E3 Impressions: Gameloft

Although they’re known more for mobile games, Gameloft has had a few games on the DS.  It seems now instead of traditional retail outlets for their products, they’re going downloadable for the foreseeable future.  They did only have three games to show me however since the rest pretty much were for the iPhone.

Asphalt 4: Elite Racing (DSiWare)

I’ve dabbled a bit with the previous versions of Asphalt: Urban, particularity the original that was available at the launch of the Nintendo DS.  The previous version Asphalt failed to see the light of day on a Nintendo handheld, but the latest version, Elite Racing will be available as DSiWare.

The Asphalt series for those who don’t know is an arcade street racing game.  Your goal is to win races and collect money to buy new cars.  What’s new in this version is the ability to use the DSi cameras to take a picture and slap it on a billboard.  You’ll be able to see this as you race by, but it’s not as noticeable as I thought it might be.

For veterans wondering about how it controls, I’d say it similar to Urban GT 2.  It was satisfying to use the D-pad and buttons to move and fire nitros.  The only control scheme I didn’t care for was the touch controls.  It seemed a bit off and not easy to control as compared to using the traditional style of play.

Gameloft put effort into the cars involved in the game, licensing a whole 28.  They also are including Wi-Fi Connection support to allow for racings with others.  A career mode is also in the game so there will be a bit of replay for those who are looking for a bit more beef in games.  I’m looking forward to when this releases, which is sometime by the end of the year.

Ghost Mansion Party (WiiWare)

I’m not sure there’s an audience for low budget Mario Party knock-offs, but Gameloft is going to try with Ghost Mansion Party for WiiWare.  The game involves a game board, similar to Mario Party.  Each space has a particular trait to it such as triggering a mini-game.  There isn’t too much variety however since the game only has ten mini-games contained within.  Each game uses the Wii Remote in some fashion, whether it be shaking it to inflate a balloon or targeting an object on screen to destroy it.

To be quite honest, I wasn’t that impressed with this title.  The premise seemed somewhat thrown together and the presentation isn’t anything to write home about.  Even with 4-player gaming, this WiiWare titles doesn’t have too much going for it at the moment.

Uno (WiiWare)

Having used my Xbox 360 for the casual playing of Uno, I was excited to hear that the Wii will soon be getting its own version.  For those that have played the Xbox Live Arcade version, the WiiWare build I was shown looks quite similar.  You’re presented with a screen of four players, but can have up to six online.  Each character has their Uno cards in front of their respective Mii.  To select a card you simply use the Wii Remote to pick your card and play it.  One thing I noticed that was different was I didn’t see an option to call Uno on someone who hadn’t called it when it’s not your turn.  Maybe the option just doesn’t pop up automatically, but I didn’t see it.  Other than that it seemed to flow nicely as cards were played.

The six player online support is huge for me since the reason I have Uno on the 360 is to hang out with random folks online.  My only concern is the fact this doesn’t have voice chat which was a big draw for me.  Then again it’s Uno and it’s a fun pick and and play game so I’ll probably end up getting this at one point or another.