I love video games with cool boxes. This goes back to the old Atari and Amiga days when games came not in flimsy containers, but gigantic, shelf-busting A4 boxes, complete with hefty instruction manuals, five floppy discs, password wheels, posters, stickers, fliers and complete novels. Nowadays, you’re lucky to get a plastic case and a booklet full of safety precautions. “DO NOT EAT THIS GAME”
Modern day lovers of big boxes and unusual packaging have to turn to the Japanese gaming market to have their lust satisfied. That’s why I took a punt on the Japan exclusive DS release Slide Adventure: Mag Kid – I couldn’t understand a word of it, nor could I work my way around the plot, but it came in a big box and that was enough to justify the import. In my little world, anyway. In my head.
The reason why Mag Kid comes in a big cardboard box is because it bundled with it is a new accessory for the DS – the Slide… Thing. To be honest, I don’t really know what it’s called because everything is in a foreign language, but it is certainly intriguing. Looking like it was used to torture otters in a past life, this bizarre contraption sticks into your DS’ Gameboy Advance slot and wraps around the console, supporting it. And why do we have this little thing sticking out of the bottom of our DS console? Because it lets you SLIIIIIIIIIDE.
Yeah! Your character is a little circular disc that (I think) lives in a little boy’s bedroom (I think). He has been tasked, for some reason, to do odd jobs around the house, I think, travelling secretly from one room to the next by hiding in bags, books etc. He is controlled by sliding the DS console on a flat surface – the Slide Thing recognises your movements and pushes the disc around the screen. How awesome is that? You don’t even need to use your stylus, you just need a table. Of course, this means that you can’t play it on the move, unless you have loads of bald blokes on your commuter train. Still, it’s a lot of fun, if not exactly deep, and proves that there’s still a lot of discovery and invention in store for the DS.
Oh, and some big boxes.