March 13, 2007

Test Your Sight in the Namco Bandai Picture/Puzzler “QuickSpot”
by Louis Bedigian

“The King Of All Cosmos from Katamari is in there. Taiko Drum Master, Ridge Racer, Mr. Driller, Pac-Man, and Klonoa.”

You’ve heard the hype. You’ve seen the screenshots. And you know the goal: spot the difference between two images. Now GameZone takes you inside the game to bring you a little closer to one of Nintendo DS’s most unique releases.

Hooray for Taiko Drum Master!

Kristeen Kennedy, Product Marketing Manager for QuickSpot, told us that when it came time to bring the game Stateside, a few changes had to be made. “We did have to change some of the images for cultural differences,” she said. “Also, to get an E10+ rating we had to omit some of the images. For example, a girl in a bikini. When you look at it, I don’t think a game with an E10+ rating [should have that]. We might get complaints from parents about that. Japanese culture isn’t as uptight about that sort of thing – girls in bikinis. So they took it out.”

This minor elimination doesn’t change the game, and may end up giving greater weight to the many cameos from Namco Bandai stars. Describing a puzzle with Mr. Driller, Kristeen says one image could have Mr. Driller himself flying a helicopter, while another shows him in a racecar. “Another example,” she adds, ‘is Katamari. You’ll see rainbows and cows, and one of the images will have the king or the prince. Circle the one that stands out.”

Kristeen then took a moment to outline QuickSpot’s single and multiplayer modes.

“First there’s Rapid Play, where you go through the experience of different pictures. You quickly have to find the difference [among the specific images] in ten seconds or less, then it moves onto the next image [set].

Klonoa and friends.

“Focus Play is where you can find 10 different differences in one picture. In multiplayer there’s Time Bomb, which you can play with up to eight players. It’s kind of a hot potato mode, where you’re passing the DS onto your friends. After you find the difference in the image, you pass the DS onto the next player.

“There’s also Scramble mode. In that mode you can play with friends and mess up their gameplay by doing different things to their screens. The things you can do to their screens [cause the images] to get really pixelated. There’s also one where the color is different between the two images, but you can still find the difference.”

“One thing to know,” she continues, “is that the MSRP is $19.99. The target market is young, casual gamers, ages eight and up. Also, the secondary target is casual gamers who have a DS and might enjoy some brain teaser-like games. I think this game is really appropriate for parents. The images are really cute, and with the different mini-games like hot potato, you can play with your friends. In Time Bomb mode, you can revere and skip turns, kind of like Uno. It’s a nice little twist in the game.”

Blow into the DS’s built-in microphone to remove the leaves.

QuickSpot is a very different kind of Nintendo DS game. I've played it and know what to expect – but what would you say to those who are completely clueless about the game?

Kristeen Kennedy: It’s kind of like Concentration: you’re trying to find the difference between two images. There are multiple ways at looking at the images. The way of solving [a puzzle] is, you look at the screens and circle difference on the [bottom screen]. Not only can you circle the screen, but you can rub and blow on the screen to reveal what the images look like. There is a boss stage where [there are] leaves. You blow [into the microphone to remove the leaves]. Then you can see what is different between the top and bottom images.

QuickSpot is a fun game that almost fits the Where's Waldo crowd, but it's being promoted as a brain game. Let's talk about this -- how and why it's beneficial to play this game.

KK: As far as the brain game part of it, it’s a light-hearted… With the brain activity, it kind of touches upon the brain game aspects of it. It’s not heavily focused like other brain-teaser games that are, you know, so heavily focused that you’re concentrating really, really hard. But with QuickSpot you can quickly test different parts of your brain activity. There are different parts like intuition, concentration, and [stability]. Depending on how quickly or how you perfectly you create your circles, and how fast you can do them, that will translate to your brain activity score.

What does it mean if the in-game psychic ("Today's Fortune" feature) is predicting bad things for me? Am I doomed!?

KK: Actually, in the game there are [not any] negative fortunes. Today’s Fortune, when you play it, asks what fortune you want: money, romance, health, or study. When you play and clear them, you’ll get a fortune at the end. There’s nothing that’s really negative like, ‘You’re going to be poor,’ or things like that. No need to worry about being doomed.

You've gotta tell us about the cameos! In the preview build I saw signs of Klonoa, Taiko Drum Master, and Ridge Racer. Who else can we expect to see from the Namco Bandai lineup?

KK: The King Of All Cosmos from Katamari is in there. Taiko Drum Master, Ridge Racer, Mr. Driller, Pac-Man, and Klonoa. I don’t have the full list on hand, but those are the ones that I distinctly remember [being in the game].

I’ve played the game, and I was wondering about the difficulty of some of the images. I can usually spot the difference pretty quickly, but there are some that I can stare at for what feels like a very long time and not pick up on the flaw. What is your tip for players who going to be buying this game? What should they look for to better spot the differences?

KK: I have that same [situation]. I was playing for hours and hours, and I’d reach nine differences [in Focus Play] and have that last one to [find] and get really frustrated. What I’ve learned is that you can’t not only look at the images… Obviously there will be things that stick out, like if there’s a significant color or an extra item there. But you also have to look at the way the building is made. Maybe there’s a different window in the background, and you don’t really notice it. So you really have to pay attention for those extra little things. I can remember playing and seeing things that I maybe thought were different [but was not sure]. And when I circled that area, that’s what it was. So it could be very, very slight.

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