Mario Party DS Preview

House Party

Check out a sampling of Mario Party DS’s gameplay in this movie.
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Nintendo gave us a few minutes with Mario Party DS at its press event a few weeks ago, and now we’ve gotten our hands on a prerelease version of the game to subject it to further scrutiny. Not that too much scrutiny was really necessary–this is 100 percent, grade-A Mario Party. Anyone who has played the recent console versions should know exactly the sort of minigame/board game action they’ll find in the DS game. But that’s probably the most impressive thing about this package, from what we’ve seen so far: Hudson seems to have crammed the full Mario Party experience into the handheld, even if you have only one copy of the game.

Like its console predecessors, Mario Party DS is for four players, though you can play against up to three computer-controlled opponents if you don’t have any friends. You roll the dice and then move that many spaces on the board, and the type of space you land on determines what happens to you. You might get some coins or lose some coins, face Bowser’s wrath, take a shortcut to another spot on the board, or visit an item store to purchase a power-up that will help you out. The ultimate goal of any Mario Party is to have the most stars at the end of the game, and you pick those up as you make your way around the board. Again, this should all be old hat for veterans of the series.

It wouldn’t be a Mario game without Bowser and his cronies causing trouble.

At the end of every round, you’ll jump into a four-player minigame. This is where Hudson seems to have provided the most meaningful new content in the game, since a lot of the minigames take advantage of the DS’s touch screen or microphone. One game we tried had us racing against our foes to hop across a series of candles–but we had to use the microphone to blow out each candle before we could jump onto it. Another game had all four players using a bow and arrow on the touch screen–by pulling back the bowstring and aiming with the stylus–to hit targets on the top screen. Some of the games are three-against-one, such as one where three players run around on a disc with jets of water shooting across it, and the other player rotates the disc with the stylus to make those players get knocked off by the water. The computer-controlled players in the games we played were laughably easy to beat, but the minigames were quite a bit more fun against three other real people.

Surprisingly, it looks as though you’ll get the full Mario Party experience with only one copy of the game via the DS’s download play. We were able to have those three friends join in with the standard download play option, and it only took a minute or so to get into the game and choose one of the same five game boards you’ll find in the single-player game. It seems like all the minigames will be available during a download-play session as well, since the game would transmit data for a few seconds each time we started a new minigame. We can’t say what kind of multiplayer options you’ll get with multiple cartridges, since we have only one copy of the game in-house, but we’ll tip our hat to Nintendo’s generosity for giving you such a robust multiplayer option when only one cartridge is present.

This is classic board game Mario Party, through and through.

As we mentioned in our last look at Mario Party DS, the game offers some other gameplay options outside of the main board game, such as the ability to play all of the minigames you’ve unlocked at will. There’s also a puzzle mode where you can sample a number of puzzle games from previous Mario Party games, such as Bob-omb Breakers, Stick & Spin, and Piece Out. These seem like moderately entertaining time wasters that follow established puzzle conventions, drawing from games like Tetris Attack.

Mario Party DS isn’t reinventing the franchise’s wheel, but if you’re into this series, now you’ll have a DS version you can take with you anywhere. The game has a nice art style, with full-resolution 2D cutscenes featuring some attractively rendered artwork. The game is out in the latter half of November, so look for a full review soon.

-If Its Games

Dementium: The Ward Review

Is it possible to be legitimately spooked by a handheld game? Console games have been designed to make use of the home field advantages of having a large screen and complete control over lighting to enhance the experience for years, but when you’re playing on a tiny screen on the bus, can the experience compare? The answer, as proven by FPS-with-a-dash-of-survival horror Dementium: The Ward, is a resounding yes, though its inherent flaws prevent it from truly becoming that which it aspires to be.

Dementium tells the twisted tale of a man who wakes up in the bed of a monster-infested hospital after taking a wheelchair trip from hell. You will navigate him through the worn halls of the massive building and try to piece together who he is and why he’s there as you battle zombies, parasitic worms that wail like babies, and the occasional cleaver-wielding demon. The game is divided into a series of chapters that for the most part correlate to the various floors of the hospital. Chapters vary greatly in length–some are as short as a minute or two and others last as long as half an hour–and are often punctuated by short, tightly directed cutscenes that introduce new enemies or shed new light on the protagonist’s identity and past. At several points in your journey you will encounter a powerful boss, such as the aforementioned cleaver-wielding demon, that will tax your skill and supply of ammo in a climactic battle.

Apparently, creepy little girls are still a staple of modern horror.

The gameplay itself is very much a mixture of Doom and Silent Hill that combines some of the best elements of each for a fairly straightforward horror experience. Early on, you will find a flashlight to light your way through the pitch-black corridors, and as you navigate through the twisted hospital two melee weapons and five guns will become available. Dementium is essentially a traditional FPS in terms of action and control, but thanks to the sparse placement of ammo, combat becomes more of a fight-or-flight scenario than a matter of deciding which of your weapons are going to splatter your enemy. Unfortunately, while you apparently have the physical dexterity to use larger weapons with both hands, you lack the rudimentary skill to use the flashlight simultaneously with a weapon, leading to situations in which you must quickly toggle back and forth between your guns and your flashlight to see what you’re shooting at.

In addition to running and gunning, a number of puzzles are thrown in that range from a simple substitution cipher to a complex treasure hunt for three pieces of a photograph to learn a door code. You have access to a notepad to scrawl clues or hints in, but the various maps you find inexplicably don’t allow this. While the map system borrows a page from Silent Hill’s playbook and keeps track of doors that are locked or broken (which is nearly all of them, also like Silent Hill), it does not keep track of the many blocked-off corridors you will encounter, and the ability to self-notate these would have been welcome.

Dementium shines the most in terms of presentation, most notably in the area of sound design. It is imperative that you play it with headphones, because listening to the audio clues provided by the 3D sound system is essential in determining what is around the corner. Each enemy makes a unique sound, and often, as is the case with the flying Medusa heads, a brief audio warning is all you’ll get before you’re attacked. In addition to enemy sound effects, certain rooms are filled with intensely creepy noises such as children’s singing and phrases spoken backward. An appropriately moody and ambient soundtrack composed of mostly piano pieces rounds out the audio front and contributes greatly to the sense of isolation and desperation that wandering around in a darkened hospital will produce.

Graphically speaking, Dementium runs at a crisp frame rate that never dips despite the number of enemies or atmospheric effects that may show up simultaneously. Textures are incredibly high-quality given the DS hardware, and the flashlight produces a realistic effect, even flickering occasionally, and is appropriately useless in fog to help heighten the mood.

It’s close to midnight, and something evil’s lurking in the dark…

Unfortunately, for every step that Dementium takes in the right direction toward producing an excellent horror experience on a handheld system, it is held back by a series of flaws that undermine its achievements. Level design is incredibly repetitive, and it’s not uncommon to find several completely identical storerooms down the same hallway; enemies respawn the moment you exit a room, and so that zombie on the other side of the door that scared you the first time will be there every time, minimizing the fear factor in subsequent visits; and the poorly implemented save system, which forces you to restart at the beginning of the chapter upon death despite saving each time you open a door, is counterproductive given that forced replays through lengthy chapters all but eliminates the horror and replaces it with frustration.

Ultimately, Dementium: The Ward is an entertaining shooter that makes great strides in creating a portable horror experience but holds itself back from really accomplishing what it set out to do. Easily beatable in four to five hours by an accomplished player, its static puzzles and enemy placement leave no reason to run through it again, but its memorable sound design and creepy ambience make it well worth a play.

CSI: Dark Motives Hands-On

The number of crime scene investigators in Las Vegas has grown by one in the upcoming CSI: Dark Motives, a crime-solving puzzle game for the Nintendo DS that looks to re-create the themes and techniques used on the hugely popular CBS television show. The game is based on the PC version of the same name and recently, we stepped into the shoes of a CSI expert for a quick look at the game to see if we could bring the bad guys to justice.

A CSI agent’s most useful tool? The touchscreen and stylus.

In Dark Motives, you’ll play as a new CSI hired by Dr. Gil Grissom to help tackle the night shift at Las Vegas’ CSI lab, one of the busiest such facilities in the entire nation. After a quick pep talk from Dr. G, you’ll receive an introduction to your partner for the game’s first case, Catherine Willows. At any point, you’ll be able to go to your partner for hints as you progress through a case; however, the more you ask for her assistance, the lower your final grade will be once Grissom reviews your case performance.

Your first assignment in Dark Motives will be to uncover the mystery of a televised motorcycle stunt gone wrong…almost fatally so. Though the stuntman who performed the jump for a reality show lived through the crash that followed, he’s still more than a little perturbed about what went wrong. As you investigate the circumstances, you’ll go through the same procedures from the CSI show: questioning suspects, collecting evidence, and analyzing the data. These steps will take you across multiple locations in Vegas–from the site of the accident and the promotional offices connected to the reality show that aired the stunt to a motorcycle shop in town that may or may not have had something to do with the tampering of the bike.

Your interface for all of these tasks is, naturally, the combination of the DS’s touch screen and your stylus. When investigating a location for evidence, you can move the stylus over the screen and areas of interest will turn the normally blue arrow icon green. From there, you can use any of the collection or detection tools in your CSI goody bag to do such things as dust for fingerprints or, in the case of the motorcycle stunt case, lift tire tread markings off of asphalt. In the case of the motorcycle accident, you’ll also investigate the bike itself, as a few pieces of the wrecked bike might be useful in putting together your case.

While evidence collecting has its moments of tedium, there’s more to Dark Motives than pixel hunting. With your evidence collected, you can head back to the crime lab and put your fancy gadgets to work for you. For example, you can confirm fingerprint matches, analyze data disks for encrypted e-mail, identify liquid samples, and more. As you build up evidence, you build a case file on the multiple players in each case, which you can access at any time by scrolling through with the left and right triggers.

Technology can only take you so far; sooner or later you’ll need your own brainpower to solve the crime.

As your case improves, you’ll eventually be able to request a warrant from your friends at the police station, which you can then use to search areas that were previously off limits. With a warrant, the sequence of events continues: ask more questions, gather more evidence, wash, rinse, and repeat. With all of your high-tech tools and a little deductive reasoning on your part, you’ll soon have enough evidence to nail the person responsible for tampering with the motorcycle. With that case closed, it will be time to move on to the four cases that make up Dark Motives’ gameplay. And presumably, each will be successively more difficult than the last.

There’s little doubt that Dark Motives is going to have rather limited appeal. Fans of the show and those who prefer methodical games that test your powers of observation are the most obvious candidates. For the CSI faithful, the game’s presentation hark back to the television show, including video crime scene re-creations played on the DS’s upper screen that are definitely reminiscent of the show. Budding investigators should clean their eyepiece and monitor their objective lens for the game’s release later this month.

-If Its Games

Limited edition silver Mario 64 DS for China

China will soon be getting a limited edition Mario 64 iQue DS. iQue Limited manufacture and distribute official Nintendo consoles and games for the mainland Chinese market, under the iQue brand.

Square Enix offers gamers a bottle of red wine with game

Square Enix is offering gamers a bottle of red wine in a special bundle when their upcoming title Wine no Hajimekata for DS goes on sale in Japan on November 28th. The whole game and wine bundle is available for a converted price of just over $40 USD.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2 Import Hands-On

Tiny Tactics

Check out the latest footage of Final Fantasy Tactics A2.
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Square Enix is celebrating Final Fantasy’s 20th anniversary in a big way this year, and a revival of the sleeper hit Final Fantasy Tactics series is a significant part of that celebration. The role-playing magnate recently released an excellent PSP port of the original PlayStation game complete with new content and wireless multiplayer, and now there’s a new Final Fantasy Tactics on the Nintendo DS, too. Well, at least in Japan. The awkwardly titled Final Fantasy Tactics A2: The Sealed Grimoire is in stores across the pond, and we’ve been hammering on its dense strategy-RPG mechanics to find out what’s new this time around.

Tactics A2 is basically a quasi-sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on the Game Boy Advance. That explains the A2, in case you were wondering. Similar to the GBA game, A2 presents a much more lighthearted take on the franchise than the original, plot-heavy PlayStation game. Much like in Tactics Advance, A2 casts you in the role of a schoolboy named Russo (or Luso–take your pick) who is sucked into a magical book at the beginning of the game and deposited in the mystical land of Ivalice (seen in Final Fantasy XII and a number of other games). You’ll quickly join forces with this game’s version of the perennial Cid character–who in this case has a disturbingly pointy nose, but seems adept at combat–and a host of Ivalice’s other indigenous races, like the bunny-eared viera and the lizardlike bangaa, to throw down in the turn-based, grid-oriented combat that should be quite familiar to series veterans.

The overworld itself is quite simple, from what we’ve seen so far. It’s essentially a group of locations represented by dots, all connected by pathways. You can move your character to a location or the nearby town by simply clicking on it, though you’ll have to visit the town to actually enable the combat missions at each location. Once you’re in the town’s pub, you can do things like read the daily newspaper or talk to the bartender to pick up the missions that are currently available. From what we could tell, the level of each mission is indicated by a ranking number, and once we’d completed enough of the missions in the starting area, we were able to exit the relatively small initial area and access a new town and a bunch more missions.

Combat here should be old hat for strategy RPG fans.

Even if you have little to no skill with the Japanese language, you’ll be able to draw upon previous strategy RPG experience to muddle your way through the combat in Tactics A2, since the fundamentals are unchanged. At the beginning of a mission, you’ll be able to place Russo and his current allies–each of whom specialize in offensive magic, healing, ranged attacking, heavy melee combat, and so on–in their starting positions and tell them which way to face. Then it’s a matter of moving your characters one turn at a time while your enemies do the same, issuing attack and magic commands per the standards of this genre. The battlefield is situated on the bottom screen–though, strangely, there’s no touch-screen control whatsoever that we’ve found so far–and as you’d imagine, the top screen is used to show character stats, turn order, and other relevant information.

Of course, there are a handful of combat mechanics–some new, some old–that identify this as a tactics game. The judge law system is back, whereby one of Ivalice’s enigmatic combat judges will mediate your battle and award you a bonus at the end if you don’t violate the rule he’s laid down at the beginning of the match. As far as we can tell, these rules typically restrict you from using particular abilities and such. There’s also a new “clan ability” system, which we’re honestly still trying to figure out. You can select from a number of buffs at the beginning of a battle–including increases in power, speed, and luck–but how these relate to the clan you’re a member of, we haven’t determined yet. There’s a lot of Japanese text in here.

The story unfolds primarily in towns between battles.

The visual presentation in Tactics A2 is of the same whimsical, cartoonlike style used in Tactics Advance, and we’ve generally been quite pleased by the lush color palette of the game’s entirely 2D graphics. Our only complaint so far is that with no ability to reorient the battlefield, the characters tend to stack up on top of one another in close quarters, and it can be hard to see exactly who is standing where. But you can cycle through characters pretty easily to plan out your attacks and position your magic spells, so the fixed perspective isn’t a huge problem.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2 is looking like a solid, lighthearted follow-up to the previous Game Boy Advance game. Newcomers to the series who recently cut their teeth on The War of the Lions shouldn’t look for the same dramatic gravitas here, but the gameplay looks like it will satisfy those armchair fantasy strategists among you. We’d recommend waiting for a domestic release unless you’re highly proficient in Japanese, though sadly, we don’t know yet when that’s going to happen.

-If Its Games

Ubisoft adopts Petz dev

In September, French publisher Ubisoft was rumored as a possible suitor to acquire Eidos parent company SCi Entertainment, a transaction that would include its stable of multimedia franchises such as Hitman and Tomb Raider. Ubisoft denied that rumor, but today the publisher revealed that it had been in the market for an acquisition with the announcement that it will purchase Japanese studio Digital Kids.

With a staff of 20 developers in Nagoya and Osaka, Digital Kids has worked with Ubisoft on its Petz series of games, specifically Hamsterz Life. In a statement, Ubisoft explained the deal by pointing to the studio’s track record in creating pet simulators that appeal to both Japanese and Western audiences.

The publisher’s acquisition of the DS-specialist development house is expected to close before the end of the year.

Kelly Rowland: The only thing I’m dating is my DS, it is a great boyfriend

Recently, singing superstar Kelly Rowland was asked whether she was dating Sunderland FC footballer Kieran Richardson, to which she responded by saying she doesn\’t even know who he is. Rowland then went on to state that the only thing she is dating right now is her DS, it acts as a great boyfriend and they share an amazing relationship.

DS leads the way in Japanese hardware sales

Media Create has released the latest weeklt console hardware sales figures for the region of Japan and they show that the DS is continuing to dominate although to a lesser extent experienced during its \’golden days\’. The DS sold 76,273 units compared to the PSPs 59,792. Eslewhere the Wii sold 27,502 units, the PS3 18,785 and the Xbox 360 3,718.

Boogie DS Update - Minigame Madness

We got our first look at EA’s Nintendo DS version of Boogie, the hybrid dance and karaoke game for the Wii, a few months ago. The game is shaping up to be a smart departure from the somewhat awkward mix of content from the Wii game. On the DS, it’s a straightforward rhythm game that blends gameplay elements from the Wii as well as Elite Beat Agents to offer a pared-down experience that appears to be shaping up as a good fit for the handheld system.

Bubba and the gang are back on the DS

The game features three gameplay modes: dance now, career, and multiplayer. Dance now is essentially a quick-play mode that lets you hop right in to a dance, a series of minigames, or a practice game. You’ll find 10 minigames in total to choose from, each with its own unique use of the DS’s touch screen or mic. The “clap your hands” minigame requires you to tap an onscreen circle with the stylus each time that a star goes through it. “Dip your hip” makes you to follow a moving point around your dancer with the stylus, and you have to keep tabs on the direction it’s following. “In the spotlight” requires you to use the D pad to keep your dancer under a moving spotlight. “Tap your toes” challenges you to tap lit squares on the dancefloor before they disappear. In “put it on record,” you have to use the stylus to keep a pair of spinning records headed in the right direction to keep your dancer balanced. “Make some noise” requires you to speak, sing, or tap the DS microphone at the right time. “Strummer” challenges you to strum a guitar in the correct direction at the proper time. “Whiplash” tasks you with running your stylus up and down an onscreen arrow as it moves around the screen. “Sketch it” challenges you to draw a shape onscreen according to a smaller image that appears in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. Finally, “jingle jingle” requires you to tap tambourines as they appear onscreen.

The career mode is a deeper run through a series of challenges that lets you take one of five characters– Julius, Lea, Kato, Jet, or Bubba–on a personal dancing adventure through locales spread out on a world map. Multiplayer features two modes: dance off, for players who have the game cart; or download play, for players who don’t. In download play, you give data to up to three other players so that you can face off in copycat, freestyle, and choreography games. Besides the proper game modes, you’ll find a tutorial that will help you hone your dancing skills. In addition, a character option will let you customize your character of choice with new gear that radically alters his or her appearance.

The new minigames help mix up the action.

Boogie’s look and sound work well on the portable system thanks to some creative mixing and matching. The visuals are clean and match the aesthetic style of the Wii game. You’ll see a mix of 2D art and fully 3D characters that blends pretty well. The game also features a 3D effect, provided that you slap on some glasses, which helps give the game some depth. The audio borrows heavily from the effects and music heard in the Wii game, but with a few things pared down here and there.

Based on what we played, EA is smartly morphing Boogie from its awkward Wii roots to a modest but solid DS game. What we’ve played handles pretty well and gains some depth over its Wii cousin, which helps give the game a better overall feel. The 3D effect is cool albeit gimmicky–odds are no one will be grooving out with 3D glasses in public–but the visuals manage to look just fine without it. If you’re hungry for a rhythm game and have worked your way through Elite Beat Agents and Ontamarama, it could be worth it to keep an eye out for Boogie. The game is set to hit stores on November 29, and a PlayStation 2 version hits on November 15.

-If Its Games

Face Training Hands-On

At Nintendo’s recent “Mind, Body, and Console” event in London, one room was dedicated to “body” games. Among those showcased were Wii Fit, as well as Sight Training (known as Flash Focus in the US), and Face Training for the DS. Can gurning really make you look younger? We got a chance to go hands-on (or face-on) to find out.

Face Training is based on the principles of “facening,” or facial yoga, which aims to exercise the facial muscles to improve tone and therefore appearance. The game ships with a camera peripheral, which slots into slot two, and ends up on the right-hand side of the handheld because it is held in “book” view to play. The camera enables you to see your own face on the right-hand screen, alongside the instructions on the left.

Smile for the camera!

The version of the game we played was in Japanese (the game, titled Otona no DS Kao Training, is already out in Japan), so a translator talked us through what appeared to be standard introduction and instruction screens.

The initial exercises we tried were straightforward. First, we had to close our eyes slowly to a count of five, which is counted down by the game’s instructor, and also shown on the right-hand screen by circles that contained the numbers one to five. We then had to look as far as possible to the left and right, as well as up and down, again to the count of five.

After that, we moved on to the muscles around the mouth with a variety of exercises that ranged from saying the letters “A,” “E,” and “O” for a count of five, to moving the mouth to the left and right while opening wide. Although it may well be helpful for facial toning, it does feel quite odd at first. We found it hard to maintain the positions while watching ourselves onscreen, given that the image did cause some giggling. These are exercises to be undertaken in the privacy of your own home; it would take serious nerve to “face train” in public.

Like its stablemates Brain Training (Brain Age in the US) and Sight Training, Face Training is designed to become a part of a daily routine of self-improvement, and to attract a wider audience than traditional games. Nintendo asserted at the event that 66 percent of adult owners of DS handhelds in the UK are female, and this is clearly the target market for Face Training. It’s certainly a novel concept, and we look forward to seeing more of the game when an English-language version is available.

Face Training has been confirmed for release sometime in 2008 for both Europe and the USA.

-If Its Games

Insecticide Hands-On

Earlier this week, during a meeting with Gamecock Media Group, we had an opportunity to get our hands on a two-level demo of Insecticide for the Nintendo DS. Currently in development at virtual studio Crackpot Entertainment, Insecticide is a detective game that will offer two distinct gameplay styles: fast-paced third-person platforming and shooting, and more sedate, puzzle-oriented investigative sequences. The split between the two gameplay styles will purportedly be 50/50 as you progress through the game, so it’s fitting that we got to play through a level of each.

Insecticide is set on Earth, but it’s a very different world than the one that we know. The overuse of pesticides has caused humanity to devolve into a race of primitive primates known as hominids, who must wear special suits to survive. Meanwhile, insects have developed a natural immunity to the radioactive chemicals that now fill the air, and somewhere along the line they’ve also evolved to become just as large and as intelligent as humans used to be. You’ll assume the role of a young, six-limbed detective named Chrys Liszt who, along with her partner Roachy Caruthers, has been tasked with solving a murder at the Nectarola soft-drink company.

Out in the field, Insecticide is a third-person shooter…

The game’s first level, titled Great Expectations, is action-oriented and tasks you with pursuing a suspect through some particularly dangerous areas of the City of Troi, in which Insecticide takes place. Presumably because it has been designed with the needs of insects in mind, the city looks quite different than anything that humans would’ve built. Consequently, jumping between platforms is accepted as a conventional way of getting around. You’ll spend a good deal of your time in action sequences that help you figure out how to navigate the city’s unusual architecture to get to where you need to be. When you’re not doing that, it’ll be because you’ve either arrived or encountered some bugs intent on closing your investigation prematurely.

In the finished game, you’ll gain access to an arsenal of four upgradeable, organic weapons as you progress through the story. We had access to only one at the start of the game, though: an underpowered pistol with a slow firing rate. Locking the targeting reticle on to enemies is a necessity because it’s really the only way to target them accurately, and it’s only when locked on that you can perform sidesteps to evade the enemies’ own projectile attacks. If you can get close enough to an opponent, melee combat is also an option, and it’ll kick in automatically when you press the button normally reserved for firing weapons. Your health can be replenished at any time by collecting cans of Nectarola, and you’ll also find pick-ups that can be used to power up special moves and to upgrade your weapons.

Digimon World: Dawn/Dusk Review

There’s an old saying that goes, “second verse, same as the first.” That just about sums up Digimon World: Dawn and Digimon World: Dusk, both for the Nintendo DS. Apart from a few trivial enhancements that make it easier to train your virtual monsters and challenge your friends to wireless duels, the two versions of this so-called new game really don’t offer much above the previous Digimon World that was released the year before. Once again, diehard Digimon fans will probably be able to forgive the game’s phoned-in nature, while those not totally enamored with the franchise will probably shake their head at this plodding, half-hearted take on the monster battle genre.

Like Pok

Nintendo giving away free Pok

Get Manaphy for free.

Nintendo Australia is giving Poké-maniacs a treat down under, with the company partnering with national electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi to give away a free rare Pokémon for use in the Nintendo DS’s Pokémon Diamond or Pearl.

From November 7-13, gamers can go into any JB Hi-Fi store to download Manaphy, a rare Pokémon being featured in the latest Pokémon movie, Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea. Manaphy features an exclusive move called Heart Swap, which switches healing effects with other Pokémon.

Gamers will need to bring their Nintendo DS and an English version of Pokémon Diamond or Pearl to a JB Hi-Fi store to grab Manaphy. Nintendo has posted full instructions on its Australian Web site.

Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys First Look

Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys is a side-scrolling adventure game for the Nintendo DS that was announced with very little information to back it up earlier this month. The game’s premise positively oozes B movie goodness from its every undead pore. Three teenage zombies, awoken from their underground slumber by a particularly noisy alien invasion, climb out of their graves with a bad case of the munchies and are thrilled to find that the aforementioned extra terrestrials bear more than a passing resemblance to (and are presumably every bit as tasty as) brains. Ignition Entertainment and developer InLight Entertainment showed off a work-in-progress version of the game recently. We’re pleased to report that its amusing storyline isn’t the only thing it has going for it.

For starters, Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys boasts some really great comic book-style presentation and even goes so far as to have you hold the DS on its side like a comic book while the story is told on both “pages.” The in-game visuals are similarly pleasing to the eye, and the three playable brain eaters each have some amusing animations. The titular heroes also have some unique skills at their disposal, and at least two of them appear to have suffered quite grisly deaths.

Lori throws a mean punch. Just one.

For example, Lori “Lefty” Lopez is a basketball player who only has one arm. Her skills include jumping high, throwing punches at long range–courtesy of a partially severed wrist–and augmenting what’s left of her missing arm with various gadgets, such as a vacuum cleaner. Zack “Half Pipe” Boyd, on the other hand, is a skateboarder with no legs who can move faster than the other zombies, jump off ramps, and assume something resembling the coffin position to roll through small gaps. Last up is Finnigan “Fins” Magee who appears to have done most of his suffering after death. He was buried a little too close to the sea, and after various aquatic creatures found their way into his coffin, he ended up with tentacles fused onto his back. Said additional limbs grant Fins some neat abilities, though, such as scaling vertical walls and hanging from ropes.

While playing on the top screen, instantly switching among characters will be easy as tapping their coffin on the touch screen or, if you prefer, pressing a button. The coffins are also used to store any character-specific power-ups that you find until you want to use them. We only got to see one such power-up during our time with the game: some kind of spicy food that gives Fins the ability to puke fire for about 20 seconds. We’ve no idea what the other power-ups might be at this point, but after seeing that one devastate a significant number of alien enemies, we’re eager to find out. Eating the “alien brain thingys” will replenish your health, incidentally, but because you’re a zombie, we’re apparently supposed to refer to it as “unhealth.”

In addition to lots of jumping between platforms and killing aliens, Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys will feature a number of minigames that figure into the story at various points during your adventure. We were afforded a brief look at one titled Power Line, which put the touch screen and stylus to good use by letting you pull back then release a power line between two buildings as if it were a rubber band. Using Lefty as a one-handed projectile, the goal was simply to crash her into alien brains and smash the jars that they fly around. Then, with subsequent flicks of the power line, you launch the tasty head muscles toward Fins who is standing on the left side of the screen.

The comic book-style presentation works well with the subject matter .

In a nod to Nintendo’s Brain Age (Brain Training if you’re in the UK) series, Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys will also feature a number of brain-teasing challenges. The alien boss, Big Brain, forces you to complete these challenges as he tries to comprehend how it is that you’re able to resist his mind-control techniques and raygun blasts. We didn’t get to see any of the Big Brain challenges in action on this occasion, but our understanding is that they’ll be quite similar to those found in the aforementioned Nintendo series, though presumably lacking the floating polygonal head of Dr Kawashima. Big Brain challenges will come in five difficulties or “brain ages,” including baby, toddler, teen, adult, and royal.

Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys is currently scheduled for release during the second quarter of 2008. We look forward to bringing you more information as soon as it becomes available.

-If Its Games