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Little Deviants
When I first tried out Little Deviants in January, it was little more than a tech demo showing off the system’s unique rear touchpad. At a recent NGP hands-on event, it still seemed like a tech demo, but at least this time it was highlighting more of the handheld’s capabilities.
Here’s a look at the four mini-games that were being shown at the event:
Depth Charge – Easily the best of the bunch (though annoyingly the only one that a screenshot hasn’t been released for), in Depth Charge you have to help an adorable, titular deviant fall through holes and collect stars. This is accomplished via use of the NGP’s gyroscope and manually tilting the handheld. That may sound annoying, but in my brief time, it was actually a fairly fun use of the system.
Bots Blast – This simple shooter uses a combination of the gyroscope and the NGP camera to create a cartoony shoot-em-up set in whatever location you’re actually in. Alternate reality! It drew a lot of comparisons to the 3DS game Face Raiders, which I guess isn’t so bad.
Roll Control – This mode is an extended and improved version of what I originally saw months ago. By pressing your fingers against the rear touch pad, you cause the ground to rise into hills, sending the ball-shaped deviants in this game into motion. The main goal seems to consist of rolling them around the level to collect stars and find a goal.
House of Whacks – Cringe-inducing, punny title aside, House of Whacks is basically just whack-a-mole. Deviants pop open windows, and you tap them on the touch screen to close them. The one wrinkle in the formula is that if the deviants are facing away from you, you must tap them on the rear touchpad rather than the front screen, a feat that I noticed some players having a lot of trouble with.
None of the mini-games currently on display for Little Deviants blew me away, but they served as solid demonstrations of the various gimmicks the NGP has at its disposal. I’ll have to see how many more mini-games developer Big Big dreams up and how engaging they are before I can decide if Little Deviants is a worthwhile purchase for future NGP owners.
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