The Nintendo DS without any extra hardware or specially designed cards can’t do motion control games… or can it? Ugo Ugo Trinity, a student developed game from Nintendo’s 2008 game seminar, says yes!
Ugo Ugo Trinity is a small compilation of mini-games. Two of them cleverly use the microphone as a way to “capture” simple motions.
The yakitori game has players put the DS on a table and wave their hands over the microphone as if they were fanning the flames to cook grilled chicken on a stick. When the speared snacks smoke they’re ready. Tap them to feed customers. Each dish has a different cooking time and point value, but it’s hard to worry about those details since you’re constantly waving your hand to keep the flames burning.
The mosquito swatting game reacts to motion too, specifically clapping. We’ve seen other DS games do this so it doesn’t feel as innovative as the yakitori game. It is still fun to play, though. A moving target locks-on to mosquitos in this game. Clap to squash them and save the gardener from an itchy bites. Time your claps right and you can hit multiple mosquitos. Bonus play time is earned for each pest you eliminate. If time runs out the game is over. Simple, but mindlessly addictive like the fly swatting game in Mario Paint.
Ugo Ugo Trinity has some neat ideas. Unfortunately, it isn’t a full game. Nintendo is only distributing this as a download in DS Stations and the Nintendo Channel in Japan. After two weeks it’s out of rotation and inaccessible unless Nintendo decides to put it online again. Last year’s game seminar titles haven’t resurfaced which probably means Re: Koetist and Ugo Ugo Trinity will only be around for a limited time too.
While these student developed games aren’t big enough to be sold in stores Nintendo should polish and repackage them as DSiWare downloads. I would gladly pay for Ugo Ugo Trinity over a Famicom Mario Clock.
