Screen Analysis Part 2

00-08-29 - Dave - Last time I did this, only nine games were announced...nine!  Hard to imagine, eh?  Now that we've got over 40 games confirmed, maybe we should go back and look at some of those screenshots....

Hatena Satena

First impressions:  Wacky Waluigi's!  Picross!  Wahoo!  *happy dance*  I've been playing Picross like a madman for the past couple weeks, and it's good to know I will now be able to do it on my GBA.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Picross games, the basic idea is to use the numbers displayed outside of the grid to chisel/punch out blocks...for example, if the numbers for the first row were '5 2 3', it means there will be a string of 5, and then a string of 2, and then a string of 3. Once you're finished, you have a jagged, yet somewhat discernable picture of...something.

Analysis:  It's taking me a while to figure out what the importance of the colors behind the numbers is, but I think I've got it.  Instead of having boring black and white images like most previous Picross games, Hatena Satena will let you work in color!  Not only do you have to mark the right squares, you have to mark them with the correct color.  Also, the numbers by the grid will scroll left/right or top/bottom to show the numbers for every grid row/column, since the resolution isn't quite high enough to do it without scrolling (Mario Picross had no scrolling, but it didn't have color puzzles).  Personally, I think there's a little too much junk on the screen...the blue character, the words at left and top right, and all the blank sea green area.  Perhaps if they had gotten rid of all the trash, we could have a larger puzzle.

Matsumoto Reiji's Space Hexcite X

First Impressions:  Yeehaw!  From the first screen, we can tell that Hexcite is back.  For those of you who missed out on Hexcite for the GBC, the object of the game is to fill the playing field (made up of 7 hexagons) with your game pieces.  Points are scored based on number of sides touching, and bonus points are awarded for filling in one of the 6 exterior hexagons.  It sounds simple, but with the number of moves, blocks, and gambits available on any given turn, it quickly escalates in depth to become as strategic as Chess.

Analysis:  The second screen shot appear to show the game's awesome Practice Mode.  Beginning with the extremely simple, Hexcite GBC's practice mode became difficult quite quickly long before the numorous set-ups ran out.  Luckily for us, the Practice Mode is played basically the same as a regular game, so we can take a look at the meat of Hexcite X.  On the left and right edges, you see the number of each type of piece remaining for each player (note, this will be a 2-player game, no question in my mind).  No new pieces are visible, so I'm assuming the game will be relatively the same.  Remember the bonus points for filling in the 6 exterior hexagons?  Well, they vary depending on which hexagon.  Take a look at the pink-purple hexagon in the bottom right that is partially filled in with a green, smaller hexagon and an orange rhombus. See those three dots? That means you will earn 30 bonus points for placing the last piece in that hexagon...if you look at the other 2 visible 'gons, you can see that they have 1 and 2 dots, worth 10 and 20 bonus points, respectively.

Over all, it would appear as though Hexcite X, while colorized and much prettier, has changed little gameplay-wise from the GBC version.