Handheld Reviews

Mario Kart – Nintendo – DS

Multiplayer heaven, well, as long as you can find a compatible hot spot or turn all the protection off of your home wi-fi. Mario Kart doesn’t disappoint, but it doesn’t blow you away either. The new ctracks are well designed, the old ones make a welcome return, but again, Nintendo have taken away the coin collecting aspect. For most gamers, the use of your collected coins total to increase your kart’s speed was a vital ingredient to the game.

After so many incarnations, you can’t help feeling you’ve done all this before, and despite finishing all the rest of the Mario Kart games, I’m already bored of this one. One huge plus side though is the multiplayer within the same area. Up to eight friends without a cartridge can all race along side you and computer controlled players, without doubt this provides the best racing on the DS console.

In conclusion, a mixed bag, retro nostalgia mixed with stale gameplay and missing facets. It’s a Mario Kart you can do without. Jace Rates 5/10

Toca Driver 2 – Codemasters – Sony PSP

The whole of the PS2 game crammed into the PSP, surely not? Oh yes it is, with its sublime handling, and varied championships, this is without doubt the king of all PSP racing games. How unfortunate people with look past it to buy the dreadful Need for Speed or midnight club. Jace rates 8.5/10

Advance Wars – Nintendo – DS

Strangely not as addictive as previous versions, and the touch sensitive part is a complete waste of time. Fans of the earlier games will ditch it for the intuitive joypad controls which are thankfully retained precisely. Still a challenging but often frustrating game, but I still wouldn’t take my DS out without it. Jace Rates 8/10

POKEMON PINBALL - Gameboy Color

As a hardened gamer, well, I say hardened, I don’t actually mean hard, either in the “I’ll smash his bloody face in” Eastenders way, or the other, far more erotic way, I mean the “played a lot of video games” saddo way actually. Phew, what I was going to say was, you would think that I would have covered more stuff for the Gameboy. However, other than a brief dalliance with Tetris back in 1989, I haven’t really had much time for the machine. I wonder if this is the case with most serious gamers, is it that Nintendo’s pocket machine is just not aimed for twenty/thirty somethings?? Perhaps. It’s not that there isn’t interesting titles released, take for example Metal Gear Pocket, Zelda or the newly released Perfect Dark. However, I think the mass opinion is, why on earth would I want to play these third rate versions of games I already have on my 30” TV. I wonder how many people over the age of thirty you can see playing a Gameboy on a train or plane. Perhaps, socially, we are too far gone to convert to playing in such public arenas. I love the Atari Lynx, but the thought of playing it on a crowded train fills me with dread, perhaps i’m too scared that people will see me for what I am... a serious gamer!!

Anyway, enough of this. The reason for this rant is because I finally found a new GBC game I wanted to play. Pokemon pinball may be full of those monsters that nobody can understand the popularity of, but it is a very good pinball game. First point of note is that the cartridge contains it’s very own rumble pack, which unconvincingly vibrates when ball features are activated, complete with irritating hum. This doesn’t prevent the action on-screen from being entertaining. Choose from two pinball tables, each with fifty catchable pokemon trapped inside. Special features must be accumulated to both catch and train each pokemon, and once earned they appear in your Pokedex, a library of all you have found. As much as you may hate the Pokemon monsters, this certainly adds a huge level of reward to the title. High scores are also captured for each table, and everything is backed up with an internal battery. The pinball game itself is very playable, with well placed layout, and intuitive flipper control. It doesn’t take long before you are fighting for scores and capturing monsters. Overall, the best pinball game since Kirby’s Pinball came out for the original gameboy five years ago. Jace Rates 7/10

Wai Wai Racing - Konami

Konami have stolen virtually every gameplay trick that every made Mario Kart on the Snes compelling. From the eight characters, the multi-player (link-up) version, the special weapons, the “jump-a-tiny-bit” control, to the themed levels, shortcuts, turbo start, coin collecting and progressive race series. It’s all there, and you can’t help but think it’s the reason why Nintendo’s own GBA kart game has been delayed. The weapons take a particularly familiar line, including the lightening strike which shrinks all rival cars and allow you to run them over. There are a few additions, like the shop where you can buy extra weapons, and the novel time trial races requiring completion before new levels open up. Despite the small screen, pixelisation is virtually nonexistent. Before the GBA was launched, it was compared with the SNES, but the speed and fluidity of the scrolling makes this title more comparable with a Playstation game. Sound and Music too is very impressive, particularly considering the tiny inbuilt speaker. Let’s face it, I am a hard-core gamer, I am well aware that the groundbreaking Snes version of Mario Kart not only offered the most playable arcade experience on the 16-bit machine, but also created a whole new racing genre. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Nintendo should be blushing like a tomato right now. Indeed, the theft of ideas has been so devastating that Wai Wai Racing is left with much of the traits which made Mario Kart so perfect. A highly playable and incredibly addictive game in it’s own right, Wai Wai Racing deserves to hold the cup of best GBA racing game, at least until the real thing arrives. Jace Rates - 8/10

Mr Driller 2 - Namco

Mr Driller is a puzzle game which owes more to Boulderdash than Tetris. Knock down the blocks and see how low you can go, however you’ll need to get those air bottles on the way. In all respects, Namco’s puzzle game suits handheld formats perfectly, and the GBA pretty much allows arcade perfect reproduction. Add to that the multi-player link up version and you’ve got a highly addictive alternative to the usual Tetris-a-like handheld fodder. Jace Rates - 7/10

Kuru Kuru Rin - Nintendo

We should have known Nintendo would bring something a bit unusual to their new format, and Kuru Kuru Rin certainly is different. You control what can only be described as a spinning stick. Your task is to move it through a maze to the end point of each level. The mazes are progressively more difficult, and may involve using special features, like pads which make your stick spin in the opposite direction, or operate switches to open sections of the maze you couldn’t get to. The problem is, you are not allowed to bash your stick on the edges of the maze, a couple of taps with see it smash before your eyes. Thankfully there are some rest points spread amongst the mazes, which restore your stick to full health. Kuru Kuru Rin mixes simple puzzles with the playability of 8-bit classic Thrust. It doesn’t take long for the frustration to brew, but thankfully it only makes you even more determined to reach the end. Jace Rates - 7/10

F-ZERO - Nintendo

I think I am the only gamer in the world who doesn’t rank F-Zero as one of the all time greats. Sure, it’s fun racing at high speed against those computer controlled rivals, but for Space racing, I prefer Wipeout. Lets be honest, if you had your choice of one SNES game to keep, would it be Mario Kart of F-Zero? Anyway, those of you who do love the aging racer will be happy to hear that the GBA version is nigh on a perfect conversion. I’m just not sure it’s the game you remember it being. Jace Rates - 5/10

SUPER MARIO ADVANCE - Nintendo

There is no doubt that 2d platformers will always have a following. Indeed, the Mario games were the catalyst which made the Gameboy Color such an immediate success. You’d be right in thinking that Nintendo now only sees the future of the genre resting within the handheld world, perhaps the consequence of Yoshi’s Story being panned on the N64. SM Advance is also the first game to allow two consoles to share the same cartridge. In practice this takes time, as the game downloads itself into the two megabytes of RAM held inside the other machine. Once this has taken place, you can play what can only be described as a wholly retro Mario Bros experience, based on the early arcade versions and based in a single screen.

While these are fun for a while they are a far cry from a full cooperative adventure. Perhaps this is possible if you have two copies of the cartridge, as apparently this adds to the multi-player experience considerably, which in turn kind of makes the one-cartridge option a bit of a waste of time. The game itself offers all you would expect from a Mario platform game, plenty of jumping, special items, and big bosses, though I found little I hadn’t experienced in previous games. I suppose it was inevitable that the GBA had a platformer in toe, and Super Mario certainly fills the gap. However, whether it adds anything to the genre is questionable. Jace Rates - 6/10