Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

What is it?

At some point, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were promoted with an ad campaign that had confused people accusing one another, “you got chocolate in my peanut butter!” and “you got peanut butter in my chocolate!” The best thing to come of this ad campaign might be the numerous parodies we’ve seen since, but this still comes to mind when trying to describe Big Bang Mini, a new game for Nintendo DS by Arkedo, the developer behind Nervous Brickdown. Let me then say that Arkedo got puzzler in my space shooter, and space shooter in my puzzler. Let’s talk about just what this means.

How does it play?

Big Bang Mini is controlled entirely with the stylus. In arcade mode, there are nine themed worlds, each of which has nine stages and a boss battle. There’s another final boss battle at the very end. In each stage, you use the stylus to drag your small avatar around the bottom screen, basically just keeping it safe from incoming threats. While doing that, you stroke the stylus up on the screen, as if striking a match, to send your attacks up at the enemies who usually are swirling around on the upper screen. You aim your shots by directing the strokes there, but it pays to be accurate, because in most cases, missing the enemy and hitting the edge of the screen results in an eruption of fire that rains back down on you, which you then have to dodge. Environmental hazards like clouds and wind make lining up shots harder, but weapon power-ups like homing missiles and my favorite, the fireball, make things a little easier. Enemies come on in waves, and depending on the enemy, they will drop stars of varying sizes when destroyed. These stars fill a meter on your left, and when the meter is filled, you move on to the bonus stage.

The bonus stage is an elaborate connect-the-dots game which becomes progressively more challenging. At first, you just drag your avatar over the numbered dots in order. Later, you have to do it in the dark with a limited field of view. And there are mines. And a timer. One world’s bonus stages are based around rhythm, and you need to hit the numbers in alignment with a descending mark, like in Dance Dance Revolution. Just as in the stage itself, the bonus stage gives you only one chance, and then you’ve missed it and have to start the stage over if you want to get another shot at that bonus.

There’s also a tutorial mode which shows you how to launch your attacks, a local multiplayer (with single-card download play), a challenge mode which is basically survival with online leaderboards via Nintendo WiFi Connection, a mission mode that’s unlocked by completing arcade mode, a mode that’s unlocked when all the bonus stages are completed, and another mode that’s unlocked when mission mode is completed. The main arcade mode was too difficult for me to complete, so unfortunately I’m not able to give any words on the unlockable modes.

How does it look and sound?

Each world in arcade mode is themed with a location, such as New York City, Rio de Janeiro, or Paris. The stages start with the view out the window of a train running through the area, then the camera pans out the window and the fireworks begin. Enemies roll in on the top, fireworks roll up from the bottom. The locations all look very different from each other, and each has its own catchy techno beat as you blast your way along. Even the fonts used for the text introducing the bonus stage changes in each world. A lot of time went into giving each world a unique feel.

The presentation is very different. The graphics are flashy but simple, there’s a lot going on and the enemies look absolutely ridiclous. You’ll be shooting at everything from fish skeletons and incoming bullets can look like croissants… sometimes you’ll wonder exactly what you’re shooting at, but you’ll desperately keep shooting, sometimes blindly, in an attempt to survive. Just when you think it can’t get more ridiculous, your game will be interrupted by a random free shooting minigame with nothing to win or lose, which will then end explaining that you may never see it again. What the hell was that?

How’s the replay value?

While I breezed through the first six worlds pretty easily, doing about one a night, I became very solidly stuck on the boss in the Rio de Janeiro world. After that, it was very slow going, but the final world is very, very hard because there are mines that end the stage instantly when hit. The controls are good, but it’s still easy to fire a shot where you don’t intend to. Despite the short stages and the infinite retries, this can become very frustrating. That said, I can’t consider this a problem. The challenge level ramps up considerably toward the end of the game, and the fact that there’s so much to see in each world that’s so different from the rest of the worlds means you’ll stay solidly entertained to the end. Unfortunately, it’s hard to say how much time you’ll get out of the game once arcade mode is finished. It may ultimately depend on whether you have someone else with a DS to play with.

Is it worth it?

At a price point of $20, this is a heck of a lot of bang for the buck, no pun intended. This is an intense, high-end presentation puzzle game and comical shooter packed into one experience, and I was very surprised by what was done here. To make things more interesting, the box comes in a lenticular sleeve showing some remote semblance of what the gameplay is like. Speaking of which, watch out for the big round stickers on the top and bottom of the sleeve that hold it on the game box. The tabs peel off the lenticular side of the sleeve pretty easily but they like to tear the cardboard on the back of the sleeve. I recommend carefully cutting the tabs instead.

For tight design on all the parts I could actually get at, Big Bang Mini for Nintendo DS gets an impressed four point five ‘nauts out of five. Excellent work.