Double Sequence: The Q-Virus Invasion (Nintendo DS) - Review by Chris

Introduction

At this point in time, 4 years after its launch, the DS is hardly short on puzzle related titles. There's everything from Nintendo classic Tetris DS to the likes of Puzzle Quest and Zoo Keeper to the new generation of puzzle games in Meteos. As a result, there isn't a whole lot of room for pushing the genre more than it has been but that doesn't mean that all the unique ideas have been used up. Double Sequence: The Q Virus Invasion, from developers Next Wave Team, continues with the prevalent use of block in DS puzzle titles but brings with it a very interesting and unique twist that should ultimately make it stand out about the rest.

Gameplay

Most puzzle games don't bother to employ a story as there isn't any need for one but Double Sequence: The Q Virus Invasion bucks the trend and at least attempts to incorporate one, something that eventually becomes part of the game's downfall. The story, vague as it is, goes that there has been an outbreak of deadly diseases. These diseases, known as the Q viruses, have begun to infect the entire universe and as the player, it is your job to bust open their DNA sequence and eradicate them before it's too late. It's simplistic but gives the game and its mechanics a backing to work from. However, the game quickly becomes bogged down in jargon, becoming confusing to just about anyone who would pick it up and given that the puzzle genre is one of the most lucrative on the handheld, such a mistake as that could potentially prove fatal to eventual game sales.

The premise of the game starts out simple: as you attempt to defeat and eliminate the Q viruses, you'll play through one of a hundred strong puzzles which involve pairing up blocks of the same colour and detonating them to get rid of them. Sounds simple but the game sprawls over two screens and the moving of blocks can only be done on a vertical plane. You'll select how many blocks in a column you want to move to the other screen and they'll shoot off, in a similar way to how they do in Meteos, while the same number of blocks from the opposite column on the top screen will switch places and come down to the touch screen. By doing this, you'll hope to match up blocks of the same colour to detonate but you need at least 5 blocks to fulfil this and this leads to one of the game's problems. To begin with, the puzzles are easy and it's simple to work out how to get rid of all of the blocks but the game quickly ramps up the difficulty and introduces too many different coloured blocks at one time and will constantly leave you scratching your head wondering how you'd even attempt to complete the puzzle. Yes, it's great to have a puzzle title that provides a hefty challenge but this takes it too far making it nigh on impossible at some points. And the idea of having to have 5 blocks connected before you can get rid of them means you constantly have to think multiple steps ahead otherwise you'll fail the puzzle because you will have 4 or so blocks of one colour left meaning they can't be eliminated. The frustration that the game brings sets in very quickly and while the game can have all the content in the world, with this game having upwards of 100 puzzles as well as having the ability to create your own, you won't go very far in discovering them.

The game has a unique idea behind it that seems great, as has been already mentioned, is too difficult. It also doesn't help then that the game piles in all this unnecessary information and modes in the single player that are given little explanation. In some instances, you won't be able to go right in to a planet and try and eradicate the virus and so you'll have to go through the option of scanning, decoding and then neutralising the thing. But it's so contrived and confusing that your head will spin. The idea with puzzle games is that they provide easy relief and can provide a good challenge when necessary but Double Sequence provides the challenge of even getting into one of the puzzles because of the cluttered interface and non-description of what you have to do. The game does support multi-card play for two players and this allows sharing of levels and it's a nice touch but the likelihood of finding another with this game are slim.

Controls

The game allows you to make use of either the face buttons or the touch screen for control in game and around the menus but it's so cumbersome using the buttons that the touch screen is the only way to play it. The touch screen controls work well and do make the game accessible; it's just the gameplay that prevents it from actually being so. There are some issues but these come about as a result of the menus rather than the controls.

Graphics

The developers have gone somewhat over the top have cluttered up the game's menus. The top screen is filled with information that is defunct and unnecessary while the touch screen's menus are all over the place making navigation and selection of modes difficult. It's clear that they are trying to push the whole virus idea by making the menus and the visual style reflect this idea but it holds the game back. During actual play, the visuals are limited but effective and are exactly as you'd expect to find in any other block puzzler.

Sound

A mix of techno related music is fused with the gameplay and it does well in suiting the overall style. If you're not a fan of that particular style of music, you may want to turn the sound down as it's all you'll hear but as far as audio presentations go, it's not bad.

Dual screen

Menus are all situated and selected on the touch screen with the top screen being used for little more than an information board. In game, though, due to the unique gameplay, the developers have made good use of the two screens as you'll be moving blocks between the two and have to be thinking about what is on each, even though you can cycle through the blocks from left to right moving the columns between the screens.

Final comments

Double Sequence: A Q Virus Invasion has a lot of competition on the DS and unfortunately, it's not going to be able to compete with them. The unique gameplay is there but it's so complex and confusing that it becomes almost inaccessible to virtually all that play it. Pair that with an interface that is cluttered and just generally a mess. The whole thing will confuse you as much as the gameplay, so even getting into a puzzle is a miracle. It's a typical case of style over substance but if they had toned it down a bit, the end result might not have been so bad.

Pro: Unique concept, hundreds of puzzles to play through, can create and share your own creations Con: Gameplay is too confusing and difficult, interface is a mess, buried underneath a slew of unnecessary information and options
Final score: 4.5

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