No line existed outside the store when I got it at an undisclosed town in northern New Jersey. I don’t recall the clerk mentioning anything about any kind of pre-order scarcity. I actually think I only just pre-ordered like three days before.Īnyway, I was excited to move on from my, uh, launch day Nintendo DS and try out the new hotness. It was a revelation moving on from that weird old janky clamshell to the sleek look of the DSi. That revision breathed new life into a handheld I already adored, truly cementing the DS an all-timer. I’m here to hop in my time machine and put back on the hat I wore from 2009 to 2011. That’s the hat of your friendly neighborhood DSiWare zealot. Now DSiWare was weird, limited in a lot of the same ways WiiWare was. Nintendo had wild file size restrictions and it was almost nearly impossible for developers to really show off their games. You might know of the industry-standard practice of “review code,” where developers and publishers can send a download code, oftentimes before launch, to reviewers or influencers so they can cover the game in advance. As someone writing for Nintendo World Report in that era, most of the DSiWare review opportunities revolved around everyone from Nintendo to indies sending reviewers $10 or $20 DSiWare gift cards. It was a wild time.īut I carry a torch for all those games, even the bad ones. It was a special little service that contained some of my favorite dark horse gems and a whole lot of delightful creativity. With that in mind, it’s a damn shame that the inevitable is happening: DSiWare games are being delisted. Especially after the Wii Shop Channel died a few years ago, this was all going to end eventually, but we might be nearing the endgame of the DSi Shop. So, let’s rattle off some memories and mourn the potential loss of some games.īefore Star Fox, there was X, an impressive Game Boy game that never made it out of Japan. 18 years after the original came X-Scape, a 2010 DSiWare game that dropped players into space tank to complete a variety of missions, all from a vector-graphic-y first-person perspective. It’s dazzling that Q-Games (founded by Star Fox developer Dylan Cuthbert and is more recently known for the PixelJunk series) managed to make this game work with the limitations of DSiWare. While You’re There Nintendo, Save the Art Style Games It is number one with a bullet for “DSiWare games that have to be preserved” because it’s a fascinating game (and it has a Kazumi Totaka soundtrack!). ![]() Right behind X-Scape on that list is the Art Style series, which has origins on the Game Boy Advance but only really came to America on the DSi. The standout launch game on DSiWare was Art Style: Aquia (apparently I reviewed it in 2009 I have absolutely no memory of writing this review), which is a chill, atmospheric match-three puzzle game. More Art Style games followed, including the NES-retro puzzle delight of Pictobits (or Picopict in Europe), the box-cutting cube puzzle game Boxlife, the LCD-display numbers game Base 10 (or Code in Europe), the ball-bouncing and serene puzzler Zengage (or Nemrem in Europe), and the maybe proto-Captain Toad puzzle platformer Precipice (or Kubos in Europe). I redeemed 500 points for AlphaBounce about a week ago and haven’t been able to play it yet.All were made by Skip Ltd., who may or may not be defunct but I think about them often and miss them every day. It let’s me connect, even spend points, but disconnects while (or immediately before) it begins downloading. I’d be all over Photo Dojo myself (it’s free until June 10), but I can’t seem to download anything from the DSi Shop. If you’re the latter, I should start minding my language around here. Yup, it’s an interactive book, which will probably be neat if a) you have a little one or b) you are a little one. Chess Challenge! (Digital Leisure, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)įor those curious, the Flips: The Enchanted Wood is part of EA’s Flips series, which brings children’s books to life on the DSi.Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations (Capcom, 1 player, 1,000 Wii Points).Flips: The Enchanted Wood (Electronic Arts, 1 player, 500 DSi Points).Chess Challenge! (Digital Leisure Inc., 1-2 players, 500 DSi Points).Earthworm Jim (Gameloft, 1 player, 500 DSi Points). ![]() P hoto Dojo (Nintendo, 1-2 players, 0 DSi Points through June 10 200 DSi Points after).Photo Dojo, the game you’ve been waiting for since we showed you our own Dale North fighting GiantBomb’s Jeff Gerstmann, is finally here! The customizable (and free!) fighter hits DSiWare today, along with an update to a platformer classic.Īlso, if you like chess, this is the week for you.
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