DS #5506: Duke Nukem: Critical Mass (Europe)

[Takanato]

Only shovelware to look forward to before it's put to rest and the 3DS takes over the spotlight.

Thor: God of Thunder looks damn fine and is by WayForward who can do very good games.
Captain America / Green Lantern - These are by Griptonite who can churn out a good game.
New Kirby 'cos its Kirby.

And then is they get localised:
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth 2
DQ Joker 2

Theres some others but I forget what they're named plus hopefully that thing about Nintendo localising some older J only DS games would be true.

It is true, Games like Mugen Frontier 2 is supposed to be localized along with tons more Japanese and Korean games.

 

[The Catboy]

Am I losing my hearing or is the volume like really low for this game. I have my DS Lite's volume set to Max and I still can barely hear it. Even my roommates can barely hear.
I know it's not my system since I compared the sounds from most of my games to it.

 

[Rayder]

Seems to work fine on CycloDS B.7. Yeah, essentially Manhattan Project on a handheld. At least his smart-ass comments are still there.

 

[Ikki]

horrible graphics...

A games not about graphics, it's about gameplay

This.

Also, it's an old gen portable console. What do you expect? PS3 like graphics?

It's a current gen portable.

 

[tuddy666]

And here we have the last noteworthy Nintendo DS release.
Bittersweet.
Only shovelware to look forward to before it's put to rest and the 3DS takes over the spotlight.
Rest in peace, good friend.

I beg to differ; there's still plenty of life in the DS yet. Nintendo still have titles planned for release on it until some time in 2012; and that's not mentioning the influx of localisations and possible localisations for the system (case in point - Solatorobo got submitted to PEGI, which means it may be getting an English release).

As for -new- games (as in, not localisations of games released in another territory, but actual new releases), while there may be less released than there was in the past few years (not that this is a bad thing - I still have a backlog of well over 50 games I want to beat on the DS); they're coming. Just not as often as they used to.

 

[p1ngpong]

Just gave it a bash, yeah its not great. The duke is very stiffly animated, generally the graphics are poor, the shooting isn't much fun and the sniper parts are really really terrible. I gave up when I reached the jet pack part, which was horrible.

 

[Hadrian]

How is anyone disappointed? It looked like a crap game from the very first few images, the trailer made the game look like shit (gameplay not graphics) and then the developer turned out to be Frontline Studios makers of such pieces of crap as Chicken Shoot, Pet Pals 2, Holly Hobbie and finally M&M's Kart Racing. You expected this to be anything better then bad?

This is worse than Manhatten Project though better than Land of the Babes.

Its a buggy mess, I was standing on some crates and when they fell over I was still standing where they were! Then some rat thing chucked a explosive at me and the explosive froze in the air! Then some enemies are invisible but their feet but when you move an inch they appear. Stuttering camera too which became too annoying. With all the delays the team could have at least fixed the bugs so that instead of a piece of crap we could have something so so.

Animations are very poor and lazy, was it too much to ask for a separate animation for when you jumped and shoot at the same time? Dunno if its because I'm running this on a ak2 but while some cutscenes ran ok others were ok but then had a massive amount of slowdown.

This isn't the Apogee of the excellent early PC shareware years and I hope Frontline Studios never develop again. Such a shame that the GBC and GBA had cool Duke games and the DS gets this game that only kids under 10 can enjoy...kids who think iPhone games are the future.

 

[The Catboy]

How is anyone disappointed? It looked like a crap game from the very first few images, the trailer made the game look like shit (gameplay not graphics)

I am going to be honest, I can get passed bad graphics, some of the best games in the world aren't the best looking, but you are right on one thing after all the delays one would expect them to have at least made a better game and ironed out some of the bugs.
Then I remembered the game CORE for the DS and how long that was delayed and shit we got from that, so if there is any prof, delays don't make good games, just higher expectations with disappointing results.

 

[Hadrian]

I never meant graphics, they are kinda serviceable back on those old screens I just meant the gameplay. Having seen many of these kind of games on the PSX I can just tell how it was gonna play like and I was right sadly.

 

[The Catboy]

I never meant graphics, they are kinda serviceable back on those old screens I just meant the gameplay. Having seen many of these kind of games on the PSX I can just tell how it was gonna play like and I was right sadly.

ah, true true.
I just had some hopes this game would be better myself.

 

[Deleted member 473940]

Just gave it a bash, yeah its not great. The duke is very stiffly animated, generally the graphics are poor, the shooting isn't much fun and the sniper parts are really really terrible. I gave up when I reached the jet pack part, which was horrible.

Its a DS lol
What more can you expect graphically?

 

[The Catboy]

Just gave it a bash, yeah its not great. The duke is very stiffly animated, generally the graphics are poor, the shooting isn't much fun and the sniper parts are really really terrible. I gave up when I reached the jet pack part, which was horrible.

Its a DS lol
What more can you expect graphically?

The DS has proven itself with games like Kingdom Hearts (both of them) and most Squire Enix games, that the DS can have purely amazing graphics, this after all the delays should at least come close to those.

 

[Deleted member 473940]

Just gave it a bash, yeah its not great. The duke is very stiffly animated, generally the graphics are poor, the shooting isn't much fun and the sniper parts are really really terrible. I gave up when I reached the jet pack part, which was horrible.

Its a DS lol
What more can you expect graphically?

The DS has proven itself with games like Kingdom Hearts (both of them) and most Squire Enix games, that the DS can have purely amazing graphics, this after all the delays should at least come close to those.

I wouldnt really call it AMAZING GRAPHICS. LOL!
But yeah, those feel a little more solid.

 

[The Catboy]

Just gave it a bash, yeah its not great. The duke is very stiffly animated, generally the graphics are poor, the shooting isn't much fun and the sniper parts are really really terrible. I gave up when I reached the jet pack part, which was horrible.

Its a DS lol
What more can you expect graphically?

The DS has proven itself with games like Kingdom Hearts (both of them) and most Squire Enix games, that the DS can have purely amazing graphics, this after all the delays should at least come close to those.

I wouldnt really call it AMAZING GRAPHICS. LOL!
But yeah, those feel a little more solid.

For the Ds, they blew my mind! So in retrospective, they are amazing, for the DS. Compared to any other system, they are just meh, but I am just speaking the range of DS graphics here

 

[camurso_]

wtf is wrong with you guys?
The video showed clearly how suckable the game is!
I think its not a problem that you dont see it. I think you guys wont admit ot just because its duke nukem and yes, Im 33 years old and played all previously duke nukem and loved them!

This one, from the video, is pure shit!

 

[GeekyGuy]

...yeah its not great. ...

That's being generous.

The game is awful, just terrible. And yet...I'm kinda enjoying it. Sometimes a game teeters on being unplayable but still manages to be fun because of its cheese factor. Critical Mass is feeling like such a game thus far. It's so, so bad, and at the same time, so, so satisfying.

Mmm...blackened pork!

 

[Rayder]

...yeah its not great. ...

That's being generous.

The game is awful, just terrible. And yet...I'm kinda enjoying it. Sometimes a game teeters on being unplayable but still manages to be fun because of its cheese factor. Critical Mass is feeling like such a game thus far. It's so, so bad, and at the same time, so, so satisfying.

Mmm...blackened pork!

Pretty much my thoughts. It seems like a game that would have fared better about 3 years ago.

I'll play through it just because there are no flowers or bunnies and Duke's comments are funny. I just wish I could set the controls to what I want. You can tell the DS just wasn't really powerful enough for this game. The whole pace of the game seems a little slow. I haven't noticed any particular glitches, other than some clipping of dropped items, which seems to happen a lot. It's mostly the controls that bog the game down. Think Manhattan Project with sloppy controls. I also don't like how dark to the game is, it's annoying to have to turn up the brightness just to see it, and then it's still too freaking dark in places. The stiff animations don't really bother me, but the input lag may kill my enjoyment.

 

[Hadrian]

The DS has proven itself with games like Kingdom Hearts (both of them) and most Squire Enix games, that the DS can have purely amazing graphics, this after all the delays should at least come close to those.

In all fairness comparing this game to a game where its developers have a much larger budget, support and time to spend is a tad unfair.

However Renegade Kid and Shin'en are similar small development teams and they seem to be able to squeeze some good stuff out of the consoles they work on.

 

[Oveneise]

YES! Finally something new to play on my DS.

 

[stanleyopar2000]

Shit Graphics? - okay...not the end of the world.

Shit Gameplay - Damnit....WTF?

Shit Controls? - Fuck You

(WHY make TOUCH SCREEN CONTROLS when you have to use the BUTTONS on the RIGHT to shoot?!?!..

Shit Voice Acting? eat shit and die