Treasure World from Aspyr for the Nintendo DS is an interesting new way to look at gaming.
To play, you take your DS out into the wild and roam the streets looking for star dust. In this case, star dust can be gathered from the Wi-Fi signals that are all around you, and each one unlocks a special treasure chest that is filled with goodies. Just turn the game on, wander around an area with lots of unique signals, and the game will tick off rewards like a pinball machine on overdrive.
Once you return home, the game will reward your adventure with costumes for your character and decorations for your world. Then, in another interesting twist, you can arrange those decorations in any way that you’d like, and your world becomes a 32-note music tracker, allowing you to create and share songs by just placing things in various locations.
Overall, I’m impressed with what Aspyr has done with the concept. They’ve managed to trick kids into playing outside by rewarding them with trinkets and toys, and then have turned them into composers with a unique music machine that encourages experimentation and sharing. Well done!
Spelunky is a fantastic indie game from Derek Yu that puts you in charge of a spelunking adventurer that must make his way through an always varied cave to collect treasure, fend off spiders, and save damsels in distress that will reward your efforts with a health-restoring kiss if you can survive.
According to Derek, the levels are procedurally-generated, so that each time you play, the levels, items, monsters and so forth are all new and in different places than they were before. In addition, all the terrain is destructible, and there are quite a few ways in which the various game elements can interact with one another, so you’re always guaranteed a unique experience, and plenty of re-playability.
It’s not quite ready for a full release just yet, but it’s free, so you’re really not risking anything to download the beta (PC only) and give it a try.
Just don’t blame me if Spelunky takes up a good part of your otherwise productive weekend!
In Shore Siege, ye be shipwrecked on an island full ‘o’ monsters. You must defend your ship against countless hordes of vile beast and repair the ship to the point where ye can escape!
Thankfully, ye old pirate engineers are able to develop specific weapons to defeat the monsters ‘o’ the isle, and you must use these weapons to strategically defeat ye enemy while saving up enough doubloons to patch yer ship.
