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Sumio is a ‘searcher’. He searches for things, that’s his job. He claims the word ‘lost’ isn’t in his vocabulary, which must make it difficult for him to write down his job description. However, even professional finding-guy Sumio has problems when he finds himself stuck with a massive list of missing items to find, a bomb to defuse and an endless temporal loop making the same day repeat itself, Groundhog Day-style, slowly driving him mad. Also, there’s a ghost in his hotel room. It can only be a weird Playstation 2 port of Flower Sun and Rain for DS.

Flower, Sun and Rain, for the Nintendo DS, tells Sumio’s story. Developed by Goichi ‘Suda51‘ Suda of Grasshopper Manufacture – the same crazy maniac behind No More Heroes and killer7 – we can tell that this game’s not going to be a walk in the park, unless that park also serves as a garden for a mental asylum. But, if it follows Suda51’s past performance, it will be a hefty slice of originality cake, served with ultra hip syrup and zeitgeist ice cream. Also some M‘n’M’s.

So here’s the set-up. Sumio has been called to the idyllic island of Lospas (‘Lost Past’) by the manager of the Flower, Sun and Rain hotel. It’s only when he gets to the island that anyone bothers to tell him that the whole place is stuck in a temporal loop. He’s been asked to find a time bomb that’s been hidden on a plane – a seemingly simple job for an expert like Sumio – but he’s having trouble finding his way out of his hotel. You see, the whole island is full of people with problems – and all of them get in Sumio’s way. On his first day, they take up too much of his time and the plane ends up exploding. But he wakes up the next morning and… he’s been given another chance. It’s the same day as it was yesterday. Can he do it this time? Or the next? Or the next?

Helping Sumio out is his ‘partner’, Catherine, who is a peculiar laptop-style device with a rotary dial. Sumio seems reluctant to explain to people that Catherine is a machine and not an actual person, so his comments like ‘I put the Guidebook inside Catherine’ get some shocked responses. I guess he does it for comic effect. Anyway, Catherine has a series of plugs that are somehow able to ‘jack-in’ to any and anything in the world (including people) and… unlock them? I think that’s what it’s supposed to be doing. Either way, when Sumio has a problem to fix, his sole method of response is to stick one of Catherine’s plugs into the item in question and dial in a numeric code via the dial. This is how most of the problems on Lospas are solved, and it doesn’t make any sense.

To get those codes, Sumio must do some detectivin’. Most of his information will come from the Guidebook mentioned earlier (you see that? That’s called ‘seeding’. That’s how you write a good quality Flower, Sun and Rain review). It’s a huge book full of seemingly pointless pieces on local attractions, celebrities and art. Of course, you have to read it all to find the hidden clues. I would say it’s a pain having to read an entire book throughout the game, but if you were the kind of gamer who had a problem with reading in games, then you would stay the hell away from FSR anyway. It’s very text-heavy (think Trace Memory or Hotel Dusk). You also learn information from reading notes left around the island, and by unravelling the nonsense that the locals are talking about. Handily, you are provided with a memo pad for scribbling down notes via stylus. There is very little Broken Sword-style object or environment interaction here. Heck, there’s probably even less than Phoenix Wright.

The game is extremely difficult. So much so that, if you don’t instantly manage to unravel the opaque manner in which gameplay elements are discussed and explained, you can very easily get stuck at the first hurdle. Logical gamers, ‘Escape the Room’ fans and professional puzzle-solvers will rejoice at this intense fire-wall of difficulty, although some of them may object to every puzzle boiling down to an illogical code system. Sadly, that’s the only group I can recommend this game to – code-crackers and hardcore puzzlers. For anyone else, the game is just a little too screwy. The graphics are absolutely awful, even for DS, and the whole gameplay environment is just too peculiar. It’s hard to explain, but nothing really seems to sit right – there’s no logical explanation for a lot of things, and no introduction or hand-holding when there needs to be. I know this is an intentional product of Suma51’s design, but weird for the sake of it is frustrating and infuriating.

You’re not going to get much of a chance to do anything while controlling Sumio. It’s all text, all the time, and when you’re not standing around tapping your way through a conversation, you’re controlling your ugly and awkward avatar around boring, boring, boring locales. Doing nothing. I’m not saying that the dialogue isn’t worth reading – it’s hilarious in points, and mostly dramatic or at least coherent enough at all other times to tell a compelling story – but it throws away any ‘interactive book’ qualities by being massively complex and challenging to make any progress in.

Flower, Sun and Rain for DS is not a bad game. It’s just difficult and very text-heavy. If this sounds ideal to you, then it’ll taste of sugar and gumdrops. It’s completely non-mainstream – niche, in fact – and while that’s off-putting to a lot of casual or straightforward gamers, the more alternative amongst the gamer set will love how wacky and off-the-rails this ride is. Essentially, it’s a masterfully written detective and mystery story to rival Twin Peaks, presented through the cerebral fish-eye lens of Alice in Wonderland, but as dense and literate as War & Peace and will slice your thought process in two like… like… I can’t think of a literary example. Um. Like Flower, Sun and Rain. The Flower Sun and Rain release date in the US is March 31st 2009 but is out now in Europe. Flower Sun and Rain gets a 6 out of 10

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Related: Soul Bubbles review, Sonic Chronicles The Dark Brotherhood review

Tags: Flower Sun and Rain DS, Flower Sun and Rain, DS, Nintendo DS, RPG, Puzzle

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R-Type Command brings the world of R-Type together with some tactics. R-Type Command (UK name: R-Type Tactics) is a fifty-plus level extravaganza that attempts to add some depth to the side-scrolling series and revitalise it. Rather than soaring through levels as a one-ship army like the earlier games in the series, you will instead be asked to strategically work your way through turn-based missions (yes, turn-based) in two separate campaigns – one for the forces of Earth, and one for their enemy, the Bydo. You get to play as both good and evil. That’s a popular idea nowadays, isn’t it?

Think Final Fantasy Tactics in space and you’ve pretty much got this. Your wizards and warriors are now spaceships. And what an impressive pack of wizards and warriors we have here – assisting you in your waged wars are the R-Type units, of which you have a literal army. There are enough models of ship here to make the geekiest of sci-fi vehicle fans moist in the armpits with pleasure. There are over 100 types of R-Type available for your blastin’ pleasure – fighters, warships, bombers carriers, supply vehicles – each of which are obviously good for different things. With your squad of R-Types, you are tasked with taking down the Bydo Empire, one move at a time. Success brings with it the chance to play as the enemy, if you can be bothered.

Ignoring the difference in genre, the game looks very similar to every R-Type game to have preceded it. Graphically, it doesn’t seem to have grown very far, if at all. The graphics are pretty enough though, if a little old-looking, and it’s not too much of a pain to keep on looking at them while you’re busy fuelling, flying and fixing a half-dozen spaceships. Music is atmospheric – it’s quite probably what space would sound like – and adds, rather than detracts, from the mission in hand.

There’s no need to mention that R-Type fans will absolutely adore this. If you’re a dude who’s been following the series since day one, you’ll probably have grown to appreciate the various vehicles involved and have somewhat of a soft spot for them. The opportunities that this game offers, then, should simply not be passed up – you can control the enemy forces. You can customise and even make your own craft (based on what you find on the battlefield). There are secret missions and, if you last the distance, massive bosses for you to bombard with Force weapons. The world of the Typers lends itself well to this genre, so fans will be happy.

For the rest of the non-R-Type crazed, this is a competent tactical RPG that, despite its clever futuristic approach, doesn’t really develop into anything more than that. Of course, this is fine if that’s what you want. Combining old school rapid-fire gaming with modern details-obsessed role-playing isn’t an easy task, and for the Millennium Falcon model kit owners and Warhammer 40K loving wargamers amongst us, there can’t be much better an idea for a game that this. This is a specialised market though.

I found the whole setting tedious. Fair enough, this is because I don’t have much love for the genre or the space war idea, but again we go back to this very much being for a specialist group and not the casual gamer. Anyone outside of that group may have trouble with the difficulty level. I’m all for games being tough, but only when it’s fair, and sometimes this game just isn’t fair. It’s cheap. I don’t just mean this in the traditional way – I mean the way the campaign is made is cheap. There could have a lot more to do here, but instead challenge is milked by flattening levels of difficulty rather than strategy. A lot of time will be spent slamming buttons in frustrated repetition, the other half spent dying.

Like a fast food milkshake, R-Type Tactics is thick, dense and not at all good for you, but still great for a few moments of idiotic indulgement. There are worse games on the market – definitely worse ideas than this gem of a design – and the multiplayer is a great way to spend your days. Looking on the sunny side here, this is a budget release which packs a lot of bang and smarts for its low price tag. An R-Type or general sci-fi fan would probably love it, and it’s definitely worth a try if you like to kill things like a real space marine. Give it a rent, because while it’s not the best this genre is going to get, it’s a fun experience that is by no means a waste of time and scores a blasting 7 out of 10.

Get R-Type Command now
New: Buy R-Type Command from Amazon.com
New: Buy R-Type Command from Buy.com
Preowned: R-Type Command – Pre-Played from Gamefly.com
Rental: Rent R-Type Command – free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Related: Final Fantasy IV review, PSP R-Type Command Demo

Tags: R-Type Command, R-Type Tactics, R-Type, RType, RPG