ds homebrew game reviews for 8.7.07

I’m continuing the review of homebrew games from Monday. And there are some real winners in this batch. I definitely have games to add to my list of must-have homebrews. Most of these games are submissions to the coding contest over at dev-fr.org.

Of the homebrews I have played up until now, I think A Touch of War is perhaps the best all-round homebrew game because of its depth, its polish, its continuing development. [Playing the latest version in the car during our trip further convinced me of that, but more on that in another post, perhaps.] But I think one of the following games might take that spot.

Geo Wars–Though Sumiguchi is the developer and lead on this game, a team of talented folks have contributed to what just might be the most polished, professional DS homebrew game. True, it’s a Geometry Wars clone . . . to a point. But there’s more to it.

First, the controls are simple: d-pad moves your ship, the stylus controls the direction of your canon fire, and the R and L triggers activate special weapons, depending on your character.

Second, you play as characters, Alice and Mortymer. To complete the game, you must progress and play through as both characters. For Alice, the R and L triggers activate a barrier of bombs that detonate in a circle around you. For Mortymer, the triggers launch missiles that you guide with your stylus.

Third, the game has some notion of a story, with an introduction. To go with the story, there are training areas for flight and combat. But the game includes variations on the evolutions theme. You have missions that can upgrade your ship as well as zones, which have their own progression and in which you can evolve your weapons with power-ups. Sumiguchi says that the story itself evolves.

Fourth, the game has an online leaderboard.

Finally, the game includes original art and music from spriteattack and troy nowaselski.

I’ve not played Geometry Wars, but I think this goes beyond a simple clone. Plus, it’s a challenge to play, at least for my old fingers. I have to add to this to the handful of games that I think makes getting the DS homebrew game scene worthwhile. If you play homebrew, you should have this on your cart. It supports DLDI and runs great on my M3 Simply DS.

Meteora Evoluation–This is another well done and polished homebrew game. It’s tempting to call it a Meteos clone, but I don’t think it is. I’m not going to summarize the controls because you really should check out probably the best tutorial/help in any homebrew game. It steps you through the different gameplay and controls very well, better than I could summarize. But I will say that they are clean and simple. Understanding your weapons is more challenging and important.

I think Meteora also has a lot of depth and even subtlety, from what your opponent throws at you to what your weapons can do. [It even includes a weapon in which you can blow on the mic.] It reminds me some of Missile Command, but there is more to it.

Again, I think this is another keeper, though perhaps not quite as strong as Geo Wars or A Touch of War. Still, it’s a worthwhile game that helps scratch your free game itch. It also sets a bar for polish along with Geo Wars.

lapinou jumps!– thoduv gives a nice platform variation in which you control a rabbit that must jump [quite high, too] from block to block. The trick is that the block you’re on disintegrates as long as you stay there. So, you have to keep moving.

Also, nhut created the graphics for this game. thoduv is planning to expand the different kinds of blocks in the game which should make it more interesting.

As it is, this is a nice little diversion, though I can’t see myself playing it for long. Still, it’s worth checking out.

I’m still trying to get Worms Online to work. Unfortunately, some wifi games and apps do not work well on my m3 simply ds. I think this one has the potential to be another excellent game.