[h2]GBAtemp book game club #86[/h2]
G.G Series Collection + (NDS)
Compilations of minigames are an interesting thing to ponder- occasionally they give us some of the best games we have for a given console (see 42 all time classics/clubhouse games, warioware, retro game challenge or indeed many options for card games) and other times they are not so good (a staple of shovelware would probably be quite fitting). To that end we have G.G. Series Collection + which started out life as a collection of DSiware games before gaining a few more entries and becoming a full cart release for the DS. Now being the product of Suzak, developers of the latter two F Zero games on the GBA among other things, people could expect a bit even if their efforts on the DS (Wario - master of disguise and Dokapon journey among others) were somewhat forgettable. How it played out here we leave to you to judge but aside from the annoying pay in game credits to unlock mechanic (filetrip and [url=http://www.shunyweb.info/convert.php]shuny's save converter/unique geek's save converters exist for a reason mind you) it addresses one of the chief criticisms of these sorts of games and provides whole games that could stand on their own after a fashion.
Games are nominally broken into four categories of puzzle, shooter (shmups), action and sports though there is some overlap between shooter and action. They mostly do what they say and, even if their origins as cheap and cheerful downloadable service type games is evident, they are not all clones of each other- most of the shooters are variations on classic themes (taken as a collection it might have made it into our shmups editon) and the "what if puzzle quest played as columns/Dr Mario" was quite enjoyable and air hockey pinball was novel. That said cheap and cheerful is sometimes highly desirable for when attempts to add, or indeed crowbar in, new elements to games fail (see many instances of Tetris alternative modes and touchscreen fun right across the DS library) it can break the game.
The game is Japanese only (some did get an English translation but ended up back on DSiware) but that should not matter here- most of the games are simple, if fairly polished, versions of classic gameplay styles and most of the menus are in English. To its credit it resisted forcing in touch screen nonsense, sometimes even where it might have benefited.
In the retro game challenge/game center cx overview for its game of the week we posited that gameplay was something like "what is the 9 volt sections of warioware were full levels" where here we are going to say something like if Amiga and DOS era bomb jack, pipe mania/pipe dream and 1942 are games from your youth, or you just wish they could have been, and you want a bit of good off brand nostalgia then you might get quite a bit out of this.
[prebreak]Rest of the article[/prebreak]
Should have stayed as DSiware type games or were the developers providing a much need service? Commercial games other than the ones we have mentioned do not well represent this style of game but homebrew does it proud. Naturally you want to start with something like puzzlemaniak and it should be noted just about everything that was part of things like the Windows Entertainment pack has appeared on the GBA and DS in one form or another.
We are working on getting a new searching mechanism working with the new forum software now our tag system has been changed. In the meantime all the editions are in this section and hopefully a search for GBAGOTW should get you the other entries in the series. gbagotw.
News is great but non news features are equally desirable so GBAtemp aims to have a few. The GBAtempbook game club/GBAtemp game of the week feature is one of those.
Though "GBAtemp recommends!" is considered a sister project we aim to have this follow a slightly different core concept and be less about the topic creator doing a review/retrospective and more about "a user driven review/discussion of a selected title" happen. To that end we try to downplay the review aspects in the opener and encourage those that wish to participate to review and pull apart the title.
GBA, the DS and the Wii commercial games, homebrew, ROM hacks and things like leaked betas will be our main focus, though the DS can emulate quite a bit so something that becomes viable to play on the DS thanks to that can appear as well. Likewise games have been around a while and franchises of them can be spread across platforms so we will try to note when a subject has games on other platforms.
For all that we tend not to elaborate upon our selection process other than to say there is the temptation to make such features all about "hidden gems" and/or "the best games in a given genre/platform". This certainly works for many but "done to death" is how we tend to describe it and much like regular book clubs if you always play what you unequivocally like you run the risk of missing out on interesting ideas and up and coming types. Of course it would take a mighty interesting idea to have us make some unplayable garbage our selection for the week.[/url]
G.G Series Collection + (NDS)
Compilations of minigames are an interesting thing to ponder- occasionally they give us some of the best games we have for a given console (see 42 all time classics/clubhouse games, warioware, retro game challenge or indeed many options for card games) and other times they are not so good (a staple of shovelware would probably be quite fitting). To that end we have G.G. Series Collection + which started out life as a collection of DSiware games before gaining a few more entries and becoming a full cart release for the DS. Now being the product of Suzak, developers of the latter two F Zero games on the GBA among other things, people could expect a bit even if their efforts on the DS (Wario - master of disguise and Dokapon journey among others) were somewhat forgettable. How it played out here we leave to you to judge but aside from the annoying pay in game credits to unlock mechanic (filetrip and [url=http://www.shunyweb.info/convert.php]shuny's save converter/unique geek's save converters exist for a reason mind you) it addresses one of the chief criticisms of these sorts of games and provides whole games that could stand on their own after a fashion.
Games are nominally broken into four categories of puzzle, shooter (shmups), action and sports though there is some overlap between shooter and action. They mostly do what they say and, even if their origins as cheap and cheerful downloadable service type games is evident, they are not all clones of each other- most of the shooters are variations on classic themes (taken as a collection it might have made it into our shmups editon) and the "what if puzzle quest played as columns/Dr Mario" was quite enjoyable and air hockey pinball was novel. That said cheap and cheerful is sometimes highly desirable for when attempts to add, or indeed crowbar in, new elements to games fail (see many instances of Tetris alternative modes and touchscreen fun right across the DS library) it can break the game.
The game is Japanese only (some did get an English translation but ended up back on DSiware) but that should not matter here- most of the games are simple, if fairly polished, versions of classic gameplay styles and most of the menus are in English. To its credit it resisted forcing in touch screen nonsense, sometimes even where it might have benefited.
In the retro game challenge/game center cx overview for its game of the week we posited that gameplay was something like "what is the 9 volt sections of warioware were full levels" where here we are going to say something like if Amiga and DOS era bomb jack, pipe mania/pipe dream and 1942 are games from your youth, or you just wish they could have been, and you want a bit of good off brand nostalgia then you might get quite a bit out of this.
[prebreak]Rest of the article[/prebreak]
Gameplay from the "Wonderland" shooter. Footage from the various games is usually available
Should have stayed as DSiware type games or were the developers providing a much need service? Commercial games other than the ones we have mentioned do not well represent this style of game but homebrew does it proud. Naturally you want to start with something like puzzlemaniak and it should be noted just about everything that was part of things like the Windows Entertainment pack has appeared on the GBA and DS in one form or another.
We are working on getting a new searching mechanism working with the new forum software now our tag system has been changed. In the meantime all the editions are in this section and hopefully a search for GBAGOTW should get you the other entries in the series. gbagotw.
News is great but non news features are equally desirable so GBAtemp aims to have a few. The GBAtemp
Though "GBAtemp recommends!" is considered a sister project we aim to have this follow a slightly different core concept and be less about the topic creator doing a review/retrospective and more about "a user driven review/discussion of a selected title" happen. To that end we try to downplay the review aspects in the opener and encourage those that wish to participate to review and pull apart the title.
GBA, the DS and the Wii commercial games, homebrew, ROM hacks and things like leaked betas will be our main focus, though the DS can emulate quite a bit so something that becomes viable to play on the DS thanks to that can appear as well. Likewise games have been around a while and franchises of them can be spread across platforms so we will try to note when a subject has games on other platforms.
For all that we tend not to elaborate upon our selection process other than to say there is the temptation to make such features all about "hidden gems" and/or "the best games in a given genre/platform". This certainly works for many but "done to death" is how we tend to describe it and much like regular book clubs if you always play what you unequivocally like you run the risk of missing out on interesting ideas and up and coming types. Of course it would take a mighty interesting idea to have us make some unplayable garbage our selection for the week.[/url]
