PSP: Brain Training / Big Quiz and Lumines II

[Arwin]

I was browsing through the best-selling games on www.play.com, and lo and behold I spotted a title called Big Quiz, for 26 euros. Turns out it's *very* similar to DS's Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training, which is not surprising, as it was designed by the same guy, but now apparently for SEGA and on the PSP. It's already on place 14 or something and climbing, and it's already out!

Of course, minus of course the pen-support, which I'm sure is going to reduce its fun considerably, but then at 25 euro it may just sell pretty well. Apparently it also has some kind of online support.

I haven't found any reviews yet, though, unfortunately, but it's an updated port of the popular Japanese version apparently.

So I just went ahead and ordered it too, together with Lumines II, which is thankfully also 25 euros - which I think is good because, despite the new skins, the game doesn't offer much more than the original. But the original is a very early game and though it's good, I'm looking forward to a more polished version (although I'd have liked an online leaderboard a-la Tekken, or the Live Arcade version).

 

[mech]

Got Lumines 2 from the US the other day and it's great. It is pretty much just more of the same, but the new skins are cool and the challenge mode is hard and fun

 

[LunchBox]

OMG!

how can I forget about Lumines II!

 

[Arwin]

Looks like I'll be getting Lumines next week ... but on the other hand, I just got Big Quiz.

So far it seems ok. Presentation is dull, and uncharacteristically Ubisoft hasn't bothered to change the default accept button from o to x, which is stupid.

However, there are really a rather lot of different kinds of tests to do. You start with a basic selection in a limited number of categories, but then you can unlock quite a few of them more.

Laying out the results to the four basic playstation buttons works well and is easy, but in this area it is clear that the DS versions of these games are much more interesting, allowing for a wider range of answers and thus making everything a little harder. However, at the same time it has to be said that this button configuration is very reliable.

 

[Arwin]

There's quite a lot of stuff in this game, lots of different kinds of test ... The presentation is very dull, but in general it's ok.

BUT

I just had the game lock up on me! Shame! I was doing the Challenge Mode which is quite fun, but when I was in I think Mexico, doing a Moving Numbers on Hard, I got a B+ and a record. I clicked to confirm that and then it just hung on me.

If anyone has this game and has it happen to them, please let me know.

EDIT:

Weird .. I think I got it going again by putting it into sleep mode and back ...

 

[Planet]

A lot more annoying is the lack of an autosave feature. Sucks for a game that is supposed to be run every day once or twice for just a few minutes. "Yes, lowered my brain age by 6 years" - "oh shit, forgot to save again..."

 

[Arwin]

A lot more annoying is the lack of an autosave feature. Sucks for a game that is supposed to be run every day once or twice for just a few minutes. "Yes, lowered my brain age by 6 years" - "oh shit, forgot to save again..."

Yeah, I was thinking about that too, would have been nice. But then again, I haven't forgotten to save yet either, and it's also nice to be able to not save at times, when you are doing an exam and some moron in the train wants to see your ticket.

On the other hand, I find that there are quite a few different kinds of exercises. More than I remember from some of the other games, or am I mistaken?

I'm thinking though that a lot of these tests should be doable quite easily and nicely with my very simple OpenGL Text Project below. Food for thought.

 

[Arwin]

So, now I got Lumines 2, finally. My first impressions are that there are a lot of improvements over the Japanese version. I'm starting to think that the U.S./E.U. version was already a lot better than the Japanese version (didn't they have more skins?).

Here are my minus and plusses so far:

Minus:

- profile support is basically dropped

It's a lot harder to work with different users here. Right now, rather than allowing you to create different users, it just takes your PSP name for high-scores and you'll have to do the rest through savegame management, but there isn't really anything for you to identify the different savegames with, other than some basic playtime type stuff. This is not something I am currently happy with, as my girlfriend and I really liked to have different profiles for Lumines and it is harder now for her to select her own game.

Also, it is as if Lumines II on PSP has prepared itself for some kind of unified user login on PSP for the future, as it now just automatically picks up your PSP name as your user name, so that you don't have to fill in your name anywhere anymore.

- I haven't found an autosave option yet (maybe I missed it though), but saving is lighting fast, so it would be nice

Plus:

Everything I ever wanted, basically, such as

+ the game is noticeably faster and smoother. I just got 69 for 60 second mode twice, and didn't even do spectacularly well.
+ 20 positions per high-score no matter what mode
+ saving your replay (though apparently only for one minute? so maybe not that useful - anyway, I saved my 69 block record )
+ immediate restart timed modes, rather than having to go back to menu
+ all sorts of achievement and statistics recorded for all the different modes (consecutive bonusses, highest number of blocks cleared, average mission/puzzle clear speed, speed of all cpu opponents beat, etc.)
+ different skill levels for the main game (difference is mainly the amount of lines your playfield has horizontally - 10,9 or 8)
+ some scoring changes mentioned earlier (consecutive bonus multipliers)
+ a clearer view of the bonusses you get

There are quite a few other things, like the Mission Mode, which is more fun than I expected. A lot of the tutorial stuff is in there. Good place to start, really.

Well, especially at 26 euros, it comes highly recommended!

Oh and by the way - don't know if Every Extend Extra is a great game yet, but it sure looks hot. Amazing graphics.

Both games really show off the color depth this time ...

 

[Arwin]

Achievements are a great addition to Lumines II on the PSP

I got most of the 50 Missions done now (number 33 is giving me a headache though!), and I've reached level S in the Achievements for all the Time Trials, scoring 78, 226, 353, and 663.

Here's a list of features in the Database - Play History section:

Total

Total Play Time (e.g. A- / 10:48:11)
Skin Collection Rate (e.g. 65%)
-----------------------
Total Evaluation (e.g. A-)

Challenge Mode Class B

High Score (e.g. A / 369,355)
Maximum number of blocks erased in One Time Line sweep (e.g. A+ / 15 pieces)
Number of erase-alls in One Game (e.g. B / 1 times)
Number of single-color blocks erased in 1 game (e.g. 7 times)
Consecutive Bonuses (e.g. 14 times)
-----------
Evaluation (e.g. A-)

Same for Challenge Mode Class A

Same for Challenge Mode Class S

Skin Edit-Single Lap
High Score in Single Lap (e.g. A / 100,000)
Consecutive Bonusses (e.g. 5 times)
----------
Evaluation (e.g. C)

Time Attack Mode
60 seconds (e.g. S / 78 pieces)
180 seconds (e.g. S / 226 pieces)
300 seconds (e.g. S / 353 pieces)
600 seconds (e.g. S / 663 pieces)
----------
Evaluation (e.g. S)

Puzzle Mode
Achievements (e.g. B+ / 27%)
Average Game Completion Time (e.g. 00:00:39)
Retries (e.g. 11 times)

Puzzle Mode Hard
Achievements (e.g. B+ / 27%)
Average Game Completion Time (e.g. 00:00:39)
Retries (e.g. 11 times)

Puzzle Mode Super Hard
Achievements (e.g. B+ / 27%)
Average Game Completion Time (e.g. 00:00:39)
Retries (e.g. 11 times)

Evaluation (e.g. C)

Mission Mode
Mission Mode Easy
Achievements (e.g. S+ / 100%)
Average Game Completion Time (e.g. 00:00:20)
Retries (e.g. 17 times)

Mission Mode Hard
Achievements (e.g. S+ / 100%)
Average Game Completion Time (e.g. 00:00:46)
Retries (e.g. 44 times)

Mission Mode Super Hard
Achievements (e.g. S+ / 65%)
Average Game Completion Time (e.g. 00:01:18)
Retries (e.g. 34 times)
----------------------
Evaluation (e.g. S)

VS CPU Tournament Tour
Times Cleared (e.g. B / 1 times)
Win Rate (e.g. A- / 76%)
Longest Game Time (e.g. 00:01:11)
Shortest Win Time (e.g. 00:00:29)
----------------------
Evaluation (e.g. A-)

Duel Mode
Win Rate (e.g. 0%)
Victories (e.g. 0)
Defeats (e.g. 0)

 

[Arwin]

Ok so from seeing S+ in the Achievements, I got this somewhat worried suspicion that you might actually be able to get an S+ in a Time Trial too. So, sure enough, when I had a crazy run of 93 in 60 secs, I was awarded an S+ ranking! I worked hard to get it for the 180 sec, and got it there as well. Not achieved that at the 300 or 600 second trials yet though. Impressive stuff, that they went so far to reward your achievements. Doubt very many people will attain that S+ ranking ...

 

[Arwin]

So I finally got the third time trial to S+ ... man that was hard. It's just really difficult to play so fast for a full five minutes. I'm not looking forward to achieving the same on 10 minutes ... that will be exhausting! Currently I have 94 / 232 / 395 / 716. And my game time is up to 22 hours. I've done a few of the regular games as well, went round-trip on one of the modes with about 750.000 points (kinda upset I screwed up as I was looking forward to breaking the 1.000.000 ).

Oh and did a bit more brain training again today, after a week break. After the first week I got down to 22, but now I got 29.