Coming to the Nintendo DS this November from Yuke’s Company of America is NEVES, a fun puzzle game that brings over 500 tanagrams to players for brain-tingling single or competitive play. Based on Hanayama’s Lucky Puzzle, one of the thousands of timeless handmade puzzle games from the Japanese toy company that’s been in the business since the 1930’s, NEVES will test and tickle your synapses as it tests your shape shifting skills to the fullest.

A recent hands-on with the game thanks to Yukes’ PR Manager Ken Koyama and PR guy supreme Quinn Wageman shows NEVES to be a paradoxically challenging yet totally relaxing experience. The name, by the way (in case you hadn’t figured it out already) is the word seven backward and refers to the traditional seven pieces used to form all tanagram puzzles. Initially, I was stymied by a simple squirrel image, but as the memories of playing with an old wooden tanagram set I had as a kid came back, I got better and faster at figuring out where to place shapes. The cool thing about the game is that (well, at least in my case) you’ll feel some of your unused gray matter shaking loose the cobwebs as you plow through the earlier puzzles.

Four different game modes are included: Silhouettes?, 7 Steps, Time Pressure, and a great Versus mode that allows wireless play between two DS units with a single game card. For new players, there’s a Tutorial mode that shows off how devilishly simple yet complex tanagrams are and as you dive into the game, you’ll find some pretty tricky images waiting for you that grow increasingly difficult. Playing the game requires you to manipulate the seven shapes into each image using the stylus to drag, flip, or rotate pieces so they fit perfectly. Sometimes you’ll think you’ve gotten it, but then you’re stuck with tiny piece where a bigger one should be or vice versa. That’s when your brain really gets cooking as you try to figure out what you did wrong.

Multiplayer is where things really get frantic as both you and your chosen live opponent fight it out to solve a series of puzzles under a strict time limit. The kicker is each player can see what the other is doing, but you’ll be too busy working your puzzle to look up at that top screen and cheat your way to victory. Wageman beat me soundly on the third puzzle in the set, but I’m hoping for a rematch one of these days after I get more practice in. Gamers will be able to share puzzles, competing via Wi-Fi using a single cartridge and two DS systems, but after a few matches, I’d bet your friendly foe wlll shell out for his or her own copy of the game. Given Hanayama’s huge collection of puzzles, this would be a good thing for Yuke’s should the plan to bring other classic puzzles to the DS in the future.

Presentation-wise, as you can see the game goes for a simpler is better approach that works wonderfully. You won’t be distracted by psychedelic colors or flashy effects at all - it’s just clean lines and on screen menus as a nicely calming soundtrack warbles away at you from those DS speakers. This makes the game more than suitable for the Brain Age crowd and simple enough that kids of all ages can be entertained on those long car trips. For my money, the best portable games are those that make you miss a bus or subway stop or two because you’re caught up in what’s happening on the small screen. NEVES looks as if it’ll be one of those great games that’ll have your brain as busy as your fingers once it’s released - back with a full review shortly…

- Greg Wilcox

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 at 2:26 am and is filed under News, Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.