Sound Load is coolest DS feature yet
One more reason to import Bangai-O Spirits
If you've read our preview of Bangai-O Spirits, which has been confirmed for a summer US release by 3D Publisher, you'll already know about this.
If you haven't, here's one more reason why you should be keeping a very close eye on Treasure's forthcoming puzzle/shooter: it's called Sound Load.
Sound Load is a new way of transferring data between DSs, which makes use of the handheld's incorporated speakers and microphone. The game includes a level editor, see, which enables you to create fiendish stages for your chums to hate you for the rest of your life.
Understandably, once you've created these masterpieces of impossibility, you won't want anyone else's grubby digits on your beloved DS. If only because you'll be too busy conjuring up your next creation. The obvious choice, therefore, is to transfer them to another player's handheld.
But doing this wirelessly is boring. Which is why the game turns your level data into a sound file which is output through your DS's speaker and received via the target DS's microphone, which then re-interprets the aural data back into the appropriate digital level form.
It's genius.
But not because of the technology, which to us sounds a little too close to the whole fax thing for comfort. If you've wasted no time expanding the concept's potential, however, you'll have no doubt worked out that it should be possible to upload and circulate such sound files via the internet or save them onto any recording device for further sharing, archiving, transport, and so on.
Which it is – the publisher has confirmed as much, as well as adding that you'll also be able to apply Sound Load to the sharing of high scores and even gameplay footage.
Apparently further Sound Load details will follow but we've heard enough to import the game rather than wait for the announcement of the (potentially non-existent) European version.
