The Collection
The Collection is a compendium of four games in a single pack. There’s a simple sliding squares puzzle, which unfortunately uses numbered pieces instead of a picture. It gets the job done – slide the 15 numbered tiles into the correct order to win – but reassembling a graphic would be so much more satisfying.
Tiles is a simple puzzle affair which calls for a steady hand. You must pick out all the tiles that match the one offered on the top screen. When you get the last one, the grid of tiles on the touchscreen grows, offering more tiles to pick out. It’s not very satisfying as the more successful you are, the faster your screen is filled with tiles. It feels like you’re trying to stop the tide from coming in rather than making genuine progress.
Invasion is a shoot-‘em-up where you aim with the stylus and blast with the shoulder buttons. The action takes place across both screens, which is neat. Finally, Flip is an interesting outing which makes you concentrate on what you’re doing. Presented with a pattern made from white and black tiles, you must touch all the black ones without lifting your stylus.
The Collection is a brave piece of work. Respect is due, even if one or two of the games miss the point of what they’re trying to do. Top marks for letting the player exit a game and go back to the menu without resetting the DS though!
Above: Title screen on the Nintendo DS
Above: Select your game from this menu.
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.. |