Chrono Trigger DS, Henry Hatsworth and the World of Goo

Last week we spent a couple of days at the Nintendo Media Summit where we got to get some hands-on time with over 20 games. You'll find previews from the event up on our site, but we wanted to highlight a few games that are worth looking at again.

Chrono Trigger DS

Fans will be happy to know that Chrono Trigger is just about done and is ready to hit stores very soon. At the Nintendo Media Summit, Square Enix had Chrono Trigger on display where we could play. It looked the same as it at E3, except that the rest of the game was included.

We learned that there will be a classic mode where it will play exactly like the PlayStation version, without any stylus controls. The battle menus will take up residence in your battle screen, just as you remember. However, if you do want to use the stylus, you can switch to the DS mode where menus are shifted to the touch screen so that you get a full view in the top screen. So if you don't want to deal with the stylus, you don't have to.

Square Enix is still keeping a lid on the multiplayer aspect and all we know at this time is that there is a new dungeon that they have integrated into the story. Some of the dialogue has been tweaked but we were assured that there wouldn't be anything drastic. RPG fans can experience Chrono Trigger again or for the first time on November 25.

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure

The first time we saw this gentleman with the monocle and fancy shmancy mustache was at the EA Studio Showcase in Redwood City this August. Henry Hatworth is an interesting combination of action platforming and Bejewel-like puzzling on the Nintendo DS. The game moves quickly, since you're either chopping enemies with your sword in the top screen or you're in the puzzle realm swapping around blocks with the touch screen. In the puzzle realm you're also on a timer so you'll have to act quickly before your meter runs out. You'll be swapping colored blocks horizontally only to match three or more to erase them. You'll do this to earn power ups and to get rid of enemies that end up in the puzzle realm after you've already slashed them.

The game is worth checking out, especially if you enjoy a pick-up-and-play type game. There's a lot of personality with the characters that we've come across and the game progresses through more than 30 levels in five different worlds. We'll keep an eye on Mr. Hatsworth since it's not going to be ready until sometime in early 2009.

The World of Goo

This cutesy puzzle game was at the last Nintendo Media Summit where got to play with the gooey globules. Designed by Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, World of Goo has a lot of charm and gooey goodness in which you can play with up to three friends on the Nintendo Wii. The goal of the game is to get your goo balls to reach a pipe somewhere in the level. By using the Wii Remote, you grab a ball with the A button and drag it until you find a perfect place to put it down. The goo balls will connect to one another with a stick in between, so by the end it looks like your structure is built out of match sticks, with the goo at the ends to hold it all together. It requires some coordination if you're building with friends since you only have a limited amount of goo balls. You'll come across different types of goo that have various properties and you'll use them in fun and unique ways to get to the pipe. Regular goo will connect and build a rather sturdy structure but we came across some goo that were lighter than air. They had balloon-like properties to help lift the apparatus that we were building. There were also environmental factors to look for, like spikes and other jutting edges that would pop or hurt the little googly-eyed blobs.

The developers have designed it so that each level requires you to approach the puzzle from a new angle so that you won't feel like there is any repetition. They also get progressively harder so it's good to work with a friend who could help you attack the puzzle at hand. With just under 50 levels to play through, World of Goo is a great new addition to the WiiWare catalogue. You can also use the goo balls that you collected to build a goo tower and go online and compare. Other towers will be indicated by clouds so for 1500 Wii points, you can get a head start when the game is released on October 13.