![]() ![]() The first dungeon, a witch's castle, is, instead of a bunch of boring cement blocks (like the older games would have had), kind of gothic and filled with rose vines and candles. It has a totally charming cell-shaded look, and the art design takes advantage of it thoroughly. As it is… yeah I'd rather just listen to the soundtrack. I think if it was just rebalanced to be an 8-10 hour long game instead, it would be a really great game. Either way, the difficulty ends up making the game less rather than more fun. The alternative is to play boringly and conservatively. In EO, if you try to rush to a harder area to make progress faster but you die instead, you lose literally hours (I gave up on EO after just such an attempt). In Dark Souls, you die a lot, but you just wasted 5-10 minutes of play at most, so it's not frustrating. The length creates another problem in that individual sessions are very long between savepoints. But the battle system isn't interesting enough to sustain that length after your initial skill choices are nailed down, you just select the same things out of a menu over and over. But my main problem with it is that its numbers curves (experience growth/health/damage output/money) are balanced in such a way that the game has to take dozens of hours and there's no way to significantly accelerate that. I guess you could say that my critique of the pacing is not the fastness itself, but the context of that fastness in the atmosphere and structure of the surrounding world.īroco: You know, I like a lot of things about EO. Soma is also less smooth in his movement compared to Portrait's duo, which I think makes for more friction in navigation and fights. To me, Portrait has the most unimaginative and ugliest castle of KCET's Metrovanias. I don't mind Aria's pacing because the level design is almost without fail better, in terms of large-scale layout and micro-detail, than Portrait's, as are the sectors' themes and expressions. More than any other Castlevania I've played it feels like the gaming equivalent of a Reader's Digest magazine: an aesthetically barren shuttle through easy-going vacuity. It just hits me the wrong way deep inside. The whole game seems to have been built for the most manageable consumption possible. There's no savoring, and little to no reason to savor. The game and paddle are sold as a bundle for $50.Diplo: It's too digestible - too lite. Fans of the game will recognize the classic Arkanoid "start" music thrown in here and there. The graphics are bright and colorful, and the music is above average Japanese techno. Visually and aurally Arakanoid DS is pretty slick. Then, when your three saves are up, it's game over. This sends the ball right back into play and keeps the game going. A gameplay change that we rather like is that instead of stopping the action each time you miss a ball you're given three safety bounces. On the bright side, the game does support multiplayer over the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection. The paddles are sold separately from the game, so this is quite a perplexing decision. Besides the lack of difficulty, another obnoxious aspect of Arkanoid DS is that, while it supports single-cart multiplayer, it doesn't allow the second player to use a second paddle. Whether or not that choice works for you is a matter of preference, but we tend to appreciate the design. The game board spans across both of the DS' screens and doesn't ignore the space in between, so your ball will disappear for a brief moment as it crosses the threshold. The playing space is noticeably tighter than the Arkanoid we're used to, which means it's easier to return volleys. This is partly because the playing field is quite narrow and there is a lot of wasted real estate on either side of the screen. While this is a flashy version that is initially fun to play, fans will likely discover the game is rather easy. Arkanoid has a long history and utilizes the proven gameplay formula of controlling a paddle to bounce a ball back and forth and clear rows of bricks. Arkanoid: While the Paddle Controller is quite impressive, its flagship software is rather disappointing. The Paddle Controller is currently available in white, black, pink, and silver, and is sold separately for $20. It's friendly to both righties and lefties by utilizing either the D-pad or the Y/X/A/B buttons for additional input. ![]() In Arkanoid you can spin the dial to maneuver through menus, but you have to remove your hand to press a button and make selections. It's comfortable to play either on a table or holding in your hands. The unit plugs into the Game Boy Advance slot on the bottom of the DS but it doesn't make the whole thing too bulky. It's sturdy, has a nice weight to it, and is entirely portable. The Paddle Controller: This is a very cool accessory and it would be a shame if it doesn't make it to shelves here in the U.S.
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