We combed through Nintendo’s game store for their handheld and found the best titles for your buck. We’re also taking a look at your picks for the best strategy games of all time.
RADAR: Top 5 DSiWare Games
Glow Artisan – Puzzle, Powerhead Games, 500 points – LINK
Art Style: Precipice – Platformer, Nintendo, 500 points – LINK
Escapee GO! – Stealth Action, Gevo Entertainment, 200 points – LINK
Flipper – Puzzle Platformer, Xform, 500 points – LINK
Mighty Flip Champs – Arcade, Wayforward, 800pts – LINK
Free Indie Countdown
#3: Rocket Ninja CyborgLINK
Suggested by Scattle
#2: Cream Wolf – Flash, Arcade, Messhof/Pixeljam -LINK
Suggested by Harrison
#1: Pax Britannica – PC, RTS, No Fun Games – LINK
Feedback: Best Strategy Games Ever
Last week we asked you to throw down your opinion on the best strategy games ever, and we got some surprising answers.
Next week’s Feedback question: What’s the best game franchise ever? Weigh in with a video or audio comment on www.Bytejacker.com, a video response on YouTube, or a message on our hotline: (530) 675-GAME
Free Indie Rapid Fire
Devil’s Tuning Fork – Windows, First Person Platformer, DePaul Game Elites – LINK
Dreamside Maroon – Windows, Some Vine-Growing Thing, Terraced – LINK
Puddle – Windows, Platformer, Puddle Team – LINK
This Week’s Music:
All music this week is from the II Music Compilation “Magnetic Sumo.” Download it for free here: http://www.iimusic.net/catalog/2010/02/compilation-magnetic-sumo
Stalking People is Fun!
Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bytejacker Become a fan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bytejacker
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No love for mac in free indie rapid fire this week? You get a text comment just for that.
Aw snap.
VirtualBox + TinyXP
Boot Camp, suckah. That’s how we do over here.
I warned everyone about this over Twitter a couple days ago. YOU WERE ALL WARNED.
you don’t need an xbox controller, you can use left and rigth arrow-keys. :D
you don’t need an xbox controller, you can use left and rigth arrow-keys :D
But the controller is AWEEEEEEEESOOOOMMME.
Psh, no. XBox controller sucks. It’s only got 4 buttons on the face, man? What happens when you’re playing your Sega Genesis emulator, or Street Fighter 2 on Mame? Or a Sega Saturn emulator? Or even a N64 emulator? You can pull of an N64 emulator with a control pad. All it takes is 6 buttons on the face. Can’t do that with a XBox controller.
That’s why I use a Saitek p2900. Tho their hard to find if you’re used to doing your shopping at brick and mortar stores I highly recommend them. Plus they come with a joytokey sort of program that works great so you can use them to play literally any game ever.
Yeah, but here’s the thing:
1) I’ve got 360 controllers already. Buy a $30 dongle off of eBay and BOOM, they are all PC controllers
2) All these XNA-developed games tend to include support for them right out of the box, so you know it’s going to work perfectly with the controller you have, without any calibration, changing settings, etc.
3) “Has more buttons” is never a good argument, sir. You know that.
The point is not that it “Has more buttons”, the point is that it “Has the buttons I need to do what I want.” XBox controller does not.
oh my, i used Saitek controller to beat Ocarina on N64 emulator
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I’m just guessing here, but you look like a metroid fan.
HEY MAN THAT SWORD AND THAT SHIELD LOOK REALLY COOL ARE THEY FROM LORD OF THE RINGS?
SLEEP INTO MORDOR LOL
i know, mario?
no! battletoads! right?
my favorite game series are the legend of zelda and all megaman and by the way when i try to sign up it wont let me
Best Games Series Ever: Megaman
Not Megaman X, not Megaman ZX, not megaman NetBattles, Not Megaman-rpg-thingy-game
Just old school, pixelated, cheap and loved MegaMan
YOU, sir.
Excellently stated.
My feedback response. Surprising or not? I have seven games of this series, which is pretty much all of the major releases for the Gameboy, Gameboy Advanced and Nintendo DS. I have played this series for over ten years and the rest of the games I have come in series of threes and no more. Can you blame me? Click play to find out my somewhat embarrassing answer:
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BTW I could have said Zelda. I love love love that series. That’s another cradle to the grave series. I’ll be buying Zelda games till they either stop getting made or I die, but I had this answer because I can’t really say no.
I want to say Zelda too, but it just sounds so cliche. Ah screw it. My love for those games overpowers my dislike of being unoriginal.
I’m not even into Pokemon anymore and I think I’ve owned like 12 games over my lifetime, haven’t even touched any DS ones. Surprised you only have 7.
I found my Red, Blue, and Yellow in my closet the other day. Made me smile.
I had trouble getting the account created and activated so that I could leave a video comment. How the heck do I do that? I do have a Youtube account, I’ll leave a comment there regarding my Favorite video/computer game series! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TlkIffGB4s
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Great episode as usual, and I definitely look forward to playing the games this week. I WILL leave a comment on them. Been slacking off lately.
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I made a feedback response, but I also had way too much fun with this and er edited a random lip sync to your theme song at the beginning of it. You can use it if you want or not, lol. I don’t mind.
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This comment is full of epic win!
You would say that, you editor.
Are you a YouTube vlogger?
..
You get more views than us, don’t you?
@Anthony
I am indeed a YouTube vlogger, but I most certainly do not get more views than you. :P
I’m working on a show for YouTube though, it premiers on Sunday :)
Dude! Welcome to the commenting section of Bytejacker. I agree with Jon. Your video comment is full of epic. Keep it coming!
Anthony, your complaining about like 3 inches of snow.
I’m out here in VA where we got 2 feet then, 3 weeks later, another 2 feet.
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If you’ve already posted a video comment above, this may be for you.
The rest will have to wait. Gotta go to work.
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Wherein I respond to the show in general and answer this weeks question… to my shame.
I’m gonna record my video in a second, and it’ll surprise you. It’s a series with 5 games (and a spin-off) that has a huge cult following, but is about as far from the mainstream as possible.
I was just starting to wonder why no one has said Mario yet.
I gotta say, I agree with you about Mario though. Epic. You could probably lob Super Smash Brothers in there too. I never really thought of Mario Kart, Mario Party and any Mario sports game as a part of the Mario Series. So, you make a really good point there. That’s awesome. Considering that, I have Donkey Kong and Super Mario Land for the Gameboy, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Super Smash Brothers, Luigi’s Mansion, Super Smash Brothers Melee, Super Mario Sunshine, Mario Kart Double Dash, Super Mario 64 for the DS, Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Super Mario Galaxy. That’s 12 games that are related to Mario. 5 More games than I own for Pokemon. This may impact my decision this week.
Arrrrrgh. Something is wrong with the video comment system. I keep getting “Security token missing”. Anybody have any ideas?
Figured it out… I use Google Chrome…
Ooh. I’ll pass that along to Viddler. Thanks!
I use google chrome too and it works fine for me. If you are running Chrome on a Mac make sure you have the latest beta version. Much more fleshed out. That solved all my problems and gave me the initiative to make it my default.
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Puddle for Free indies, And lucasarts advertures = Win!!
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and my fave moment from the Monkey Island series EVER…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AawQvD8L_h4
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nice to see a fellow fan of mister thriftweed :P… BTW I’m gonna be working in the middle of the north sea for the next week or so, so I might not be able to get a comment in. Where’s ian when you need him? :P
my personal favorite Monkey island scene.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cLmFEfcenA&feature=related
ah, brilliant. Murray’s awesome, it’s a shame he wasn’t in the first 2 :D
Sorry but changing my answer after Joe’s comment.
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Good luck finding official game footage of this series, Joe…
God, damn…. Viddler hates my face. Every time I upload a video, it always pics the weirdest face for the still shot… I suppose it’s because I’m an expressive person, but still. Do I have to look like a Special every week, Viddler?
If you don’t believe me, just go back over the last couple of weeks and look.
/sigh
Like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VNegqEvUtg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wy0_S5n4No
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPDC6OxML8k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hTiMOIGQis
Bet if I actually tried I could find some footage of it that was actually good, but it’s not that obscure.
I was actually playing this game back when I worked at Wal-Mart (a low point in my life) because they were selling it there. I don’t know if it’d call it obscure. Maybe less popular, sure, and it’s a good game I’ll give you that. Good series.
I had meant to type Jon, not Joe. Brain fart. Though I suppose that if you found them that easily, Jon would, too.
I sometimes forget how BIG youtube is. Kinda scary.
IT’s Monday, and I’m stalking the UPS guy waiting for mah PC parts. I’m actually fighting with my cat for the window seat…
WHAT!? no Earth Worm Jim fans here!?
so disappointed. the worm was the coolest hero of my childhood. i’m a big fan even of the 3D horror thing.
Ooh, good one fuxter. Video comment that, I want to see that in the show.
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dude, you forgot code veronica!
Please tell me you got the chance to play that one.
OMG of course! That was brilliant as well, how could I have forgotten that one. I’m telling you man, great series!
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I may cause physical harm to those involved in the creation of this program if MegaMan is not mentioned on the next episode. Just sayin’.
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(I have a video comment planned, but probably can’t get to it this weekend)
Comment fubar while trying to edit.
Speaking of MegaMan, here’s me fighting every MM2 boss…at the same time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2CeZKP1f4Y
*goes back to MM10*
You did that video? That video was epic.
Someday I hope to be able to do it without the E-Tank.
Someday…
…is today!
You’re my lucky charm Joe. Found myself an awesome new strategy and kicked some ass today!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk4_RmkYG8E
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Free indie pick of the week: Devils Tuning Fork < Puddle < Dreamside Maroon.
Unfinished Swan is apparently being developed into a full game now so the tech demo called "whitewash" has been removed, but you can still watch a video of it here:
http://giantsparrow.com/games/swan/
P.S.
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Ranty McGrumblebottoms, I know.
Aha, a Doctor Who reference. Nice. A friend of mine introduced me to that series last summer. Honestly, I really wanna get more plugged in. I had to google it, but all I had to see were images to know what show it was from.
Doctor who indeed \m/ i would have loved ecclestone to stay on for at least one more series. although i was sad to see tennent go. Bring on Matt smith!! Btw i only saw “the omen” a week ago and aside from learning how George W Bush came into existance (satire) i saw that patrick troughton plays one of the key characters in that film. :D
There’s a saying among Doctor Who fans that goes: You never forget your first Doctor.
My first Doctor was Tom Baker. He of the scarf. He will always be my favorite Doctor. Thanks for all the fuzzy memories, Joe.
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I swear I’ll get the picks of the week in.
I AM A MAN OF MY WORD!
THANK YOU GOOD SIR
Next week we replace Free Indie Rapid Fire with Cheap Corporate Buster Shot and just have the games be MegaMan 2, MegaMan 9, and MegaMan 10…
Oh classic. Should have a whole sell out episode. I mean I know you kinda did that a while back when you joined Rev 3 but in the end nothing really changed. Hmm… April’s coming up. At this point it’d only be a trick on those who don’t keep up on the comments, but it’d still be drop dead funny.
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I never plan to quit this!
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I really need to fix my mic though…
Someday, when i’m underpaid…
Three keys for Puddle, Left arrow, Right arrow, and Enter… :P that’ll show anthony and his fancy schancy console controller (that I can’t use)
BTW I really do like the castlevania series, I did manage to get super castlevania to work on my DS using the R4 cart, but it hangs after a certain level…(BOOOO)
But I LOVE dawn of sorrow, quite possible one of the best platformers I’ve played in recent times. And if you finihs it a certain way, you can play as one of the belmonts :D
And here’s hoping your friend there (didn’t catch her name) contributes herself, lets have a bit more female contribution here :P
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Puddle + Iphone= match made in heaven
dude. you’ve got some entertaining & hilarious interaction going with your friend there. I could watch you guys all afternoon. you should get your own podcast going
Not a bad idea, a web show with you two, just be sure to get her her own mic. If nothing else maybe we’ve got a new video commenter. Get her a webcam when she goes back to Virginia.
Cameron you little Mac Daddy, you didn’t tell us you were picking up a lady friend from the airport.
Lady FRIEND is correct!
But I’m gonna try and force her to comment with me on skype. And by try, I mean, going to.
Favorite series of all time hmmm. TO me personally it is a very hard question because there are a lot of series’ where there were two games I just was crazy about (Zelda, Sonic, Blood – yeah I love blood 2), but the series of more than two games… ok it seems C&C is the winner for me, but would it be fair to but both Tiberian line and Red Alert into one? Well even if it wouldn’t this one is my choice. OH WAIT I AM TAKING IT BACK, coz I watched Maki Alger comment when I was typing and drinking tea and boom – Half Life, YES, “blue shift”, then the very first one, then the new one… hmm ok HL is the best, sorry C&C (still my favorite strategy game).
PS: I just love to hear Anthony coming up with some offence towards text comments every single time, it is one of those things I wait every episode. I think I will be posting videos hmm in 3 years time or so. But who knows.
HERE IS WHY VIDEO COMMENTS ARE EVIL: Let’s say a year ago or so when Bytejacker was a little girl with small tits, well anyway, it would only take you few minutes to scroll through comments, now I am watching videos and it takes me almost an hour, and at least two cups of tea…
You culd just RSS the comments and keep on top of them as they roll in.
And bytejacker has always had video comments from the beginning… I thought. Maybe there weren’t as many video commenters… I could go check tho. I think I netered the scene on line #4… better go research that tho.
It’s almost hard to remember the days back before video comments. The show was still great, but the interactive element just wasn’t there. Our very first video comment was in “Power Up! #3: X-Box Live Community Games” from LogiBear.
http://www.bytejacker.com/episodes/p003
We started implementing the voting system back in episode 14 by starting the voicemail number.
http://www.bytejacker.com/episodes/014
We also started making the show twice a week back then but it didn’t last too long before we realized it was better to keep it as one long episode.
Our first feedback question was “What’s your favorite video game weapon?” waaaay back in episode 26
http://www.bytejacker.com/episodes/026
The rest is history!
I love going back and seeing how much we’ve grown as a show and a community over the past year and a half. I can’t wait to raise the bar further.
Thanks for sticking with us all this time.
Yup, I was way off.
Now what was the first episode where you worked seesmic into the comments of the show?
First episode where I left a comment was #8: http://www.bytejacker.com/episodes/008
And my voice was first used on episode 19: http://www.bytejacker.com/episodes/019-space-invaders-get-even which was incidently the first time I’d even tried leaving an audio comment.
I was stammering and making a fool of myself but Anthony’s comments convinced me to try again. And try again I did. Tho I haven’t found where my mug was used in a show yet…
The lack of Aura Aura Climber in the DSiware list makes me sad . . .
I always wondered if this site counted as a indie game: http://www.thesixtyone.com
I mean its kinda like a game…
But website-ie
Regrettably having to leave a text comment, the site wont let me sign up, so ive resorted to youtube, no worries though…
the idea of this text comment is to commed joe larson on being the first to say mario, because when i read that question i assumed there would be so many marios but people would think it too obvious to say, and so they said something else (whether it be obscure or zelda) but well done joe on saying what was on everyones mind!
secondly, so much nintendo love!! a lot of these series’ people love are from nintendo, which really shows that all the wii/casual hating is getting in the way of people seeing what nintendo are creating; really great games. true gamers play and love nintendo, because nintendo has defined gaming for years, it gave us the D-Pad and then outdid themselves with the analogue stick! they defined the rules of platorm games with the mario series (and then invented 3D platforming with mario 64) they created a sub-genre with metroid, it has been emulated so many times (post-SOTN castlevania and shadow complex) but metroid is still the top. i dont know where this massive essay has come from but i think people need to stop calling nintendo out for trying to reach outside the market and remember that they defined gaming for us, is all.
youtube is denying that ive uploaded this video as a response, so ill post a link to the video here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMOwdr2IKqs
METROID <3
Thanks for your comment Max I got it. Not sure if I’ll be able to squeeze it into this episode only cause we had such a HUGE response this week. However we have another good question coming up this week that you should comment on as well.
As for Viddler, sign up on their site rather than the pop up window through this site. Once you’re signed up you can sign in through the video comment button below and it should work. It’s a little janky to get started but once you got it working, it’s totally worth it.
Warnings/Notes:
A) I haven’t slept in two days.
B) My camera mic died, sorry for the audio quality.
C) This video was 12+ minutes before cuts.
D) I am aware of my “ya know” speech defect, I’ll work on it.
E) My previous video comment, who’s mention got cut, can be found here:
http://www.bytejacker.com/episodes/077/comment-page-1#comment-7010
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agree with you there joe,
One thing I do remember about the zelda games, as Yahtzee Eloquently puts it…
“odds are good that you’ll be the same bloody guy saving the same bloody girl with the same bloody boomerang”
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/13-Zelda-Phantom-Hourglass
Click to play this video.
I had left a voicemail leaving a comment about the best game franchise. With that said i have picked pokemon and i will tell you why. Well the first teo games which were Red and blue came out in what 1996? I was eight years old……8!!! Yes i was into the megaman and the super mario and the smash bros and the final fantasy. Though when you think about that, how long does it usually take to finish super mario world? Well being so quick it would take me less then 20 minutes. That is with using star world though. It would take me a whole good two hours to go through the whole map. Not finishing every level though.
So i pick pokemon because of it’s popularity. Smash Bros is popular, brawl yes, but i have never seen so many posts on the diamond and pearl discussion board for gamefaqs.com. Never went to the one for brawl so i don’t know which is superior. Though when you think about it, who mostly plays Brawl? Fans like ourselves, who had grown up back in the 80s with out favorite nintendo characters. Would i say kids under the ages of 12 maybe? Not likely, i say this because a lot of kids don’t even know who Mario is, never played the classics to realize the full potential those games had back then.
So here we think about pokemon, Fans like myself who grew up playing this game since 1996 and now kids in this day of age are hooked on this game more than a drug addict is addicted to crack. Think about it. Digimon, pokemon, bakugan, even yugioh is mostly for the kids now. I honestly don’t think that kids want to get involved with a game that involves their favorite charizard pokemon getting his ass handed to him by Solid Snake. It is all about the state of mine if you really look at it. Of course i’m not going to say all of this nonsense on a voicemail. Though My name is Russelloni and i have spoken. Pokemon is (my opinion) the best game franchise to this day.
AND I’M 22 YEARS OLD AND I WILL BE PURCHASING POKEMON SOULSILVER SO YOU CAN ALL GO AND SHOVE IT!
We definitely got your voicemail Russelloni and I don’t know if I’m ashamed at you for liking pokemon or liking pokemon and being 22! . . . . . . just kidding. Thanks for finally leaving a comment! I couldn’t get you in this week but like Max above, I look forward to hearing another answer from you for this weeks upcoming question. Stay tuned homey and don’t forget . . . . . . . gotta catch em all!
Doood! I friggin love pokemon! I’m representing pokemon fans this week. I’m 21 and I’m probably going to buy the new Gold Silver games when they come out also. See above, I left a video comment in, so don’t worry if your comment doesn’t make it. I gotchat covered. Good to hear I have some support here!
Well i don’t care if my comment gets on the episode, i just want the game i picked to appear. It must be known to man that pokemon has caused a major impact on society to this day.
Just want to solute to Joe Larson, I didn’t vote this week, kind of voting against all and I share quite the same reasons / feelings. Devil’s Tuning Fork IS quite badly optimized, on latest mac book pro it is slow and hard to play, but I wasn’t may be that much pissed of by performance as I was by the game play it is just boring and not rewarding, Puddle – same camera problems Joe pointed out, and I personally found it a World of Goo if not a clone then very inspired game, and it delivers nothing new to the concept if not less. Finally the Dreamside did manage to frustrate me, so I choose not to choose.
Thats … so negative! I mean yeah, they all had their problems, but Devils Tuning fork was so creative, and it was keeping me entertained, and for a independent game, its not gonna be perfect.
Yeah puddle’s look was very world of goo, it did bring some thing to the table, and I cant think of another way the camera would have worked without giving away some of the puzzles in the stages. If it zoomed out too far, woulda taken out some of the fun.
…
and… Dreamside…
Well it looked pretty!
This is a text comment.
……………I haven’t played the games this week. But I had a GOOD REASON! D:
Eh, just the typical busyness and studying and whatnot. I’ll try and do this week’s on Saturday, though.