The Pokemon Rumble TCG ($10, coming early December) comes with sixteen cards and plenty of dice and token accessories, bent on simulating Rumble’s Battle Royale mode. The cards are fully compatible with the “regular” Pokemon TCG, but feature artwork done in the cute low-poly style of the Rumble WiiWare game. The thumbnail description (I haven’t seen an actual rulebook yet) makes it sound like a controlled guessing game where you wager which pokemon will survive based on how you roll the dice and what attacks are currently available.

The official Pokemon Rumble website has launched, and it currently offers a fourth code for owners of the WiiWare game. Unbelievably, the code unlocks the ultimate Gen 1 fanbait critter, Mew. The site promises more codes to come soon, including some that must be discovered by playing a matching game.

Today Capcom announced that the three Phoenix Wright DS games will arrive on WiiWare next year. January will see the four-chapter “Ace Attorney” for 1000 points, plus you have the option of getting the fifth AA chapter for another 100. “Justice for All” appears in March, and “Trials and Tribulations” is scheduled for May.

We’ve talked about this on the podcast once of twice, about Phoenix Wright being an odd little beast. A tad too trial-and-errory for me; a little too nonsensical for Haygood. But at $10, you could do a whole lot worse. Given that this series is much-loved on DS (and remember that the DS releases were ports of popular Japanese GBA originals), I’d say we’re getting a pretty ripe plum for WiiWare.

CAPCOM® UNVEILS CLASSIC ACE ATTORNEY® SERIES FOR WiiWareTM

The beloved Ace Attorney series featuring the most exciting courtroom dramas of the digital decade are headed to Nintendo’s popular download service in 2010

SAN MATEO, Calif. — November 18, 2009 — Capcom® Entertainment, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, today announced that three classic Ace Attorney® games are scheduled for digital release on Nintendo’s WiiWare next year beginning with the one that started it all, Phoenix Wright™: Ace Attorney® followed by Phoenix Wright™ Ace Attorney®: JUSTICE FOR ALL, and Phoenix Wright™ Ace Attorney®: TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS. Gamers can expect the deliberations to begin January 2010. These games will cost 1,000 Wii Points, $10.00 USD.

Ace Attorney’s massive popularity and appeal in Japan has caught on in the West and the franchise has now sold well over 3.7 million units worldwide. For the first time ever, this beloved handheld series is making an appearance on a home console, giving gamers access to three of the classic Ace Attorney adventures from the comfort of their own living rooms. Fans and newcomers alike will have a chance to star as the most popular defense attorney in videogames, Phoenix Wright – a man driven by principles and his ability to separate fact from dubious fiction. Each game in the series presents twisting storylines and intriguing gameplay with comical anime stylings. Players will collect evidence, weed through inconsistent testimonies and overcome corrupt agendas to ensure that justice prevails! Present evidence with the wave of the Wii remote or press suspicious testimonies by wiggling it. These games can be played via single-player and has multiple save slots.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Episode 1 through 4) is the first release hitting in January. The story kicks off with Phoenix Wright defending his childhood friend Larry Butz from a murder charge. But this is only the beginning drama for the tenacious legal eagle as Wright faces unexpected tragedies that will test the limits of his incredible deductive prowess. In May, owners of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney will be able to download the bonus episode that appeared in the original Nintendo DS™ version of the game. It will cost 100 Wii Points.

In March, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: JUSTICE FOR ALL arrives. Phoenix Wright has six months experience and five court victories under his belt. But none of that will do him any good against the ruthless new D.A. in town. Franziska von Karma wants revenge and she’s ready to take Phoenix down at any cost!

In May, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS arrives. Phoenix will face the toughest prosecutor yet as the mysterious hard-boiled “Godot” is gunning for him with extreme prejudice. Get ready for the most intense courtroom standoffs of Phoenix Wright’s career!

For more information, please visit http://press.capcom.com and http://capcom-unity.com

One was mentioned in the weekly Nintendo Download press release. If you buy the game and have synced your Club Nintendo account, you will get an email in about a week with a secret code. Nintendo has the details here. They don’t say exactly what the code unlocks, but there’s a picture of a Charizard. So I’m thinking Charizard. This offer expires next April.

Note that Nintendo’s info page at this writing still thinks Pokemon Rumble is only 1000 Wii Points. It’s actually 1500. I smell a last-minute price hike.

The second code can be found by watching this week’s edition of Nintendo Week via the Wii’s Nintendo Channel. Host Alison has a Rumble interview and the guest reveals the eight digit code that will net you a Blastoise. Following the trend here of Final Evolutions of Gen 1 Starters, I’m going to guess that a Venusaur will be made available through Nintendo Power or wherever.

Pokemon Rumble features the entire original cast of 150 Pokemon, but it seems plain that the hooks are there to add in the remaining 330+. It just remains to be seen how Nintendo will add those guys in and what it will cost.

Incidentally, the game is pretty much Li’l Diablo.

What do you buy the gamer who already has everything this Christmas? A Darth Vader Wiimote sensor bar holder, that’s what!

Sculpted from resin and holding a replica of his saber (snigger), Darth is set to hit the usual retailers soon for the reduced price of $39.99 (it originally retailed for a staggering $50, so be thankful for the drop). You can see it up close and personal after the jump.

So if you’ve been wondering what to get me this year, wonder no more. Never mind love and happiness and family – all I need now is this sensor bar holder and a full-sized Solid Snake statue and then my life will be complete.

[ Via Destructoid ]

Ultra-Realistic Modern Warfare Game Features Awaiting Orders, Repairing Trucks

Issue #248, December 2009
featuring New Super Mario Bros Wii, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (Wii), Infinite Space (DS)

Nintendo announced a flurry of new games at E3 09, but only one was slotted to be this year’s big holiday title… and that’s New Super Mario Bros Wii. Nintendo Power is quick to point out the game is no watered down party minigame collection. In fact, it’s more of a watered-up version of New Super Mario Bros on DS.

As the first console-based 2D Mario title in eighteen years, NSMBW owes everything to the NES/SNES generation. The screenshots show rolling hills, card-matching minigames, an overworld map, and the usual allotment of tubes, coins and blocks. NP stresses that the game is a fully capable single-player experience, just in case you thought the levels were best enjoyed with the 4-man multiplayer.

For those of you coming into the game from the like-minded DS game, note that NSMBW lets you keep a much larger pile of collected items like fire flowers and whatnot. However, you can no longer activate a stored item in the middle of the level; you have to use it on the map screen before a level begins.

Some nitty-gritty items: NSMBW supports both Remote alone and Remote+Nunchuk control schemes. The game seems to have inherited the tilting Remote mechanic used in Warioland: Shake It. This is the first 2D Mario game in widescreen, but NP doesn’t say what happens to those of you with old, crappy 4:3 TVs. Does it center-cut the image, or do you have to play it letterboxed? Just like in Smash Bros Brawl, the camera will zoom in and out depending on how tight the players are in the level.

The Koopa Kids return from the dead to play bosses in New Super Mario Bros Wii. All ugly seven of them. With their dorky American Instruction Manual 1990 celebrity names. There’s a good reason Nintendo has done very little with this team of sops in nearly twenty years. Bowser Jr is also in NSMBW and hopefully he kicks the Koopalings around.

Nintendo is still holding on to the previously revealed playable lineup of Mario, Luigi, Toad and Toad. And no, neither of the Toads are clad in the traditional red so the game can preserve easily identifiable colors for all the players. Mario and Luigi own red and green, so the Toads must come in blue and yellow flavors. I still say Nintendo is holding Playable Peach as a hidden ace, because how can a fan-service title like this ignore the Super Mario Bros 2 cast of Mario, Luigi, Toad and Peach? We’ll see if I’m right when the game is released next week.

Have you checked out Nintendo Week? This weekly miniature TV show starting showing up on the Wii’s Nintendo Channel in September. Clean-cut hosts Gary and Alison spend each episode going over the newest releases from all over Nintendo: Wii, DS, Virtual Console, etc.

Nintendo Power introduces the duo in this issue with a brief interview. Unfortunately, it’s not a stellar showing, as the mag basically asks the same question three times, resulting in the hosts having to say the same thing (”I’m a big [Nintendo] fan!”) three times. We do learn that Gary is currently deep into Scribblenauts and Professor Layton, while Alison likes Wii Sports and Donkey Kong Country.

I’ve caught a few of their shows and they are moderately watchable. They are far too scripted and overwritten for adult tastes (they have an odd predilection for calling the DS “the Nintendo DS System”), but kids should enjoy it. They remind me of the first wave of dopey video game shows that landed on TV when I was a kid during the NES era. Of course, I think that supposedly mature shows like X-Play are far too scripted and overwritten as well. But at least with Nintendo Week you know you’re not going to get clumsy sex jokes before each commercial break.

Nintendo might actually try to leverage Nintendo Week once in a while. The episode for the week of October 26 contained the exclusive reveal of the new WiiWare title Excitebike: World Tour.

NP’s Ultimate Zelda list manages to rank thirteen Zelda games, as well as award categories like Best Weapon and Best Overworld. Here’s their order:

• #13. Zelda II (NES, 1988)
• #12 Four Swords Adventures (GameCube, 2004)
• #11 Majora’s Mask (N64, 2000)
• #10/9 Oracle of Ages/Seasons (Game Boy, 2001)
• #8 Minish Cap (GBA, 2004)
• #7 Phantom Hourglass (DS, 2007)
• #6 Wind Waker (GameCube, 2003)
• #5 Link’s Awakening (Game Boy, 1993)
• #4 Twilight Princess (Wii, 2006)
• #3 Legend of Zelda (NES, 1987)
• #2 A Link to the Past (SNES, 1992)
• #1 Ocarina of Time (N64, 1998)

Having played only eight of those, I’m hardly in a position to rank… but I’d put Wind Waker as number one.

These (NO NAME GIVEN) credits have got to stop.

I don’t know where or how Nintendo Power solicits some of their reader mail. Every issue devotes a page to multiple readers’ responses to one specific question. This issue, it’s “Which game world do you find the most compelling?” They must collect responses through a poorly-defined form on their website, because more and more NP seems obliged to publish quotes from people who do not leave their names. Not even their fakey internet names. Which leads to not-entirely-convincing missives like this one:

I suppose it is entirely possible that one fan thinks Wuhu Island from Wii Sports Resort satisfies some mad definition of the word “compelling.” But signing it with a (NO NAME GIVEN) makes me think the writer was ashamed of his pick. Just seems to unintentionally undermine the whole thing.

Download Staff Picks: Contra Rebirth (WiiWare), Tales of Monkey Island 2 (WiiWare), Phantasy Star (Sega Master System), Puzzle League Express (DSiWare)

Top scoring Wii review: Three Wii games at 7.5 this month… WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010, Astro Boy: The Video Game, and Harvest Moon: Animal Parade. (all scores out of 10)
Top scoring DS review: An unbelievable six DS games ranked 8.0… Phantasy Star 0, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island, Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans, Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter, and Space Invaders Extreme 2. No more complaining about low-quality DS games, okay?
Lowest rated Wii review: SimAnimals Africa, 5.0
Lowest rated DS review: Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, 4.0

Other notable review scores this issue include DDR: Hottest Party 3 (Wii, 6.5), Nostalgia (DS, 7.0), Academy of Champions: Soccer (Wii, 6.5), Cooking Mama 3 (DS, 6.0), TMNT: Arcade Attack (DS, 4.5) and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (Wii, 5.5).

Frank busts a move. – You may have heard that the US release of Wii-exclusive Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars will feature Frank West of Dead Rising, but did you know that he can wear a Mega Buster-toting Mega Man outfit in the game?

Follow the money. – Infinite Space became a DS game because director Hifumi Kouno thought his budget was not large enough for a console release. Reasonable fellow, that Hifumi.

Don’t forget your Arceus! – Polish off your legitimately collected Pokedex in Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum with a visit to Toys R Us during the week of November 7 to 15. You’ll be downloading the last pokemon of this generation, Arceus.

The DSi-specific carts are coming. – Foto Fighter, one of a half-dozen games that I have seen claim to be “the first game made specifically for the Nintendo DSi,” lets you take pictures of household objects to spawn battling monsters. Sounds cooler than it actually is… NP makes it sound like the game is only really looking for basic shapes and colors in your pictures, and the resultant poke-ripoffs look nothing like your source photo.

And this isn’t even Sonic’s first racing game. – Sonic may have been a Brawler and an Olympic champion, but he’s not joining every Mario family game just yet. Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing will feature over twenty Sega characters in their own kart racer.

But he wanted to be an interior designer. – Composer Akira Yamaoka went from the music director for the first Silent Hillto the franchise’s producer for Silent Hill 3 and 4. For the upcoming Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, he’s back to being just the composer.

Next month in Nintendo Power… with the big first-party Wii game out of the way, NP turns to the season’s big DS game, Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Plus, celebrate as the DS turns five!

November 3
Academy of Champions Soccer – Ubisoft’s arcade soccer + Hogwarts game is finally out. This one made an initial splash for including characters from Ubisoft’s stable like Jade and Mr. Splinter Cell.

LEGO Rock Band – The multiplatform family-focused Rock Band title arrives. I still think it’s odd that the setlist isn’t true kids music from established kids bands, because what you are getting really isn’t appreciably different from a regular Rock Band setlist. 2009 seems to be the year that Harmonix finally squanders all that goodwill they’ve built up since the initial RB release. And speaking of that, Band Hero is also out this week. Both are also on DS.

Rabbids Go Home – The evolution of the Rabbids into a genuine gaming brand is complete as they get their first non-garbage-minigames game. Actually sounds pretty funny, if you can stomach the oh-so-zany Rabbid marketing. (Also on DS)

November 9
Excitebike: World Rally – Nintendo stealth-announced this new WiiWare title on the October 26th Nintendo Week show. Looks like a fair redux of the NES original, with some very familiar track layouts just at a new 3D camera angle. And it still has a level editor!

November 10
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex – Just in time for Modern Warfare 2’s release, an adaptation of the original hits the Wii. Apparently the game does not support the Wii Speak microphone, so we should have none of those problems. (Also on DS, sort of, as Modern Warfare Mobilized.)

November 15
New Super Mario Bros Wii – Nintendo’s big first-party release of the fall. I’ve been wavering on this one for quite some time, but I think I’m going to officially pass. It has the Koopa Kids in it, and I hate the Koopa Kids.

November 17
EA Sports Active – More Workouts – I think that subtitle probably explains it all.

LEGO Indiana Jones 2 – Another multiplat release. The ship has sailed on Indy Jones; did enough people really want this sequel? (Also on DS)

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles – We didn’t seem to land a single decent horror game in time for Halloween, did we? They’ve all been pushed to invade other holidays.

Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! – The Scene It brand escapes 360 exclusivity with two Wii releases; there’s this one and a Twilight-focused edition arriving Nov 24.

November is expected to see Part 5 of Tales of Monkey Island arrive on WiiWare, as well as the tower defender Robocalypse: Beaver Defense.

Now, on the DS:

November 3
C.O.P.: The Recruit – Watch out Chinatown Wars! C.O.P. is trying to out-GTA you with a true 3D world.

Style Savvy – A curious first-party release, Style Savvy has you running a clothing boutique eager to satisfy incoming clients. The human models in the game are extraordinarily creepy: normal-proportioned figures with oversized anime heads. Something about the look makes me think more blow-up doll and less anime design. Every time I see this game in action I think “Well, that’s somebody’s fetish.”

November 10
Phantasy Star 0 – Sega’s RPG hits the DS. This is the one with the in-game chat feature where you can draw your conversations to each other.

November 17
Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery – Nintendo Power mentioned that this one was sort of a surprise. Which kind of fits, don’t you think?

In other news, you can keep the Halloween train rollin’ with “Aha! I Got It!” Escape Game, which tells the horrifying tale of a father who locks his son in a room and forces him to find a way out. 500 points gets you this WiiWare torture porn simulator. Wait… it’s not supposed to sound scary?

The only first party offering is Sparkle Snapshots, a 500-point DSiWare app that enhances the built-in camera tools.

You’ll also find the Sega Master System version of R-Type, some intriguing DSi games about vikings and giants, and another pair of needless WiiWare releases involving carnivals and card games. All neatly available for your perusal after the jump.

Nintendo Download

THIS WEEK’S DOWNLOADABLE LINEUP TRULY SPARKLES

Why just take photos with your Nintendo DSi™ system when you can have access to a virtual photo booth? Sparkle Snapshots™, a new Nintendo DSiWare™ application, lets you customize pictures with fun extras like fancy frames and stamps. On the other hand, if you’re more of a fan of Nordic pillaging and/or dragons, you’re going to want to check out this week’s Nintendo DSiWare offerings of both Viking Invasion and Battle of Giants: Dragons – Bronze Edition.

Three fun WiiWare™ games are added to the ever-growing library, including Carnival King, which turns your TV into a carnival midway. And the Virtual Console™ delivers its usual quality classics, including Fighting Street®, a port of the original arcade version of STREET FIGHTER.

Virtual Console

Fighting Street
Original platform: TurboGrafx16 CD-ROM
Publisher: Capcom
Players: 1-2
ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older) – Mild Blood, Violence
Price: 800 Wii Points
Description: A port of the arcade version of STREET FIGHTER, the legendary fighting game that started it all. Players control RYU or KEN and battle against unique fighters from all over the world. The first fighter to knock out an opponent and win two rounds is the winner. Power up your attack to three different levels – the longer you hold a button, the stronger your attack. Input commands to perform special attacks and deal serious damage to your opponent. Combine your normal and special attacks effectively to fight your way to victory.

R-TYPE™
Original platform: SEGA Master System
Publisher: SEGA
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Fantasy Violence
Price: 500 Wii Points
Description: R-TYPE is a classic, side-scrolling arcade shoot-’em-up that was developed by Irem in 1987. It’s the 22nd century, and you are humanity’s last hope against the evil Bydo Empire. Your ship is called the R-9a “Arrowhead” and comes with a standard gun, but power-ups and upgrades are available in each mission. Navigate through eight challenging levels that will test even the best gamer’s reflexes. The SEGA Master System version features an exclusive secret level not found in any other release.

WiiWare

Carnival King
Publisher: Incredible Technologies
Players: 1-2
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Cartoon Violence
Price: 700 Wii Points™
Description: Carnival King is a fun-for-all-ages video game that brings the spirit and energy of competitive carnival games to the screen. Players compete for top scores and prizes while visiting three different amusement parks: Arcadia, Dreamland and Lagoon Park. Each park has four sets of games and a Bonus Round to test players’ speed and accuracy. For novices or sharpshooters, the games are continually challenging, and the difficulty level can be adjusted to match each player’s growing confidence.

“Aha! I Got It!” Escape Game
Publisher: Ateam Inc.
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 500 Wii Points
Description: Play alone or with family and friends to solve this puzzling adventure game. Today is Milo’s birthday, and he just got an amazing present from his dad: a room full of puzzles. Milo needs to solve all the puzzles to escape from the room. Shake, push and twist the Wii Remote™ controller to collect and use in-game items. There’s plenty to solve – see if you have what it takes to figure it all out.

Family Card Games
Publisher: Aksys Games
Players: 1-2
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Suggestive Themes
Price: 500 Wii Points
Description: Daddy, Mommy, Sarah and Billy are back for some good ol’ card game action. Try your hand at one of three card games: Daifugo, Speed or Memory. Family Card Games offers appealing cel-shaded graphics, endearing music and friendly, competitive match-ups. You can play one-player Daifugo or play against up to three other random players in an online match. You can also view your ranking and see how you match up with players around the world. Test your reflexes against another player in Speed and see who truly has the fastest hands. Memory will test your mental capacity as you try to remember where cards and their respective matches are.

Nintendo DSiWare

Sparkle Snapshots
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points™
Description: Take photos and embellish them to your heart’s desire with Sparkle Snapshots. Choose from a large variety of fancy frames, backgrounds, stamps and funny outfits to decorate your photos, or use the powerful paint program functions to manipulate them in detail. Want to take a new photo and add it to your collection? Adjust the lighting conditions and lens type to match your subject and even use a shutter timer to allow yourself some extra time to get everything perfectly in place. Save your favorite snapshots in your Nintendo DSi Camera album and use Nintendo DS wireless communications to send your masterpieces to your friends. It’s all the fun of a photo booth – and more – in the palms of your hands.

Viking Invasion
Publisher: BiP Media
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Fantasy Violence
Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: They come from the North, and they’re about to invade your Nintendo DSi system. Beware of Olaf the Viking and his motley crew. Even now, their drakkars are sailing up the rivers to attack your castles. It’s up to you to construct fortifications to prevent them from pillaging everything you own. The more you defend yourself, the more ferocious they’ll become. Before you know it, they’ll be invoking legions of fantastic creatures straight out of the mythical land of Asgard. Fortunately, the experience you gain will help you to build even more powerful defenses. Thwart all your assailants’ ruses and unlock new kinds of buildings: tornado-blowing windmills to repel the ships, monoliths that strengthen your fortifications or canons that shoot studded shells. Discover more than 10 levels, tons of units, a Campaign mode, a Survival mode and three difficulty levels. There’s even a little surprise at the end. Can you rise to the challenge and stop Olaf from taking your treasure home to his sweetheart Olga?

Battle of Giants: Dragons – Bronze Edition
Publisher: Ubisoft
Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older) – Mild Fantasy Violence
Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: As last of the noble and rare Bronze Dragons, you must defeat the evil SALMU dragons and reclaim the 25 exclusive bronze gems they stole. Explore 10 maps and travel through the great jungles of Earth, the scorched grounds of Fire, the frozen wastelands of Ice and the floating islands of Wind. Customize your dragon’s appearance by changing its body, wings, tail shape and colors – even add stripes. Test your dragon’s fighting skills against your friends in head-to-head combat or four-player tournaments.

Nintendo adds new titles to the Nintendo DSi™ Shop and the Wii™ Shop Channel at 9 a.m. Pacific time on Mondays. Users with broadband Internet access can redeem Wii Points or Nintendo DSi Points to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel. Nintendo DSi Points can be purchased in the Nintendo DSi Shop. A Nintendo Points Card™ can be purchased at retail locations. All points from one Nintendo Points Card must be redeemed in either the Nintendo DSi Shop or the Wii Shop Channel. They are not transferable and cannot be divided between the two systems.

Remember that both Wii and Nintendo DSi feature parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other features, visit www.Wii.com or www.NintendoDSi.com.

Does the box art stand out on the Wii racks filled with Game Party and flash puzzle ports and no-name platformers?

Is there enough residual brand awareness to draw in those who would have played this franchise twenty years ago on NES and Game Boy?

Does the 2D style look classy and polished, or does it come off as a budget title?

Is the game BIG enough?

A Boy and His Blob begins very simply. There’s a short cutscene, and the Boy wakes up in his coolass treehouse. The first mission is to go find Blob, and from there you head into a hub-based level structure (still the treehouse) where you essentially choose each level one at a time.

If you remember the formula of the original games, you’ll be right at home. You still toss jellybeans to determine the type and location of the Blob’s transformation. You need to utilize Blob’s various forms to get to the end of each linear, 2D platformer level. It’s classic lock-and-key stuff. Each board has three hidden treasures to collect and if you find all three you get a bonus level… finishing each bonus level reveals some production artwork unlockables.

It’s cute. It’s simple. There’s a Hug button. But here’s my First Thirty concerns:

- Complete lack of instruction. I get that the game avoids any kind of HUD interface for a clean look, and I applaud that. But you’d think the first level would at least tell you how to choose a jellybean and throw it. That’s not “encouraging exploration,” that’s just plain unfriendly.

- The jellybean wheel. You have to hold down a button and rotate the analog stick around a circular menu to select your jellybean. This sucks. Especially in the early levels where you only have three types of beans to choose from, it just seems like it would be more efficient and quicker to use the -/+ buttons to cycle through the options. Additionally, managing the analog stick on that menu is needlessly difficult for younger players.

- The puns are gone. “Tangerine trampoline” and the like. These seem to exist solely in the manual, not the game. On the bean wheel, you just see a bean’s color and a picture of the Blob transformation.

- Bite-size gameplay. Maybe I’ve got this wrong, but when I played Rescue of Princess Blobbette on Game Boy, I remember it being all one big world to explore. Not a hundred mini-levels. This makes the game feel small and lacking. I don’t feel like I’m on an epic quest, I feel like I’m playing an iPhone game. Maybe later levels will get larger and become more connected to the level before.

- The 2D design. Those still screenshots looked great, didn’t they? …The game doesn’t look that great in motion. The watercolor art design is nice, but most of the levels are flat, unanimated boards. The game will drop in tiny hopping frogs, and you see the occasional waving palm frond… but most of the actual level is completely still and lifeless. Which makes the thorough character animation of the Boy and the Blob seem out of place. Both Warioland: Shake It and the 360’s Braid did 2D better.

- No GameCube controller support. I know I can’t keep bawling for Cube controllers forever, but if a game supports the Classic Controller (as Blob does), you’d think they could include a GameCube option. I’d much rather use a d-pad for this kind of gameplay. Sometimes it’s touchy to go up a ladder with the analog stick.

- Being limited to certain types of jellybeans per level sucks. Outright sucks. Not only is it frustrating – what do you mean I can’t use a ladder on this board? – but it makes no narrative sense. Why would the Boy suddenly forget one flavor of jellybean? It’s a very arbitrary, video game-y stunt to add difficulty. Although it is a boon to no longer “run out” of jellybeans as you could in the older games.

On the plus side, I’m sure there are gamers that are in the market for a low-impact adventure puzzle game like this one. The characters and enemies are nicely animated, and the puzzle-platforming seems solid. You’ll definitely be able to spend a lot of time picking through the solutions, which rely on ever-more-complicated arrangements of Blob modes. The first boss was cool, so I expect more of that to come.

A Boy and His Blob retails for only $40, which may ameliorate some of the concerns. I get the impression that there’s a lot of gameplay here (a hundred puzzley, blobby levels), but it’s not exactly inspiring me to devote a lot of time to it right now.

We also took the time to sit discuss some of the recent hulabaloo on the web surrounding the complaints over the recent scores that Uncharted 2 has received from some media outlets.  Yes, you read that right, people have been complaining about 9.3, 9.4 and 4.5 out of 5 scores.  We just found it interesting that a game that has reviewed so well, is still getting complaints over the review scores being so low.

The podcast music is provided by Revolution Void and they can be found at www.revolutionvoid.com.  The podcast is mixed as always by our favorite DJ, Stephen “stop clearing your throat already, Joe” Munn.

Download the podcast from here or subscribe to the podcast using one of the services below: Also make sure to review us on iTunes.