An infrared transceiver at the back of the device uses science and magic to silently detect the connection, which the 3DS makes no mention of until Resident Evil: Revelations loads and acknowledges the situation by offering to enable control style-D. As expected, this control option allows players to tackle Revelations as if they were using the dual analog controls offered by the PS3 and/or Xbox 360.

Guiding Jill through the derelict cruise ship with the Circle Pad Pro offered two observations.

The first is that the Circle Pad Pro makes the first-person option of moving with the gun drawn within Revelations more noticeable. While that mode can be used in the standard controls with style-C, it would be easy to miss it entirely if you just started the game without digging into the matter more. With the Circle Pad Pro, pressing the left trigger throws you into FPS mode, making the option much more pronounced. Style-D also places the weapons at the ready, with the right trigger firing guns, and the right shoulder button activating the secondary weapon.

This really can’t be called a better way to play, simply a different way. But while bouncing around more in FPS mode as a result, my second observation was that the added heft of the circle pad offers my hands a better means of grasping the 3DS for long periods without feeling my hands cramp. However, I’m not going to tell you that using the 3DS has been morphing my hands into claws, which I might often say about the PSP. The Circle Pad simply offers a more comfortable means for me to hold the device during lengthier gaming sessions.

Whether or not you need the Circle Pad Pro is one of those personal questions I can’t answer for you – it’s a bit like recommending a pair of pants, one size isn’t going to fit all here. I can only say that handling one made it unlikely that I’d go without one, which I’d also have said about the Classic Controller Pro for the Wii. So if you don’t want to buy one, make sure your hands never come into contact with it.

If you’ve been longing for dual-analog controls, and are aware that only games made to support the device will work with it, the Circle Pad Pro will be exclusively sold through EB Games / GameStop beginning on February 7th for $19.99.

Nintendo’s booklet says the battery you insert into the Circle Pad Pro is good for 480 hours – I’m going to have to take their word on that at the moment.

Today the game hit Xbox LIVE Arcade for 800 Microsoft Points, and will appear on the PlayStation Network next week for $9.99 – or free to PlayStation Plus subscribers on that platform. Like last year’s release of X-Men Arcade, The Simpsons Arcade game was what I often longed for on home consoles, rather than the infuriating adventure games we got instead.

The Simpsons allows up to four players to join the game locally or online, as well as offering both the North American and Japanese versions of the ROM. This port of the arcade classic also lightly stirs the play-mode options, offering a setting that challenges players to complete the game with a single life – and I salute anyone who can accomplish such a feat.

The Simpsons is as mercilessly brutal at devouring your lunch money as any of Konami’s old arcade creations, perhaps the most hungry of them all. However, since the game provides a free-play mode that ensures anyone can see the ending, we don’t really need to get hung up on the difficulty here.

What deserves a few more words is how visually interesting the game is, proving equally important historically, along with providing a delightful nostalgia trip that has me thinking back to the first time I saw the four-player cabinet back in an era when arcades still existed in abundance.

Much like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, unique attacks, subtle character animations, and background action brings a richer sense of life to the title. But the level of detail within The Simpsons represents a real peak in creating a game as animated as the source material.

Supporting characters continually appear with health regenerating food and temporary weapons, and the game exploits any chance to squeeze out references to the show while traveling from the streets of Springfield to the Nuclear Plant, including an appearance by Matt Groening’s signature rabbit. But the game also takes interesting liberties, creating a dream sequence where players fight curious donut enemies or a graveyard full of zombies, neither of which feel out of place within the eight stage trip.

There’s also an immense spirit of curiosity, providing players with a myriad of objects that can be picked-up and hurled at enemies – from soda cans to the family dog. The end of two different stages even feature a mini-game where players compete for points by mashing the buttons repeatedly to either fill a balloon with air or slap their own character’s face to wake them up.

It’s an expectedly short trip that asks you to bash on bosses like all Konami beat ‘em-ups of course, but as much as I prefer the X-Men and TMNT licenses, this just might be the more interesting dose of nostalgia from that era for all the extra trouble the game goes to in creating curious bits of interaction in both the background and foreground – whether you’re shaking a tree for apples or getting hit by a swinging door from a storefront.

If you have no memories of the arcades and/or have never found other means to sample the title, it would be easy to imagine that the game simply pasted The Simpsons franchise over an existing framework, and that isn’t entirely a false assumption. But that framework provides the foundation for a game that devours the source material and emerges with an experience still worth revisiting, even after all these years. And despite what the screenshots suggest, you can play the game without tacky borders.

Since I always enjoy listening to the people who make games discuss their work, you can catch the full audio recording of the discussion below, which runs about fifty minutes.

It all begins with naming yourself, and being assigned a random cat color while materializing at the doorstep of a house that has no entrance, but does provide a doormat where you can place the trophy mice found throughout the single map.

I’d only just started exploring the different areas when another cat ran up and asked me to follow, leading me through one of the game’s secret passages that hid a series of piano keys – the other cat began walking over them to produce notes while I purred approvingly, having already learned that typing /purr would produce the imagined action. You can also try /meow, /nap, and /screech.

Today’s cat adventure revolved entirely around the matter of dogs – being bit by one had the curious effect of turning me into one. Biting another cat or leaving a mouse offering on the doorstep returned me to cat form, and wanting to get to the bottom of this dog business led me to a hidden dog statue where players were making mice offerings in order to become dogs – strange religious animal activities are afoot.

The game’s only instruction is “be a cat”, and as you might have guessed, it’s a very strange bit of business being a cat in this space. Naturally, that’s all the excuse I need to recommend you check it out via this handy link.

Remember kids, don’t shoot the messenger.

Pinup Juliet belongs to pre-orders placed with Amazon, while Best Buy has the Goth Girl and Foxy Funk attire. Evil Dead fans will have to hit up GameStop for a chance to carry Ash’s infamous boomstick on their back – GameStop PoweUp Rewards members will also sport fashion from Mindless Self Indulgence’s Jimmy Urine, who also happens to be contributing music along with playing one of the boss characters.

Not sure what to wear? Catch a look inside Juliet’s extended closet below.

The demo offers a quick bit of driver training that walks players through the speed boosts, turbo boosts, reverse driving options and primary and secondary fire abilities that give a fighting chance to survive the mean streets of Twisted Metal – as well as a chance to feel how agile and responsive different rides can handle.

The nature of car combat has always been like jousting knights – you can charge at one another with guns blazing, and should you both survive, there’s an awkward moment of turning and adjustment to take another run at burying each other – or the often easier option of continuing forward to fire on the next available target. Twisted Metal’s option of pressing X and jamming the analog stick to spin around on a dime goes a long way in allowing the joust to evolve into one-on-one grudge encounters worth a sonnet every now and then.

Being able to keep track of special weapons while spinning through the anarchy requires greater skill, which I’m still working on. But in the meantime, dropping mines to trip someone up before flipping around to jam the car into reverse and fire off a missile barrage is delightful, and as you may have guessed by now, I definitely recommend sampling the chaos for yourself before the full game hits on Valentine’s Day.

Hybrid may be hard-pressed to surprise players in the visual department, but this latest glimpse offers something potentially interesting, with the apparent ability to shift your footing along with your perspective, which at the moment is reminding me quite a bit of Capcom’s Dark Void – specifically, the most interesting bit of Dark Void.

That cursed reference aside, catch a peek at Hybrid for yourself below.

The four-player mission gives the opportunity to raid a corporate compound, choosing between an offensive or support role. Going with support started me off with a sniper rifle and a chance to score plenty of headshots, which my character was quite fond of shouting about. I’m not sure there’s anything here that will rock the foundations of the shooter world at present, but weapons “feel” good whilst filling less-than intelligent enemies with bullets, and bailing out comrades by healing their wounds might serve as your good deed of the week.

At no extra charge, each playthrough will treat you to the trailer, with music that supports EA’s agenda of having lots of soundtracks this year that go “WUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUB”.

As always, check the demo out and let me know what you think.

The redeemable token will allow those that purchase Dragon’s Dogma for Xbox 360 to sample RE6 on July 3rd, which Capcom notes as 60 days earlier than any other platform – PlayStation 3 owners will have to wait until September 4th. Keep in mind that there’s no sense of just how much meat is on that demo bone at present.

This naturally raises many questions, including whether we should be interested in Dragon’s Dogma, which hits shelves in North America on May 22nd.

The action will pause for a moment before the villain doubles over with a cry and vanishes, possibly leaving behind coins as you sheath your sword and await the next opponent foolish enough to try a similar tactic.

Sakura Samurai is never long for providing another adversary either, all of them determined to prevent your quest to save Princess Cherry Blossom and return peace to the land. But for a game overflowing with waves of opponents, an intimate one-on-one battle system makes every fight a dance of patience and precision that offers a chance to mimic the calm and collected spirit of an anime samurai.

Answering the call to save the Princess without hesitation or elaborate explanation, players are presented with a world map littered with stage points, requiring that each one be cleared in succession to reveal the path forward. Entering these stages drops players into the scenic Japanese countryside, where various formations of enemies await the chance to end this quest, and quickly form into intimidating clusters around the player’s position while taking turns striking out in real time.

Enemies may charge at the player from a distance, or move in closer for quicker swings, and after attacking, an enemy will often back away to allow comrades a chance to play. The camera will pivot around until an enemy initiates an attack, and players can attempt to influence this process by dashing toward their preferred opponent, able to block incoming attacks as well as initiate their own. Striking enemies prematurely will often result in the player’s own attacks being blocked however, and has a nasty tendency of wearing down the Sakura Sword.

Players can achieve quick single strikes against enemies when their guard is down before a strike, but evading enemy attacks to gain a counterstrike opportunity is the key ingredient to success in combat. As an enemy prepares to strike, their blade will briefly flash red, indicating a precious window in which players can evade in any direction, and in turn land two quick blows with their sword.

To shake up the process, later enemy encounters will also offer yellow flashes, indicating multiple strikes that require more drawn out evasive measures. Evasions also add to a special strike gauge, which will allow players to execute a more powerful attack on multiple enemies when filled. Adding to the learning curve, it becomes necessary to watch for enemy gestures that indicate the type of attack about to occur. Some enemies may attack from the side and require a side-dash evasion, but may also strike forward and require the player to fall back evasively before attempting to charge forward for a counterstrike.

The variation of attack patterns continually evolves as players travel along the ancient road, adding armored enemies that wield heavy swords and extended javelins. Eventually archer opponents are added as well, making it necessary to dodge arrows, though sometimes archers can be helpful given their habit of firing at your position regardless of whether their own comrades are blocking the shot. There are also ninja enemies that will buzz around the screen while tossing out bombs and throwing stars.

Stages draw easy water from the well of potential formations, which went a long way in keeping me engaged in a process that was essentially asking that I simply clear out nests of enemies repeatedly – a task that never changes, with players growing stronger but still executing the same maneuvers throughout the game. But the experience didn’t feel like the grind that approach suggests, with each stage offering potential surprises, and the act of reacting to enemy attacks continually challenging my reflexes. It’s easy to approach a stage prepared, even knowing the set stage formation of enemies due to replays, but the play of evasion and precision strikes keeps the experience from wearing thin as quickly as one might expect.

With all of the combat details out of the way, it’s hard to believe I haven’t even discussed a critical element of evasion yet, but here we are.

Aside from saving your hearts, a successful evasion also rewards players with precision points, which serve as an additional layer of currency. With each evasion, a chain of precision points builds, and players can carry that chain into each new and revisited area. However, the chain will reset to zero when the player is struck by an enemy or has one of their own attacks blocked, which may make you question what the point is, but rest assured there is one.

The value of precision points is found within villages, where players can visit the item shop and sell their precision scores to the vendor, who keeps a record of your highest precision chain on the store shelf. An interesting gamble presents itself in asking the player to wager how long they are willing to carry the chain before selling it, and that transaction becomes an essential means of coin collecting later in the game.

I found it necessary to return to earlier areas and evade easier enemies repeatedly in order to trade higher chains for much needed cash.

The monetary burden of the game primarily rests on the desire to upgrade the Sakura Sword by having the local swordsmith forge a higher level blade, which is the most expensive action within the game. Cheaper concerns include sharpening stones, which are needed in battle when your blade dulls from blocked attacks, as well as local expenses such as food for the journey and healing hotel visits where progress can be saved.

There are also items that augment your combat possibilities and are handled aptly in battle via the dpad, such as daggers that can be thrown at enemies from a distance, and frogs that can be tossed at enemies to distract them long enough to break their defense. The two most expensive items in the game are a robe that will shield players from a certain amount of attacks, and an amulet that renews your health should you fall in battle.

Each of the game’s three over-world areas offers a village with identical resources, save for variations on a stamp collecting mini-game street challenge, and the ability to raise your sword level.

Clearing all the stages of an area opens the path to the local fortress, where multiple waves of enemies stand between players and an area boss that will put tactics to the test with complex attack patterns. Thankfully, each cleared stage along the way rewards players with half a heart, and two halves naturally add an additional container count so that players grow stronger while progressing. Additional sympathy is shown when players perish within a stage, returning to the world map to find the game’s friendly Kappa character marking a stage where enemies will give more coins when defeated to help get you back on track.

The strategy is straightforward, but no matter how many patterns I learned, it was still easy to get caught off guard. The variation on attack patterns from all enemies means that you can never relax your attention to subtle details, separating this release from the more typical hack and slash style of ninja games typically offered.

I can’t readily the recall the last swordfight where I had time to squint at an opponent before each strike – a curious spaghetti western moment before each round of samurai Punch-Out!! occurs. The overwhelming need to pay attention to details in battle kept my typically lazy gamer senses engaged, offering a level of replay value that helps this latest eShop release stand tall among some impressive titles of late.

Sakura Samurai offers a level of control where the proposition is simplistic, but the reactionary requirement leaves plenty to learn and master – put to the test beyond the campaign with thug challenges that task players with taking down a set amount of enemies in record time. Should the heat of battle ever become too much, players are always free to visit the Rock Garden, where the 3DS step counter is used to make a Sakura tree bloom – a pretty idea that adds to the charm and compliments the tactile pleasure Sakura Samurai’s rather unique sense of pacing offers on and off the battlefield.

Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword

Developer
Nintendo

Publisher
Nintendo

System
Nintendo 3DS (3DSWare)

Modes
Singleplayer

Release Date
February 2, 2012

Price
$6.99

*A copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review