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New DSiware revealed: Prehistorik Man, Six in One Translator
by Mike Schramm { Jun 2nd 2009 at 2:45PM } 
The full list of publishers, games, and expected release dates is after the break.
Hudson bringing Sudoku to DSiWare this summer
by Jem Alexander { May 27th 2009 at 10:00PM }
Hudson has announced that it will be bringing Sudoku to DSiWare in two different flavors. Sudoku Student and Sudoku Master will both be made available this summer at a"very affordable price point." The games will each feature puzzles hand crafted by Nikoli, the Japanese puzzle company. It's unclear exactly what the differences are between the two titles, though the press release does mention that Sudoku Master features "a class certification mode, which tests advanced players' puzzle solving abilities and rates their skill levels." Sure, Sudoku's getting a little bit tired nowadays, but with the puzzles coming to DSi there's now literally no way to escape them. May as well just give in.
iPhone apps stats revealed, games dominate list
Furthermore, of the 12 game applications listed, 75 percent of them were developed by small startup companies or, in one case, a single individual. Actually, aside from Pac-Man, Hangman, Sudoku, and a version of Solitaire, all the games are original IP, with number one title Tap Tap Revenge serving as the prime example. We're starting to understand why the iPhone dominated the IGF this year and will likely continue to do so for years to come.
VC Tuesday: Pop-up Ping-pong
The Virtual Console releases are pretty slim this week in Japan, but still just unlikely enough to show up outside of Japan to make them super interesting. First, Smash Ping Pong, a Nintendo-published Famicom Disk System version of the arcade Konami's Ping Pong. There's something hilarious about playing retro sports games, with their archaic button controls, on the Wii. Maybe it's just us.The other game is one of the many entries in Falcom's Dragon Slayer series, Legend of Xanadu. It's a "ram into enemies" action-RPG like Ys -- and a side-scrolling RPG like Ys III.
- Smash Ping Pong (Famicom Disk System, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)
- Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu (PC Engine CD-ROM, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
- @Simple Series Vol. 2 THE Number Place Neo (1 player, 500 Wii Points)
- Kurohige Kiki Ippatsu Wii (1-4 players, 500 Wii Points)
- Pokers Wii (1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)
Compile Heart goes puzzle crazy
Japanese developer Compile Heart, which contains members of Compile (who developed Puyo Puyo and just about everything else we have loved) plans to release a three-part (so far) series of puzzle games for the DS, called the Puzzle Mate series. Crossword Mate features Japanese crosswords, Nanpure Mate is a "number place" (also known as sudoku) game, and Oekaki Mate is a picross collection. These, however, differ from other such products in one important way: the puzzles are large. All three collections feature larger playing fields than usual, which leads to things like the nightmarish multi-screen picross puzzle seen in the screenshot here.And speaking of nightmarish, coulrophobes will be terrified to see the mascot for this series, a clown drawn by Famitsu artist Susumu Matsushita.
Read - Crossword Mate
Read - Nanpure Mate
Read - Oekaki Mate
Merscom to bring sudoku puzzles to XBLA
The game, a conversion of Merscom's PC title of the same name, will boast such enhancements as "a very fast entry method" using the Xbox 360's thumb sticks, as well as support for multiplayer over Xbox Live. Buku Sudoku will also sport HD resolution, which to be honest seems wasted on a game about filling out numbers on a grid. That said, if Xbox Live Arcade can manage to make hardcore gamers fall in love with UNO, don't be surprised if your Halo buddies have to cut out early in order to throw down with some serious number counting when Buku Sudoku is eventually released.
Fail at puzzles, show the world
But DS Puzzler goes beyond the normal self-motivated challenge of these puzzle games by including online rankings for both. We're familiar with this kind of thing in a picross setting, but we certainly wouldn't want anyone to see how, uh, great we are at sudoku. And we're pretty sure we'd embarrass ourselves with these more complicated, colorful picross puzzles too.
We have spontaneously decided that sudoku is awesome
Only 90 grey-cartridge copies and five gold-cartridge copies of Al Bailey's homebrew NES Sudoku have been made, and all of the remaining copies will be at this weekend's Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, where we would also like to be. The single unsold gold cartridge is going to be auctioned for charity, to someone who has a lot more money for NES games than we do.
[Via Siliconera]
DS releases for the week of July 23rd
This week sees the release of some interesting titles around the world, such as the latest in Pokémon for Europe, and Taiko Drum Master DS in Japan. American gamers get to contend with Dynasty Warriors DS. We know some of you are looking forward to it, and some ... well, aren't. But maybe it will surprise us!- Chameleon: To Dye For!
- Dynasty Warriors DS: Fighter's Battle
- Ultimate Puzzle Games: Sudoku Edition
E307: Nintendo Crossword kind of announced
Nintendo's presentation is much more staid than that of its competition, New York Times Crosswords, passing over odd color schemes and Comic Sans-alikes for a traditional newspaper-like display. It's boxy, but good.
Gallery: Crosswords DS
WRUP: Sick of Sudoku edition
This week's releases might not be all that fabulous to those of us outside of Japan, but at least we're still getting something new to play. Even if it is just another Sudoku game. For us, it doesn't matter much, as our backlog just grows larger by the week, so we're already knee-deep in games that need to be played.
What about you? What will you be playing?
DS releases for the week of July 2
You know what the DS needs? More sudoku. Because, y'know, there just can't possibly be enough. This week, there's also a new addition to shelves at stores everywhere that shipped too late to make last week's list: Agetec's Cookie & Cream. - Platinum Sudoku
- Turn it Around
- Vegas Casino High 5!
DS Fanboy Review: Brain Buster Puzzle Pak
Sometimes, a package doesn't really tell you what you need to know about a game -- and it can actually be misleading or off-putting. As tragic as the thought is, the box art for Brain Buster Puzzle Pak falls into that category. Up close, the art is rough, jagged, and looks like it might have been printed in someone's home office.
So is the game also unfortunately bad? Not even a bit -- Agetec's Brain Buster Puzzle Pak lives up to its name and is packed, as promised, with an array of brain-busting puzzles. The puzzle standard, sudoku, is present, but BBPP brings in four other games as well, all presented by a professor who in no way resembles Dr. Kawashima. By that, we mean he actually has a body.
Father of Sudoku says Slitherlink is the next big thing
When asked by the BBC what the next big Sudoku-like craze will be, puzzle guru Maki Kaji (whose business card reads "Father of Sudoku") points to Slitherlink. The grid-based logic puzzle has all the ingredients of another hit -- easy to learn, straightforward gameplay, and simple rules. Even though it doesn't have the broad appeal of Sudoku, Kaji says it could easily earn the title "son of Sudoku".In Slitherlink you stare at a grid made up of dots and the numbers 0, 1, 2, and 3 scattered about. Your goal is to join the dots around the numbers using the same number of lines as the number they are next to. The line snakes around the grid like ... a snake. Hudson published Puzzle Series Vol. 5: Slitherlink in Japan earlier this year and the game has received high marks from reviewers, including a 10/10 from Eurogamer.
It isn't known if Slitherlink DS will make its way out of Japan, but thanks to the world wide web and the humans that populate it, a Slitherlink-inspired game has been crafted in Flash, cleverly titled Slither Link.
Friday Video: Checking out Zendoku
It's no secret that we're fans of the kinda games that blend puzzles with ... non-puzzle stuff. The point is, we're all about putting a little action in the middle of our puzzles, so long as it doesn't slow down the act of puzzling. Pretty pictures, neat backgrounds, weird SRPG motifs ... we're okay with these elements. But we're not quite sure about Zendoku. While we're in favor of the idea, the execution leaves us a little, well, puzzled. In the short video after the jump, we get a chance to check out the mechanics in action, and it seems like everything just takes a long time -- and that takes away from our actual purpose in playing. Maybe it's just us, though. Give it a look and tell us what you think.
