A Portal Away From The Rain

Today's my day off. Therefore it must rain.

As if on cue, from the moment I woke up until this point of time it has been raining. I'm not going to let it get me down though. My brother asked me if I liked puzzle games. Usually I'd say no, but this one's pretty addictive.

It's called Portal. The aim of the game is to go through rooms using some strategy and essentially, a portal gun.

The original, retail version uses a 3D environment and third person view like a RPG. If you'd like to give it a try, there's a free 2D flash version you can try out from here.

Although the graphics are not quite as detailed in this one, it's plenty addictive and at times frustrating. It's easy to get stuck, so me being lazy I just used some walkthroughs on Youtube to get through the levels slightly easier.

I'm up to level 15 right now. I'm momentarily giving it a break for now. Out of curiosity I checked if there was something like this for my Nintendo DS. There is!

Someone has actually written a game, Still Alive DS using the same elements, and it's really good. Great actually, considering it's a "home-made" creation.

You can even make up your own levels with a custom map editor included in the game. Another excuse to waste time, instead of learning Japanese or doing something else productive. Fantastic!

Speaking of the Nintendo DS, I came across this promo for "Guitar Hero On Tour". Intentional or not, it's hilarious.

Something a little more useful perhaps, is Jam Sessions which turns your Nintendo DS into a (very) portable guitar. It's based on the original Japanese version called, Hiite Utaeru DS Guitar M-06.

You strum the screen to play the guitar. A little tricky to play well, but a great idea I think. Imagine, a Nintendo DS band! The funny thing is, I could actually see something like that happening in a place like Japan.