DS games?

Ok, I’ve had a DS since Target ran that misprint add for $99 about 2 years ago. Since then, I’ve only gotten a few games and just recently purchased a Lite (gave my original to my GF for her bday since she’d been begging me to let her have it). Those games are: <b>Mario Kart DS, Brain Age, FF3, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice For All.</b>

Thats too few games for an awesome system, and I know there are a shit ton of awesome games out for it, the only problem is that I don’t know of many. Some I <i><u>plan to get in the near future are</u></i>: <b>Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations (when its released), Pokemon Pearl, New Super Mario Bros.</b>

I’ve been thinking about Hotel Dusk, but I’m not so sure of it. What awesome DS games do the rest of you have, and why exactly do you enjoy them so?

Games I currently have and enjoy:

Mario Kart DS It’s much like the other MK games with the added bonus of being able to play on the go.

New Super Mario Bros. An excellent game that feels almost like a hybrid of all the past major Super Mario games.

Megaman ZX Much like the Zero games that proceed it, but it can also be enjoyed by non savants.

Star Fox: Command The first decent SF game since 64 unfortunately it’s still doesn’t feel like a SF game.

Metroid Prime: Hunters Ok if you’re looking for a handheld FPS unfortunately it too doesn’t really feel like an entry of the series that inspired it.

and Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time It’s like Super Star Saga only more of the same (although it still doesn’t measure up to the level of humor found in it’s predecessor).

Let’s see…

  • If you like the Castlevania series, you definitely won’t be dissapointed by the CV games on the DS.

  • Same goes with Megaman - if you like Megaman (particularly the Megaman Zero series), you’ll enjoy Megaman ZX.

  • You already have the Phoenix Wright games. Good :stuck_out_tongue:

  • Trace Memory is an excellent little puzzle game. I reccomend it.

  • Hotel Dusk, eh? Read my latest blog on how I feel about Hotel Dusk.

  • New Super Mario Bros is a great idea.

  • I particularly enjoyed Advance Wars: Dual Strike. Thankfully, if you’ve never tried the games in this series, you can check out the way it plays with a GBA emulator - the GBA games aren’t too far off.

  • Electroplankton is an amazingly fun game; however, while I reccomend it, you should really read up on it first. It’s more like a toy than an actual game.


DO NOT GET:

Lunar: Dragon Song.

Hmm. Gameplay lacks… damn.

Don’t listen to SG, he’s a poopoo head. Hotel Dusk is a pretty decent classic adventure game, which is quite obviously not his genre. The gameplay is indeed a bit lacking, but that’s pretty much why adventure games are dead these days, no? It does have pretty faptastic art and the plot is amusing, so worth checking out if you’re into that sort of thing. Alternatively, SCUMMVM DS + old Lucasarts games.

Ouendan/Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan 2 - crazy music games made by insane japanese people. None of it is original music, and only EBA can be bought locally (playasia.com for imports). They are, however, fantastic games with a lot of crazy japanese quirks, and somehow manage to make the most awful songs possible (La La) into incredibly awesome stages. I think I’ve spent more time on these games than any other DS game, and that’s saying something.

Etrian Odyssey - Dungeon crawler. Very good dungeon crawler. Very hard. Great if you’re into them, you will staple your cock to your chin if you’re not.

Mario Kart DS - Best Mario Kart, period.

Cooking Mama - Really fun, if shallow, game. Basically a series of minigames to cook dishes. I got half my class addicted to this game and as a result I can’t play my DS in class anymore :frowning:

Pokemon - Great Pokemon game. It’s Pokemon, there’s not much to say. A lot of mechanics were reworked, causing every Pokemon to have a wildly different functional moveset. It’s possible to get every pokemon ever in these games, though that’ll require the old GBA games or trading online (best feature EVER). Hit me up for starters if you get it.

Trauma Center - I don’t think you have a Wii, so I’m gonna recommend the DS version. It is a fantastic game, not realistic at ALL (virus that fires lasers wtf) but incredibly fun. The operations are pretty diverse and can be stupidly hard at times. From what I’ve heard the Wii version is better in pretty much every way, but the DS game is still very, very good.

Kirby Canvas Curse/Power Paintbrush (whatever it was called over there) - Pretty fun platformer, uses the touch screen in a pretty cool way. Should be cheap now, grab it.

I don’t really have anything to add that’s not already listed…

The Castlevanias are good, especially if you enjoyed SOTN or AoS.

Mega Man ZX was a lot of fun, and Advent is looking even funner.

Mario Kart DS… yeah, as they say, best Mario Kart yet.

FF3 is hard as oldschool hell, which is why it’s quite awesome.

New Super Mario Bros suffers from being a bit on the short side (or it feels like it, anyway) and isn’t too challenging (It could have used a secret world or two with harder levels) but the game itself is still a lot of fun.

Partners in Time is a bit lackluster compared to Superstar Saga. I dislike the ‘hub’ system and much preferred the freedom of the BeanBean Overworld in the first game, and I also preferred the Bros Skills in the first game over the Bros Items in the second. But, if you can find it for cheap I’d still pick it up if you’re a fan of Mario games of the RPG genre.

Yoshi’s Island DS often slips under everyone’s radar. Like most sequels it wasn’t as good as the original. But it’s a much more challenging platformer than New Super Mario Bros and if it weren’t for an utterly disappointing and uninspired final battle I’d rate it higher.

Yeah, I gave up on Yoshi’s Island DS halfway through after getting frustrated with the collectibles/lack of backtracking in a stage. I kinda liked it, but eh.

Puzzle quest - an nteresting game that tries to give plot to a puzzle game. if you ever played bejeweled, think that, only you can level up to make battles easier. I had fun with it, plenty to do.

I’d also recommend Mega Man ZX if you like MM games, I really enjoyed it, and I’d never played a Zero game. My only other real suggestion would be Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja. If you like Roguelikes (or Mystery Dungeon) games, then you might want to look into Izuna if you’re looking for a challenge (it’s pretty 'tuff). Good luck on your search for games :slight_smile:

It’s not just lacking - it’s fucking devoid of gameplay! Even for an adventure game, there’s surprisingly little to do except walk to the next part of the story.

In any case, I didn’t tell him NOT to get it - I leave it completely up to him, cos I can see a lot of people enjoying it in spite of the way it’s made; however, I think before he buys it, he should know the true nature of the game.

The sad part is that it really isn’t. Gameplay is hard to find in these things.

Also, there totally was that optional matchstick puzzle <_<

Well I guess I’ve been lucky, cos virtually every ‘adventure’ type game I’ve ever played has had shit you needed to figure out in order to move on, besides walk. :stuck_out_tongue:

I’ve been curious about Izuna for a while…

Right now for the DS I’m pretty much holding out for upcoming releases; I’m psyched about the Harvest Moon games that should be out this fall, Zelda whenever it’s released… and just maybe the subject of my other thread, in case it’s actually true. Someday I’m sure I’ll cave and get Trauma Center.

I’ve really enjoyed both Castlevania games, Dawn of Sorrow moreso than Portrait of Ruin. It was cool to be able to use my Aria of Sorrow cartridge to get a Rare Ring for my DoS game too. :slight_smile: I’ll refrain from discussing Mario Kart and FF3, but I will say I’ve enjoyed both. I also have Rocket Slime, but I wouldn’t recommend paying too much for that - it’s just way too easy.

Another game I’m curious about is the first Mario game for DS, the one that’s supposed to be like Mario 64. Anyone played that?

Touch Detective is a cute little graphical adventure game.

Oh yeah, I have that one too, I forgot about it.

Uh, that might be enough of a review right there… Seriously, though, there’s nothing wrong with the game, per say. But the controls on the DS are lackluster compared to the original. Using the thumbpad to move around with the touchscreen is too awkward, so I found myself using the control pad for most of the game, except where precise moves were needed. There’s new content, which adds up to a couple of small stages (No new FULL stages, ie, full courses with 8 stars, just one-star maps) and a new star on every course, plus a few more around the castle to give 150 stars in all. My beef with this, though, is that just about all the new stars that they added in the stages are collection quests. Some of the stars hidden around the castle were pretty cleverly hidden, and being able to play as four characters as opposed to just Mario was neat (I just wish you could finish the game as some of the others, Bowser is only willing to fight Mario)

But, honestly, if you own the original, or if you own a Wii with access to Wi-Fi to download the original, don’t bother with it unless you can find it for cheap. I bought it thinking the new features would be awesome, but in the end only thought it was so-so.

Luminous Arc and Heroes of Mana are my next upcoming DS games. Every ones I own has already been mentionned in here anyway.

I second Advance Wars: DS and Puzzle Quest, though I agree that you should check out the GBA games to see if it’s to your liking.

Also, POKEMON!!!

I personally liked Portrait of Ruin more than Aria of Sorrow. I thought the gameplay was more interesting even if the game wasn’t perfect.

I wouldn’t recommend FF3 because of how old school it is. I wouldn’t say the game is hard because its not really a challenge. Its that the game can be horribly dependent on luck. For example, when you fight Kraken, he will do 2 attacks per round of battle and his turns work like this: you him him you you him him you you. So he actually gets 4 attacks at a time. Guess what? He’ll either kill your party members and you’ll have a hell of a time getting them back up or you’ll wipe. This is just irritating. There is no strategy to this, its dumb luck. Did he focus fire your healer or black mage or not?

I also REALLY didn’t like Mega Man ZX. I found the story to be a huge turn off, the boss fights weren’t really interesting and the save point / mission system was a pain in the ass.

And how nice of you to give your gf a clunky old used DS for her bitchday :P.

Has anyone tried Hoshigami remix? I’m really looking forward to Heroes of Mana / FFXII DS, not to mention DQ4,5,6,9. Luminous Arc is probably interesting. Tactical RPG + Atlus = win.

The Jump Super(Ultimate) Stars are good games if you don’t mind imports, Etrian Odyssey is pretty fun if you don’t mind grinding and dungeon crawling, Elite Beat Agents is made up of win and awesomeness, and the MegaMan Star Force games come out next week and they look pretty fun too.

The dragon quest game rocket slime

that was a really good game, very fun