Once upon a time, before there were GameBoys and Game Gears, DSs and 3DSs, PSPs and Vitas, and long before the smartphone/tablet app boom, single-game LED handhelds sparked the popularity of portable gaming. Ah yes, the Game & Watch days, I remember them well. Donkey Kong and Green House carried me through many car rides as a youngster.

Retro Pocket is a DSiWare/eShop compilation of eight different games designed to emulate classics from the era of Game & Watch and Tiger Electronics. Whether you’re putting out fires and catching falling victims in Fireman, delivering mail while avoiding patrolling guard dogs in Postman, rescuing a friend from the prison cell of a whale’s mouth in Whale Escape, or picking up candies from a series of conveyor belts and placing them into bins in Candy Factory, these games are simple reminders of where modern gaming came from, requiring nothing more than quick taps of the directional buttons to move and maybe the occasional press of another button to deflect a projectile or light a fire that scares away a snake threatening to snatch your basket of collected eggs.

Each game offers ‘Game A’ and ‘Game B’ modes, with the A option serving as an easy difficulty and the B option offering a harder alternative. Whichever option you choose, the games start off easy, but the gameplay speed gradually increases the longer you survive, which means memorizing the layouts and mastering the movement timing is the key to posting a high score worth bragging about.

A few of the games are overly similar, to the point of almost blurring together and cancelling each other out. Candy Factor, Egg Drop and Watch Your Head for example are all slight variations on the mechanic of catching a falling object and placing it into a container. But with eight games to choose from, each with a distinct theme, there’s ample variety to ensure that at least two or three will sink their “just one more game” hooks into you. Personally, Kung Fu Hero and Fuel Drop have done that for me. In the former, you protect a girl by karate chopping thugs and thrown bottles swarming after her from all sides. In the latter, you tap the L and R buttons to rotate oil drums to match the colors of falling drops of fuel. These are a blast, especially once the speed and difficulty ramp up.

Retro Pocket’s single greatest achievement, however, is how well it replicates the presentation of an old LED handheld. The emulation is absolutely spot on, complete with appropriately bleepy-bloopy chip sound effects and the pre-printed ghost images in the background which represent the gameplay animations and serve as a visual map cluing you in on the paths of character movement and falling objects. With the greater might of the DSi/3DS compared to the older technology, you also don’t have to deal with the delayed movement response that always made Game & Watch games more difficult than they actually were. These games run fast, smooth and responsive, without dampening the retro impact. I only wish this were a built-for-3DS game, as it would have been neat to see how the 3D effect worked with the old LED look.

If you grew up in the 80s and have fond Game & Watch memories, you are the primary audience for Retro Pocket. But that doesn’t mean nostalgia alone is the only selling point. Yes, the compiled games are very straightforward, perhaps too much so for the modern gaming hipster, but they’re also incredibly fun in a quick pick up and play style that often leads to compulsive high score inner turmoil. For only $5 (less than a dollar per game!), Retro Pocket deserves a dedicated spot on your DSi or 3DS.

Pros:
+ Perfectly emulates retro Game & Watch presentation
+ Old school pick up and play high score gaming
+ Great value at under $1 per game

Cons:
– A few of the games repeat the same gameplay mechanic

Game Info:
Platform: Nintendo DSi and 3DS via DSiWare/eShop
Publisher: UFO Interactive
Developer: UFO Interactive
Release Date: 9/20/2012
Genre: Arcade
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Players: 1
Source: Review code provided by publisher

After mixing it up with Mr. Wang in some side-scrolling kung fu combat, the spiky-haired blonde dude they call Johnny is back on the Nintendo 3DS eShop, six-shooters loaded up to gun down bandits in a Wild West showdown.

While playing his favorite arcade game, Cowboy Hotshot, oh Johnny boy here spills his soda on the cabinet which somehow triggers a rift that sucks him into the game world, where he becomes the new sheriff in a town teeming with outlaws that need to be rounded up. These bandits are, of course, led by none other than Mr. Wang. Who is this Mr. Wang? I honestly have no idea; I just know that’s his name from the provided game description.

This incomprehensibly quirky plot unfolds over five stages, each dedicated to bringing an outlawed bandit to justice. Each stage is broken into three different gameplay sequences: Shooting Gallery, Saloon Shootout, and Catch ‘em All.

Shooting Gallery is just as you would expect, a bar room light gun style shootout where up to six cardboard-cutout targets pop into view on the upper screen while on the bottom screen you tap with the stylus to aim and fire. (You can also aim with the circle pad and fire with the A button, but this isn’t nearly quick enough on the draw to keep up with the speed of the targets.) Obviously, you want to shoot any bandits that pop up and not the innocent bystanders that get mixed in to throw you off (although there doesn’t seem to be any penalty for hitting civilians).

Saloon Shootout is similar to a shooting gallery, except you gain third-person control over Johnny and scroll him side to side with the circle pad or d-pad to line up with the targets that flood the screen in different patterns.

Catch ‘em All, however, goes in a completely different direction, saddling Johnny up on his trusty steed to gallop after the wanted outlaw in a side-scrolling horseback chase. The objective is to shoot the bandit to wear down his health bar, at which point you mash a button to fill a meter and then time a single button press to lasso the bandit for the final capture. During all of this, you have to dodge incoming fire from the outlaw while also navigating Johnny’s horse clear of obstacles like boulders and cacti.

These three gameplay styles are a lot of fun, both individually and collectively, but there are two problems. First, is the forced unlock system. Two levels are available when the game begins, but to unlock additional stages you must first earn a certain number of stars. Up to nine stars can be earned in each stage (three per gameplay segment) based solely on completion time, which means you’re often stuck in situations of needing to replay one particular level over and over again to memorize the target patterns and shave off that one lousy second that’s separating your two-star performance from the three stars needed to proceed to the next outlaw. This gets annoying fast.

This unlock system leads to another issue. Because the main objective in every level is to shoot/capture the wanted outlaw within a certain time limit, the whole idea of a high score shooting gallery is rendered pointless. Sure, you can replay levels to improve your score and earn in-game achievement medals, but the main purpose of shooting the standard bandit targets is to clear the space so the outlaw appears quicker. You can shoot a bunch of targets and build a great score, but if the timer runs out and you haven’t hit one specific target, it’s all for naught. Score just doesn’t seem to matter at all.

Basically, instead of providing a lot of different levels and a strong high score hook to make you want to replay the game on your own, the developers provide only five stages and force you to replay each one repeatedly until you’ve earned enough stars to unlock the next. Even with this forced replay, the levels fly by so quickly most players will be able to round up all five outlaws within an hour. After that, there just isn’t anything left to do or any meaningful reward to lure you back for more.

Johnny Hotshot is a fun, charming Wild West shootout while it lasts, but I just don’t see the value in spending six bucks for no more than an hour of entertainment and little to no replay incentive. It’s certainly not a poor game, just one that would be much better suited to the 99-cent smartphone app market.

Pros:
+ Fun mix of shooting gallery gameplay styles
+ Charming, quirky characters and presentation

Cons:
– Star unlock system forces replay of stages ad nausea
– Earning a high score just doesn’t matter

Game Info:
Platform: Nintendo 3DS via eShop
Publisher: UFO Interactive Games
Developer: UFO Interactive Games
Release Date: 11/8/2012
Genre: Arcade Shooting Gallery
ESRB Rating: E10+
Players: 1
Source: Review code provided by publisher

If you own a recently manufactured Nintendo portable gaming device (i.e. a DSi or 3DS) and enjoy word/number/picture puzzles, like crosswords, wordsearches, Sudoku, hangman, and spot the difference, there are two new titles to vie for your gaming dollar. Both come from the same Puzzler World brand and the same developer, Ideas Pad, but have different publishers and are available through different channels.

What’s the difference between the two? And which one is the best buy for you? Well, read along, and hopefully I can answer those questions.

From Ubisoft, there’s Puzzler World 2012 3D, a Nintendo 3DS exclusive retail edition, offering more than 1,200 unique puzzles for $19.99. (I think there may be a non-3D DS version as well, but only in Europe from what I can tell.) Then there is Puzzler World XL, a budget-priced DSiWare version available for DSi and 3DS, which stuffs more than 1,800 puzzles into a $4.99 digital download package.

By the numbers, Puzzler World XL clearly has the edge. Obviously the value is stronger when you’re getting hundreds of extra puzzles at a fraction of the price, in addition to multi-platform availability and the convenience of digital download. Looking deeper than sheer quantity, however, reveals that for 3DS owners there is legitimate reason to pay the higher price tag for the retail version.

Puzzler World XL has a lot more puzzles sure, but the discrepancy in volume is only there because the game provides a bonus allotment of nearly 600 wordsearch puzzles. When you remove those bonus puzzles, Puzzler World 2012’s puzzle collection is the same size, plus it offers 10 additional puzzle types not found in XL. Puzzles like crosswords, Sudoku, Link-a-Pix, Silhouette, wordsearch, jigsaw picture sliders, hangman and chain letters are shared between the two, but in Puzzler World 2012 you also get spot-the-difference puzzles, spiral crosswords, Pathfinder (wordsearch variant in which you link the words together in a single continuous line), Mix-Up (crosswords with anagrams for clues), and number puzzles like Takegaki and Suko.

To be fair, XL also has a couple exclusive puzzle types, including Picture Quiz, which has you studying a picture and then answering a series of questions from memory, and Hide & Seek, another picture challenge in which you search for certain shapes hidden within an image. But by comparison, Puzzler World 2012 still scores a decisive edge in puzzle variety.

Beyond the varying amount and types of puzzles, the two games are pretty much identical, save for minor alterations in presentation. Both share the same general stylus-based interface and menu structure, along with other features, including a virtual trophy shelf for showcasing in-game achievements you’ve earned and a currency system of hint tokens that allows you to buy hints/cheats to help you clear puzzles that may be posing a mental stumbling block. The only difference is in how you acquire these tokens. In XL, once you’ve completed a puzzle and the subsequently unlocked bonus puzzle, you get to spin a prize wheel to determine how many tokens you’ll bank. Puzzler World 2012 carries on the ‘Price is Right’ game show vibe, but does so with a Plinko-like mini-game in which a ball is launched into a pegged board with holes of different token amounts waiting to catch it at the bottom.

The only other difference is how XL requires the DSi/3DS to be held in vertical book orientation, while Puzzler World 2012 plays with the 3DS held in its normal position. Puzzler World 2012 is also a tad brighter and more vibrant in terms of picture quality, but despite the ‘3D’ tacked onto the end of the title, having the 3D slider on adds absolutely nothing to such graphically simplistic puzzles.

My favorite feature in both titles is the handwriting training option. The handwriting recognition can be sketchy with certain letters and numbers (for me 7 and 4 tend to get mixed up, as do P, R, K and D), but to help with this you can actually train the game to recognize your personal handwriting style. With the training menu open, you can select any letter or number you want, and then after writing in that letter/number five times the system saves it for more accurate recognition. The recognition still isn’t always perfect, but it’s far better than other crossword puzzle games I’ve played on the DS family of portables over the years.

If you enjoy the type of puzzles that have traditionally been printed in newspapers, magazines and activity books and normally require a real pen or pencil over a stylus, you really can’t go wrong with either of these games. They are both great for daily brain exercise, and they are indispensable gaming companions to have on hand for road trips or plane rides. But to return to the original question: which one is right for you? Well, if you want cheap and convenient with a beefier supply of wordsearches and other basic puzzle types, go with Puzzler World XL. However, if you want a broader diversity of puzzles to choose from and don’t mind paying a retail premium, I think you’ll be happier with Puzzler World 2012 3D.

Pros:
+ Over 1,000 puzzles is a lot, whichever version you choose
+ Handwriting trainer helps clear up most text entry mistakes
+ Puzzler World 2012 3D offers tremendous puzzle variety
+ Puzzler World XL is much cheaper and has hundreds of extra wordsearches

Cons:
– Text entry isn’t always accurate
– Puzzler World 2012 3D has fewer puzzles and is more expensive
– Puzzler World XL has less overall variety

Puzzler World XL Game Info:
Platform: Nintendo DSi and 3DS via DSiWare/eShop
Publisher: UFO Interactive
Developer: Ideas Pad
Release Date: 10/18/2012
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Players: 1
Source: Review code provided by publisher

Puzzler World 2012 3D Game Info:
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ideas Pad
Release Date: 9/25/2012
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Players: 1
Source: Review copy provided by publisher

The gaming world would be a whole lot different without gold coins. I mean seriously, could you imagine some of your favorite games without the shiny objects of currency floating around or tucked away in secret corners for you to snatch up? What would Mario collect on his recurring quest to rescue Princess Peach? What would countless RPG heroes use to buy potions and new gear? I know Sly Cooper sure wouldn’t be much of a thief without gold coins to pocket.

Apparently, without gold coins ancient samurai would also lose their ability to transform into hyper speed killing machines. At least that would be the case in Samurai G, a tiny two-dollar downloadable from UFO Interactive, available today from the Nintendo 3DS eShop. If you hadn’t guessed already, the ‘G’ in the title stands for ‘Gold.’

Samurai G is a side-scrolling endless runner action game starring a samurai warrior named Tetsuo whose only mission in life is to gather Tengu’s gold before some evil warlord dude is able to get his hands on it. Of course, I would have known none of this without reading the provided press materials or watching the trailer as the game itself does nothing to fill you in on any of this back story. When you switch the game on, you’re presented with a menu tracking unlocked achievements along with options to start a run on either Normal or Advanced difficulty. That’s it.

Once you’ve started a game, the objective is simply to keep Tetsuo alive as long as possible and to collect as many hovering coins as you can in that time. Tetsuo can jump, slash his sword and move left and right within the field of play, but his movement—and the movement of the surrounding environment—is constant. Progress and scoring is determined by how far you’re able to travel before dying (tracked in virtual miles) in addition to how many enemies you kill and the number of coins you pick up.

Once a certain amount of coins are stashed by Tetsuo, represented by a meter in the form of a belt pouch shown on the bottom screen, he briefly transforms into the Shining Samurai, glowing with a golden aura that makes him invulnerable to traps and enemy attacks and sends him sprinting forward at speeds that would make Sonic the Hedgehog jealous.

If you’re familiar with iOS apps, think Jetpack Joyride, minus the jetpacks, heavy firepower and scientific laboratory hazards. No, this game is set in Feudal Japan. That means you’re dealing with bamboo pit traps, wooden spikes, kite flying assassins, star throwing ninjas, and horseback riding samurai, all just itching to make you dead.

Backgrounds change seamlessly as the scenery scrolls by, and for the most part the 2D graphics are crisp and vividly detailed. Switching on the 3D, as usual, is hardly necessary but does add a layered depth that gives the smoldering battlefields, rundown villages, and swampy forests that make up this ancient Japanese world an extra visual pop. I was also quite satisfied by the appropriate level of gore in the game. Samurai G isn’t M-rated by any means, but body parts and small amounts of blood do fly—in slow-motion even while in Shining Samurai mode–as enemies are slashed into pieces or Tetsuo is impaled on a spike.

The game is endless in every sense of the word. I suppose there must be a finishing point somewhere (the most prestigious achievement medal is earned for clearing 50 miles, a milestone I haven’t come remotely close to passing), but there is no leaderboard or other form of progression indicator to give you an idea of how successful your best run is. The lack of a leaderboard is a definite bummer, because it leaves you to compete against yourself, and before long you may tire of rerunning the same one-path track without gaining any tangible reward for outdoing your previous high score. Achievements are fine, but they really don’t hold much value here.

Still, in short sessions Samurai G has an addictive enough hook to succeed reasonably well as a snack gaming time-waster. It’s neither too easy nor too difficult, and the skill-based nature of deflecting incoming throwing stars with sword swipes, timing jumps to avoid insta-kill obstacles, and watching for visible cues to know when it’s appropriate to be aggressive or act evasively, is met with a rewarding sense of accomplishment when you’re able to put together a lengthy run. At the same time, the occasional cheap death, caused by traps blending in with the ground textures or hazards appearing at the exact moment Shining Samurai mode is ending when there is a short delay in your ability to move or jump, can feel as painful as death by hara-kiri.

Samurai G is cheap enough that you probably wouldn’t regret taking the plunge on an impulse buy, but even for only a couple bucks there isn’t a whole lot here to hold your attention past 5-10 minutes at a time or a couple hours of cumulative play. But still, if you’re into the old school methodology of replaying the same level and competing against your own skill to improve high scores nobody else is going to see, this game has the potential to become your next guilty pleasure obsession.

Pros:
+ Skill- and reflex-based action can be surprisingly addictive
+ Nicely detailed graphics
+ Hey, it’s only $1.99!

Cons:
– No leaderboard or other way of seeing how your high score stacks up
– Cheap, unavoidable deaths occasionally bring good runs to a frustrating halt
– Not much variety to hold your attention past a few minutes at a time

Game Info:
Platform: Nintendo 3DS via the Nintendo eShop
Publisher: UFO Interactive Games
Developer: UFO Interactive Games
Release Date: 10/4/2012
Genre: Action/Arcade
ESRB Rating: Teen
Players: 1
Source: Review code provided by publisher

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