We celebrate the one-year anniversary of Nintendo's DSiWare service with a week-long best-of feature.
Flipnote StudioPublisher: Nintendo Developer: Nintendo EAD Tokyo Cost: Free! Players: 1 Release Date: August 12, 2009 Talk about value for your dollar. Flipnote Studio presents players with a surprisingly robust piece of animation software featuring layer effects, a host of brushes and pen thicknesses, and an intuitive interface. After creating a masterwork, you can save the animation to an SD card and upload it as a .GIF on your computer or, better yet, upload it onto the Hatena website, where you can share your flipnotes with like-minded creative-types and view a host of wildly impressive pieces by other people. One might say that Flipnote Studio is the next logical evolution of PictoChat. Did I mention that Flipnote Studio costs zero dollars to download? You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain. If you haven't already downloaded this, what're you waiting for? - Zachary Miller |
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Mixed MessagesPublisher: Activision Developer: Vicarious Visions Cost: 500 Points Players: 1-21 (one system) Release Date: April 13, 2009 Vicarious Vision's lone DSiWare title is a DS-enhanced version of the game Telephone. Playable with up to 21 players on one DS, you either start off with a sentence generated by the game or a picture created by the first player, and then the mayhem begins as you try to draw to figure out what someone meant by their drawing, or how to put an obtuse sentence into words. Picture Pictochat, but with a little bit of structure. Mixed Messages has no single-player option, but you can save about 500 turns worth of games so you can look at them later for posterity. - Neal Ronaghan |
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UNOPublisher: Gameloft Developer: Gameloft Cost: 800 Points Players: 1-4 (Wi-Fi or Multi-copy) Release Date: December 21, 2009 Gameloft has developed quite a few quality DSiWare titles, but one of their finest titles is the premium-priced UNO. The game puts a strong emphasis on multiplayer modes, as the game can be played either by DS Wireless Play or Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (Editor's Note: Sadly, there's no Download Play), making it one of the best DSiWare games to play with friends. For solo players, there are also quite a few modes to enjoy, ranging from a tournament mode to a quick play mode. The ability to customize the rules to fit your playing style further adds to the game and helps it stand out as one of the best card games on the DSiWare service. - Matthew Blundon |
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Scrabble ClassicPublisher: EA Developer: EA Cost: 800 Points Players: 1-4 (Multi-copy) Release Date: February 15, 2010 Scrabble was released on the Nintendo DS a while back, but for those who missed out on it, Electronic Arts has divided the game up into three chunks, with two of them being released on the DSiWare service in the future. The one that has already been released focuses on the classic game of Scrabble (the other two are Scrabble Slam and a Scrabble training tool) and manages to retain the fun of past games. It also makes use of the DSi Camera, though it doesn't have any of the online features of the retail release. However, it's still Scrabble, and it's still a lot of fun. - Matthew Blundon |
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The Oregon TrailPublisher: Gameloft Developer: Gameloft Cost: 800 Points Players: 1 Release Date: December 28, 2009 The Oregon Trail is often considered an educational title, and while it deserves to be called one, it isn't anything like your standard game in the genre. Instead, The Oregon Trail is a simulation game in which you and your family pack your things and make your way to the beautiful state of Oregon. It's a lengthy journey filled with dangerous animals and routes, but for those who stick out the pain till the end will find out that the modern update of The Oregon Trail is one of the best titles on the DSiWare service. - Matthew Blundon |
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Art Academy: First SemesterPublisher: Nintendo Developer: Headstrong Games Cost: 800 Points Players: 1 Release Date: September 14, 2009 While painting may not be everyone's cup of tea, those who give Art Academy: First Semester a try are bound to be rewarded with a deep painting simulator. Besides a free paint mode that allows players to create their own pieces, the game also offers a handful of lessons for newcomers who want to grasp the basics of art. It's an enjoyable paint simulator and one that will help express one's inner self. - Matthew Blundon |
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