Tiny Preview: Art Style: HacoLife (and DSiWare to an extent)

DSiWare is enabling Nintendo to not only live up to the brilliant legacy left by bit Generations, but even surpass the acclaimed GBA series with its Art Style line.

Though Art Style titles have appeared on WiiWare, it’s on the DSi where Skip Ltd. reached for the stars and captured in its grip that same magic that compels those distant, fixed points of light in the sky to twinkle on clear nights.

Art Style: HacoLife (BoxLife) is more than just a puzzle game about cutting and folding boxes; it’s Japan’s interpretation of the American Dream; it’s the unrealistic but fulfilled promise of prosperity after a life of noble labor; it’s an alternate history in which Bart Simpson never ditched his school field trip to the box factory, and was inspired to pursue a career in the cardboard industry.

While the bit Generations games were praised for championing simple fun through spartan graphics and controls, Art Style’s DSiWare games continue that tradition and add an extra addictive quality — in PiCOPiCT, it was the coin system that tied into unlocking YMCK remixes of classic Nintendo songs, accessing difficult mirror levels, and buying POW power-ups during hectic stages.

In HacoLife, the player character is represented by a winsome, ambitious blue collar worker who can choose to either refine his trade in Training mode, or jump into the real Factory mode and start collecting his cash.

Without any prior practice or real familiarity with the box-folding system, though, mistakes will be plenty on the factory line, and he’ll only scrounge a few thousand yen with each playthrough, if he’s lucky.

If he wants to earn a liveable wage, he has to take 14 Training classes, not just learning the different ways one can cut a box, but picking up the methods needed to quickly and efficiently break down a sheet into 3-5 boxes without wasting a single square. Similar to Fay’s Puzzle in Shiren the Wanderer, he must master these lessons to really survive in the game.

And by taking these classes, the young worker has more opportunities to climb the ladder, going beyond a “Part-Time” position and taking on the role of “Craftstman.” And with his successes at the workplace, the hero can rise from poverty and own the things he dreamt of one day having — a nice house, a healthy puppy, a Vespa with a full tank of gas — these simple wonders begin to populate the game’s title screen .

I envy HacoLife’s protagonist.

tags / art style / bit generations / dsiware / ec / hacolife / skip / import