Professor Layton and the Curious Village Review

We once again were able to score an exclusive interview review with Lugenstien! This time for Professor Layton and the Curious Village.

Wii Bluelight: Lugenstien, thanks for coming back for another review.

Lugenstien: My pleasure. I just completed the last puzzle in Professor Layton and it was an incredible game. The game consists of 135 puzzles for the player to solve (plus more available through download). These puzzles run the gamut from word puzzles to chess puzzles to various story problems.

Wii Bluelight: Sounds like another brain age type game.

Lugenstien: It goes far beyond the standard brain age game. While the puzzles will work your brain what truly sets this game apart is an incredible story line, great art style, and incredible voice acting that connects all of the puzzles together. The diverse puzzles alone are enough to make the game great but it is the presentation of the game that makes this game truly incredible. You explore the village of St. Mystere talking to residents and clicking on items to find puzzles. Solving these puzzles progresses the story line until you are able to solve the overall mystery behind the village.

Wii Bluelight: How hard are the puzzles in the game?

Lugenstien: There is a large variety of difficulty in the puzzles. Some are very easy, others will test even the seasoned puzzle solver, some seem down right impossible at first. However, for the hard puzzles players are able to spend coins that they have found throughout the village to buy hints to assist them in solving the puzzles.

Wii Bluelight: Anything else the players should know about this game?

Lugenstien: This is actually the first game in a planned trilogy. The second one has already been released in Japan. However, there has been no release date yet given for America. Look for it sometime in 2009.

Wii Bluelight: What is your final score for the game?

Lugenstien: Presentation: 10, one of the highest quality presentation on a DS game
Graphics/Sound: 9, very good music, plenty of songs to keep it interesting, very high quality voice acting
Gameplay: 8, great use of the stylus to solve problems, if you miss a puzzle as you search the village it is often hard to find them later in the game, this becomes frustrating
Game Length/Replayability: 8, it will take you a while to finish all of the puzzles, about 26 puzzles available through downloads, once you've beat a puzzle though not much replay value
Overall: 9, the high production values and simple enjoyability of this game makes it a must own. Look for upcoming sequels.

Obama says: "Don't play Wii (and don't go to school and don't go to work), Vote!"

Obama's new add encourages people to skip work, skip class, and not play the Wii.



I for one will be playing the Wii that day and not voting.

World Tour Commercial

I can't wait until my copy of the game gets here from Amazon so I can be just like Kobe!

Gameboy Shirt

This sweet shirt was available at Shirt.Woot! earlier today.





The write up for the shirt was very funny.

Hey, baby. You got a game link cable? ‘Cause we could hook up. Aw, yeeeahh. Hey, come back, I want to play some “Pokémon,” if you know what I mean. Ah, forget you. Well helloooo there, sweet thang. How’d you like to live out your Final Fantasy? Enh? Enh? Hey, hang on, don’t be like tha—OK, whatever, forget you. No, not you, sugar, you I like. I think you bumped my power switch, hot stuff, because I am turned on. Say, why don’t… OK, sure, just turn around and walk away, that’s fine.

This shirt was designed by: rushblume, who had to have been teased on the playground with a name like that. Who’s getting the last laugh now, schoolyard bullies? Any of you meatheads win a shirt.woot Derby recently? WE THOUGHT NOT.

Wear this shirt: as a conversation-starter among people you won’t realize you didn’t want to start conversations with until it’s too late.

Don’t wear this shirt: around any nearsighted gamer giants. You could end up with your guts crushed under their colossal thumbs, or suffering lasting damage to your central nervous system from whatever hallucinogens have you seeing gamer giants.

This shirt tells the world: “Getting biz-zay with me is like a game of Tetris: Deliberate and methodical until the pace picks up, I lose my cool, and it ends in disappointment. Plus I play goofy music throughout. That’s kind of my thing.”

We call this color: Heather Grayme Boy

Mario Kart Tournament

Last Friday the Law School held a Mario Kart Tournament. Of course I knew my friends and I were a lock to win the whole thing. We easily won the event, dominating the competition. We owe OUR success to two things: First, the jalapeno poppers and pizza bites we consumed the night before during our practice; Second, Adibobea9 kicking our trash online during the practice. He humbled us and the competition we faced paled in comparison to him. Here is my team holding our winnings from the tournament.

I just wish I had a picture of Ben racing with one hand on the Wii Wheel and the other hand in the air with his index finger pointed to the sky. Classic.

Picross DS Review

Today we present the first Wii Bluelight exclusive interview review with lugenstien. The first game reviewed is Picross DS.

Wii Bluelight: Lugenstien, what exactly is Picross DS.

Lugenstien: Picross DS is a puzzle game that can be simply described as a picture crossword. For each row and column you are told how many of the boxes need to be filled in to create a picture. For example on the puzzle below the middle column would be totally filed in since it says five of the boxes are filled in, and that is how many boxes there are in that row. The last column has a three that means that three consecutive boxes will be filled in. Through a process of elimination you can figure out which of the boxes those are. In the second row the numeration is 1 1. This means that there will be a box filled in and there will be some space in between another box that is filled in.Although somewhat complicated to explain once one begins to play it is easy and entertaining.

Wii Bluelight: How is the game controlled?

Lugenstien: There are actually two control methods. The first is stylus control. You tap or drag the stylus across the boxes that need to be colored in. The second is controlled through the control pad and the A and B button. For the smaller puzzles the stylus control is better; however, larger puzzles such as the 20x25 puzzles that require zooming in on the puzzle to use the stylus it is easier to stay zoomed out and use the control pad instead.

Wii Bluelight: How many puzzles are included in the game?

Lugenstien: There are 15 easy puzzles to help familiarize you with the game play, 165 normal puzzles where you are penalized for marking a wrong square, and at least 150 free puzzles where you are not alerted if you make a mistake. In addition to these puzzles you can create your own puzzles, download additional puzzles from the internet, and play in a daily mode where you try to advance your skills.

Wii Bluelight: Is there anything the game could improve on?

Lugenstien: The game as a whole is amazing. The gameplay is both addicting and challenging. The one shortcoming of the game is that it does not allow for multiple save files. If multiple people are playing the game it is impossible to know which puzzles you have completed and which puzzles the other person has completed. The simple addition of allowing for multiple player files would have made the game close to perfect. It makes the main game better but it would also be fun to compare your daily training scores with other people using the cart, similar to the Brain Age series.

Wii Bluelight: What is your final verdict on the game?

Lugenstien: I would break the score down like this.

Presentation: 5, simple presentation but it works; really should have provided for multiple save files

Graphics/Sound: 6, basic and clean graphics, limited selection of songs that get old quick

Gameplay: 8, gameplay is addictive, stylus control doesn't work as great on the larger levels

Game Length/Replayability: 10, there are so many puzzles you will be playing this game for 100s of hours

Overall: 8.5, adding multiple save files would have easilty pushed this game above a 9.

Wii Bluelight: Lugenstien, thank you for your review. We look forward to having you back on the site to review more games.

Nintendo Conference Highlights

Late last night Nintendo was holding a conference in Japan to announce their upcoming hardware and software. The biggest announcement by far is a new iteration of the Nintendo DS.










The new DS-i with two cameras, one on the back and one on the front.

This DS should be coming to America in late 2009. Club Nintendo will also be coming to America this holiday season. This club rewards members for purchasing and registering Nintendo games as well as for filling out surveys. Points earned can be exchanged for exclusive Nintendo items.

Beyond these major announcements Nintendo announced a number of new games for next year including Punch-Out!!, Sin and Punishment 2, and Mario and Luigi RPG 3. These games are definitely something to look forward to in the comings months.

The Next Gen: WiiHD…

Currently Nintendo fans are enjoying the Wii as they fling their arms in the comfort of their homes, but there are already rumors of the next video game console "WiiHD" to be making its appearance in the year 2011. I grew up on Nintendo, but for most of my life I never had to buy the systems and the respective games. Even the Gamecube was a gift for Christmas and as a late bloomer the games were only played for a short period of time before the announcement of the Wii. This is the first time I bought the system and stayed current throughout it lifetime.

Although it has only been two years from the launch, it is a scary thought to be thinking about putting down more money in hopes to play the next big thing in Nintendo's lineup. What's worse is Nintendo also has plans to release another DS in the near future and I still have yet to play all of the games I currently own and want to own. One of my fears for this generation of gaming was the rise of Nintendo. I was content with them being in 3rd place in the race; it gave me great games but not so often. My wallet and my game completion could keep up with one another. Now that they are on top there are too many great games to play and too little time to play them.

I love the fact that as I get older I can still enjoy my pastime, but it gets difficult when school and work impede me from enjoying it to the fullest. It is a sad tale that games are so addictive, because they are also so expensive. I now have to look to Ebay and other online deals in order to get the games I want and will never play. Although truth be told, when I retire I will have an entire collection to sift through…