Wappy Dog lets young gamers take care of a virtual dog and teach it how to do various tricks or play mini-games together.  We saw the success of Tamagotchi, but that little egg shaped keychain may not be enough for this generation. Its nice to interact with a puppy that has a shape, and you can do it to the Wappy Dog via a Nintendo DS.   In order to make your puppy learn and grow, evolve and improve its skills, the dog will show you whether its happy or not by wagging its tail and yes of course, barking too. Constant interaction is a must if you want to keep your dog happy, and this isn’t far from the truth with the real life kind.

“We were excited about Wappy Dog from the moment we saw it. This one-of-a-kind toy and video game combines a strong emotional bond and exciting virtual experience with the interaction of a physical pet “, said David Oxford from Activision Publishing.

Wappy Dog owners can choose to play the game in one of two modes; home or travel depending on how much time do you have to take care of your virtual dog.  Wappy’s cheeks can also turn five different colors depending on its mood. Bright colors mean the dog is happy and willing to cooperate and a happy dog means that new tricks will be unlocked.  The game displays Wappy through its five age states letting gamers witness how their puppy mature into a pooch.

[via WappDog Game]

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DoCoMo’s top dog Ryuji Yamada was caught saying that “videogame makers know that in order for portable game machines to take the next step forward, they need wireless communication. We are discussing this with various players.”  Yamada has that right, these gaming devices are quickly being threatened with each iteration and jump forward smartphone technology takes.  App store inventories are growing with hot titles every day, even ports by the very game creators themselves are on the iPhone, if game console manufacturers want to keep playing in the mobile arena they’ll have to make a drastic evolution.  We know the 3DS specs were announced and 3G didn’t make the list, Nintendo may take an Applesque approach to their hardware in the future, offering a range of models with WiFi only, WiFi + 3G, and various storage capacity options.  Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata was impressed by 3G being offered up for free on the Amazon Kindle.

“The distinction between gaming devices and mobile communication devices, like smartphones, are blurring. And it may eventually disappear” added Yamada.  Could that be hinting at much more than 3G connected gaming consoles, but consoles that are also our next mobile phones?

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Nintendo 3DS announced in Japan

It seems that the next generation of Nintendo handhelds are entering a whole new dimension and it could be much more innovative than that bigger-screened Nintendo DSi XL. That’s because the Nintendo 3DS will feature a 3D display and you won’t even need some goofy goggles to make use of it.

This not just a rumor. Nintendo Japan has officially announced the Nintendo 3DS. If you’re expecting Avatar-style 3D where the objects leap off the screen, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. That’s not the 3D you’ll be getting here, from what I can tell.  Instead, from a best guess point of view, the Nintendo 3DS will an accelerometer.  In doing so, it can alter the perspective of the game to give the appearance of depth depending on the tilted angle it is held at. It’s like you are looking deep into the screen for 3D rather than having things come out of the screen. There may be more to it, but that sounds like the main 3D tech being used.

The rumors surrounding other features are plentiful. It will be backwards compatible with DS and DSi games, but it’s unclear whether it’ll have vibration feedback, or a higher resolution (720p) screen. There might be a Tegra chip and there might be a 3G SIM slot for over-the-air downloads.

A more formal unveiling will likely take place at E3 Expo this June.

Update: This is not a Nintendo 3DS demo but a DSiware title called Rittai Kakushi e Attakoreda.  It uses the DSi camera to detect how you tilt the system and uses “Head Tracking” technology.

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A tone-mapped photograph taken with the Nintendo DS Phat and an Olympus E-P1 with 17mm pancake. Photo: hdrlabs.com

The Nintendo DS is a fantastic little gaming machine. To this day, I still enjoy playing Mario Kart DS on it, not to mention all the great titles that are offered as DSiWare through the Nintendo DSi. As it turns out, it can also be a great peripheral for shutterbugs too.

Open Camera Control (OCC) "Jailbreaks" your Nintendo DS

Sure, the Nintendo DSi already has a couple of low-resolution cameras embedded in it, but not many the pictures taken from it are really worthy of your public portfolio. However, it turns out that you can use the DS to control your DSLR. The software, called the Open Camera Controller, was created by Steve Chapman from Gentle Giant Studios and HDRLabs and is an incarnation of the ultimate HDR-panorama-bracketing machine.  The hacked DS software will work with Canon DSLR cameras, as well as cameras from Olympus and Sigma. With the Open Camera Controller (OCC), you actually gain additional features like timelapse shots, intervolometer, built-in alarms, and “clap” activated shutters. They also got the software to use as many as 11 stops to bracket their metered exposure.  They have used a few Nikon cameras that have MC-DC1 connectors, but Nikon’s firmware limits shots faster than 1/10th of a second.

HDRLabs is not selling OCC on the open market, but they do offer instructions on how enthusiasts can build their own. Once ready, users can then get up to five open-source apps to go along with OCC.

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Nintendo has long since been the leader in the realm of portable gaming. I still remember how excited I was to play Tetris on the original Game Boy, even though the display was only capable of that spinach green monochrome. My, how far we have come since then.

The Nintendo DS eventually paved the way for the DS Lite and the DSi, but what will the future bring? Is Nintendo concerned about Apple infringing on its mobile gaming world with the iPhone? That appears to be the case, because the codenamed Nintendo DS2 looks like it will have a accelerometer enabling full tilt control.

This is based on the early development kits that are being shipped out to some of Nintendo’s favorite game developers. A way for them to get started on those incredibly important launch titles. Among these developers is the Pokemon Company. Yes, Pikachu is still popular.

Details surrounding the Nintendo DS2 gaming handheld are slim at best, but we can probably assume the double-display configuration is to stay in place. Dual touchscreens would be an interesting addition this time around. Either way, it seems that the tilt sensor is the newest thing, but the DS2 won’t hit retailers still for quite some time.

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Coming by way of WB Games, Scribblenauts is easily one of the more innovative and creative games to grace the Nintendo DS platform in quite some time. Instead of being limited only to the objects you see on the screen, you can let your imagination run wild and introduce (almost) any item imaginable.

Scribblenauts in a Nutshell

As you migrate your way from one stage to the next as the Scribblenauts protagonist, you are giving the opportunity to introduce nearly any object under the sky. Hitting the notebook icon in the top-right corner opens up a keyboard and you type out the item, animal, or person of your desire.

Your selection of items isn’t completely haphazard, of course, since there is a goal. You’ll explore a total of ten worlds, each of which contain about eleven “action” and eleven “puzzle” stages.

For the action stages, you’ll see a star some place and your goal is to retrieve it. Some stages may come with certain restrictions, like telling you that you cannot harm the armed guards, whereas others are more of a free-for-all. You can give yourself a machine gun, for example, and this would be fine for the latter but not the former.

For the puzzle stages, you will be challenged to complete a certain task. One of the early stages, for example, is to reunite a girl with her cat. The feline companion happens to be on the roof of a house, so you have to figure out how to retrieve (or entice) the cat off the roof.

A Glossary of over 20,000 Objects

And this is where the great power of Scribblenauts comes through. For the aforementioned puzzle with the girl and the cat, you can introduce a mouse. The cat will see the mouse on the ground, jump off the roof, and the girl can have her cat back. Alternatively, you can bring in a ladder so that your character can climb up to the roof, get the cat, and come back down.

Even though the glossary in Scribblenauts appears to be nearly infinite, it really “only” has about 20,000 words or so. This is because some words bring up exactly the same object or character. Typing in “soldier” or “army” brings up the same military figure.

This bites a little into your imaginative prowess, as does the lack of ability to introduce trademarked or branded objects, but the creativity is still certainly there for you to explore.

Further still, the control scheme can be quite annoying. Aside from panning the screen with the d-pad to see the rest of the stage, all the controls are done with the stylus. This includes manipulating the objects you introduce and controlling where your protagonist goes and what he does. This is far from ideal, since you may click on an object when you really mean to move your guy.

Solving Puzzles is Only Half the Fun

Getting your way through the stages can really be a lot of fun, especially since it fostered imaginative solutions to the puzzles, but that’s only half of the Scribblenauts experience. You’ll oftentimes find yourself enjoying the “sandbox” nature of this game to play out “what if” scenarios.

In the screen above, I wanted to see who would win in a battle between Cthulu and God. Yes, you read that correctly. I’ve also been able to introduce the devil, a dragon, an alien, a Martian (which is different from an alien), and more.

This experimentation really is where you’ll extract the most enjoyment out of this game.

Conclusion

The controls are far from ideal and the graphics are far from cutting-edge, but Scribblenauts is some of the most fun I’ve had on the DS since Tetris and Mario Kart. It’s not for everyone and some people may not like the slower pace of the game, but I just love the truly experimental nature of Scribblenauts. In what other game can you introduce (almost) anything that you want.

And yes, you can even bring in a Rick Roll and a boombox. Unfortunately, he probably will give you up and he just might let you down… but at least you’ll have fun getting him mauled by a polar bear while an ant runs away from a camp fire.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

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