On a very special fifty-first episode of “Barrel Roll! A Video Game Podcast”, we are joined by Rebel FM podcaster extraordinaire, Tyler Barber.  He tells us all about his history as a gamer and how he got started podcasting about games.

In what we’ve been playing, there is discussion of Mass Effect 2, in which any spoilers are very carefully avoided. We also talk about the adorable indie game, Toki Tori, Wes’s completion of The Saboteur, the surprisingly good Tatsunoko VS Capcom (which has a disturbing lack of pizza related cats), the sadly disappointing Dark Void, and DS JRPG WTFBBQ Sands of Destruction. Wes also tells tales of more junk for the iPhone.

In our fake “Friday Old Games” segment, Jesse gives us the rundown on Dark Void Zero. Can it be that the tie-in game has once again out-classed the big budget counterpart?

All this and much more on Barrel Roll #51, “Dude, Where’s My Pizza Cats?”

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Outro Music – “Fortuna (Star Fox)” by The OneUps

Middle Song – “Touch and Go” by She

Rebel FM

Weekday Warrior (Half Life 2 adventure game mod)

Samurai Pizza Cats Art by lastscionz

2010 is looking to be one of the most ridiculous years we’ve ever seen for game releases. The amount of promising titles coming out is nothing short of intimidating. It is entirely possible that you may drown in quality titles. But remain calm.

We here at WingDamage are here to throw you a life preserver of information. So grab a hold of our list of DS and PSP releases below and you just might survive the first three months of 2010.

Sands of Destruction (DS)

“This is a game I’ve had my eye on for some time. Traditional turn-based JRPGs are getting less common as they make room for more and more real-time combat systems. Sands of Destruction is not only a game that brings to mind the golden age of JRPGs, it also is made by a dream team. The music is handled by my all time favorite composer, Yasunori Mitsuda, with tracks performed by the Czech Philharmonic and the writing is done by Masato Kato. These two people are best known for their work on my favorite RPG, Chrono Trigger, as well as its sequel. The art direction is handled by Kunihiko Tanaka, who worked alongside Mitsuda and Kato earlier on Xenogears. If those names don’t get you excited for this game, check out our hands-on impressions from PAX.” -Jesse

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS)

“I am a big fan of adventure games. I am also a fan of the quirky sense of humor in the Ace Attorney games. Put those together and what do you get? Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. If the previous games are any indication, this one will be both a noodle scratcher and a laugh-out-loud affair. I can’t wait.” -Jonah

PokeMon HeartGold & SoulSilver (DS)

“Remaking what some consider to be the best games in the PokeMon series, PokeMon HeartGold and SoulSilver not only update the graphics, but add a few new features as well. The games come bundled with a “PokeWalker”, a pedometer that can build up and strengthen your relationship with one PokeMon at a time. It’s time to catch ‘em all over again!” -Jesse

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony (PSP)

“If you are looking for a fun old-school RPG, but don’t want to shell out the moolah for a rare PS1 or Saturn game, this is looking to be a great alternative. Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is a complete remake for the PSP and has completely re-drawn sprites with that nifty hand-drawn look, new music and an expanded story. Even though I have a copy on the PS1, this remake has me excited to play through the Silver Star story once again.” -Jonah

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (DS)

“When an ominous, black spot appears in the Antarctic, an elite strike force is sent in to investigate. They uncover a whole world of demons that humans have never known about. The premier demon collecting series returns and the latest entry looks to be a potent combination of old school Persona and sci fi. With over 300 hundred different demons to defeat or team up with, DS RPG fans should be busy for months.” -Dave

Puzzle Chronicles (DS & PSP)

“Much like Puzzle Quest, Puzzle Chronicles combines an addictive looking puzzle game with RPG elements. This time around, jewels not only have to be matched to accomplish your goals, but they fall Tetris style while you battle Ogres and other nafarious generic fantasy monsters. But our gentle readers will know they had me at Tetris.” -Jonah

"A new JRPG developed by a dream team."

Sands of Destruction is a JRPG that has been very high on my watch list for awhile now. The reason for this is the people involved with the game. My personal favorite composer, Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Xenogears), is responsible for the soundtrack, Masato Kato (Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VII, Xenogears) is the game’s scenario writer, and Kunihiko Tanaka (Xenogears) is the character designer. Each of these people have several renowned JRPGs already under their belt, so it’s needless to say that the game is created by a dream team.

Unfortunately, a short demo in a crowded and noisy room is a terrible way to experience an RPG. To make matters worse, I only had a single party member when I jumped into the demo which appeared to be close to the beginning of the game. In spite of this, I gathered what info I could in my short time with it.

My first reaction to this game was how much it reminded me of a ps1-era RPG, both in aesthetic and other areas. I say this not as a complaint, but with fondness, as it felt like an homage to one of the best eras for the genre.

Sadly, the DS speakers couldn’t compete with all the noise around me, causing me to miss out on the game’s sound. The graphics were a mix of styles. All of the characters (including enemies) were 2D sprites while all the environments were in 3D. This was a good choice since other DS RPGs, such as the Final Fantasy remakes, have had a lot of trouble successfully conveying the art direction with the low-poly character models the hardware forces them to use. The only minor aesthetic complaint I had with the game was that the menus, while entirely functional, didn’t seem particularly attractive.

When traveling through dungeons, you will have random encounters resulting in good ‘ol fashioned, turn-based battles. After getting into a battle, you will see the turn order displayed on screen, much like it was in Final Fantasy X.

Rather than using your cursor to scroll through options, each action is assigned to a different button. Interestingly, both the “X” and “Y” buttons were assigned to different physical attacks. To further mix things up, those two attacks will change depending on whether you’re attacking an enemy on the ground (bottom screen) or in the air (top screen). This means that characters actually have four standard physical attacks that can be executed.

The rest of the battle options seemed pretty normal. You can use items and perform special skills. Skills are divided into two groups. Blood skills are offensive and Life skills are support. I only had one of each in the demo. My blood skill allowed me to do an extra powerful attack while my life skill restored a portion of my HP.

It’s hard to judge an RPG on the show floor. I can’t help but feel that I missed out on some of the game’s features from jumping into the middle of the demo with no tutorials. Even still, what I played definitely seemed interesting. If you like classic JRPGs from the SNES or PS1 eras, Sands of Destruction looks to be a game worth having on your radar.