Handheld goodness and big strategy
You're reading Mikko Saari's blog Life and opinions. This entry was written 01/ 9/2006, at 08:37.
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Obligatory non-movie content every now and then... I got two games as Christmas presents, and both were really good, but in a quite different ways.
Every gaming device lives and dies depending of the game selection. Even one very good game can be enough. That has been the case with me and Nintendo DS. The game is, of course, Zoo Keeper, which is quite clearly one of the best action puzzle games ever. Tetris is comparable, but I don't think anything else is.
So, despite owning Project Rub (nice, but not very interesting) and Polarium (innovative, but too difficult too soon), Nintendo DS has been a Zoo Keeper machine for me. Now that has changed.
Johanna bought me a copy of Mario Kart DS and I've already clocked few hours playing the game. It wasn't a surprise that it was so good, as I've already enjoyed Mario Kart: Double Dash!! on Cube. The DS version is just as good, if not better.
I guess it just works, just like a kart game should. It's easy to learn, plays smooth and has a great fun factor. The gripes are same as with Double Dash: it's a bit too easy and too short - it's so much fun you'd wish it last longer. However, even though I've opened all the cups, I'll still keep going back to play more.
The other game is on the completely different side of the spectrum. Civilization IV is the latest version of this really epic strategy game. I like it - it's clearly the best version I've played (lots of Civ 1, some Civ 2, few games of Civ 3).
I had some problems with it: the game requires Win2000 or Win XP, and I'm still running Win 98 SE. Fortunately I had a second computer on loan which I could use. I've played three quick games now and have a pretty good understanding of the new features.
It's all great, believe me. Culture is now even more important, as it defines the borders of your nation. Borders are important, because enemy units must stop at the borders; to get in, it's either war or agreement on open borders.
Religion is another new aspect. There are interesting benefits on having a state religion. If you found a religion, you can build a shrine in the Holy City of that religion; shrine produces one money for each city in the faith (and there are missionaries to spread the faith, of course) and gives intelligence information.
So, I've been quite happy with Civilization IV, so far. It has more detail in good places, but they've also figured out how to remove useless detail that's less important. Instead of building on top of the previous version, they've started from scratch and relaly thought about it. That's the way to do it!
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