Advance Wars: Dual Strike is the third game in the best turn-based strategy game I've ever played. (Not just on a portable system) New units, new CO's, and new features like tag-teaming people using two CO powers in one turn that can combine with each other for a greater effect make it a must-have for me. Other features include a real-time version of the game, an experience system for the single-player campaign, (As in: When you've ran your CO through enough fights, they'll level up and you choose different abilities to give them. Ranging from +1 vision in rain/snow, Higher defense from cover, stronger/different CO powers, etc.) throw in being able to put 4 people playing together wirelessly through their own DS's and it's an amazing buy for $35.
Oh, and the top screen now covers all air units on a seperate field, so your infantry/ships won't be mysteriously blocked by a jet high overhead. Many fights take place over two battlefronts, affecting each other in different ways. (As in: Destroying a missle silo before it can blow up your troops on the other field of battle, or breaking through the enemy lines on one fight to help the units in the other one.
Time for some screenshots
Nintendogs is for the puppy lovers out there. It's not really a game in the normal sense of the word, more of a simulator like The Sims combined with the caretaker aspect of a Tamagotchi. You start off choosing a breed of dog, then one of three to five color schemes for the breed. (There are three different versions of Nintendogs: The Dachshund version has the Miniature Dachshund, Golden Retriever, Beagle, Pug, Husky and Shih Tzu breeds in it. Nintendogs: Lab game has the Labrador Retriever, Miniature Schnauzer, Toy Poodle, Corgi, Miniature Pinscher and Shiba breeds. I'll be buying Nintendogs: Chihuahua version, as it has the Chihuahua, German Shepherd, Boxer, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Yorkshire Terrier and Shetland Sheepdog breeds in it.)
So, you've picked your game, picked your breed, and picked that breed's color scheme and behold: There sits your puppy. Your goal in the game is to take care of your puppy through feeding, washing, walking, playing with, cleaning up after, and of course petting the digital bundle of fluff. Almost everything is done with the stylus pen, which you can use to hold its leash, wash it, pet it, or throw frisbees with while playing. Each dog starts off with its own personality that's different from other dogs (Or remade versions of the same breed) that make it react differently in different situations. Some dogs will cower from people they meet on the street during walks, others won't play with some toys while love others, you get the idea.
When you're ready, you can enter the dog into a dog show and show off the various things you've been doing with it in competitions and hopefully win money with it. Money earned this way can be spent on new toys/activities for your puppy, new puppies to care for and train, new clothes or items to stick on your dog for cuteness's sake, or some other stuff I don't know about yet.
Did I mention the game uses the DS's built-in microphone to let you talk to your puppy? After a while it will recognize its own name and vocal commands to do tricks or actions. Along with that, Nintendogs uses the DS's built-in wireless networking card to continuously scan for other Nintendogs within the DS's wireless range. (I haven't tried it yet, though I'd guess it's got at least 30 yards) When someone else with Nintendogs in their DS is around, the dogs begin barking at each other, and both appear on the other person's screen as the dogs play with each other using their own acquired personalities. If nothing else it's a good conversation starter with random people.
Screenshots ahoy!
So I'm excited, I'll be camping out the morning of the 22nd in front of my EBGames and probably taking the day off work to enjoy these. Who's with me? 
It's not something people hear about.
And best of all, a dauchsund!
Unfortunately my dauchsund died recently at the ripe old age of 16. Densetsu fucked around with this message on 08-15-2005 at 01:38 AM.
quote:
Mr. Parcelan wrote this then went back to looking for porn:
There's a pug in Nintendogs!
Not only are there pugs, dachsunds, and corgis, there are also hidden dogs.
Dalmations, Siberian Huskies, and more.
EDIT: I stand corrected, the Siberian Huskies were hidden in the Japanese version, but are good to go from the beginning in the US version. Dalmations, however, are hidden, and there are many other hidden dogs too. Mooj fucked around with this message on 08-15-2005 at 01:43 AM.
Liam fucked around with this message on 08-15-2005 at 05:42 AM.
quote:
A sleep deprived Mooj stammered:
Not only are there pugs, dachsunds, and corgis, there are also hidden dogs.Dalmations, Siberian Huskies, and more.
EDIT: I stand corrected, the Siberian Huskies were hidden in the Japanese version, but are good to go from the beginning in the US version. Dalmations, however, are hidden, and there are many other hidden dogs too.
After a bit of digging, I have discovered that all dogs except for the cover dogs (Dachshund, Chihuahua, and Lab) can be unlocked through extended play. This is definitely going to make me a happy dog owner.
Players can have eight dogs total. Three dogs active on screen at any time, and up to five dogs staying in the player's puppy hotel.
Dogs can be taught all kinds of tricks for shows, and they can and do play with other dogs.
This game stands to devour my soul.
Should the soon to be released Shattered Union fail to satisfy my turn based strategy needs, I might well buy a DS and Advance Wars.
Anyway, I went back this morning to find out that they don't actually get their order shipments until about noon. 
So back I went at 12:00 to find the same attendant guy (Named Jim, we've gotten pretty familiar throughout all this) writing my name on a package as I walk in the door. I had already started opening Advance Wars while he rang up the bill.
Both games are everything I hoped they'd be. I'm on Mission 10 at the moment, just past the tutorial on the basics and onto the advanced stuff like the Tag battle system and multiple screens for different battlefields. The Tag battle system works like this: You choose two CO's, and which one to start with. Let's pick my two favorite: Grit and Samy. So you're playing as Samy, APC's moving an extra space, troops pretty strong, etc, but whenever you want you can end your turn by hitting the CO Swap command to change to Grit. Suddenly your troops suck at direct combat and your ranged stuff all gains their extra firing square like Grit normally does. Both CO's power meters grow like in the last two games from fighting, but they grow individually. Either commander can use their CO powers or super powers whenever you're playing them like normal. When they're both full though, you can combine them to create a Dual Strike. This lets you take two turns in a row with the commanders, but also with both of their normal Super powers activated. In my example, I would suddenly get two turns with troops that can capture cities in one day at low health from Samy's ability, along with ranged weapons that do extra damage and a +2 range. (+3 when it's Grit's half of the turn from his normal passive ability) The system adds a whole other spectrum to the game, so it'll almost never be a stalemate like the old games turned into.
Enough ranting about that though, on to Nintendogs.
I started up the game trying to make a digital copy of my beloved German Shepherd named Jenny. The game started just like I expected of choosing a breed, and then presenting me with three puppies running around, all German Shepherds, but of different colors and sexes. I kept on exiting and going back into the German Shepherd area, until I found one with the right coloring and sex to fit my Jenny. (They also has personalities listed if you looked at their profiles, but the personality for the puppy I found fit Jenny anyway.) So soon enough I had my puppy in a digital living room, and was being told to call out her new name to get her attention. I called out "Jenny" a few times into the microphone, and after the third time she ran over to me and starting barking happily.
All the tricks are taught through vocal commands, so far I've taught her to sit, shake her paw, and chase her tail. I'm working on teaching her how to fetch, but all she wants to do is keep the ball to herself and not give it back. 
Anyway, I'm going to get back to work on that. Go buy the game(s) if you're at all interested, because I had very high expectations for them, and wasn't dissapointed. 
Decided to pick up two games for it: Meteos and Nintendogs (Dachshund). Enjoying the hell out of both games. In Nintendogs I have a lil greyish siberian husky named Terra. Fun stuff
Edit: Oh yeah, if the dog's hogging the ball or frisbee or whatever, just call his/her name and it'll bring it right back for you to pick up again Cobalt Katze fucked around with this message on 08-24-2005 at 12:45 AM.
I chose a nice male black Siberian Husky pup, I named him Blitz. He's a little bundle of energy, and a fast learner. I've already taught him several tricks, and I'm going to do more tomorrow when he's willing to learn more.
He's also great at the agility contests! He made me a hundred bucks and took first prize!
He's not so good at Frisbee, though... I'm gonna have to play with him more.
For some reason, he seems very focused on finding empty juice bottles when I take him walking. He's brought me four so far!
I'll bet the PSP will soon have an answer to this killer app...
Boxer named Moose.
I will probably go get Advance Wars soon, too.
quote:
Tarquinn startled the peaceful upland Gorillas by blurting:
Bleh, I'm not Japanese enough to give a shit about a pet simulator, but apparantly I am German enough to be really interested in Advance Wars.Should the soon to be released Shattered Union fail to satisfy my turn based strategy needs, I might well buy a DS and Advance Wars.
Stand by! We march on Paris tomorrow!
--Satan, quoted by John Milton
quote:
Mod had this to say about Matthew Broderick:
Guys help me I'm stuck in 1998 and people are flipping out over Tamagotchis all over again.
Tamagotchis were 2 bit things you carried on a keychain.
These have cute fuzzy personalities!
quote:
Mod thought this was the Ricky Martin Fan Club Forum and wrote:
Guys help me I'm stuck in 1998 and people are flipping out over Tamagotchis all over again.
qft
quote:
Nobody really understood why Snugglits wrote:
qft
gb2gamefaqs
quote:
A sleep deprived Kennatsu stammered:
I'll bet the PSP will soon have an answer to this killer app...
After the luke warm response to Lumines, it seems Sony doesn't really care much for whats going on with the PSP, and seems to only really want to see if GTA: Liberty City Stories will actually push the sales up.
But hey, they know it will from the fanbase. Rockstar could shit in the box, label it GTA: The Shits Hit The Fan and it'd still be a best seller. Skaw fucked around with this message on 08-24-2005 at 09:19 PM.
quote:
This one time, at Snugglits camp:
The best things on PSP aren't made by Sony.
qft.
...
quote:
Mod thought about the meaning of life:
Guys help me I'm stuck in 1998 and people are flipping out over Tamagotchis all over again.
Because hating something popular is cool!
If you took the time to look into this game, it is far more than a virtual pet that you pretty much cleaned up poop from.
quote:
Alaan had this to say about Punky Brewster:
You can all have fun if you like, but I don't see the enjoyment of teaching a virtual dog to not shit on the floor. And talking to your DS in public to order it around strikes me as weird.
(They come potty-trained. What a wonderful digital world.)
quote:
Alaan had this to say about Robocop:
You can all have fun if you like, but I don't see the enjoyment of teaching a virtual dog to not shit on the floor. And talking to your DS in public to order it around strikes me as weird.
Funny that there is a large amount of stuff you can do in the game that doesn't involve talking to your DS. All you have to talk to the DS for is to teach the dog tricks and compete in obedience trials. Otherwise, you don't need to talk to it.
And you don't have to teach it to not shit on the floor.
Seriously, do people not even look into games before bashing them anymore? If you don't like the idea of training the dog, cool. If you don't want to do the competitions and such, that's fine. But at least bash the game for valid reasons as opposed to bashing it over something that isn't a part of the game.
quote:
Lokii had this to say about Punky Brewster:
I'm considering splitting the cost of Nintendogs with my sister, so I've gotta know: can you make more than one save file?
No.
quote:
Falaanla Marr had this to say about Matthew Broderick:
No.
Ah, figured as much.
--Satan, quoted by John Milton
quote:
Bloodsage had this to say about Jimmy Carter:
I'd make snide comments about talking to your game. . .if I hadn't played through Rainbow Six 3 on my X-Box, sitting there for hours saying, "Open, flash, and clear!" and other like phrases into my mike.
It's really neat to say "Roll over!" and see your dog obediently roll over on his back at the chance for a belly-rub. 
I'm really suprised how well it's been done to be honest. I 
my puppydog so much!
It is held in thought
only by the understanding
of the Wind.
quote:
Verily, Zaile Ghostmaker doth proclaim:
So, how much can you beat them?
Once you make them lie down, you can poke at their front paws until they get mad at you. Also poking them and various other bits. However, I don't think you could actually KILL one of the dogs (The manual alludes to the dogs running away if they get really hungry/thirsty), but you can make them run and stop suddenly on walks if you want.
They're too cute to abuse too horribly, though.
quote:
Delphi Aegis was naked while typing this:
They're too cute to abuse too horribly, though.
We'll see.
