the Ontamas that pop up on the touch screen to fill the buttons scrolling across the bar. Using just directional buttons to trigger the actual note This just doesn’t work. While you tap the creatures, you can’t keep your eye on the scrolling bar either. Slower notes work fine, and you will notice this during the first few songs of the story mode. However, adding other things like needing to double tap notes, drawing circles around groups of Ontamas, and avoiding black Onatamas that lower your performance is just too much.

Eventually, songs get so infuriating because this combo is just not working out. The songs aren’t hard themselves; if only I could keep an eye on both things. There is also stuff happening on the top screen that I can’t even look at for a second. I also felt the circle drawing wasn’t forgiving enough. If you draw the circle too big, it won’t register, and the same is true for too small. Often times, I just barely made it through the song before failing. There’s no way practice can make this game better unless you memorize each button placement and note, and that’s a good way to master a rhythm game. It should be about mastering the mechanics and having your reflexes honed.

It would be kind of worth it if the songs were good. These are just loud clashes of instruments that don’t sound good. There are no catchy beats or tunes. It’s just generic-sounding music that just sounds like awful noise. If the music was really good, then trying to master this frustrating system might be worth it. Now, I’m not saying the game is horrible. It’s a unique take on the genre, and the developers really tried to do something new. When it works, it’s a lot of fun. The visuals are cute, but the story is complete nonsense and silly. Sadly, there are only about a dozen tracks, so once you beat Story Mode, that’s pretty much it.

I can see how this game didn’t sell well and failed. It isn’t the near perfection of Elite Beat Agents with its licensed music or Guitar Hero with its unique peripherals. The DS didn’t have a fantastic run of rhythm games, but they were all unique and tried something new, and I can appreciate that. I feel that if you really want to scratch a rhythm itch, pick this up for a challenge, but don’t play it for the music.

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Q Entertainment

Release Date: 06/28/2005

Available Exclusively On

Match-three puzzle games are a weakness for me. As long as there are some good visuals and addictive gameplay, I’m hooked. Meteos is a unique take on this, as the game lets you drag blocks anywhere in their column, and you can match three horizontally or vertically. This allows the game to drop blocks at a breakneck pace. You need to strategize and line up blocks, but that’s not all. To clear them, the matched blocks launch themselves and all blocks above them into the air. Continue matching blocks below that set, and it will exit the screen and clear.

Of course, there are some items that help you clear the stage, such as a giant hammer and bombs, but if the game is going too slow for you, there’s a speed-up dial as well. The main mission mode has three different stages. In each one, you have to work your way to the final boss, Meteo. Each and every planet has a different tile set and way to clear blocks. One planet required matching two sets nearby in order to get the blocks to launch. Some planets will launch every set all the way up in exchange for making the entire round faster. This is a simple concept, but it’s hard to master. Match-three games like this always require strategy, but I found that some luck comes into play here. I would restart one round nearly a dozen times only to win really quickly thanks to blocks falling in a certain pattern that allowed me to keep my screen clear.

Every time you defeat a boss, it’s really satisfying. The fast pace of needing to look ahead and make sure blocks are always lined up gets tough, but you learn over time. I wish you had power-ups like in some games like this, but what’s here is fine. There are a couple more modes, such as an endless mode and a custom mode. Modes are ideal for games like this that don’t have a ton of missions, like Puzzle Quest. However, I really do feel a more robust mission mode would have been better. After about an hour, I wanted to stop. The game is only fun in short bursts due to its arcade-like nature. While the game can be addictive at times when you actually win, it can also be exhausting because of the fast pace and luck-based nature of each match.

For an early DS title, the game looks good. There are some nice effects and lots of colors, and the touch screen responds well to the small blocks. I did find some tilesets hard on the eyes, but I eventually got used to them. Overall, Meteos is a fun puzzle game on the system and takes the genre in new directions despite the lack of a more robust mission mode.