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Desi Adda: Games of India – Game Launch and First Impressions

by Faiyaz Shaikh / Nov 03, 2009 16:55:02 IST / Tags: PS2, Sony, Atindriya Bose, Desi Adda, Gilli Danda, Pachisi, Kite Flying, Aadu Puli Aatam, Kabaddi, GameShastra, Hanuman the boy warrior, Desi Adda preview, Desi Adda hands-on, Desi Adda: Games of India

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Gameshastra's Prakhash Ahuja, Sony's Atindriya Bose and actor Darsheel Safary

launch Desi Adda: Games of India

We were invited to attend launch of a new game on the PS2 and PSP called Desi Adda: Games of India. Speaking at the event were Atindriya Bose from Sony Computer Entertainment India and Prakash Ahuja from Gameshastra – the studio behind the game.

The presentation and the subsequent fanfare went on for about 20-odd minutes and it was nothing to write home about. And then the moment of truth – we finally got to play the game.

Desi Adda has a story mode in which the protagonist is a guy of Indian origin named Avinash, who has lived his life in another country and, one day, decides to spend some time in a tiny Indian village. From this point on, the story has all the elements you would find in a Bollywood potboiler from the 60’s and 70’s. This story in supported by graphics that look equally dated, with models and backgrounds that would have been more relevant a decade back. This is the second product of SCE’s endeavor to develop games in India and I hate to be a buzz-kill, but this game is not much better than the last one – Hanuman, the Boy Warrior.

The game was showcased in the kiosks as mini-games in various booths, and I tried my hand at Kite Flying, Dancing, Gilli Danda and Pachisi. Other mini-games featured in Desi Adda are Aadu Puli Aatam (Goat and the Tiger) and Kabaddi.

Dancing is a “bonus game” that needs to be unlocked by completing the story mode. [Spoiler Alert] This mode is actually the climax of the game, which effectively means there is only a single track available. This mini-game works on a note matching system seen in games like DDR, and if you have heard of it, Dance Mela. Due to absence of a dance mat, the game uses a combination of face buttons and the D-pad. The controls were not very responsive and the overall experience can be summed up in one word: Meh!

Next up was Kite Flying, which comes in two modes: kite fighting, where the objective is to cut down the other guys kite; and kite flying, where you need to pop a set number of balloons within the given time. After having failed to understand the control system and consequently not popped a single balloon in 10 minutes, I moved on to another game.

Gilli Danda, at first glance, seemed the most interesting of the lot. The match has you, three or four other competitors and a scoreboard. But I just could not get around the lack of depth-perception in the game’s graphics and the awkward and unpredictable physics of the Gilli.

The last game I tried was Pachisi – apparently of Mahabharata fame. To give you a quick overview, it’s a game played with rectangular dices, a board with squares on it and each player is represented on the board with four pieces each. The game is meant to work on a combination of chance and strategy; however, after playing a few rounds, it seemed to be heavily skewed towards the former.

We are unable to post any screenshots of the game since Sony refuses to release any… probably because the game looks that bad!

After these games brutalized any interest and enthusiasm I had mustered, I could not get myself to try rest of the lot.

So that’s the tally for console game development in India under a big label publication: two strikes out of two! Dare we hope that a third time is a charm?

If any of you are still interested in buying Desi Adda (maybe out of charity), it should retail on PS2 for Rs. 499 and on the PSP for Rs. 999.

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this game sucks bigtime! jim edwards and joshua vaughan single handedly destroyed this game. Kiran pullicheri along with his buddy Om Acharya are destroying this gameshastra...prakash ahuja sucks

12 Comments

Nov 14,2009, by rohit

this game sucks bigtime! jim edwards and joshua vaughan single handedly destroyed this game. Kiran pullicheri along with his buddy Om Acharya are destroying this gameshastra...prakash ahuja sucks

Nov 09,2009, by ashwin

Boring..Boring...Boring... Give us some fun game to play.

Nov 08,2009, by unbiased

Whoever have commented above must definitely be from the same company, are u guys nuts? okay the concept is new, trying to lay new foundations in india. kudos only to that part , REALLY but what abt the game mechanics? really is this the best you can do? im sure indians are better at not only playing but making them aswell ..... hoping you guys will stop making such crap games again., and start making some real innovative and more importantly 'fun' games. btw, you guys have not tested the game for quality assurance before planning to release it? come on ., you can invite people from outside to do your beta testing for free, before u can throw ur shit games out into the world and portraying bad image about indian developers. What you say we are budding developers and we'll make crappy games only? sure, do make crappy games, but release in public already. Get set ready and when you really think u can score 6/10 from external reviewers(not from ur own company). and then release ur games, not only u'll get good response from gamers, but u'll be opening doors for much better clients for urself, so guys wake up. all the best for ur next titles if atall u'll be making anymore now! oh btw allmost forgot, if u r trying to make desi adda 2, (im sure u r not, but just for safe side of indian developers im saying) stop it right now, and ., and., and yeah thats it., STOP IT. anyways good luck, hope u understand we gamers, and please dont post reviews from ur own company people and promote bad reviews , thats really bad on ur part pysvd9

Nov 05,2009, by Leo82

I think your impressions are shortsighted as you played the game on kiosks - not sure if you took enough time to understand the instructions and controls.I guess thts the reason why professional reviewers play the physical copy of the game for reviews/previews

Nov 04,2009, by nintendo ds

Hey. The game titled PS2 and PSP called Desi Adda: Games of India is interesting story game. But likes and dislikes is depend on one's own experience. I hope you will find it interesting one. Anyway Stay Connected here.

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