Fancy some hardcore Playboy action on PSP while DS fools around with Rubik's Cube?
Never let it be said our homebrew round-up doesn't provide choice
It's been a bit of a slow time on the DS and PSP for commercial games as we navigate the post-Easter/pre-holiday period. Many of the big hitters are waiting until the summer break window before they hit the selves. And, inevitably, most triple-A titles have actually got their eye on the Christmas number one slot.
But cry yourself to sleep not for I have some great little homebrew games and novelties to keep you occupied until those big releases start rolling in. It never ceases to amaze me what inventive and imaginative uses of the hardware both the DS and PSP scene throw up. Not only that but recently there appears to have been a noticeable shift towards getting much more professional at developing the standard style of games. Let's have a look at a couple of those today, shall we?
The first game I have for you took me back to the late '80s with my grey and red diagonal striped duvet and Wham in the charts (and definitely not on my wall). DS Cube provides a portable Rubik's Cube game that can be played anywhere. "But wait," I hear you cry, "surely the real Rubik's Cube was already a portable game?"
Sure, but the genius of this game is that it both times your performance and challenges you to different sized cubes. You may get on fine with the traditional 3x3x3, but it gets surprisingly more complex when you up things to a 4x4x4 alternative.
The game doesn't write back to your homebrew card so there is no DLDI patching involved. You simply unzip the file and copy it to the root of your homebrew cartridge of choice. In fact, this is an ideal game to get you started in the world of homebrew DS software: nice and simple and lots of fun.
If you're not in the mood for 'nice', how about firing up the PSP for something a little more hardcore? It just so happens that this week I've been playing Playboy's Shooter. And if you're thinking it, no, not that kind of hardcore. Hardcore as in a shoot-'em-up, see – the game is named after its coder, Playboy. It's an enjoyable arcade-style space blaster that enables you to control one of four unique ships, each with their own distinct attributes.
To get it up and running, simply download the file from the bottom of Playboy's page (linked to above) and copy the Playboy_Shooter folder into PSP/GAME and run it. Currently this only supports 3.xx firmwares but wider support is promised.
Those in the know will recognise the reference to an earlier game, Birdman's Shooter. But Playboy isn't resting on his laurels and the next release promises to include full in-game MP3 playback, as well as additional levels and functionality. With Sony itself seemingly unable to provide user selected in-game music, it will be interesting to see if he pulls it off.
Right, that's it for another week of homebrew goodies. A shooter and a puzzle game should keep you all out of trouble until next time. Be good.