Following the little break it is time for a GBAtemp book game club. To refresh everybody on the concept this series is one where we suggest a game (or three) to play and after that those that wish can discuss it.The selections are made using many different criteria although we do want to say that this is not intended to be a top ? games list if for no other reason than a search on your chosen search engine for top ? games should net you lists of them for genres, consoles and whatever else you might wish to refine the list by. Not being bound by some notions of quality (or worse review scores) it allows games to be selected should they demonstrate an interesting mechanic, a nice score, represent a new idea or an old idea brought back/polished up for a company, console or genre as well as simply being quality games or underrated games.The selections for this series will usually come from the consoles we traditionally covered around here but each of those has a large collection of rom hacks, commercial releases, homebrew games and otherwise to look at that are in many cases still growing. In an attempt to mix things up and keep the series somewhat fresh there can be other criteria not necessarily related to the game itself like it only being released in Europe, only released in a small run, be available right now on a given budget as well as doing things like compare and contrast titles if there are several examples of a game or posing a challenge run within the game.
#34- Infinite Space (NDS)
A joint effort between Nude Maker (Steel Battalion) and Platinum games (Bayonetta, Vanquish and MadWorld) who were in turn made from the ashes of Clover studio (Okami, Viewtiful Joe and one of the few games ever to wear the "so bad it is good" label "God Hand") and overseen by several noted peopled meant people were expecting something interesting at least although excitement was tempered by it being the first proper handheld title for the companies involved. What appeared in the end was a story driven strategy RPG (although combat is real time/does not pause for menus similar to some RPGs and control is similar to an RTS) somewhat reminiscent of Skies of Arcadia as opposed to the likes of Elite. As with many entries into this style of game it has been accused of taking a while to warm up but that is fairly standard for the genre. Unlike some of the other games we have looked at over the course of this series this did get a lot of attention at the time of release but has since fallen by the wayside to mainly only be remembered by those that were there at the time so we shine a light on it today.
Has the general dearth of space sims in recent years, especially on the DS, caused us to mistake an example of the genre with a good game or did Nude Maker and Platinum games make something special? Discuss it among others in the thread below. Fans of elite/free roaming space shooters are invited to look at the DS (AGB only) and GBA (AGB and TNK) ports of elite by Quirky, one of our favourites here on the GBAtemp recommends desk of "Sea Trader Rise of Taipan" on the GBA and the GBA homebrew Trade winds as well.
gbagotw should get you other links in this series
