N has certainly covered a lot of ground in it's short time span on Earth. First a flash game, then on XBLA and now onto the DS and PSP. Truth be told I never played it in flash form, kinda/sorta didn't like it on XBLA and now I'm giving it a go on the DS. It's been awhile since I didn't like N+ on XBLA so I kinda feel like I'm coming into this fresh.

So, how did it fare? Read on to find out!

I actually much prefer the DS version to the XBLA one. It seems well suited to small portable screens, and the dual screen acts as a zoomed out view of the whole stage, which helps when trying to get your bearings in the larger boards. In all honesty I think it makes the game much better overall. Sometimes it's nice to look before you leap.

The gameplay is pretty much exactly what one has come to expect from N+, and just to verify I went and played the flash game a bit before writing this. It's spot on, just made portable. For those that don't know the basic premise is this: open the door, find the door... in as little time as possible. There's always a switch you need to find to open the door, but other than that that's pretty much it. The gold coins spread throughout the boards give you time bonuses but aren't necessary.

Obviously since there's 200 single player levels and 100 co-op (and even 50 Vs.) things tend to get a little more complicated than that. There's some crazy jumps and traps thrown at you, not to mention the occasional rocket launcher or laser beam. Oh, and little red bombs. Tons and tons of little red mutha-(shut yo mouth) bombs.

The game can get incredibly frustrating, but so far has not felt unfair. Usually it's pretty clear what needs to be done to get through a level, it's having the old-school twitch like ability to make it happen. Make no bones about it, at later levels there's no room for error and they ask you to do some pretty complex stuff to escape.

The game makes use of the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection with the ability to share user created levels (I haven't played with that yet) and play against or with each other. It's the same feature set we've seen other places for the game.

The game doesn't blaze any new trails, since it's essentially just a port of the N+ that has been so successful up until now. I much prefer it (for the use of the second screen) and anyone in my boat who didn't really dig the XBLA version I'd suggest you give it another go. Hell, it's only $20, and it's perfect fo the handheld. Nice, tight short little games.

Comments (5)

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written by Jim Squires, September 08, 2008

I did dig the Live Arcade version, so I figured why go back to the same game again. But now you've piqued my curiousity...

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written by Kevin Alexander, September 08, 2008

Jim, I know you were as big a fan of the XBLA one as I am. I'm also playing this on the DS and it's just as good, if not better because of the helpful top screen on the DS.

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written by anna, September 08, 2008

you know, you can zoom out to see the whole level on XBLA, as well -- it's got three levels of zoom

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written by Kevin Alexander, September 08, 2008

anna - seriously? Well I feel like a goober.

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written by TheBBPS.com (Bits, Bytes, Pixe, September 12, 2008

[...] WoW though I’ve been playing a bunch of N+ on the DS thanks to Dan’s review. It’s a really great port of an absolute must-play game no matter if you play it on XBLA, DS [...]

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