QuakeDS (homebrew) 9/10

I love nostalgia trips and this game is only a couple of years off being considered retro.

Overview
I played many games direct connect via modem but this was the first game I ever played online on a PC and the port to the DS is no let down.

Homebrew
It was announced late last year that an official version of Quake would come to the DS but nothing has appeared thus far.

The homebrew community at quake.drunkencoders.com/ have taken the step to port this once popular game to the DS and have included all the bells and whistles that were added to the original PC version.

The above site contains all the information you will need to get QuakeDS running. If you do not have the full version of the game in the bottom draw of your desk then just whip over to the ID Software website to download the shareware version of the game which will at least give you a taste of obtaining frags and making gibs in this classic shooter.


Story - 6/10
You play an unnamed soldier who has to clean up the governments mess after they invented teleportation technology called Slipgate which has opened a portal to an unknown dimension. This strange world is crawling with soldiers and all sorts of monsters.

Gameplay - 10/10
The controls used to play this game on the DS have been setup extremely well. The game plays just like the original. The control set for this game are like most other FPS's on DS.

You use the stylus to look around (mlook) and the D-pad to walk forward/back and strafe. Left shoulder button is used to fire and right to jump. X and Y are used to change weapons. The only enhancement I could think of would be to enable jump by tapping the touchpad. The optional cross hair has been included.

An on screen keyboard has been added so that you can play the game using a keyboard and also to enter commands into the quake console. DS-DS play is available but full WIFI has been disabled by default as it is not entirely stable.

Some mods for quake will also work on the DS but you have to remember that there is only a limited amount of RAM available. QuakeDS has a build that will take advantage of a Slot-2 RAM pack which will make running large mods more easily.

The menu system is the same as the original game which includes saving and loading your game. This was tested and works perfectly.

Graphics - 9/10
The graphics are the same as the original game. There are some add-ons for quake to make the water transparent and the lava and slime look better and these have been included. There are slight glitches at the start of each level while the scene is rendering but apart from that they are true to the original.

Sound - 8/10
All the sound effects are great but I could not seem to get any background music going. This was no let down as I used to turn it down anyway. The only difference to the original is a lack of ambient noise. The ambient noise used to be heard a long way from the source but now you have to be very close to the source to hear anything.

Conclusion
If you want to play a great FPS legally with your flash cart then have a go of this. It may be an old game but it will have good appeal to DS gamers as we are used to not being dazzled by a trillion mega pixel graphics.