Every now and again a game will come along that is so grossly jaundiced, so unfair and so stupidly difficult it makes you question the exact reason why you bother to play video games.
As teased a few days ago, today Spike Chunsoft made its announcement related to Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer.
Hubpages: "RPGs have gone through quite a metamorphosis over the past five years. Console RPGs are almost uniformly giant, big budget affairs. For those whose heart yearns for the classic, low-fi role playing games of the past, there's good news: the Nintendo DS has become one of the great repositories of JRPGs. Featuring both remakes and highly original content, these top Nintendo DS RPGs are enough to win over any fan's heart."
Most consoles struggle for a "Top 10" of any genre. Even PC. The DS, on the other hand, could easily manage a "top 20" list for RPGs, there are so many.
Shiren won't hold your hand. It's the type of game that throws you into the ocean and expects you to not only learn to swim, but make your way back to shore. It's part sadism, but part respect. It's a port of an SNES game, and it shows. It's from the era where developers clearly trusted the player to be smart enough to figure things out. This isn't for everybody. This is challenge for the sake of challenge. But it's that challenge that ultimately makes the game so rewarding.
