Invasion
This is one of those quirky games that could only be home brew, despite its professional-quality presentation and execution. You play the part of a UFO pilot, guiding your craft around the screen with the stylus, and pressing pretty-much any button on the DS to send out a shockwave which blows the heat-seeking missiles targeted at your craft out of the sky. Needless to say, if you fail to blast the missile before it strikes, you lose a life.
Invasion is played out on a black and white playing area, which gives the game a moody, atmospheric feel it would otherwise have lacked. This is the sort of thing only home brew programmers can do – can you imagine a professional software developer taking a risk like that? There’s a choice of background images, and you can choose your own choon too!
There’s a couple of drawbacks. When controlling your craft with the stylus, your hand gets in the way of the screen. Not that you need to move much anyway – it’s usually easier to sit in the middle of the screen with your finger on the shockwave button of choice, and wait for the rockets to come to you. You only have to move when two come together, with the second following too close to allow a second shockwave after taking out the first.
Invasion won’t keep you playing all day, but as a quirky break from the norm, it’s well worth a blast.
Above: The screens on this game are well presented
Above: Move your space ship using the touch screen
To Return to the competition home page click here
 |
Breakout DS The arcade classic finds its way on to the Nintendo DS thanks to Max Media Player. |
 |
DSokoban Clever treasure puzzle game with puzzles ranging from easy-peasy to tricky enough to make you pull your hair out in frustration. |
 |
DSudoku The pen-and-paper classic comes to the DS, and the developer has put a great deal of effort into turning it into a videogame. |
 |
Earth Invaders Positioned at the foot of the screen Space Invaders style, You blasts out bullets with attitude for as long as your stylus is on the touchscreen. |
 |
Super Snake DS Guide your roving reptile around the screen, eating the fruit and food scattered around the playing area. |
 |
Warrior Training an interesting mix of game styles. |
 |
AMAP4DS A map of the London Underground is always a handy thing to have when visiting the capital. This is the Nintendo DS version. |
 |
Stringy Things DS Stringy Things DS is a compendium of word games. |
 |
Minesweeper DS Fans of classic gaming will soon be able to play it on the move. |
 |
DDRlite It does what it says on the tin, with no real surprises. |
 |
Battleship Now here’s a game worth playing! A fair old rendition of the classic pencil-and-paper offering. |
 |
Memory What can you say about Memory that isn’t obvious from the screenshots? |
 |
Tic Tac Toe This one’s Noughts and Crosses on the DS. |
 |
Prohibition Interesting – an Amstrad CPC game brought to the DS in an unofficial conversion. |
 |
Joggle DS It’s daunting at first, but as you sit and think, all sorts of words present themselves. |
 |
PaddleBattleDS Now here’s a text-book example of how to make good use of the touchscreen and create a game which could only have appeared on the DS. |
 |
Fushido Another delightful puzzler! |
 |
IRCDS There really is an IRC client for the Nintendo DS, and it works a treat too! |
 |
Bahlz Played entirely on the touchscreen, Bahlz offers you a grid of spheres which you must destroy by touching groups of similarly-coloured units. |
 |
AquelaBall AquelaBall you must win over 75% of the screen by boxing it off. |
 |
DoubleSkill It’s daunting at first, but as you sit and think, all sorts of words present themselves. |
 |
Chain Reaction It’s often the simplest games that are the most addictive, and they don’t come much simpler than Chain Reaction. |
 |
HexaVirus How low can you go? |
 |
CarreRouge Drag a red square around with the stylus, and avoid the floating blue shapes. |
 |
DSChess DSChess is definitely one of the more ambitious home brew games out there. |
 |
No Place to Hide Now here's a killer! No Place to Hide offers ten minigames based on a single theme. |
 |
Pop The Balls Another simple winner, this little puzzler presents the player with a grid of coloured spheres. |
 |
The Collection The Collection is a compendium of four games in a single pack. |
 |
DiggerDS DiggerDS is a port of the classic Digger or Boulderdash game. |
 |
Bubbles The aim of the game is to keep your bubble alive by fusing it with smaller bubbles of the correct colour. |
 |
Invasion You play the part of a UFO pilot, guiding your craft around the screen with the stylus, and pressing pretty-much any button on the DS to send out a shockwave which blows the heat-seeking missiles targeted at your craft out of the sky. |
 |
Blazing Blocks It won't win any awards for originality, but at least it has a two-player mode. |
 |
Letter Link DS The longer the word, the higher the score.. |
 |
Sonic DS Demo Not an official Sega product, this is basically a demo of what a DS Sonic game could be like. A rough demo. A very rough demo... |
 |
Zi You start with a square grid, with new pieces falling onto the playing area from all four sides. |
 |
Puzlle DS Puzzle DS is a reproduction of those slidey puzzle devices where you had to recreate a picture by sliding tiles. |
 |
Caisses It's clear a lot of care and attention has been paid to the presentation here. |
 |
Doublons An interesting theme on the old memory chestnut. |
 |
ReboNDS what's going on... . |
 |
JNKplat A reach-the-exit platformer from the old school. |
 |
Marshmellow Duel DS The idea is you move around an arena made up of horizontal platforms, snatching weapons from floating bubbles and using them to strike at your opponent. |
 |
NumberMinds You're attempting to guess a five-digit number here. You get 24 attempts in Easy Mode, 16 in Medium and 12 in Hard Mode. |
 |
WiFi Blubb An interesting twist on the Battleships theme, you can move your ships as you play here. |
 |
Hangman Hangman is a worthy download. By retaining its focus on ease of play for quick games, it’s found its niche as a means of killing a spare minute or two.. |