While reviewing Okamiden for the DS I realized my write-up was far more positive than others I had read. It took e a while to figure it out, but this is largely because I was playing Okamiden on the 3DS rather than the DS.
By playing the DS game on the new hardware it seemed to benefit from smoother up-scaled visuals and a steadier frame-rate…
Okamiden
I’ve been impressed by Zelda Spirit Tracks (DS) and Zelda Phantom Hourglass (DS), they are my sort of games. There is something thrilling about squeezing that big console adventure down into a device that you can take anywhere with you. But even with Nintendo’s insider knowledge of their handheld, they still had to cut corners and add repetition to achieve this trick.
Okamiden is different because it doesn’t feel like smoke and mirrors. Rather than simplifying the camera angle and rendering as in Zelda, it stays far closer to the original Okami — and to my money is actually a much truer implementation of Zelda than the halfway house that Nintendo have delivered.
I’ve seen the game criticized for this by reviewers who have played it on the DS. Having trading my old DS in for a 3DS I was playing it on the newer console. It wasn’t until I ran a side-by-side comparison between Okamiden on a 3DS and DS that I realized how much better it looked. Not only is it up-scaled, but all those speed issues simply go away on the 3DS — it runs smoothly even with multiple enemies on screen.
The result is a game that invites you to explore and play it.
If Okamiden could benefit from the 3DS, it got me wondering what other processor intensive DS games would run better on the new hardware. Maybe you’ve some you could suggest?
Okamiden DS is available from Amazon for $26.95.
3DS’s are available from Amazon for $249.99.
