Bad Habits - Thinking small - December 14 2005

Nintendo is still right for kids and adult gamers

A lot of normal adults want to play video games, but they’re frustrated by how complex games have become. Who can blame them? Games used to be easy to understand, like Ms. Pac-Man and Tetris. Now if you want to play Xbox and PS2, it can take hours just to study strategies and buttons.

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If you’re one of these pedestrian game players, your solution is obvious: Handheld game systems by Nintendo offer lots of such simple games. And if you have young children, most of these games are also unrealistic-looking, so your kids won’t see virtual murders.

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Let’s look at the three main Nintendo handheld machines: the DS, the Game Boy Advance SP, and the brand-new Game Boy Micro. The DS is the best. It retails for $120 and plays its own DS games but also GBA games. It even has a cool touchscreen for DS games: Touch the screen, and the game registers what you’re doing.

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The novelty of the Micro is it’s the same size as my cell phone, but it’s half the weight. It plays GBA games on a 10-hour rechargeable battery, and it has a backlight, so you can play in the dark. You must have strong eyes to see its little screen, though.

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If cost is a consideration, skip the $100 Micro and opt for the old GBA SP, which will give you a slightly bigger screen, plus a smaller price tag at about $75. You can even buy a GBA SP or DS for much less than that in used-game stores.

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The great thing about all three of these Nintendo systems — as opposed to the $150 Sony PSP, which I prefer as a hardcore gamer — is there are years of GBA games on the market. If you walk into a good game store, you can test-run scores of old GBA games that cost as little as a few dollars.

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Not long ago, I went shopping in a GameStop store and bought a familiar classic, Namco Museum featuring Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga, for just a few bucks. It’s awesome. I’ve also seen used copies of my favorite GBA ever, the Sims Bustin’ Out, for $25. That game makes you keep track of your pee-pee, farming and other chores.

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Be careful, though. It’s important to test-play used GBA games because there a lot of bad games out there. Of new E-rated titles, I can recommend only a few.

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WarioWare: Twisted! is fun. It comes with a built-in sensor; when you twist your wrists left or right, the game senses this movement. There are 200 mini-games in Twisted. Each makes you turn the machine this way and that, in order to wash windows and bounce yo-yo’s and such. Three out of four stars.

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Mario Party Advance has similar mini-games, without a Twisted sensor, that are kind of fun, but you have to read a lot of stupid dialogue to get through them. Two-and-a-half stars.

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Disney’s Cinderella: Magical Dreams is great, but I beat it in a mere hour. That’s too bad, because it’s surprisingly addictive, making Cinderella jump over cats, and making mice jump from nail-to-nail while looking for a key near a cat. If the sugary game had lasted longer, it could have been a classic. Two stars.

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The following are all lame or tiresome, despite having their own charms: Disney’s Magical Quest 3; Lizzie McGuire 3 Homecoming Havoc; DK King of Swing; Megaman 5: Battle Network Team Protoman; and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. One star for each.

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thegamedork@creativeloafing.com

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Doug Elfman is an award-winning columnist who is also the TV critic at the Chicago Sun-Times.

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New To You — Used Game Of The Week

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Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution is one of the finest fighting games ever made. It features nice settings where you take on fellow giant-fisted and kicking fighters. And the game is in used stores for as little as $5 — a steal.

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Obviously, the game allows players to take on computer-powered players, or friends and family. Oddly enough, though, it has 1,500 winnable costumes. It’s available for PS2. It’s rated T for suggestive themes and violence.