Toronto Thumbs

KORG DS-10 Will Bring Synths to a New Level

By Shaun Hatton - March 25th, 2008

Sometimes math can be fun: DS + KORG = Awesome.

By taking the design concept of KORG’s famous MS-10 synth and marrying it with the DS’s compact form factor, touch control and wireless capabilities, KORG may very well be unleashing a monster. They aim to have the program be accessible to beginners but robust enough for professional synth players.

From the company’s official site:

In addition to the two analog synth simulators and drum module, a 6-track/16-step sequencer enables precise control and provides a wide range of musical possibilities. Several units can be connected and played together through a wireless link, and this and other features make the Nintendo DS and KORG DS-10 almost limitless in their application - they can take you places that no single synthesizer can.

There’s a whole bunch of additional technical jargon that’s enough to get me super excited about the release of this software. It could very well replace my dual-keyboard Thomas electric organ. Check out a sample of music from the KORG DS-10 or just visit their site for more information.

The KORG DS-10 synthesizer program for Nintendo’s mighty DS will be available in Japan this July, with a North American release hopefully following sometime shortly thereafter.

Posted in DS, Music, News, Nintendo | 5 Comments »

Professor Layton Deleted Scene Found!

By Toronto Thumbs Staff - March 20th, 2008

There are over 20 deleted scenes from Professor Layton and the Curious Village hidden somewhere on Toronto Thumbs.

One of the deleted scenes from Professor Layton and the Curious Village has been found! It’s an outtake of one of the conversations Layton and Luke have about a cat playing with a mouse. Check it out!

Local legend has it that there are over 20 such deleted scenes hidden throughout Toronto Thumbs. They’re hidden so well that even we do not know where they are anymore. How did we get ahold of these? No one knows for certain. But in all likelihood, some mischievous staff members might have been bored and decided to make them up. What better way to pay homage to one of the best DS games ever?

Don’t forget to check out our Resident Evil 4/Professor Layton wallpaper and our Layton review, too.

Posted in DS, Humour, Nintendo | No Comments »

Guitar Hero On Tour for DS: odd and awesome

By Shaun Hatton - March 19th, 2008

The Guitar Hero on Tour website goes live tomorrow: guitarheroontour.com

A video surfaced today which shows just how Guitar Hero on Tour, the DS iteration of the rock game phenomenon, will be played. Wired has a good write-up on it along with a video embedded from IGN.

The video shows what I can only describe as and odd and yet awesome control scheme for the game. Having Guitar Hero on the DS is indeed a very ambitious undertaking, but this video looks like it may actually work. Not only that, it looks like it will work well. By utilizing an attachment that has the coloured fret buttons on one side, players can hold the ds with one hand while strumming the touchscreen with what looks to be an included pick with the other. Brilliant!

The official site for the game is set to launch tomorrow. Here’s to the day that I’ll be able to annoy not just neighbours, but fellow commuters with the clickity clacking of my rockin’ out.

Posted in DS, Music, News | 4 Comments »

Disney Announces Ultimate Band

By Syd Bolton - February 27th, 2008

Disney knows how to rock.

Well it had to happen. Send in the Rock Band clones! Only this time, Disney Interactive hopes to appeal to the whole family with their Ultimate Rock Band, which is slated to make a bang this holiday season on the Wii and DS.

The game won’t require any special peripherals and will allow for online play. While not having to resort to custom controllers will help keep console clutter down, can the Wii Remote + Nunchuk pull off simulating guitar, bass, and drums? Will this game make use of Nintendo’s upcoming Wii Pay & Play service? It’s too soon to tell.

It’s being developed by Utah-based Fall Line Studios (which was formed by Disney in 2006). Disney is also working with London-based music consultants, Radial Music to come up with Ultimate Band’s song roster, which promises to combine classics with some of what they’re calling today’s “hottest” music.

“Ultimate Band invites kids, tweens and teens to join in the jam session,” says Craig Relyea, senior vice president of global marketing at Disney Interactive Studios. “And whether they choose guitar, drums, bass, or front man, members don’t need to buy costly, single-function peripherals to play their way through Ultimate Band’s deep song list, dynamic venues, and customizable characters. The Wii Remote and DS stylus are the only tools they’ll need to reach rock stardom in Ultimate Band.”

The DS version of the title will also be a rhythm-based game but will also include a built-in recording studio, of sorts. And yes, it promises to have a full complement of instruments: guitar, bass, and drums.

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Posted in DS, News, Wii | No Comments »

REVIEW: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

By Shaun Hatton - February 24th, 2008

Developed by Level-5 and published by Nintendo for DS

When the wealthy Baron Reinhold passes away and leaves a puzzle as his last will, the famous Professor Layton and his young assistant Luke are on the scene to help figure things out. But when the pair make it to the village of St. Mystere, home of the late Baron, they find that things may not be as simple as they’d like them to be.

Rather than unravelling just the mystery they were called there for, they realize that something else is afoot. Indeed, something much bigger than the two of them could have imagined is somehow connected to their case.

Baron Reinhold’s will stated that whomever should find the family heirloom known as The Golden Apple would be the one to inherit all of his estate. Turns out, however, that Reinhold owned just about the whole town. So it comes as no surprise that everyone tried to find this Golden Apple. Unfortunately, no one was able to find it, and that’s where you come in.

As Layton and Luke, you must solve the mystery of St. Mystere, one puzzle at a time, so that the story plays out to its end. In fact, remove the story elements and the game is indeed nothing more than timeless and contemporary mind-bending puzzles.

Read the rest »

Posted in DS, Nintendo, Reviews | No Comments »

REVIEW: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

By Jorge Figueiredo - February 18th, 2008

Developed and published by Nintendo for DS.

My introduction to The Legend of Zelda series was through The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker for GameCube. I can’t tell you why I had never been interested in the series before. Given the number of hours I poured into Wind Waker, you’d think I was a devoted fan of the series since the beginning (you can ask Shaun how obsessed I was with finishing this game).

So you can imagine my glee when Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass debuted for the Nintendo DS. Go ahead. Imagine!

Are you done imagining? Good.

Phantom Hourglass picks up where Wind Waker left off. Link has just finished saving Hyrule (once again), when suddenly he comes into contact with the legendary Ghost Ship. His captain, Tetra, leaps aboard in search of booty, but is essentially kidnapped. In an attempt to save her, Link leaps aboard the Ghost Ship, only to be hurled overboard and lose consciousness.

When he is revived, he finds himself on an island he doesn’t recognize. From here, you’re in control of Link and you must help him find the Ghost Ship and rescue Tetra.

Gameplay essentially switches between transit mode and dungeon-crawling mode. You will either find yourself sailing one of the four seas (on the S.S. Linebeck steam-powered paddle boat), or running around on islands exploring dungeons, solving puzzles, and talking to people.

Like Wind Waker, the production quality of Phantom Hourglass is very high. It’s what we’ve all come to expect from this series. The cel-shaded graphics are tight, and due to the simplistic nature of the design, the animation quality is incredible. It’s a bright, cartoony game. But that doesn’t take anything away from it, in my opinion. In fact, I would say it is very effective at drawing players into the fairy-tale nature of the story. The dual screens are used very effectively, too, allowing a new visual twist to play that wasn’t present in Wind Waker. It’s nice to have access to maps on the top screen.

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Posted in DS, GameCube, Nintendo, Reviews, Virtual Console, Wii | No Comments »

SIMILARITIES: Professor Layton & Leon Kennedy

By Shaun Hatton - February 16th, 2008

“We’re not so different, you and I,” Leon said to Professor Layton.

This week, Nintendo released Professor Layton and the Curious Village for Nintendo DS. I’ve been playing the game for the last few days and could not help but notice that despite its seemingly innocent exterior, the game shares many parallels with another awesome game: Resident Evil 4.

It’s something you may have not considered. But hear me out. Both games involve the main character being sent to a mysterious and strange village to investigate an out-of-the-ordinary case. In Resident Evil 4, Leon Kennedy is sent to a small, unnamed European village to look into the disappearance of the President’s daughter, who was taken by a cult led by a man who controlled the whole village. In Curious Village, Professor Layton is called to a strange, remote village (we learn early on that there are no roads connecting it to other towns) to solve a mystery dealing with the estate of a man who seemingly owned the whole town.

In both games, things are not as they first appear. Soon into his adventure, Leon discovers that the villagers aren’t quite human, and that they’re all out to get him. Similarly, Layton finds out that everyone he comes across is really strange in that they try to get in his way by making him solve somewhat trivial puzzles. Also in both games, it sometimes takes a lot more than skill to get by these villagers. Sometimes, you see, it takes a tonne of luck.

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Posted in DS, Editorial, GameCube, Humour, PlayStation 2, Wii | 3 Comments »

Spore Finally Gets Release Date

By Shaun Hatton - February 12th, 2008

Spore: Coming to your galaxy this Fall.

EA has just announced that Spore will be available September 7, 2008 on PC, Mac, Nintendo DS, and mobile phones.

“The wait is almost over,” says Maxis Chief Designer Will Wright. “We’re in our final stages of testing and polish with Spore, and the team at Maxis can’t wait to see the cosmos of content created by the community later this year.”

Spore is the brainchild of Wright, who is also the man behind The Sims. The game is ambitious to say the least. Players will get to essentially play god as they watch and control the development of their own species, tribes, societies, and universe. In fact, it promises to be a game that will undoubtedly take up all of your time should you choose to play it.

The game’s official website, spore.com, has been updated with new screenshots as well as a teaser announcement for the release date.

Posted in DS, Mac, Mobile, News, PC | 4 Comments »

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Dated

By Shaun Hatton - January 18th, 2008

Take That (no, not the band)! Apollo Justice and his supporting cast will be here soon.

Capcom has recently announced that the fourth game in their courtroom comedy/drama series for DS will be available in North America on February 12.

This time around, the game will feature an all-new cast of characters, though it wouldn’t be surprising if old favourites show up in cameo appearances. For those of us who are finished Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations, and for those of us who’ve never touched a game in the series, Capcom has posted an awesome flash demo of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney on their blog here.

Posted in DS, News | 2 Comments »

Colors! Provides Versatile Sketching On The Go

By Shaun Hatton - December 19th, 2007

Detail of Autobot Leader Optimus Prime’s face, sketched in Colors!

Nintendo DS is proving to be a system with something for everyone. Its games range from the insanely difficult (such as Contra 4) to the easily accessible (Brain Age) with all kinds of titles falling both in between and outside of the range completely.

And then there’s the homebrew scene. While SD card adapters such as the R4 are seen as a game pirate’s wet dream and Nintendo’s worst nightmare, the truth of the matter is that there is a really vibrant homebrew community for Nintendo’s little handheld that could. As with the commercial titles available for the system, there is also a wide variety to be found in the homebrew applications available for DS. Anything from music samplers to PDA applications to MSN and chat clients are all available for download.

Among them, you’ll find Colors!, a surprisingly robust but low-footprint drawing application. With Colors!, users can draw, sketch, doodle, and colour using a wide range of techniques. The app makes use of the DS touchscreen’s pressure sensitivity, so pressing harder will result in darker linework. Additionally, the different colours overlay each other much like they would if you were to use actual ink or watercolours. There is no undo, but the system does allow you to play back an entire illustration in-progress and stop at any point to try something different.

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Posted in DS, News, Nintendo | 3 Comments »