strider

Darn, I thought this would help me formulate a good IPA or porter... ;)

I had my own "wow" experience with Nintendo. I called the 800 number in the Nintendo Power magazine to order a subscription along with a game guide. After dialing, but before speaking to anyone, I noticed I could place my order on-line so I hung up. Over the next two weeks I received: 1) at least two messages on my home answering machine from Nintendo asking if they could help (caller ID?!) 2) an e-mail at the address I registered my product with also repeating an offer to help (cross-referencing phone and customer records to find my e-mail?!?! 3) I finally received a customer satifaction survey card in snail mail asking again for feedback (hey, let's go all the way, we have his mailing address too, so why not!?!?!?!).

I completed the survey using polite but stern words about how if I wanted or needed help I would've responded to the previous attempts to contact me and how frankly their ever deeper violations of my privacy were "frankly, creeping me out." I left them with a dare of sorts to contact me to discuss that... the magazine subscription be damned.

Within a week I received a call from Joel. When I answered the phone he identified himself and saying, "I hope I'm not creeping you out." I felt an odd mix of irritation and humor, but Joel's genuine interest in my satisfaction and generally disarming approach kept me on the line.

We wound up talking for nearly an hour. I told him how I appreciated Nintendo's persistence but after I didn't respond to the first couple of messages, they should have called it a day. He countered that their clientel are usually not so tech savvy and are often uncertain about their products and how to use them. They'd rather take the chance of pissing off a tech savvy customer (my words) like me than to leave a single mom with three whining kids unsupported and frustrated with their purchase of a Nintendo product.

He said he understood my concerns and agreed to bring my views back to his support management. He gave me a free subscription and game guide for my troubles. He helped me with my kids' new Pokemon Diamond and Pearl games and even extended an offer to stop by the next time I'm in the Seattle area (I've got in-laws there!).

He was the perfect person to speak to me and in fact he said his job is specifically to deal with customers that complain to Nintendo. I suspect it must be a hard job to do, but my experience was that he does it well. He definitely cemented my loyalty to Nintendo.

"Watermelon in Easter Hay"

but of course afterward my DS would disintegrate into a pile of plastic and silicon and I'd need finger transplants...

"... Codemasters seems to be putting almost no effort in promoting."

Hmmm... I nearly threw away my October issue of MaximumPC when it arrived in the mail. There's a Jericho advertisement that covers the entire front and back of the magazine! I mean, you have to turn the page past the ad to reveal the magazine cover.

Cudo's for the bold ad move but booo's for using permanent adhsive insead of that easily peeled off gorilla snot that seems to be so common everywhere these days.

I'll give it to 'em that they're targeting their core audience by going fo MaxPC readers...

Crusader: No Remorse and
Crusader: No Regret

Boy did I love that game on the PC. I still have it, but it originates too far back in the DOS primordial ooze to work with today's hardware and Win XP. This game has nearly brought me to the brink of building a retro box just to play it...

That and Buzz Aldrins Race Into Space.

xenon - True enough, but keep in mind that he was reviewing a Japanese version and apparently didn't find the control scheme switch until later.

"However, take a few random stabs at the menu options and you'll find that you can both get a locked full-screen view of the scrolling grids, and play with the d-pad and buttons, which for the larger puzzles is much easier."

I totally agree that using the stylus is an adventure in aggravation on the standard puzzles. It's only on the speed puzzles or mini-games that I use the stylus at all.

D-pad & buttons all the way!

xenon-

True enough, but keep in mind that he was reviewing a Japanese version and apparently didn't find the control scheme switch until later.

"However, take a few random stabs at the menu options and you'll find that you can both get a locked full-screen view of the scrolling grids, and play with the d-pad and buttons, which for the larger puzzles is much easier."

I totally agree that using the stylus is an adventure in aggravation on the standard puzzles. It's only on the speed puzzles or mini-games that I use the stylus at all.

D-pad & buttons all the way!

There are several picross-like puzzle games out there for the DS. I've been playing the European import "Essential Sudoku" (this version is in English). It's got multi-colored puzzles unlike Picross. It's fun and challenging, but I do prefer the Picross button controls over this one's.

Here's a link to a web page comparing Picross, Essential Sudoku, and a couple of others.

They're all addicting... !

http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/dsrev/roundup3.htm