Japanese gaming bible Famitsu has awarded the highly anticipated Pokémon Black & White a perfect 40/40 score.

The gaming publication has only awarded fourteen games perfect scores since it was establishment back in 1986. The magazine praised Pokémon Black & White stating that it completely revolutionised the franchise.

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I was really excited when I heard about Professor Layton. Being a fan of brainteasers and puzzles, I knew this would be a series for me.

The expansive amount of puzzles, as well as characters make this game just perfect. The story takes twists and turns, and even boasts some unlockable puzzles. On top of all this, there’s still more to this game. You can collect painting scraps, pieces of furniture, and pieces of a “machine”, all of which unlock even more puzzles. Furthermore, there’s a secret door which is unlocked with a password set using Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box with your specific DS system.

Some of the more recognizable aspects of the game were the voice acting and cutscenes. Voice acting adds so much more to a game, and it’s a shame we don’t see it more in DS games. As for the cutscenes, they were well animated and the art style was good, but the transition to a playable format for DS lowered the quality a bit both visually and audibly.

Some of the puzzles really step up the difficulty. If you’re not up to challenges, or have a short temper, this may get a bit annoying. The puzzles vary quite a bit too. Some puzzles focus heavily on logical reasoning, whereas others are based on the simplicity of wording.

If you’re a fan of puzzles and brainteasers, this is an absolute must.

8.5/10

~Mario64Mario

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

The highly anticipated Golden Sun: Dark Dawn for the Nintendo DS has been given a November 29th release date by Nintendo of America.

The mystical events in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn take place thirty years after the critically acclaimed Golden Sun which made its début on the Gameboy Advance.

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Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded producers Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshinori Kitasei have announced via Twitter that Kingdom Hearts Re:coded will be making a special appearance at this years Tokyo Gameshow.

The developer says that the game is so highly praised internally that people refer to it as a “god game” (this is Japanese gamer slang for a game that’s really, really good).”

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Demand for the forthcoming Pokemon: Black & White appears to be reaching fever pitch with the title breaking the one million pre-orders barrier in Japan.

It’s not even out yet, but it’s already reached platinum status in terms of pre-orders. According to the Pokemon Co. Black & White pre-orders in Japan have already reached 1.08 million units as of August 22nd. Pre-orders started on July 31.

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The Nintendo DS continues to remain a dominant figure in the Japanese hardware charts with the handheld continually outselling its rivals by a fair share, even though its successor is expected to launch later this year.

Nintendo DS: 57,582

Sony PSP: 36,342

PlayStation 3: 33,057

Nintendo Wii: 25,072

Xbox 360: 5,065

PlayStation 2: 1,675

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Yuji Naka, the former head of the Sonic Team and creator of the original Sonic, has announced that his latest 2D platformer Ivy The Kiwi? will be released on both Wii and DS on August 24th.

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It’s been revealed that the latest Pokemon game for the Nintendo DS, Pokemon Black & White, will only feature new Pokemon throughout the games main quest.

Players will encounter familiar Pokemon, but only once they’ve completed the game. This design choice was created to enable players to be ‘on the same starting line.’

The reason for this design choice, says GameFreak’s Junichi Masuda, is because they want to put kids and adults on the same starting line and give all players the feeling of “What is this Pokemon?”, similar to what they might have experienced when playing the original of all Pokemon games, Pokemon Red & Blue.

Game tester comments:

• “It’s like playing something completely new, similar to when I played Red & Green”
• “You don’t even know the type of the Pokemon, so you’re surprised at the skills”
• “There are only Pokemon that you’ve never seen, so it’s fresh and new”

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Sonic games of recent times have unfortunately never had the same amount of critical praise lavished upon them as Sonic games of the 16 bit era. Takashi Iizuka from the Sonic Team attempts to explain why.

How do you feel when you read old-school Sonic fans slagging off the Sonic franchise and what it’s become?

Takashi Iizuka: The fundamentals of both games, the 3D Sonic or the 2D side-scrolling games, are the same. Sonic is all about the speed and the platforming. It just comes down to how the gameplay differs when you’re playing in 3D and 2D side-scrolling.

I understand there are differences in the ways users interpret the 3D side than the fans who particularly like the 2D classic side of the game.

This is why we’re releasing two different types of Sonic games this year – to please the 2D classic fans who have been playing from the Genesis [Mega Drive]. Sonic 4 is more for those fans.

There are also fans who like the 3D Sonic games which have been released in the past couple of years. Sonic Colours is probably more for the users who appreciate the 3D side of Sonic.

But how do the negative comments make you feel? Do you ignore them?

Takashi Iizuka: It’s more that those fans are not positive towards the recent 3D Sonic games because we’ve been releasing only 3D Sonic games in the past couple of years.

It’s hard to please both 2D and 3D fans at the same time, in the same title for instance.

This is why the team decided to release two different types of Sonic games. It’s always hard to dodge every negative perception or make everybody happy with just one title. So we’re giving two options to the users.

- Takashi Iizuka, Sonic Team

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The Nintendo DS continues to be Japan’s favourite gaming system with the dual-screen handheld topping this weeks Japanese hardware charts by a sizeable chunk.

PSP – 28,747

Nintendo DSi LL – 24,189

Wii – 21,092

PlayStation 3 – 19,420

Nintendo DSi – 18,202

Xbox 360 – 6,056

Nintendo DS Lite – 5,059

PlayStation 2 – 1,475

PSP Go – 831

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