Spotto!

A quick review before fully concentrating on school.

Developer(s): INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS CO., LTD.
Publisher(s): Nintendo; iQue, Ltd. (CH)

Release Dates: 
*JP: November 25, 2009
*NA: February 15, 2010
*EU: February 26, 2010
*AU: February 26, 2010
*SK: September 30, 2010
*CH: April 21, 2011 (as iQue DSiWare)

Ratings:
*CERO: A (All Ages)
*ESRB: E (Everyone)
*PEGI: 3
*ACB: PG (Parental guidance recommended)
*GRB: All

Other Names:
*JP: ねらってスポっと！(Neratte Supotto!, lit. "Aim Spotto!")
*PAL: Bird & Bombs 
*KR: 던져서 쏙! 유령 퇴치 (Deonjyeoseo Ssog! Yulyeong Toechi, translated as "Throwing Ssok! Ghost Fight")
*CH: 瞄瞄～中中！(Miáo Miáo〜Zhōng Zhōng!, roughly translated as "Aim Aim〜In In!")

Number of Players: 1

Notes:
*Also available on the Nintendo 3DS eShop.

Spotto! will offer you a blast of fun, just make sure the bomb doesn't blast you.

Story: A group of Ghosts abducted Chikkie Wowwow, the President's daughter, so he orders Spotto...the Bombirder, his best and most reliable bombirder, to rescue Chikkie Wowwow on a house full of Ghosts.

Gameplay: The gameplay of Spotto! is quite simple, your goal is to eliminate all the Ghost on the Stage, to do so, you must help Spotto aim his Bombs to the Ghost's mouths, you have to rotate a blue dial with the Stylus to adjust the trajectory of the Bombs, determined by a line of 28 points, once you have your trajectory set, tap Toss and Spotto will proceed to toss his Bomb; when you destroy a Ghost, Spotto gets an Extra Bomb; Spotto counts with Super Bombs as well, which are hidden weapons found in random enemies and objects, once equpped, the Bomb, which is normally blue, will turn red, and when Spotto successfully toss it into a Ghost's mouth, it will cause a lot of Super Bombs to be launched from the hit enemy, which if hit another enemy, will launch another round of Super Bombs, and so on.
There are 3 kinds of Ghost, Medium Ghost, Small Ghosts (which are a bit harder to get Bombs on their mouths) and Big Ghosts, which are fought each 10 Stages, and Spotto must get 3 Bombs on their mouths to defeat them.
The Game is Over when Spotto runs out of Bombs and wasn't able to destroy all the Ghosts. 

The game has initially Story Mode, which has 50 Stages full of Ghost waiting to be bombed, once a certain requierement is achieved, Challenge Mode is unlocked, this mode is meant to challenge your technique and see how many Stages you can get through before Spotto runs out of Bombs, to make things harder, there are no Super Bombs, all unused Bombs are carried over, so aim carefully or your game could end before you notice it. Once the 50 Stages of Story Mode are beaten, Story Mode Pro is unlocked, which is a harder version of Story Mode, where Spotto has orange Bombs and the line of points is limited to only 5 points, i.e. the ones in the Touch Screen, making it difficult to determine the Bomb's trajectory.

Difficulty: Overall the game mechanics are quite simple and easy to learn, but the real difficulty lies on Challenge Mode and Story Mode Pro, and beating the later Stages of Story Mode requiere some technique (and maybe patience).

Graphics: The graphics on this game are a nice mix between cartoon and 3D models, making them somewhat similar to the graphics of the Paper Mario series. This shouldn't be surprise, as both games were developed by INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS.

Sound: The music in the game was composed by Saki Kuata, while de Sound Director role was taken by Masanobu Matsunaga, and it's quite a nice fit for the game, sounding a bit like the 'happy', 'heroic' and 'concerning' songs in the Paper Mario series. And quite surprisingly, Spotto has voice clips, provided by an unknown actor, when Spotto succesfully gets a Bomb into a Ghost's mouth, he'll say 'Spotto!', and when you get a Game Over, he'll either say 'Yes, sir!' or 'Maybe later...'. And expect lots of chick sounds everytime you start a Stage.

Closing Comment: This game provides a great experience for those looking for a challenging game on DSiWare, as well as those looking for a fun game, and for 200 DSi Points/$1.99 on the eShop, Spotto! has more than enough on its little 22 Blocks to entertain for a long time.

Art Style: PiCTOBiTS

Developer(s): skip Ltd.
Publisher(s): Nintendo

Release Dates:
*JP:January 28, 2009
*NA: May 18, 2009
*EU: May 22, 2009
*AU: May 22, 2009


Ratings:
*CERO: A (All Ages)
*ESRB: E (Everyone)
*PEGI: 3
*ACB: G (General)

Other Names:
*JP: Art Styleシリーズ： PiCOPiCT (lit., Art Style Series: PiCOPiCT)
*EU: Art Style: PiCOPiCT
*AU: Art Style: PiCTOPiCT
*PiCTOBiTS, PiCOPiCT, PiCTOPiCT (Offical names without the Art Style label)

Number of Players: 1

Notes:
*Also available on the Nintendo 3DS eShop
*Announced on January 26, 2009. Released 2 days later along with Art Styleシリーズ： SOMNIUM in Japan.
*The game was available for 150 coins as a Club Nintendo reward in North America during May 2012.

Art Style: PiCTOBiTS is the way to go if you want a Tetris clone that pays tribute to past games.

Gameplay: The objective in Art Style: PiCTOBiTS is to reveal the hidden sprite based on characters from classic Famicom/NES games, to do so, you have a set of bits (also known as PiCTOs), which you use to eliminate megabits (a.k.a. Mega PiCTOs or Deca PiCTOs) that fall from above. You use the Stylus to put the bits, using your Pallete, on a way they can eliminate megabits by making group of 4 bits of the same color, be either in a row or at least a 2x2 sqaure, when a megabit part is removed, the remaining megabit will fall faster, if a megabit is eliminated before it hits the bottom of the screen, the player will be awarded with a Coin, if the megabit touches the bottom, it'll turn into a group of bits. Be careful, though, because sometimes the megabits have a permabit, bits with an X mark that if they're not eliminated, cannot be moved and they stay in their position, but if they're removed, they award Coins.
The game is over when a megabit cannot fall if its obstructed by bits and those aren't moved in time (in this instance, a DANGER! message appears), to prevent this, you can either move the blocks manually (your Pallete can hold up to 8 bits), or use the POW Block, which will remove the first 2 lines of bits from bottom to top, and will also make the bits fall to the bottom of the screen, but using the POW Block seals a Pallete square, but it can be restored with 5 Coins. Th sprite will be rebealed in the Top Screen as you remove megabits, when the sprite is revealed, this will show a brief animation, in some Stages, there will be more than one sprite.

Difficulty: The game starts very easy, but it gets progressively harder on later stages as the megabits fall faster and are removed faster, not to mention the fact that you get less time to plan where you'll put the bits, especially on Dark Stages. Most of the difficulty in this games comes from the often inaccuracy of the game on the detection of the Stylus, but as you get some practice on the game, this problem is quickly solved.

Graphics: The graphics in this game are made to resemble those of the Famicom, but the Menus' graphics are like those of the cover art of the Famicom 20th Anniversary Sondtracks.

Sound: The music in this game was composed by the Japanese chiptune band YMCK, and it features remixes of the classic Famicom games represented. The sound effects are also meant to be a tribute to that bygone age.

Extras: Besides recovering sealed Pallete squares, Coins can also be used to unlock Dark Stages (also knonw as Ura Stages (JP) or Remix Stages (PAL)), which are harder than normal Stages, and have different sets of sprites to be revealed. But not just that, Coins can be used to buy the music of the game in the Music section, when you purchase a song (a Stage song), there will be a more expensive "+" version (the Dark Stage extended version) available for purchase, additionally, as with other games like Kirby Mass Attack, SONIC RUSH ADVENTURE or Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (just to name a few), you can listen to the music if the DSi is closed while playing a song with a pair of headphones plugged, unlike other games, the music can also play through the DSi's speakers while the system is closed if there aren't headphones plugged.

Closing Comment: PiCTOBiTS is one of the best games on DSiWare, despite being a puzzle game, which DSiWare has a lot already, but this one is worth the 500 DSi Points, I just wish there were more stages, 'cause it only has 15 stages, I would have liked 30 normal stages, Nintendo has a lot of classics that could have easily made the cut for this game (like Duck Hunt, Wild Gunman, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Kid Icarus, Urban Champion, Stack-Up, Gyromite, Mach Rider, or Clu Clu Land), but the Dark Stages more than make for it. And finally, a list of the games represented:
*Super Mario Bros. (5 Parts/Stages)
*Balloon Fight
*Ice Climber (2 Parts/Stages)
*Wrecking Crew
*Baseball (2 Parts/Stages)
*Excitebike
*Devil World (Referenced as "Devil World (Japan Only)" in the US version) (2 Parts/Stages)
*The Legend of Zelda (2 Parts/Stages)
*Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA (on the Credits only)
*The Early Famicom games sticker (seen in other games like Tetris DS and WarioWare: D.I.Y.) appears as well

And this review comes just in time, as it was published 1 day before Nintendo of America announced the May 2012 batch of free Club Nintendo games, which includes Art Style: PiCTOBiTS, coincidence? I don't think so.