Cubivore for the Gamecube is a rare game, but the price that this seller is asking seems a bit outrageous:
It seems eBay is a better bet in this case...
(If you don't know Cubivore (which is likely), check out this video. There's many more on YouTube, worth watching if you are into odd games. ^_^)
I love this game. It's basically a collection of small puzzles, disguised as an adventure. The charm of it is that you can pick it up at any time, solve a puzzle or two, and put it back down. Or at least you *could*... I find it very addictive. Some of the puzzles are well-known, like the pitcher puzzle, and a variant of the river-crossing puzzle, etc. Still, unless you do this sort of thing all the time, some of them can be quite challenging.
I like this sort of "brain exercises" better than the Brain Age type games... those tend to be focused on solving problems within a set time, which tends to really annoy me. :-)
This Nintendo DS game is the third in the Phoenix Wright series. As such, it's much the same as its two predecessors, and doesn't introduce much (or anything at all) in the way of new gameplay. In spite of that, I found it to be quite enjoyable.
The ongoing story of Phoenix & co moves ahead, sometimes in unexpected ways. Most of the well-known supporting characters are here again. We get to learn more about their past, and sometimes you even get to play them for a while (rather than Phoenix). Also: Phoenix has a love interest! :-) Or maybe two. In addition to that, there's the usual number of cases that seem impossible to solve at first glance, but turn out to make sense (well, sort of) as the game goes on.
Like the other two games, there are some minor nits that make gameplay somewhat less enjoyable than it could have been. Where some text adventures suffer from the "guess the verb" syndrome, PW sometimes suffers from "guess the correct piece of evidence"... or rather, presenting a piece of evidence at the exact point the makers of the game had in mind, even if there are other points where it would make sense to do so. Saving often helps, but is still annoying.
But overall, this game's highly recommended. It's too bad the Phoenix storyline seems to be over now. Fortunately it's not the end of the series; the next game will be Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. ^_^ (Apparently it's already out; I haven't seen it anywhere yet.)
Arkanoid DS. With a paddle controller!
Unfortunately, judging from the preview, the game itself is disappointing (and isn't the same as the original Arkanoid we all knew and cursed back in the 80s).
"Once you're done your creation, you can save it to cartridge and send it to other Bangai-O Spirits owners in a very unique way: through the power of sound. Using old-school modem-like technology, you'll convert your levels into a sound that other Bangai-O Spirits carts will recognize. Place a set of headphone earpieces to a DS microphone, plug in the 1/8th inch jack to the host, and send that file off through high-pitch whines. It's similar to the way that we Commodore 64 and TRS-80 programmers used to save and load our created programs, and here it makes a return in a contemporary game design."
This is a cute little game for the PSP... much recommended, if you like odd/unusual games, that is.
The game is highly rhythm-based. You control a small army of "Patapon" (basically creatures that look like eyes on legs) by drumming certain rhythms. For example, at the beginning of the game, the circle button is associated with the sound "pon", and the square button with "pata" (hence the name of the game). Making your warriors advance is done by drumming the sound "pata-pata-pata-pon", and you can make them attack by using "pon-pon-pata-pon". As the game goes on, you get more rhythms and sounds, and gain special items.
I like this game... it reminds me a bit of Locoroco, even though they're completely different.
[Update: Here's a demo video.]
Saw this preview of Civilization Revolution for Nintendo DS today. I'm most likely going to get it, as I've been playing Civ in various incarnations since 1992 or so.
I am wondering though, did anyone ever make an ASCII art version of Civ? E.g. something with the same rules, but ASCII graphics, kind of like Nethack. It would seem like a natural fit, with its grid-based map and turn-based movement. It's by no means a *trivial* task of course, even without the graphics, but it seems doable.
(It would be an interesting project to do in Chicken, if I had a year to spare, or something... :-)
Samorost 2: This is an interesting little game. Reminds me a bit of The Neverhood. Worth a try.
(For some reason, it also reminds me of text adventures... except it doesn't have text! :-)