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Haco Life single handedly validates DSiware

sprsk

force push the doodoo rock
Oh man. I bought this game today and now it's 5 hours later.

Crack. Haco Life is crack.

The basic premise is that you have these squares, and you have to cut them up to make boxes in various ways.

To be honest, when I first saw footage of the game I thought it looked pretty lame and a little too outside of my puzzle solving abilities. So I didn't buy this game till today cause I beat GCCX2 and had nothing new to play. Now that I got it though and got to play the game a little, I'm seeing boxes everywhere. The game is separated into two parts, a puzzle mode called "Trial" and a free mode called "Factory." Trial starts you out with one way to make a box and presents you with 10 challenges, cutting up sheets of squares to make a set number of boxes per stage. As you go through trial it gives you more and more ways to cut up and build boxes which makes the different trials harder and harder. As you beat the trial your status in the company goes up and you get new types of clothing for your avatar.

Oh yeah, this whole game revolves around this isometric pixel art guy and his box of a house. I'll get back to this in a bit.

Anywho, after you play trial for a bit, you unlock the Factory mode. The factory mode is essentially a big huge sheet where you are free to cut up boxes how you will and you get money for the amount of boxes you make plus some extra stuff. The thing you need to be careful about is that if you leave extra squares, eventually youll have to drop them off and you end up paying for the wasted material. Also in this mode are bombs that drop and if are left alone destroy the surrounding blocks. If you wrap these up in boxes you get 5000yen per bomb. As you play this mode you get money that buys you stuff to go in your house. The first thing I got was a little fern to go in my garden, it's pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

If you have a DSi, and you have 500 wii points, buy this game. It comes with the sp0rsk guarantee of awesomeness.

On the other hand, Nalaku was really disappointing. Hacolife is definitely the better of the two. HacoLife is the best Art style game on the DSi at the moment, easily. I think.

Here's some video I found on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch2ujljXK1Y
 
Great job as usual with the info! I hadn't heard of this until now, but it sounds really awesome. It really seems like one of those games that gives you the ole tingly feeling after you complete a hard puzzle.
 

Haunted

Member
After looking at trailers for most of the DSiWare games, this def looks like one of the better reasons to get one.

With this, Made in Wario and that sketchbook... DSiWare is slowly starting to get interesting.
 

sprsk

force push the doodoo rock
A Link to the Snitch said:
Could you rank the Art Style games, sp0rsk?


Haco Life
Decode
Pico Pict
Aquario
Nalaku

I haven't played Somnium.

This game looks like it would hurt my head.

I thought the same thing, but the game really eases you into it, and the shapes just start to jump out at you.
 

pakkit

Banned
I kept thinking I was misreading either Halo or Taco. Usually it's not that hard to see the thread of logic that leads these Art Style games to their title, but what on earth does Haco Life imply or mean?
 

sprsk

force push the doodoo rock
pakkit said:
I kept thinking I was misreading either Halo or Taco. Usually it's not that hard to see the thread of logic that leads these Art Style games to their title, but what on earth does Haco Life imply or mean?


Hako 箱 means box.

Box Life. Your character lives in a box, he makes boxes, he's made of box like shapes.

Boxes.
 
sp0rsk said:
Haco Life
Decode
Pico Pict
Aquario
Nalaku

I haven't played Somnium.



I thought the same thing, but the game really eases you into it, and the shapes just start to jump out at you.

Decode's that good, huh? Or do you not like PiCOPiCT as much as others?
 

LCfiner

Member
uuuggghhh. My brain is melting out of my ears.

I am terrible at figuring that shit out.

looks fun, to be sure, but I can't handle those puzzles and figure recognition past the super simple stage.
 

sprsk

force push the doodoo rock
A Link to the Snitch said:
Decode's that good, huh? Or do you not like PiCOPiCT as much as others?


Pico is cool. but as a puzzle game, I think Decode is better, PicoPict has a lot of neat bells and whistles, but I don't think the gameplay is that strong.
 
sp0rsk said:
Pico is cool. but as a puzzle game, I think Decode is better, PicoPict has a lot of neat bells and whistles, but I don't think the gameplay is that strong.

Ah, I see. I'll have to buy that when DSi comes out.

Is Nalaku worth buying at all, though?
 

sprsk

force push the doodoo rock
A Link to the Snitch said:
Ah, I see. I'll have to buy that when DSi comes out.

Is Nalaku worth buying at all, though?


Ehhh, it just doesn't click with me.
 
I hope all of these Art Style games head here to Europe. I love the 3 games for the Wii and these would be a perfect match for my DSi if I buy one in April.
 
Sad really since I'll never buy revision 3 of this hardware for a premium so I'll miss out on gems like this unless they do the clever thing and release retail compilations of the games that don't require any of the DSi's additional hardware.
 

RJT

Member
Since I tried Bangai-oh in a friend's DS, I will forever trust sp0rsk's digital crack detector. I have to buy a DS...
 

swerve

Member
sp0rsk said:
Ehhh, it just doesn't click with me.

I have to come to the defence of Nalaku. It's not as good as it could have been, but once you get into the combos it's really fun. The 10-floor version is very compulsive to me, and my high score has gone from around 7000 (which I thought was awesome at the time) to 50,000 (which now still seems weak compared to what would be possible with clever use of the punch and B-push).

So yeah, it should probably not have had the floor falling away so harsh, as that makes it a bit too unforgiving at times, and the health stuff is unnecessary in general really. But the lines-means-combos-means-points mechanic is lovely and keeps me playing.

I really like it, but after reading the hacolife write-up above. I'm going to go get that now.

No way is Nalaku the worst. There's just no way. That looks badass.

No, it's not. My list is:

PicoPict
Nalaku
Somnium
Decode

Edit: Just scored 137000 in 10-floor mode, so it looks like I'm still in the realms of 'junior' on nalaku.
 

Yes Boss!

Member
SecretBonusPoint said:
Sad really since I'll never buy revision 3 of this hardware for a premium so I'll miss out on gems like this unless they do the clever thing and release retail compilations of the games that don't require any of the DSi's additional hardware.

Sad, in a way...but I'll never feel sorry for you. Good luck seeing them released on a compilation.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
SecretBonusPoint said:
Sad really since I'll never buy revision 3 of this hardware for a premium so I'll miss out on gems like this unless they do the clever thing and release retail compilations of the games that don't require any of the DSi's additional hardware.

My hardware purchases are based on the software available.

If Microsoft released a new console called the Xbox 361 that was literally the exact same console as the Xbox 360, except it didn't play 360 or XBLA games... but then they released must-have exclusives on the 361, I'd buy it, even though the hardware itself would be the definition of a scam.

For me, DSiWare isn't quite there yet in terms of justifying the full price of a DSi (my normal, but I suspect it will be soon if they keep up the pace and if more companies sign up for making DSiWare games.
 

bryehn

Member
DSiWare is the main reason I'm getting a DSi. Seeing the ArtStyle series so prevalent on it makes me very happy.
 

Jaruru

Member
bryehn said:
DSiWare is the main reason I'm getting a DSi. Seeing the ArtStyle series so prevalent on it makes me very happy.

/nod/
NoA should announce some DSiWares titles soon...
or I'll get a jp DSi in summer ><
 

inthegray

Member
very much agreed -- I thought PicoPict would be DSiWare's highlight for several months, but Skip surpassed even that fantastic game with HacoLife. Skip's titles really make up for a lot of the other not-so-interesting stuff being put out on DSiWare.

From my own impressions:

Art Style: HacoLife is more than just a puzzle game about cutting and folding boxes; it&#8217;s Japan&#8217;s interpretation of the American Dream; it&#8217;s the unrealistic but fulfilled promise of prosperity after a life of noble labor; it&#8217;s an alternate history in which Bart Simpson never ditched his school field trip to the box factory, and was inspired to pursue a career in the cardboard industry.
 

lyre

Member
boxfactory968.png
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Do you think all/most Japanese DSiware releases will come out in the west simply due to the low cost to do so, or do you think many won't, as they don't want to deal with localisation etc, and/or Nintendo will have some release policy in place?

If the games are geniunely good, then it seems a good reason to buy a DSi, but if they are limited in release, then that might steer me in the direction of an import (either JPN or US, or HK maybe).
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
mrklaw said:
Do you think all/most Japanese DSiware releases will come out in the west simply due to the low cost to do so, or do you think many won't, as they don't want to deal with localisation etc, and/or Nintendo will have some release policy in place?

with wiiware virtually all the games that aren't explicitly japanese (mahjong, shogi, other table/parlour games) have come over. i don't see why it wouldn't be the case here.
 

panda21

Member
if these are all out at launch for the dsi i might have to get one :S haco life alone looks brilliant

is there a list of the dsiware us/euro launch titles yet?? its only like a month away or something
 
Admittedly I'm turning into an Art Style nut thanks to the Wiiware releases, but:

HACOLIFE is single-handedly destroying all of my free time! :lol Thanks sp0rsk!

(Bless those 1000 free DSi points!)
 

bryehn

Member
Oh man, only two weeks till DSi! I really hope we have a good DSiWare launch lineup.

I have to skip Rhythm Heaven that day because of the $200 system cost in Canada. Hopefully the $20 of Wii Points (Nintendo Points now I guess?) I can afford keeps me occupied for a couple weeks.
 

Vinci

Danish
I don't care how many Art Style games are released, I'm buying every single one of them. They're like an addiction.
 
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