63 is the number of this edition of the GBAtemp book game club. On the face of it this series might seem a bit similar to some of the others we have around here and where all should net you something well worth being able to say you have played this less focused on getting the best and any hidden gems, although they are certainly things we look for, but more about getting something interesting and allowing those that wish to participate the chance to the discuss the title as opposed to a single person reviewing a title. For the most part we will plunder the libraries of homebrew, commercial releases, leaked code and ROM hacks for the GBA, DS and Wii but if we will occasionally go outside that and we will at least try to note older entries or alternative versions on other systems. Each edition will usually feature a single game as the selection but multiple entries in a franchise might be bundled or closely related franchises might see a compare and contrast posed not to mention the occasional challenge/run within a game might happen instead.
#63 - Treasure World (NDS)
Although we promised to take it easy on the puzzle titles for a little while this might be a bit close to it for some and if so we apologise. Still games which make use of surroundings and things not entirely related to the original game have long been interesting for people with examples ranging ranging from older games like Operation: Inner Space making levels from your file tree and icons within it, Pyscho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid reading the contents of memory cards, Eternal Darkness on the gamecube mimicking a dodgy TV set, the Boktai solar sensors changing the game with the light that falls on it, the AR cards that various 3DS games and features use are a good example, Namco Bandai have filed patents on similar concepts and others have even come the other way and turned Doom into a task manager.
Aspyr, the developers of Treasure World, are probably better known for porting games every which way (although usually PC games to Mac systems) but they have tried their hands at developing some games along the way with this being one of their most notable titles. The game itself is a treasure hunting game which is fine but rather than a random map in the game as with most other titles like it this uses wifi signals the DS can see to generate treasures essentially turning wardriving into a fully fledged game*. Where it made it big splash when it was released these days it is usually remembered more in the novel concept discussions and not a lot else so we though we would see if that is justified.
*reviewers at the time noted there was a not a lot other than treasure collection but we figure people play Animal Crossing so that might not matter so much.
Should Aspyr stick to porting games or were they onto something here? If you like this sort of thing you might also like the DS homebrew Metro wardive which functions along a similar line.
gbagotw should get you other links in this series
