Evan's space

I have indeed moved onto my former Spaces account.  I'll no longer be posting here or updating the page, so....GTFO!

Well holy shit.  I am alive.  I haven't logged into this Space sine November 13th, apparently.  It's been a while, and I suppose I'll update you on a few things:

First thing's first:  I'm no longer with Game-Spectrum, so that URL up above doesn't make much sense anymore.  Alas, I might be switching to my first Space at evanvolm.spaces.live.com.  I haven't logged into that one in....God....3 years, maybe?  Or I might just stick with this one.  It isn't a big deal to me, because I don't necessarily like these Spaces.  No one I know uses them on a regular basis, thus proving to be quite pointless. 

I've moved onto Facebook to keep in touch with friends, and Blogger to...well...blog.  I'm apparently working at StrategyInformer.com, but I'm not very useful.  I kinda feel like crap about it all, because I was asked to find contact info. for a few game companies about advertising.  I did so, and sent out emails weeks ago and haven't gotten any replies.  I'd at least like to get a "No" response, so I know for sure they're actually recieving my email(s).

That's basically all I'll say for now.  For daily updates, I'd suggest heading over to my blog.  Subsribe to the feed for instant updates.

The original DS, that is.  Sure they're still making plenty of games for it, but accessories?  The DS Lite seems to be getting all the love in that field.  I wouldn't mind having a simple skin for my DS, but all I can ever find are ones for the Lite.  Nyko seems to be a friend of Game-Spectrum, so I went their site in search for a few accessories I could try out.  Unfortunately, all they had was one: a power pack.  While a power pack may be of some to hard core gamers, 8 extra hours of gameplay certainly does me no good.  Though, the "Charger Grips" do look comfortable.  *sigh*

First and foremost, I must admFirst and foremost, I must admit I've never been a fan of strategy/puzzle games.  I've never been able to find enjoyment from games like Jewel Quest, or even Tetris.  That's right.  I'm not a fan of Tetris.  At all.  In fact, I can go so far as to say I hate Tetris.  I know many people my age who could spend hours on Tetris, and even a few mothers.  But those kind of games never really did it for me.  Where's the bang?  The explosions?  The guns?  I mean, at least give me a little blood for all the work and time I put into completing each stage.  With that said, I went into Neves expecting pretty much the same experience.  How wrong I was....

Simply put, Neves is a great time waster.  When you first start up the game, you are given a tutorial on how to control each of the seven pieces available.  It's a decent tutorial, but it isn't really needed.  A few seconds of playing and you'll pick up on what to do.  After the tutorial, you can then select from four different game modes.  Silhouette, Time Pressure, 7 Steps and finally Multiplayer.

Silhouette mode is the easiest mode.  You are given shapes in which you must fill in with the seven default pieces given to you.  It sounds rather easy, and it really is.  Until you get to some of the latter puzzle.  The hardest ones are, ironically, the most simplistic of shapes such as a light socket.  I spent a good 20-30 minutes on this particular one, and was embarrassed at the one mistake I did which caused me that 20-30 minutes of agony.  You can easily get frustrated by having just one piece facing the wrong direction.

There are four different rooms in silhouette mode, with each having three levels.  Each room contains about 43-49 puzzles each.  So in silhouette mode alone you have plenty of puzzles to chose from, but the difficulty increase is non-existent.  I noticed no differences between each level, just different shapes to chose from.  That's my only gripe about silhouette mode.  Perhaps giving me different pieces to use might've shakin' things up a bit, but it really isn't something that hinders the experience.

The next mode is Time Pressure, which is rather self explanatory.   It's the same exact layout as silhouette mode, only with a 3 minute time limit.  Once you've beaten silhouette mode, it's rather ridiculous for them to give you 3 minutes to solve each puzzle again.  I was able to complete a few of them in less than 30 seconds, however, others did take me the full 3 minutes(but not a lot).   Having the exact same puzzles to solve in three minutes wasn't a whole lot of fun, to be honest.  Maybe giving us the option to change the timer to, say, one minute or even thirty seconds would've been nice.

Next up is 7 Steps.  This is easily the most challenging and difficult mode.  In 7 Steps mode, you can only touch each piece once and place it perfectly into the puzzle.  Trial and error is out of the question.  You must be perfect with every move you make or else you fail, because it keeps count of how many moves you make.  Watching the top screen countdown the number of moves you have left is rather stressful and intimidating at times.   But again, you're given the exact same puzzles as before.  If I were to make a sequel to this game, I'd get rid of Time Pressure mode and combine it with 7 Steps, leaving an open spot for an all new mode.  Now that would be stressful.

The final mode is multiplayer, which unfortunately I wasn't able to play.  But from what I hear is sounds pretty good.  It's rather simple, in that you must solve the puzzle(s) before everyone else does.  However, there's an added twist: each player can see what the other players are doing.  If there was ever a time for screen-looking, this is it.  Not only do you see how far ahead or behind everyone else is, but you can also pick up a few clues as to how their solving it in case you're stumped.

Besides the four modes, you also have an achievements room.  In the achievements room, it shows you what percentage of each mode you've completed thus far.  It also allows you to see how well you do in each puzzle category, such as plants, animals, people, ect.  It's a nice feature which you don't often see in many puzzle games nowadays.

Finally, you have the options menu.  The options menu also goes one step further than many games in that it allows you to chose what color scheme you want.  White and blue hard on your eyes?  Then you have 10 different schemes to chose from.  You can also turn on/off the navigational arrows when controlling a puzzle piece.  I currently have mine set to off, because I already know what my pieces are going to do when controlling them.

The last two options are for the sound.  There are 6 different "tunes" you can listen to while solving a puzzle, along with a random option and on/off as well.  The second option is to toggle the sound effects on or off.

One thing that does bother me about the game is that it's stylus-control only.  The D-pad and A,B,X,Y buttons serve no purpose whatsoever.  I thought at least I could use them when at the main menu, but this proved to be false.  It isn't a big issue, but rather an annoyance.  I also have difficulty controllering the smaller pieces at times.  If I want to rotate a piece, it'll sometimes just move it to the left or right.  Again, an annoyance that occurs every once in a while, but it doesn't hinder the game play at all.

In summary, Neves is a great game if you ever have time to waste.  It isn't a must-have for DS owners, but it is a nice addition.  Especially if you're into the Brain Age and Big Brain Academy games.  It has its flaws, but they certainly don't hurt the gameplay.  Overall I'd give this game a 7.5/10.

Well, after completing 130 or so silhouettes on Neves, it's safe to say I get the gist of it all.  Overall I'd give it a 7.5/10.

Pros: Extremely simple, yet complex at the same time.  Decent customization, such as changing the color scheme, navigation arrows and sound effects(on or off).   Good time-waster.  Ability to see achievements for each mode you've played.

Cons:  You can get easily frustrated on some puzzles, but it actually just makes you want to beat it even more.  Controlling the pieces can be a tad difficult at times, especially the smaller ones.  The increase in difficulty just isn't there while in "silhouette" mode.  There are 4 different levels, but they aren't really any different.  I've yet to try out "7steps", in which you must place each piece perfectly or else you phail.  There's also "TimePressure", which is self-explanatory.

I wouldn't mind trying out multiplayer, but unfortunately can't.  I should have the full review up by Monday.