On the other hand…

The Nintendo DS has loads of titles in its library. Much like the Nintendo Wii, many of them are what is widely known as “filler”. Titles that are produced solely for the intend of making money. Of course, the intention of every game producer is to make at least enough money to pay the bills. But with titles like Petz: Dogz, Petz: Catz, Petz: Horzez etc., it quickly becomes clear that many titles are produced only with one thing in mind: Making a quick buck.

That doesn’t mean the DS doesn’t have some great titles, it most certainly does. But some of the real gems come in the strangest forms, and some are never really recognized for being exactly that: A little shining gem.

Maestro! Jump in Music (henceforth “Maestro!”) could be described as just another music games. The world sure needs one more of those, right? I mean, apart from numerous Guitar Heroes, Rock Band, DJ Hero, Singstar, Dance Dance Revolution etc., we certainly need more (that was sarcasm, in case you didn’t notice).

Now, I actually like music and I like music games. But by god, have they not released enough of the same and same old formula? Indeed they have, so does Maestro! bring anything new to the table?

For starters, Maestro!, as the name implies, incorporate the wonderful world of classical music. Sure, that has been done before, but not too often. Where Maestro! start to become really interesting is when we look at the actual gameplay.

The story is simple: The bird Presto lives next door to the spider Staccato. Not exactly friends, but they seem to get along. In comes the beautiful bird Bella, who both Presto and Staccato takes a fancy to. Presto wins and steals her heart (kinda unfair advantage he had, being a bird too, but hey). But Staccato is having none of that! And so he sees to it that the world goes mute. Now it’s up to Presto to save the sound and notes of the world.

How is this done then? Presto walks along strings set at different levels. In sync with the music comes notes that must be played by moving the stylus up or down over the string, much like you would play a guitar. Pulling down over a string can send Presto up a level, while the opposite will send him down. At first it seemed illogical, but in reality it is much logical, since that’s how you would do it in real life.

As Presto moves along, he collects objects, making chiclets follow him. You need at least enough to get a B+ grade to advance levels. Get many notes right and you’ll do fine, but miss a lot and you have to try again.

Luckily, the game is forgiving and you can try out a level before actually playing it. This can be worthwhile if you don’t already know the tune you are going to play.

That is, however, not all there is to the game. Soon you will have to learn new techniques for playing music. Each technique is carefully introduced with a tutorial you have to complete. There will be other birds entering the screen and you must click on them with the stylus at the correct moment. As they are moving, that’s not always easy, and of course you have to keep strumming the lines for notes.

Sometimes there will be several notes on top of each other, meaning you will have to strum them like a harp. There are times when you have to click an object and have to keep the stylus on the object as it moves, and then there are the “black holes” you have to rotate the stylus on. My favorite are the “mandolin” strings on which you have to strum up and down quickly.

The actualy gameplay is hard to describe, so here is the trailer for the game that demonstrates it quite well:

The game has 24 levels spread over 6 worlds. Each world ends with a music showdown with Staccato as your opponent. Seeing as these are the games’ “boss levels”, I would have believed them to be harder than the actual levels, but in reality, the boss levels are the easiest levels.

The normal levels can be played at different difficulty levels. On level “easy” it’s not too hard to advance in the game, although some of the later levels certainly taxes your stylus dexterity.

Now, all this would amount to absolutely nothing, if the music wasn’t well done. No matter how well done the game mechanic is, a music game with crap music would suck. So how does Maestro! sound?

I am happy to report that it sounds absolutely fabulous. I was totally gobsmacked at how amazing the music was done. Sure, it’s all “remixes” of popular and well known tunes, but by god, the music is awesome. Being composed by the obvious talented group Yubaba Smith & Fortune, the entire soundscape of the game oozes charm, joy and happiness. From the wonderful title theme that had me tapping my foot and whistling along in seconds, to the actual in-game tunes which are all respectfully (and quite faithfully) recreated versions of beloved tunes. The complete tracklist is as follows:

Green Grove: a colourful and flowery universe, full of exotic animals and lush vegetation. Rhythmic bass and afro beats inspire the music selection here.

* Ludwig Van Beethoven – Symphony No. 5
* Antonin Dvorak – Symphony No.9, From the New World
* Madness – Our House
* Traditional Japanese song – Sakura Sakura

Purple Sonata: what better music for a 17th Century palace with statues and marbling-a-go-go, than a classical sound, as baroque as you like, that has stood the test of time?

* Jean Sebastien Bach – Little Fugue in G Minor
* Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – A Little Night Music
* Perren, Mizell et al.– ABC
* Traditional French song – Vent Frais, Vent du Matin

Yellow Allegro: sojourn under the Italian sun in Venice where only the cursed seagulls throw a shadow over the scene. The music is typical of the setting: odes to joy, and love in the form of mandolin solos.

* Eduardo Di Capua – O Sole Mio
* The Animals – The House of the Rising Sun
* Antonio Vivaldi – The Four Seasons
* Traditional English song – Greensleeves

Indigo Flow: a change of scenery and a free-dive to thousands of metres below the water’s surface! Rare air bubbles ring out and myriad species of fish resonate with sound at every touch.

* Erik Satie – Gymnopedie No.1
* Pyotr Tchaikovsky – The Nutcracker
* Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put a Spell on You
* Traditional Russian song – Otchi Chornye

Black out Beats: a spatial inspiration for this voyage beyond the solar system against a backdrop of starry skies and melting planets. The sounds tend towards the psychedelic: strange attractors winning out over gravity.

* Johannes Brahms – Hungarian Dances
* Edvard Grieg – Peer Gynt
* Leonard Bernstein – The Magnificent 7
* Traditional song adapted for Bizet’s Carmen – El Arreglito

Red Hot tempo: the Wild West, steam trains and gunslinging cowboys–even Charles Bronson’s reflexes would be put to the test in this Leone-inspired nightmare.

* M. Gore, D. Pitchford – Fame
* Ennio Morricone – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
* Isaac Albeniz – Asturias
* American Traditional song – When the Saints Go Marching In

Some of the tracks might seem like an odd choice, but me, I’m all for exposing people to different kinds of music. And it cannot be stressed enough that the msuic in Maestro! is very, very well done.

There have been other music games with good music and decent game mechanics, but what about the presentation? Surely the humble DS can match games like Guitar Hero and the alike? No, of course you don’t get flash HD 3D graphics. But what you get is some of the most characteristic and charming graphics I have seen out of Nintendo’s own walls. This is simply how a game should be presented. From the very colourful graphics which have lots of neat touches and charm, to the way everything transitions from menu to menu. The selection screen is an old record player on which you move the arm to select option. And yes, you can click on the actual record and scratch and play in reverse and do pretty much whatever you want. It’s fun and it only adds more smiles to the players face. It certainly did here.

Presto himself is a great character. Just look at him! He looks so happy and joyful that I can’t help but smiling when I see him. Even the bad guy of the game looks fun. There have been painstakingly much work put into doing this game’s graphics and music.

But while many producers seems to think so, a game isn’t much cop without some decent gameplay. As I addressed earlier in this review, there are loads of games without any gameplay being released. They might look and sound flashy, but their life is shortlived, due to the lack of good old-fashioned gameplay.

Maestro! has the flash, but unlike many others it also have the gameplay. It’s fresh. It’s different. It’s challenging. But most importantly, it’s works and it’s damn fun. While I am sure it would not have worked so well with crap music and presentation that is not really problem here.

Maestro! delivers a breath of fresh air to an otherwise kind of tired genre – the music games. And it does in a way that none of the big consoles can.

Even the creators logo is charming! Pastagames is also doing a iPod Touch or iPhone version, so if any of you out there doesn’t have a Nintendo DS but one of Apple’s touchscreen gadgets, you are going to get the game as well. Any other device with a touch screen and the necessary CPU power could get it too, if it’s a success. Perhaps Android phones? Whatever it would take to ensure Pastagames make enough money to continue releasing wonderful games like this.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you have any interest in a charming, funny, good looking and wonderfully sound game, you need to look no further. This little gem has it all. It hasn’t received much attention (why not?!), but I can wholeheartedly give it much credit and can only recommend you purchase the game. It has most european languages (english, spanish, italian, french, german, danish, norwegian, dutch, portuguese and swedish) and it is worth it’s price.

You get a wonderful game and you support what seems to be a talented bunch of people who clearly invested a lot of time and effort in giving us this game.

Thank you , Pastagames.

Score: 9 out of 10

-Jacob

British phenomena Chicane is back. Who is he? Well, his real name is Nick Bracegirdle and you might remember hits such as “Saltwater” and “Offshore”. Or maybe the song “Don’t give it up” he did with Bryan Adams supplying the vocals.

Either way, since 1997 Chicane have given the world chill-out, dance and generally serene sounds of harmony. This latest offering is no different. Once again he has taken something a bit magical and worked his own magic on it.

Iceland isn’t know for that many music stars. Björk, Sugarcubes and… Sigur Ros. The latter has done a really beautiful song named “Hoppipolla” which is the one Chicane has reworked and changed the name to “Poppiholla”.

Has it been worth it? Well, you be the judge. Me, I kinda like it.

The video isn’t very original but the melody itself is still nice and easy on the ears. So thumbs up from me.

-Jacob

It’s odd. I have a powerful Core i7 pc with an moderately powerful graphics card (Geforce 260), a Playstation 3 and an Xbox 360. Yet, it’s the simplest of games that catches my interest. Simple and addictive games. Games like Tasty Static.

The game is simple. You control this sort of spacecraft, going along a road. You can go faster or slower, left or right, and you can jump. It’s hardly advanced.

But these roads aren’t your normal roads. There are obstacles and traps along the way. And it’s NOT going to be an easy trip. Like the programmer himself describes the game:

Tasty Static is a videogame where you go really fast and jump a lot. You’ll probably get really annoyed along the way too.

It’s not far from the truth. There are times where you need lightning quick reflexes, dexterity like a pro and a healthy dose of good old fashioned LUCK. You will die, and you will die OFTEN.

Oh and did I mention that when you die, it’s all the way back to the beginning of a track?

Luckily, the tracks aren’t that long and can usually be completed in half a minute. But there are loads of them.

So if the game is hard as heck and you get severely punished all the time, why on earth can’t I stop enjoying it? Well, it might be the great retro-look of the game’s 3D graphics. It could also be the adrenalized music pumping (great techno).

Then again… it could also be the fact that the game is just so darn funny to play! I must have died hundreds of times, yet each time I die, I just utter “FECK!” or laugh heartily. I don’t get mad or frustrated. Even though the game is very hard, it feels FAIR. You die because you made a fair mistake. I can live with that. It’s never as if the game kills you and you’re like “what the fuck, I shouldn’t have died there”. When you die, you know you screwed up.

Maybe that’s the recipe for success? That and the fact that there are achievements to be unlocked, as you complete more and more stages. From small “get another colour on your vehicle” to much more interesting unlockables. I won’t go into details, but it totally rocks.

The game is light on resources. It doesn’t need a monster pc to run. Turn down resolution, and details and it runs well on almost anything. And it’s still just as fun. Sure, it looks neat in 1920×1200, but the game is just as fun in 800×600.

If you think the game looks or sounds familiar, you’re not far off. It’s a clone of the old pc game Skyroads. Also, it reminds me of the old 8-bit classic Trailblazer.

As you might have noticed, the game is freeware, but the programmer does accept donations. I’ve tried loads of freeware games and some might be worth a few bucks, some might not. But this one was worth a donation in my book. The programmer was quick to thank for the donation, something that also shows consideration.

The soundtrack is absolutely fabulous. Having gained rights to use commercial music from labels Melodium, Re:, and My Brightest Diamond, the music is nothing short of great. Check out the complete track list here.

I can’t really recommend the game enough. It’s everything a casual game should be. Easy to get into, hard to get out of. Visuals are spot on and the soundtrack is gorgeous. Download your copy today! Downloads are here.

Score: 9 out of 10

-Jacob

Video from the game:

A new bunch of movies added to my collection:

About Schmidt (Drama/Comedy, Jack Nicholson), Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (Adventure/Action, Bill Nighy), Paul Blart: Mall Cop (Comedy), Inkheart (Adventure/Action, Brendan Fraser), Watchmen (Action), Mammoth (Drama, directed by Lukas Moodysson), The Tomb (Horror), Cutthroat Island (Adventure/Action, Geena Davis), Thick as Thieves (Crime, Antonio Banderas/Morgan Freeman), In your Dreams (Comedy/Fantasy, Dexter Fletcher), Romeo is bleeding (Crime/Thriller, Gary Oldman) and The Flintstones (Comedy, John Goodman/Halle Berry).

The big names here are – in my opinion – Watchmen and Mammoth. Both very good movies in their own genre.

Oh, and this is gonna rule:

-Jacob

Some more titles added to my collection:

War of the Worlds (Sci-fi, original from 1953), Inju (Thriller, french), Lille Soldat (Drama/thriller, danish), Bottom (Comedy, Rik Mayall & Adrian Edmonson) Season 3.

-Jacob

Seeing as I am damn lazy when it comes to updating my movie list, I figured I’d post incremental updates on the website. That way you can at least follow the increasingly larger list in a bit more current state.

Added today:

Flugten (Drama, Iben Hjejle), Defiance (War/thriller, Daniel Craig), Julia (Drama/thriller, Tilda Swinton), Finding Amanda (Comedy, Matthew Broderick), Friday the 13th 2009 (horror, the remake), Star Trek: The Original Series *Remastered* (Sci-fi, William Shatner – great new transfer) Season 1, 2 and 3, The Dead Zone (thriller) Season 3, 4, 5 and 6, Dexter (Crime/thriller) Season 2, Medium (crime/drama) Season 4, Numb3rs (crime/thriller) Season 4, Stargate SG-1 (Sci-fi) Season 6, 7 and 8, That 70’s Show (Comedy) Season 7 and 8, Pushing Daisies (Comedy) Season 1, Nip/Tuck (Crime/drama) Season 3, Livvagterne (Crime) Season 1 and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (Drama/thriller, Gene Hackman).

While I’m no Trekkie, I am rather pleased with the Star Trek remasters. Yeah, yeah, mock me all you want. The quality of the show, content-wise, is of course a matter of taste. Some of the special effects are hilarious. They range from being acceptable to downright hilarious. But somehow I find it charming, in its own strange way. It’s great to end an evening by watching an episode of these. Sometimes you fall asleep, sometimes you don’t. It doesn’t matter that much.

Anyway, stay tuned for more updates in the future.

-Jacob

The summer is upon us and the creativity of creativity is severely lacking. No wait, that’s not entirely true. The truth is that the heat is putting a pressure on everyone’s energy, including me. Hence the lack of updates here. Well, time to do something about it!

First of all, I’ve finally updated my DVD list. Actually I update it somewhat frequently, but for you to enjoy it, I kinda need to upload the updated list. Fret not, it’s been done this very weekend.

Furthermore, I’ve had the pleasure – partly – of seeing a few movies and play a few games lately. Due to the still applied lack of energy, I’m just going to run through them rather quickly.

A quick rundown:

MOVIE: Terminator Salvation

Well, the salvation lies within – or so the saying goes. But where is it? There is very little salvation in this movie. Oh Christian Bale, you disappoint me! For once I caught myself thinking “oh, shut your mouth and let someone else get some screen time”. That’s serious business, coming from a Bale fan like me. A pointless story, flawed and lifeless acting, clichéd plot and generally very little to like. Sure, the computer effects are pretty good, but apart from that, there’s little to enjoy. Correction: There is a wee bit salvation within, namely Brad Fiedel’s theme. But unfortunately, it’s been mixed a bit too much here. 4 out of 10.

MOVIE: The Hangover

This is a strange movie. Odd, you say? Well, it’s a comedy, how odd can it be? The thing is, when I saw the movie, I found it quite amusing and not much else. But when the credits rolled, I realized something: It was hella funny!

As for the plot, it’s nothing special: Four guys get together for a bachelor party. One of them is going to be married and the rest of them are going to send him off. Not much meat on that bone. So they travel to Las Vegas, book into a hotel and goes out to party.

The next scene is the three of guys waking up in the hotel room, remembering absolutely ZERO of what happened the night before. And boy, was that a fucked up night or what! Cue words are: A tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the sofa, a wedding to a stripped, a tooth pulled out of own free will, a trip to the hospital, a deal with a meth dealer, a – somewhat – good trip to a casino and much, much more. The trio has lost their soon-to-be-married friend and have to recreate the events from the night before in order to find him.

It’s a great movie and the ending is absolutely fabulous. Be sure to watch the credits which shows the pictures from a camera they used during the night. Absolutely a joy to watch – and rewatch. Loads of bizarre and fun situations and smack full of memorable quotes. I’ll give it 8 out of 10.

MOVIE: Brüno

Seeing as Borat was a laugh-fest from start to end, Sascha was going to have a hard time pulling this stunt off. Having seen loads of the Ali G show, I already knew the character, and while Brüno IS fun in many situations, the stuff that makes him fund is far from being on the edge, like Borat’s. Borat had much silly and much intelligent humour. Brüno has mostly silly.

It doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie or that it isn’t funny. It’s just not in the same league as Borat. Still, it has a handful of really funny scenes so if you enjoyed Borat, I’m sure you’ll get something out of this too. But be warned: It’s not for the homophobes out there. There is a scene with a very lively willy, swinging happily about. I’m quite surprised it wasn’t censored. Brüno’s trip to the swinger club is censored, but it’s still damn funny. 6 out of 10.

GAME: Tales of Monkey Island: Season 1, episode 1

From Telltale Games comes the newest addition to the Monkey Island legacy. It’s a tough act for a relatively small company to live up to some of computer gamings mmost loved and cherished games, something the Monkey Island series certainly is. It could have gone terribly wrong. New graphics style (3D! Oh no!) and a new crew. Well actually, they had quite a few from the original crew aboard. And it shows.

Yes, the game is in 3D. It has lost a bit of its only 16-bit 320×256 resolution charm. But you know what? It’s got good voice acting, funny puzzles that reminds me a great deal of the original games (ie. very illogical at first, but actually highly logical when you consider them through and out) and the graphics. Well, it’s not really that bad. I’d go as far and say it is pretty darn good!

The first episode is relatively short – takes perhaps 3 hours to complete for a veteran – but you pay a small price per episode, so that’s okay in my book. All in all, a great addition to the legacy and I am already looking forward to the next episode. 8 out of 10.

GAME: The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition

You can never get enough Monkey Island! It’s a blast from the past and it’s back in high definition.

What do you get? Well you get the game that started it all. One of history’s most loved and played adventure games. Ask any fan of adventure games about their top five games and you can be almost certain that Monkey Island is one of them.

The Special edition sports the entire original game, as well as the new version with complete voice acting, hires graphics and remixed music. The really interesting thing is that you can switch between the authentic original look and the new look at any time. Heck, on the Xbox 360 this switch even earns you an achievement. Did I say 360? Yup, the game is released on Xbox 360 as well as the PC. It plays fine on the 360 though a mouse if of course the better method of control.

Let me tell you what I like. Of course I love the original game. The pirate jokes, the insult-wielding sword fights, Stan’s Previously Owned Vehicles, the d’oh! underwater puzzle, tonnes of references to popular culture etc. Let’s be honest: There is a reason the original is considered a classic.

The new version has the exact same story and gameplay. Nothing new there. But it has new music and I have to admit that I find the new music damn sweet. Many people will probably not even notice it, but I did. And it was a joy to behold. Then there is the new graphics. Well, it’s actually quite good. It’s certainly hires. Unfortunately the main character, Guybrush Threepwood himself, doesn’t really look good in his new form. Just about everything else looks great. But since you are looking at Guybrush 95% of the time, it’s a bit annoying.

If you never played the original and have even only the faintest of interest in adventure games – or even computer games at all! – this is an opportunity not to miss out on. You get one of the fiinest pieces of computer code ever released and you get the chance to enjoy one of gaming’s most memorable moments ever. Purists might find that the new look spoils the enjoyment and the new hint system will probably have most new-comers fly through it in no time. But hey, at least they get to enjoy the story. Thank you Lucas Arts, for bringing back the memories and sharing them with a new generation. 8 out of 10.

And that’s all for this update. I’ll try to update more often. And remember to check out my danish blog as well

-Jacob

Back in the old days, a lot of games were done “independently”, ie. they were done by a single individual. Some had collaboration of a few people, but it was only the big titles that came from actual software companies.

These days, it’s almost all big companies like EA, Eidos, Sony, Microsoft, Square-Enix, Konami, Ubisoft etc. And while quality in the old day was very forgiving, todays gamers are used to high production values and fantastic presentation. But as the old saying goes, looks can be deceiving.

Lately, there have been some rather good independent game projects. It’s not that long ago I reviewed ScaryGirl, a really good game. And Yet It Moves was also done independently, and it was quite good too.

Today I’m checking out a game done entirely by a swede by the name of Daniel Remar. Called Iji (pronounced “I-gee”), it is in its simplest form just another platform game. They are a dime a dozen these days.

Daniel has done the game entirely by himself, only the voice acting and the music have been done by other people. The game has been made with Gamemaker, an application that makes game development a drag-n-drop job. Personally, I don’t care how Daniel did this game, but I’m glad he did.

Quoting Daniel’s own words about the game:

Iji is an action-packed strategic platform shooter with a detailed story, large levels with multiple paths, powerful bosses and lots of secrets. There are alternate gameplay events, dialogues and scenes depending on what you do, a wealth of extras and bonus features, and seven stats to upgrade through a leveling system. Iji herself has superhuman strength and abilities, and can crack Nanotechnology, use her enemies’ most devastating weapons against them, and be a pacifist or a killer – the story adapts to how you play.

As for the plot, it goes like this:

Waking up from a long coma, Iji finds herself trapped with her brother in a remote military complex. As the only remaining survivors of a local alien space-to-ground bombardment, they must find the leader of the sudden attack force, discover their motives, and what it takes to make them leave the complex and return to deep space.

Now, Iji finds out she is no longer an ordinary girl. She has been cybernetically modified, giving her abilities far beyond any normal human being. At first she is frustrated. Her brother commands her remotely from a control room, but she’s not sure she believes all he tells her – and does he tell her everything?

She soon discovers that having special abilities certainly does come in handy, because earth is under attack by an alien race. That means war, and although Iji isn’t very keen on the violence, she has no choice but to turn to it. However, things are not entirely what they seem…

First off, let me state that the game has an absolute wealth of background story. Scattered around the (intelligently designed) levels are loads of log books you can read. You don’t have to, but they present a great way to learn of the background story for the game. And the story is actually pretty good and there is a least one big surprise – at least to me.

If you look at the pictures, you might notice that while the game is far from being pretty compared to modern games, it still retains some charm in the simplistic graphics that is at least consistent in style. Some of the animation is a bit stiff, and the can’t compare with professionally created games. But I dare you to play the game, because what the game might lack in presentation, it more than makes up for in gameplay.

A bit like the Metroid series, Iji can get better weapons, upgrade her abilities, and she is fast and agile. You start out with a small amount of healt and armor. You can kick feeble doors, but your lack of strenght doesn’t allow for much else. Only the weakest of enemies can be downed with a kick from the beginning. But the kick isn’t all you have. You also have your trusty shot gun, complete with unlimited ammo. Sounds easy? It isn’t! The gun is weak and takes an age to reload! But there are ways to improve that.

As you progress through the game, you will find so-called Nano-fields. There are three type:

Blue: Recover armor, but also add to your total Nano. When you reach a certain amount of Nano, you will level up and get a “point”. Points can be spent at a Cyborg station, which will upgrade one of your stats. Leveling up does not improve any of your abilities unless you spend the points you get at the Cyborg stations.

Red: Recover both health and some armor, but don’t help you level up. These are essential to stay alive.

Green: Only recover armor. They don’t help you level up.

There are seven stats in the game, that will help you improve your abilities. They are:

Health: Makes your health bar larger.

Attack: The power of your nanoweapons attack.

Assimilate: Determines how much armor you regenerate when assimiating any kind of Nanofield, and increases ammo capacity for all Nanoweapons.

Strenght: Your physichal strength. Will make your kicks stronger, enabling you to kick down bigger doors – and opponents.

Crack: Determines how secure computer/nano systems you can crack, and how well you can combine the technologies in your Nanogun. Also used to open Security doors.

Tasen: Determines what Tasen weapons you can wield (weapons 1-4). If you try to pick up a weapon you can’t use, you’ll see a small text where the weapon is, telling you what level you need.

Komato: Determines what Komato weapons you can wield (weapons 5-8).

Apart from the above mentioned seven stats, there are two other stats that can be improved and those are Jump and Armor. Jump improves the height of you jumps, enabling you to reach higher (and previously) unreachable ground. Armor improves your armor, enabling you take take less damage. Both of these requires unique upgrades each and cannot be improved using nano-fields.

As with all other good game of this variety, it’s not always easy to choose which stat to improve. Do you choose a larger health bar – or better strenght? Or how about being able to crack that terminal… It’s all very tempting and you are going to have to settle for a few sacrifices. You won’t be able to max out everything. At least I don’t think you’re able to on the normal level. I have played through the game on normal level, but if you it to be more challenging, there’s always hard, extreme and Ultimortal. I don’t even dare think of how hard they can be. The difficulty level on normal will be fine for most, but it’s nice to see higher levels of difficulty for the hardcore players. And the subtle differences in each level are kinda nice.

The controls are easy. Cursor keys are use to run, jump and duck. You press 1-8 for selecting weapons, sometimes pressing a number twice, to select the alternate version of a weapon (which you must have made previously, combining two weapons at select combining stations!), Z make Iji kick, X makes her fire the currently equipped weapon and C is the use/crack/open button. I must admit, I don’t see why Iji can’t shoot when she ducks. A weapon is always fired better when crouching (steadier aim), but I suppose you can’t ask for too much realism.

The actual game is simply your standard platforming game. Iji runs (only one speed unfortunately, no dash button), jumps, hangs off platforms, kicks, shoots and she even gets to ride some machinery. There are a few “puzzles”, but mostly the game is pretty straight forward. It is very much adviseable to actually read the log book entries around the levels, since some of them includes very interesting information that just might help you with a certain troubling situation.

Around the bigger levels, you’ll find checkpoints. These come in handy, should you happen to die. You can also save your game, but only between levels. The game is a bit forgiving, like when you go up against a boss – and there are a few along the way – and you die, the game will give you a tip on how to defeat the boss. So you’re never really stuck.

Some bosses can seem almost impossible to defeat at first, but in true retro-style, it’s usually a matter of finding their weak spot. That’s okay though, because it’s fun looking!

I mentioned earlier, that the graphics around exactly state of the art. The sound effects are actually quite good, the bigger guns certainly has some “oomph” to them and the graphics is quite good in some situations, like with some of the larger explosions. There is also a bit of voice acting in the beginning and plenty of music all the way through the game, all of very decent quality. I did have problems with music when I played the game on my netbook (Asus eeePC 900), but otherwise it ran okay. Daniel states the game should run on any decent computer less than five years old, and while it ran mostly good on my 6 year old P4 3GHz too, some of the really big bosses made the game run slow. Like the final boss. It made the game run at like 20% speed. Granted, a lot was going on. Still a shame, though.

Luckily, most of you will probably have something much much more powerful, so it shouldn’t be a problem. The game takes a fair while to load and uncompress(?), but when it has started, loading is very snappy.

The worst thing about Iji has got to be the fact that it’s hard to let the game go. Like yesterday, when I sat till 2 am on a weekday, simply because I had to defeat the last boss. I could not go to bed with him waiting. It also only takes maybe 3-4 hours to complete the game, if you are an adequate player. But did you see that little word in the heading? It’s a freeware game. It’s free. You can’t really complain about anything. There’s even an improved soundtrack download, with bonus music – again, for free!

And as if that wasn’t enough, the game is just about a 20MB download, requires no installation and installs nothing whatsoever in your Windows directory. That is how all games should work. Want to play it on another computer, including your save games? Just copy the entire game directory to a new computer. It couldn’t be easier.

In conclusion, Iji had me hooked from the beginning, always needing to complete just one more level. It has a great story, a lot of interesting background material, plenty of good, old-fashioned run ‘n gun gameplay, some neat surprises and even sports hidden games and unlockable material. And all this for free! Daniel, you have a hit on your hands

Score: 8 out of 10

-Jacob

Trailer for the game:

From #alt.binz:

[19:30]    Hecks: “Thanks from …. Cambodia and my 7k/s” lol
[19:31]    Hecks: it would be quicker to write the data by hand and post it
[19:31]    [tf]: whoa whoa
[19:32]    [tf]: I still have fond memories of downloading Ncomm on my Amiga with a 300 baud modem
[19:32]    [tf]: 200kb
[19:32]    [tf]: it took 30 minutes
[19:32]    [tf]: don’t even get me started on the C64 times
[19:32]    Hecks: well i remember typing BASIC proggies from magazines
[19:33]    [tf]: luxury! I typed raw binary – with no display!
[19:33]    [tf]: hours of typing and it was pure luck if it worked
[19:33]    Hecks: you had it good!
[19:34]    Hecks: i remeber switching circuit voltages by hand!
[19:34]    [tf]: you had electricity? luxury
[19:34]    [tf]: I used to spend hours on setting up loads of abacuses
[19:34]    [tf]: and they weren’t colour coded at all
[19:35]    Hecks: you had ABACUSES? pfft
[19:35]    Hecks: we had fingers
[19:35]    [tf]: I used to have fingers
[19:35]    Hecks: before they fell off from leprosy
[19:35]    [tf]: wore them down
[19:35]    [tf]: yeah those were the days
[19:36]    [tf]: tell that to the young ones today and they don’t believe you
[19:36]    Hecks: youth is wasted on the young, as we know

-Jacob

You know what I like in an MP3-player? I want to connect it and just drag’n’drop my music files. And I don’t want to install any extra software. I’d also like it to be small. Easy to use. And have great sound quality.

As much as I love my old 30GB Ipod for its vast storage, the battery life was never really good, even with back-light turned off. The headphones were kinda crappy. The jog-wheel, while in theory working great, worked only adequately in real life. Erratic volume changes were frequent, unless you locked it, even when nothing was touching the damn thing! It was also kinda big lugging it around, and you certainly shouldn’t take it for a run.

Before the Ipod, I had a an iRiver 256MB MP3-player. It wasn’t very big, had no moving parts and still retained a good display and loads of tweaking. At its time, it was awesome. Seeing as it was smaller and could stand a beating, I had started using it a lot recently. The capacity was, however, somewhat lacking. And there was still a wire from the player to the ears. Of course. There has to be, right? Well, no really. When the iRiver driver refused to work in my Windows 7 install, I decided it was time to buy a new, small MP3 player. But which one?

Walking downtown and entering the local electronics store, I looked around for a bit. Ipod Nano? Cute, a bit expensive, and the darn you-must-transfer-files-with-special-software-attitude. Same went for Ipod touch. And Ipod Shuffle. Who the hell wants to install extra software, when it’s obviously not a technical necessity? Apple, apparently.

I checked out some other players too, but then my eye fell on the Sony Walkman NWZ-W202, and I knew the decision had been made. 5 minutes and 699 DKR later, I walked out of the shop, new player in head.

The Wearable walkman. That’s what Sony calls their new model NWZ-W202. And you know what? It’s true. It’s wearable. Unpacking the player, you will find the actual player, a stylish (though a matter of taste) cradle for USB-charging and transfering of songs, manuals and two extra sets of ear buds in different sizes. That’s it. No drivers! Hurrah!

As for the installation, you plug in the cradle, put the player into it (via a standard mini-USB socket, so you can use other cables for recharging/transfer – another hurrah!) and Windows just find it. And that’s it. You are ready to drag and drop MP3, AAC, WMA etc. files to the player. And yes, DRM-ridden files are supported too.

Now, the first bad thing about this player is the storage space. It’s only got 2GB in this first incarnation. But thing about it. It’s about 200 average-sized songs, and since it’s so easy to change files, that’s okay with me. I often download new music and while it would be nice to have it all in one place, all that accomplishes is the fact, that you rarely get to listen to your new music. At least I didn’t.

Anyway, I transfered about a gigabyte of songs (took about 3 mins with the fast USB 2.0 transfer), and the player was ready to rock. While it was already 90% charged when I got it, the player has a really neat “3-minute supercharge” mode. Charge it for 3 mins and you get 90 minutes of playback. I dunno how good that is for the battery, but that remains to be seen. It charges to a maximum in about 2-3 hours. A full charge gives 12 hours of playback. While it charges, there is a nice LED in the join of the two sides that flashes discretely. There is also a small “OPR.” LED on the inside of the right ear piece, that blinks every few seconds when the player is operating.

I removed the player from the cradle and “broke” it in the middle. There is a magnet in the middle, holding left and right part together. Practical? Sure, very much. But there is more to this magnet. When the left and right parts are joined at the magnet, the player automatically turns off. A small stroke of genius, since you obviously can’t listen to it with the parts joined. Take it apart, place each ear bud in your ear, click the jog-wheel, and the player starts playing.

The controls are simple. There is a jog-wheel, a button to increase volume and one to decrease it. A small on/off switch for Shuffle mode on/off. And that’s all. The volume buttons are easy to access but, you aren’t going to accidentially turn the volume up or down. They react and work as they should. As for the jog-wheel, you click it to start playing and click it again to stop. Click it again, and the player will resume from exactly where you were. If you want to skip back or forward, you simply scroll the wheel backward or forward. It couldn’t be much easier. So simply and intuitive.

If you remember the concept of being wearable, you can see in the pictures what I mean. There is a cable between the left and the right ear pieces, and it goes behind the ears, down the back of your head and is in no way annoying or intruisive. Granted, if you have long and thick hair – mostly applicable to girls – you might have to tuck in under the hair, but that is a very minor problem and the girls I’ve asked to test it, have not complained.

Since the player is so wearable and light (35g), you don’t notice it at all. It almost becomes part of you, like glasses or a necklace. Sure, it might look as you are wearing two Bluetooth ear pieces, but the player is really comfortable to wear. It comes in 5 stylish colours and looks quite good (subject to taste, of course).

And boy, does it ever stay it place! I ran, jumped, biked, walked. I even tried hanging upside down. The player stayed exactly where it should – in the ears. Oh, and you can easily lie down your head on a pillow, the player will still fit snugly.

As for what the ears experience, I can safely say that the audio quality is rather good. Sony didn’t skimp on that part. Good bass, excellent mid levels and great treble. The only negative factor in the sound department is the lack of outside noises eliminator. But it’s forgiveable. Just this once.

Okay, so it all sounds good, but surely no player is perfect. There has to be some cons somewhere. And yes, there are a few I’d like to mention.

First the obvious: Lack of any display. It kinda goes with the whole concept. There is no way of seeing the name of the track you play. While a “synthesized” speech announcer (like Apple has on their new models) would have been nice, it would of course not have been perfect, loads of tracks and artist names would have ended up being incomprehensible. Still, the feature would have been nice, like you double click the jog wheel and the name of the song and the artist is announced.

There is also NO playlist support. The player just plays in sequential order (sorted alphabetically) – apart from when you use shuffle mode, obviously – and you can’t skip whole folders.

For the enthusiast, the lack of any kind of EQ settings might be a bit of a downer. I thought I would have hated it, but the sound is so good, it doesn’t bother me at all. I previously mentioned the somewhat lacklustre 2GB storage space (c’mon Sony, RAM is hella cheap) but even that doesn’t put me off.

The so-called cool “Zappin”-function is somewhat of a joke. It’s supposed to scan and find the most energetic part of a song, play a few seconds of it and when skip to the next track. This is supposed to make it fast and easy to scan songs to find the one you want to listen to. On paper this probably works great, but in real life it certainly doesn’t. It’s almost a shame Sony included it, but at least you don’t HAVE to use it. Luckily.

At first, the Sony NWZ-W202 looks like a total design disaster. But it is obvious that much care and consideration has gone into the actual physical design of it. It feels (and sounds!) much better than its first impression. So if your main focus is on comfort, ease of use and sound quality, the W202 is a sure-fire hit. At about 700 DKR (about €100) it’s not cheap in terms of storage, but you get an excellent product that is not just good for audio enthusiasts and casual users, it’s also a godsend for people who use their MP3 player while doing any sort of sport or exercise.

This is the Sony I know and love. Craftmanship, innovation and quality. Please transfer those qualities to your PS3 department!

Score: 9 out of 10

-Jacob

Promotional video of the W202