Gamertell

I don’t know about people in other parts of the US, but Chicago’s already seen quite a few days in the upper 80s. It looks like a blazing summer is coming, which makes a game like Venture Arctic all the more welcome. Brighter Minds Media, who brought us Pocketwatch Games’ Venture Africa, is now bringing us Pocketwatch’s next game, Venture Arctic.

Players of Venture Arctic get to create an arctic, Alaskan tundra ecosystem populated with 22 species of animals. They will also have to carefully protect their tundras, determining the amounts of snow and ice, the condition of the areas and the health of their creatures. 

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FROM APPLETELL - Got Game Entertainment LLC has announced a North American retail publishing deal for MindHabits for both Mac and PC. Based on more than a decade of research and findings by Dr. Mark Baldwin of McGill University in Montreal, MindHabits presents simple and fun challenges that can help you maintain a… MORE »

We all have bad habits we’re trying to free ourselves from. Whether its drinking, speeding, or in my case caffeine and chocolate. One of the more popular vices everyone would like to see vanish is smoking. Yep, down with the nicotine sticks, no more dancing with cancer these days. But if you have friends who smoke like I do, asking them to stop will result in their telling you to ‘butt’ out or blow that defiant puff in your face.

It’s a habit that people find difficult to shake, especially if they’ve been smoking for quite a long time, rendering the nicotine patches, gums and carrot sticks useless. But in Canada, members of the Allen Carr Team - founded by anti-smoking guru Allen Carr - found a way to help smokers break their habit with the help of a Nintendo DS.

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That’s right, two ”Important Importable Mini”s in one week. I know, shocking, but this item’s pretty cool and I couldn’t resist. I’m a sucker for import DS games.

I was looking at JBox after getting Peter Payne’s “Greetings from J-List” newsletter today (June 4, 2008), browsing its game selection and came across the $58 DS game, Beautiful Kanji Training. Its one of those edutainment titles where you learn while having fun. Except unlike most edutainment titles, which leave you feeling bored and unfulfilled, Beautiful Kanji Training looks fun. 

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Originally I was going to review Otometeki Koi Kakumei: Love Revo DS!!, another DS girl’s dating game, this week. However my bid for the blue-haired guy Shouta is taking a bit longer than I thought, so it will be delayed until next week.

Instead, I’m going to talk a bit about the cultural phenomenon that is Neon Genesis Evangelion and some of the strange video game offspring it has produced. Evangelion is undoubtedly one of the most well known Japanese anime series. This is probably because it possesses most of the essential anime staples: Big robots? Check. High school drama? Check. Cute girls occasionally dressed in revealing/form fitting outfits? Check. Occasionally twisted storyline? Double check.

Frankly, you have to invest a lot of time to truly understand the series. Just watching the End of Evangelion movie one weekend (cough) isn’t going to cut it. Thankfully, many of the video games inspired by the series have nothing to do with the whole tangled storylines and hidden truths which permiate the series. So let’s look at Neon Genesis Evangelion: Ayanami Ikusai Keikaku with Asuka Hohan Keikaku, Shinseiki Evangelion: Typing E-Keikaku, Neon Genesis Evangelion Magokoro wo Kimini and Puchi Eva: Evangelion @ Game, four games loosely based on the whole Evangelion experience.

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One of the worst things about import games is the language barrier. Sure, there are some special people out there who happen to be bilingual, but others who only had access to Japanese I and II in college because there wasn’t enough interest in Japanese III or IV (ahem) weren’t fortunate enough to get the same opportunities.

Unfortunately there aren’t any import games with the specific goal of teaching Japanese, since people from Japan apparently don’t need to learn their native language. However there are a few glittering gems that might offer slight assistance…

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Title: Professor Layton & The Curious Village
Price:$29.99 or $34.99 (depends on the store)
System(s): Nintendo DS
Release Date: 2/10/08
Publisher (Developer):Nintendo (Level 5)
ESRB Rating: “E” for mild violence
Pros: Beautiful graphics, cute story, challenging, lots to do, a new puzzle each week
Cons: Some puzzles can be pretty difficult. Voice acting is annoying
Overall Score: 8/10

When playing Professor Layton, you feel one of two sensations. You will either feel extremely intelligent and ingenious, or you will feel like a total idiot. Each state is also temporary. After solving one puzzle you can feel like you are the most intelligent individual in a three block radius and everyone is blessed to bask in your intelligent aura, and then five minutes later another puzzle can make you wonder if perhaps you should have been held back a grade or two in school. It takes a really powerful game to make someone experience such highs and lows, and Professor Layton and The Curious Village is definitely powerful and profound title.

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Much like cartoons, most gadgets and videogames are really not meant for kids. Let your toddler play Grand Theft Auto for a while or mess with your iPod and you’ll probably not be too happy with the results.

As a safer and more education alternative, LeapFrog Enterprises has been selling the Leaspter educational gaming system for about four years in retail stores across the US. This Summer (2008), LeapFrog will update the Leapster with web connectivity and also release a new handheld, web-enabled system called Didj…

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In Nintendo’s latest Professor Layton and the Curious Village press release, it was revealed that new puzzles will be released over the Nintendo WiFi Connection. Each week, starting with the week of February 10, 2008, when the game is released, and ending six months later in August, a new puzzle will be ready for downloading. This means that by August 10, 2008, players will have had access to 156 puzzles.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is the debut of a series already famous in Japan in North America. It is a puzzle game with a vivid storyline as Professor Layton and his…

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Remember when you couldn’t wait to get into high school? It was the place of learning all those subjects and educational keys to really start molding your future and setting your sites on the career of your choice. But after you enter, the classes became harder and though you excelled at one subject you moan as another flopped. It was no longer fun, challenging and at times you feel disconnected.

For Steve Waddell, CEO and Lead Developer of I Support Learning, remembers that all too well and had developed a way to engage students through videogame design.

“The videogame design curriculum is about making learning relevant to the learner by showing them how math, science and language are used in the real world. The big benefit is engagement,” Waddell told Gamertell. “If a student isn’t engaged, as I found myself in school, then it becomes very tough to learn. This is pretty much common sense. If your audience isn’t listening to you they won’t get the message. We’re also excited that universities around the country are starting to give students…

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