[DSiware]Dark Void: Zero

[The Mole]

Wow what an excellent week for DSiware please also see my impressions of Pinball Pulse.

Dark Void Zero is what Capcom were saying was alost NES game and i did not believe it, i thought this was a modern game made out to be a NES game but after playing this is not the case.

The game is a scrolling platform shooter wich is very similar to the early and GBA Metroid games. The game is all about shooting your way to the next level by getting past shooting enemies to grab keycards to locked doors and i am glad to say the game does offer some challenge but it is so simple in design and controls that you can't blame anything but yourself for death.

Your character uses the d pad to move A to jump and b to shoot with a long hold of A to use the jet pack to boost to new areas.

I have to say Capcom have struck gold here as this title is fantastic from the retrotastic graphics and sound to the addictive simple and fun Metroid/Contra style gameplay its well worth a download and the best bit it is only 500 points.

[arcnas]

just put this on my new dsi xl ,great game and if you buy one you still get 1000 pts credited so isought of got this free

[yesteryeargames]

its brilliant really loving the game,right from the beginning where it ask's you to blow into the dusty nes cart:P

arcnas your new dsi xl have u noticed a slight difference in the brightness on the top and bottom screen?

[arcnas]

just compared them cant say i can much difference in brightness on the top screens maybe a little

[yesteryeargames]

on white screens just a slighty duller at the top it seems for me,

[MrMarbles]

Dark Void Zero is what Capcom were saying was alost NES game and i did not believe it, i thought this was a modern game made out to be a NES game but after playing this is not the case.

Not entirely sure I'm understanding this paragraph correctly, but the statement that it was a lost NES game is a fictitious joke.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Void_Zero

Nice first play comments, though.

[Supernova]

This is excellent. Had my DSi since launch and it's about time something decent came along so I could use my free points. Some proper old school NES style gaming here. Sound effects and music take me right back and it's great fun......so much more fun than it's bigger PS3/360 brother

Well worth the points. Just wish the DSi store would put out more quality titles such as this

[The Mole]

Not entirely sure I'm understanding this paragraph correctly, but the statement that it was a lost NES game is a fictitious joke.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Void_Zero

Nice first play comments, though.

Oh the article i was reading made no mention of the fact it was a joke and did seam to suggest it was a NES game to being with. Guess they were taken in as much as i was from their article.

Great game though

[briareos_kerensky]

Spent a couple of hours with the game and reached level 2 and I must say I'm not really impressed.

Why do standard enemies take so many hits to be killed? It slows down the flow of all levels...I do agree this is not a run and gun game, but the most basic enemy take just too many hits to die. Extra weapons are more powerful but the green shotgun thing has a limited range and distances looks like they have been engineered to have your enemies a pixel away from your effective range, the orange rocket launcher is rare and often taken away from you via choke points where an other weapon waits, ready to spring an ambush on the player begging for more firepower.

Same goes for tThe jetpack: it's fun to fly around and it's arguably the core mechanic of the whole game. However, after you are given your precious toy, developers take it back via the same irritating choke point design used for weapons, and then give an other one after a minute or two.

This whole power up system leaves you wondering if the developers wanted you have access to better equipment or just give an illusion of a more varied approach on level/enemy design...really, I find this whole give/take design more puzzling than anything else.

The control scheme is an other problem: OK, it's 8 bit retro style, but the DS has four face buttons and two shoulder buttons, why not use one of them to lock the direction you are firing? Sometimes aerial encounters take too long because you have to line up your gun with the enemies but you can't because you have to maneuver. I don't find the inertia in jetpack mode a bad thing, but I was fighting the control scheme, not the enemies chasing me down...more than once I hit the R button to lock Rusty's weapon in a certain direction, it just felt natural.

Nostalgia is one thing, but you are not forced to implement even the worst things of 8bit games when you can make the game less maddening by simply adding a single button to the control scheme.
It would ruin the 8 bit styling? Make it look and sound like a 16 bit game.

[rmoxon]

Spent a couple of hours with the game and reached level 2 and I must say I'm not really impressed.

Why do standard enemies take so many hits to be killed? It slows down the flow of all levels...I do agree this is not a run and gun game, but the most basic enemy take just too many hits to die. Extra weapons are more powerful but the green shotgun thing has a limited range and distances looks like they have been engineered to have your enemies a pixel away from your effective range, the orange rocket launcher is rare and often taken away from you via choke points where an other weapon waits, ready to spring an ambush on the player begging for more firepower.

Same goes for tThe jetpack: it's fun to fly around and it's arguably the core mechanic of the whole game. However, after you are given your precious toy, developers take it back via the same irritating choke point design used for weapons, and then give an other one after a minute or two.

This whole power up system leaves you wondering if the developers wanted you have access to better equipment or just give an illusion of a more varied approach on level/enemy design...really, I find this whole give/take design more puzzling than anything else.

The control scheme is an other problem: OK, it's 8 bit retro style, but the DS has four face buttons and two shoulder buttons, why not use one of them to lock the direction you are firing? Sometimes aerial encounters take too long because you have to line up your gun with the enemies but you can't because you have to maneuver. I don't find the inertia in jetpack mode a bad thing, but I was fighting the control scheme, not the enemies chasing me down...more than once I hit the R button to lock Rusty's weapon in a certain direction, it just felt natural.

Nostalgia is one thing, but you are not forced to implement even the worst things of 8bit games when you can make the game less maddening by simply adding a single button to the control scheme.
It would ruin the 8 bit styling? Make it look and sound like a 16 bit game.

The whole point of this relase and its "gimmick", so to speak, is that its a NES game that was lost in time and never released until now. If they had designed it to use more than the two face buttons it wouldnt be a nes game would it?

The same could be said of most of your other complaints, I think it would take you out of the experience if they were fixed/changed.