Posts Tagged ‘DS’

My thinking when it comes to handheld titles is simple. The game should fill the gaps in my life when I have no other choice than to sit and wait. It is a very rare occurrence for me to play a handheld at home, thus my gaming is limited to the train and occasionally coffee shops as I kill time between shifts. For the most part I want quick games. Old arcade style jump in and die games which I can play for fifteen minutes between house and work, such as Space Invaders Extreme or Bangai-O Spirits. But there are occasions where I want something more substantial. Something which holds my attention for hours a time. In short I want Civilization Revolutions.

Civilization is a game with so many layers that in honesty I was amazed to see it compressed down into something that functioned effectively on a handheld. Though some of the complexities are removed it is none the less involving. Indeed the concessions made serve to ensure that even on the DS your civilization is never unmanageable.

It is with some irony that the title of my favorite handheld goes to a series which has been around for seventeen years. After all in every other section I have attempted to reward innovation. That is not to downplay the shear accomplishment of putting a game that just a few years ago I couldn’t imagine working on anything other than a PC into the palm of my hand while retaining the overall feel of the experience that I lost so many hours to at university.

In the interest of full disclosure I should state that I didn’t play many handheld titles this year. I suspect if I had the funds available I would have picked up Patapon 2 and LocoRoco 2 both of which are franchises I love and could have bumped Civilization from the top spot. But I didn’t.

Being a foreign language teacher I cant help but view this with cynicism. But time is my biggest barrier to study and this makes it possible to study while commuting, so I decided to give it a shot.

It breaks lessons down into manageable sections using range of practice techniques. Lessons include writing, listening and word recognition and a number of other exercises. Perhaps the lack voice recognition fortunate considering the trouble it has with writing recognition, but you can record and compare you voice with the ‘games’. It prioritises some dubious words, kill before buy for example. Also lessons are inconsistent. Frequently key words are not introduced until the practice sections, which is tough if this is your only exposure to Japanese.

It stresses that it is best to practice with native speaker. It’s right. But even if you can’t this still proves a reasonable starting point for study.

In Japan the handheld is king. Week after week PSP and DS battle it out at the top to the hardware charts. Recently of course sales of both have been rejuvenated by the PSP-3000 and the DSi with many buying yet another version of their favorite system.

Many factors effecting Japans market mirror the West’s. It’s perfect for commuters. The lower price is attractive, especially as the feeling of recession in Japan has been present since the mid-nineties. And now systems are not exclusively game machines the target audience is expanded.

More specific to Japan is co-operative element. With gamers often unable monopolize the family television to play with friends, handhelds become the solution. Hence when you see someone playing a portable system often someone will be playing along side.

The combination of all these factors explain the overall trend but in the links below more specific elements are discussed.

Unlike real-time-strategy games, Civilization Revolutions avoids the control issues usually associated with PC strategy games ports. Though more cumbersome than it’s big-brother the turn-based nature of the game means all of the concessions made never compromise the player’s effectiveness.

The allowances made however are far fewer than you may expect, partly due to the games diminutive scale. Unlike the world maps’ of the original conflicts now seem to take place in someone’s garden. Though this does make the whole experience less epic it means you’re number of units and cities never becomes unmanageable with the interface.

This is not the PC game. Games are shorter, depth is lacking. But this is a gateway-drug for those who have never touched the series or for old hands a quick-fix. Most important though, it’s popular. Console players have dispelled the myth, proved they do want a cerebral experience. As long as they’re good.