Nerd Mentality

REVIEW: Big Bang Mini

Posted March 10th 2009 by Jacob Barnes.

I feel sick. Everything around me is falling in a never-ending loop into nothingness. And when I blink I see nothing but blue neon triangles. Maybe I need to drink something, but I can't open the fridge door because my fingers are clenched in a permanent pencil-holding position. My wrist is shaking violently. Why is this happening to me? Did I leave a polyethylene bread wrapper on the stove again? No, I've been playing too much Big Bang Mini.

This wonderful shoot ‘em up-esque game comes from the fine French folks at Arkedo after their previous hit, Nervous Brickdown, was released in 2007. Big Bang Mini is similar to a level in NB called "shoot" where the player guides a ship through space and knocks a ball into certain objects. However, in Big Bang Mini your weapons are balls of fire that you shoot into the air by swiping the stylus across a small portion of the screen. On the top screen are various enemies flying around that you have to aim at, then destroy. Then after they explode, you have to collect tiny stars to fill up a star meter and beat the stage. It's a simple pick-up-and-play game. If you've ever lit a match, you can play this game.

What sets this apart from other DS games on the market now is the sense of style. Before playing the game you'll notice a unique lenticular box art cover, similar to images on some collectible cards or movie displays. Even humor in the manual gives a Wario Ware game manual a run for its money. The in-game menus are vibrant and full of this neon retro-punk style that is easy to navigate through. They've really put some effort into the smaller details that most people look over.

The main game, known as arcade mode, is divided into nine real-life environments such as Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro and the mysterious ocean waters of Abyss. But it's more varied than just a few background and music changes per stage. Everything is different and nothing is recycled for each stage.

The rainbow dot matrix Egyptian world, Luxor, is a good example of this. When most people think of Egypt they envision sand, but here we get a techno vibe with enemies and objects composed entirely of different colored dots. In Savannah we see a paper-mache African sunset full of dark color tones. The icy cold stage of Aurora sends us flying over Arctic waters while dodging penguins who shoot hockey pucks, only to be met with an 80's punk walrus with a mohawk at the end. It's crazy.

Like I said, completing one of the levels in a stage is simple. You don't have to think about what weapon to use or where to hit an enemy; just keep shooting until something explodes. Just make sure you maneuver your worthless ship so it doesn't get hit or the short stage will be over. This can be difficult when there are an array of different projectiles headed at you at different speeds and motions. So maybe you want to take down a bigger enemy first who gives you some trouble before firing at some stationary blocks. There are also some stage-specific power-ups to assist players in each world like shields or homing fireworks. Paris is a particularly fun stage because of the ability to freeze time for short intervals when there are many enemies on the screen.

After each stage there is a "bonus zone" which is essentially a glorified version of connect the dots. This is simple during the first few stages but gets increasingly difficult in the later stages when there is limited time or a sea monster is chasing you while you try connecting numbers. Paul Reubens would kill himself if he saw some of these. At the end of each world is a boss fight. The only time when power-ups don't work is during the boss battles, but on the other hand there is no firework debris in this mode so you can fire away.

If you've played Nervous Brickdown, then expect some more of that great music from the electropop band Yubaba, Smith & Fortune (Sylvain Hellio and Xavier Thirry). People outside of France, including myself, have probably never heard of them, but I recommend everyone to check out some of their music. Every song is perfectly fitted for each world or menu since they worked closely with Arkedo for this project. Paris and Rio de Janeiro have particularly catchy tunes.

Big Bang Mini also features a single-cart multiplayer mode, mission mode and challenge mode. Challenge mode is simply a never-ending cascade of blue triangles and other items that you fire at, where you can upload your high-score to an online leaderboard. It's crazy fun, but it can be tiresome for your hands after playing for a while. I can't say it's a very long game with the arcade mode lasting only a few hours. However, I found myself playing some stages twice to see how fast I could complete a stage or to redo a missed bonus stage. The other modes provide enough entertainment for this type of budget game.

Closing Comments

I think the likeability of Big Bang Mini comes down to the gameplay: shooting fireworks in the air. Some people may not like to constantly slide the stylus across the screen, and they may have problems with some stages if they are not fast enough doing so. But even then it's a fun game while it lasts, and at $20 new it's hard to pass up.

Tags: Big Bang Mini, Nintendo-DS

Posted in: Reviews, Gaming

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