Feature | Cubed3's Most Anticipated Nintendo DS Games of 2010 Page 1

Much to my chagrin I do not do as much Nintendo DS gaming as I perhaps should. Still, there is no denying that were I to do enough DS gaming I would never run out of things to play. The little blighter keeps on catapaulting out games at an astonishing rate. Sure, a lot of it is banal shovelware, but still. Quantity, eh? So, the C3 wisemen (i.e. not me) sat down and had a sagely discussion about which ten games should make it onto our definitive 'Most Anticipated of 2010' list for the Nintendo DS. Feel free to tell us your thoughts and tell us off for having our own.
- James Temperton, Features Editor.

Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver (Nintendo)

It occurs to me that I'm entering my mid-20s soon, and yet still I have no real problem putting hours into a game about balls that enslave dozens of creatures as my personal gladiators. No, not Football Manager; I'm talking about Pokémon. The best - in my opinion - entries into The Pokémon Company's long-running series, Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver, have been given the remake treatment previously offered to the original two titles in the form of Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen. They are soon to re-emerge as Pokémon HeartGold and Pokémon SoulSilver with shiny new visuals, compatibility with all the latest versions and the addition of all the new monsters that have been created since their initial release.

I am curious to see what exactly they have done with the titles. See, the reason that Gold/Silver are often looked upon so fondly can commonly be put down to the expansions of the series that were found within. They introduced the internal clock, expanded trainer tools and breeding. These have been the most significant changes to the Pokémon franchise, and yet these are now things found in the other titles too. They are no longer special; they are the general standard. What now can be done to separate HeartGold and SoulSilver from the pack, given that completely new features are surely being held back for the just-announced new Pokémon game?

That doesn't mean that there are not a few nice surprises, though. Following the trial of allowing a few different beasts to follow you around in restricted areas in Pokémon Platinum, now every single one of them can wander around after you as a fellow sprite. You probably do not particularly want a Muk globbing around all over the place, but if that is really what your heart desires, go for it. There are some touch-screen based Pokémon Olympics in there so you can take your Pikachu hurdling and the like. The biggest new thing is probably the addition of the Pokéwalker, an actual pedometer that comes bundled with the game. You can transfer single monsters at a time over to it and carry them around, after which every step you take earns experience, increases the lucky thing's happiness levels and rewards you with electrical currency. Personally I am going to find the best paint shaking machine I can, strap the thing in and let it feel the Gs. Cheating? Nah, resourceful!

Pokémon HeartGold and Pokémon SoulSilver deserve to be at the top of this list sheerly on the merit of their original form - still widely regarded as a high point of the Pokémon franchise. If the remakes can live up to those, the game is probably going to be practically glued into my DS for a few months. Maybe, along with the Pokémon, I will recapture some of my youth. After all, the fact that games released during my teenage years are now perfectly eligible for remakes is making me feel old.
- Mike Mason, Reviews Editor.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (Square Enix)

Although the Dragon Quest series has managed to surpass the Final Fantasy one in Japan over the years to become the strongest role-playing franchise for Square Enix in its home country, that success has not been replicated in the West. Now, with a little help from Nintendo’s marketing team, this ninth mainline Dragon Quest entry could well be the equivalent of Final Fantasy VII - the game to finally buck the trend and become a breakout hit. Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies is set in a kingdom where the residing angels are trying to obtain the Goddess Fruit in order to relocate to the God’s Land.

However, disaster strikes as a mysterious force knocks a group of angels and the Goddess Fruit to the mortal world, leaving the protagonist sans wings and lacking his angelic powers, but determined to find his way back and help his people reach their goal. After selling 4.2 million in Japan since July 2009, all eyes are on the Western debut of this traditional Dragon Quest turn-based RPG that was developed by Level-5, the same team behind the Professor Layton and Dark Cloud, as well as the upcoming White Knight Chronicles on PlayStation 3, to see if a similar result can be attained.
- Adam Riley, Senior Editor.

Golden Sun DS (Nintendo)

The GBA Golden Sun titles were…well, they were golden! Though not exactly as popular as Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series, the RPGs were very highly regarded amongst those who played them. This could be for a number of reasons, be it the loveable characters, the deep plot that spanned two games (Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age), or the fantastic psynergy puzzles the series is quite often known for. As Reggie “Big Damn Truck” Fils-Aime said at E3 last year, “After going dark 6 years ago… 2010 will bring a new dawn, with Golden Sun DS”.

Set an unspecified time after Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Golden Sun DS stars the descendants of the previous protagonists, and while details are currently slim, many fans are speculating that we will finally have some answers (or maybe more questions to add) to the The Lost Age’s little cliff-hanger. We can all expect awesome puzzles, detailed battles, and spectacular summons later this year.
- Joshua Jeffrey, General Writer.

WarioWare D.I.Y. (Nintendo)

Intelligent Systems has taken the WarioWare series in many directions, since the series began way back on the GBA with WarioWare, Inc. Minigame Mania. The games have gone from using standard buttons to multiplayer mayhem (WarioWare, Inc. Mega Party Game$ on GameCube), motion sensing (WarioWare Smooth Moves on Wii) and even adding in a camera as an integral part of the gameplay (WarioWare Snapped! on the DSiWare service). If you thought the development team would have run out of ideas by now, though, you would be sorely mistaken. WarioWare D.I.Y., the latest iteration in the series, finally lets you create your own microgames and it is hitting Europe this year.

As you would expect, it already comes pre-loaded with 90 crazy microgames, but the main attraction here is the ability to create your very own and then share them with other people. Making the most out of the DS features, players draw their own graphics using the touch-screen and can then add music to it by singing into the microphone. You can even download new games from the store, which Nintendo will hopefully be updating frequently, when WarioWare D.I.Y. hits Europe in the coming months.
- Ross Marrs, News Writer.

Okamiden (Capcom)

Okami for the PlayStation 2, and more recently the Wii, has been heralded as one of the best games ever made with it is beautifully crafted graphics, in-depth gameplay and large worlds. The player took control of Ameterasu and the celestial brush to reshape the landscape in real-time and thwart Dark Lord Yami.

Set three months after the events of Okami, the player takes control of Chibiterasu in Okamiden to banish the returned evil of Yami from the first game once and for all. The celestial brush returns for solving puzzles and taking care of those pesky enemies whilst losing none of the graphical artistic charm of its big sister, albeit on a set of smaller screens. Fans and newcomers should be salivating over Okamiden as it is sure to deliver.
- Calum Peak, News Writer.

The Last Window (Nintendo)

New York's finest ex-cop turned sales person, Kyle Hyde, is set to return to the world of mystery and investigation this year thanks to the fine folk at Japanese studio CiNG. The Last Window is set a year after the events of the first game, Hotel Dusk: Room 215, with Hyde losing his job and on the brink of being evicted. However the rotting bricks of Cape West seem to be home to deadly secrets waiting to be uncovered, perhaps even with links to the death of Hyde's father, Chris.

Much like Hotel Dusk: Room 215 before it, The Last Window is a game of unravelling characters' stories with intensive puzzle solving along the way using the touch-screen of the Nintendo DS. But what exactly is the Last Window? A book that tells the tale through completed chapters in the game, influenced by decisions you make and questions you pop to fellow Cape West residents. Coupled with a distinctive rotoscoped art style, funky grooves and addictive character development, Last Window is certainly a game and a story to consider for portable adventuring.
- Jorge Ba-oh, Cubed3 Founder.

Ninokuni: The Another World (Level-5)

Level-5 has already shown how successful Third Parties developers can be on the Nintendo DS, with four successful Professor Layton games under its belt, the million-selling football RPG series Inazuma Eleven and a selection of portable other brain-teasing releases in Japan, such as Sloane and MacHale. Now it has teamed up with Studio Ghibli, the outfit behind movies such as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle and the upcoming Ponyo, for Ninokuni: The Another World.

After 13-year-old Oliver’s mother dies, he finds a doll she gave him is actually a fairy called Shizuku. This fairy gives him a book that acts as a passageway to a parallel world named Ninokuni, where he meets alternate versions of people he knows. In this RPG adventure, the magic book is used to battle enemies on the path to resurrecting his mother by using the stylus to manage characters that help out during the journey, as well as draw numerous spells. This appears to be oozing with graphical quality, and comes with a soundtrack from long-term Ghibli musician Joe Hisaishi. Ninokuni: The Another World hits Japan in Spring 2010 and with any luck a miracle will occur and the game will magically transport itself to Europe by the end of the year!
- Adam Riley, Senior Editor.

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (Capcom)

Phoenix Wright and Apollo Justice are taking a backseat in the latest Ace Attorney adventure. For the first time, players will instead take on the role of a prosecutor - and who better for players to control than the man with the deceptively flamboyant fashion sense, Miles Edgeworth, friend and rival to Mr. Wright? Assisted by fan favourite useless cop extraordinaire Dick Gumshoe, Edgeworth's story is all about solving crimes outside of the courtroom. There are not even any trials to be seen, it appears.

The gameplay has been shaken up; Ace Attorney Investigations is styled as a point-and-click adventure, with players directly controlling Edgeworth on-screen. As you learn more information about the crimes you must connect evidence with logic and question suspects until you can find the perpetrator of whatever heinous crime has been committed. It does not completely disconnect itself from the mainline Ace Attorney series, however: characters are sure to make cameos and the methods of interrogation bear a resemblance to the cross-examination system of the court-based titles.

Interestingly, Ace Attorney Investigations is placed in the timeline after the first three Ace Attorney titles but before Apollo Justice's debut in the fourth Gyakuten Saiben / Ace Attorney. Fingers crossed, then, that we will get some juicy snippets about the events that happened in the time period between those games' stories while we wait for the next main title...
- Mike Mason, Reviews Editor.

Picross 3D (Nintendo)

After the massive success of Picross DS from Jupiter Corporation, Nintendo has now enlisted HAL Laboratory (the team behind Kirby, Smash Bros. and Pokémon Ranger) to transfer the much-loved puzzle theme known by many as ‘Nonograms’ into the world of three-dimensions for Picross 3D. As with regular ‘Picture Crosswords’, numbers can be found on each of the blocks in the various clusters on offer, and these numbers represent how many blocks must be kept in play. Once it has been determined which blocks can be removed, a special hammer tool allows the player to tap away with the stylus to clear the unwanted excess.

Methodically working through each row and column, trying to figure out the right blocks to keep and the ones to remove proves to be a highly addictive experience and rewards include 3D images once a puzzle has been completed, and the chance to tinker with new online content. Europe can expect Picross 3D on 5th March, a month later than planned so that it arrives alongside the Nintendo DSi XL, and it should definitely not be overlooked.
- Adam Riley, Senior Editor.

Sonic Classic Collection (SEGA)

Here on Cubed3 I am one of Sonic the Hedgehog's numerous pimps, not being able to live without SEGA's prickly blue mascot. Therefore, the prospect of having his debut platforming escapades whilst on the move is definitely an exciting one! Sonic Classic Collection does exactly what it says on the tin - four of his original Mega Drive/Genesis outings: Sonic 1, 2, 3, plus Sonic & Knuckles in a neat little package. Each of the levels is crafted to pixel-perfect platforming standards, with Sonic, Tails and Knuckles running through lush hills, fearsome deserts and oil-drenched power plants. Unlike the mecha-robots of today, you will zoom through a whole zoo of animal "badknik" robots whilst listening to memorable toe-tapping tunes.

But why choose Sonic Classic Collection on Nintendo DS when there are millions ways to play these games and a whole load of newer ones built for the console? The simple answer is that you have all four of the much-loved Sonic the Hedgehog titles, lock-on-functionality, timeless platforming, bonus content and, most importantly, the ability to save wherever you are for a must-have companion for your adventures on the move.
- Jorge Ba-oh, Cubed3 Founder.

There you have it - Cubed3's choices for what should be some of the biggest Nintendo DS games of 2010. Obviously this list is not the be-all and end-all of the matter, though. There are several games that have yet to be released in every territory. SEGA has 7th Dragon and Shining Force Feather sat in Japan awaiting translation, with two others on the horizon - the Platinum Games-developed Infinite Space and the all-star project Sands of Destruction, which sees many members of the Xenogears team being reunited. Square Enix has a nice supply of RPGs awaiting release, with the likes of SaGa 2 and Final Fantasy Gaiden: 4 Warriors of Light, plus the first-person horror title Nanashi no Game: Eye. Capcom is set to show it is not all about Ace Attorney in 2010, with Ghost Trick and Mega Man Zero Collection due for release, whilst Nintendo has a round of DS games waiting for European release, including The Legendary Starfy, Fossil Fighters, Glory of Heracles and maybe even a few surprises like Soma Bringer, Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love and Welcome Home Chibi-robo! at long last (one can hope!).

But what games are you most looking forward to on Nintendo DS in 2010? CiNG's AGAIN: Eye of Providence, Renegade Kid's Dementium II, Tecmo's Nostalgia, Marvelous Entertainment's Avalon Code, Atlus's Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey or even the Animal Crossing-meets-nintendogs project PostPet DS? Be sure to air your thoughts below!
- Adam Riley, Senior Editor.