[QUOTE=Mama Zappa]
Both of my kids love Nintendogs. Basically, virtual dogs. There are different “sets” available (each one has about 5-6 breeds to choose from).
[/QUOTE]
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess a 37 year old man is not going to want to shout commands to virtual puppies on the train. 
[QUOTE=Slacker]
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess a 37 year old man is not going to want to shout commands to virtual puppies on the train.
[/QUOTE]
:smack: I zeroed in on the “girls” and completely missed the part about “got one for himself”.
On the other hand, this would pretty much guarantee he’d have a seat to himself
[QUOTE=shy guy]
Elite Beat Agents. It’s a rhythm game that involves tapping the screen to the beat of a song. Incredibly simple, and progressively more challenging (there are four difficulty levels, the first being incredibly easy and the highest being ridiculously hard).
[/QUOTE]
Thanks for making me feel bad. I can barely complete the game on easy…
Which doesn’t mean that it isn’t a cool game.
If I may throw out a more technical suggestion there is quite a bit of homebrew support for the DS and you can buy a cartridge for loading things at Wal-Mart (Datel Games n’ Music) for $20. I’ve just played through the Day of the Tenticle thanks to the SCUMM VM port to my DS.
My wife loves Bejewelled, so I bought her **Puzzle Quest ** a month ago, and she hasn’t even taken it out of the package! Grrrr…
Sounds like I’ll have to pick up the **Professor Layton ** one, though.
Oh good lord Elite Beat Agents all the way! I got my DS solely for that game–it’s almost as addictive as Puzzle Quest (also a good game, just wish it didn’t glitch every so often). Both games are also great in terms of replayability as well as use of the touchscreen. I’ll also toss in another vote for Zelda–it uses all the hardware of the system in neat ways (including the clamshell design). Nice trick I learned here–when it wants you to shout at it, just blow into the mic. It still works and you don’t wind up feeling like a dolt.
Also, and this is a bit odd since it’s a GBA game with a DS successor, but Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga. It’s a great RPG, but unfortunately the follow-up, Partners in Time, falls a bit flat and is way too short.
Meteos is pretty cool & puzzley. A different spin on a Tetris-style game with different rules for matching things, and you play with the pen; very addictive.
Since you’ve got multiple DS’s in the house, Mario Kart DS and Big Brain Academy are awesome for multiplayer. Metroid Prime Hunters is also a lot of fun with a few people, but it doesn’t necessarily sound like your type of game.
Now that The Game Room has been opened, I am going to move this thread.
The very adventure/puzzle game for the ds is, IMHO, Another Code: Two Memories. It makes the most creative use of the DS system to date. Everything gets used - even the shape of the machine itself!
Damn you people. I shouldn’t go buy a DS…I have better things to spend money on (food, for one,) but fuck if it doesn’t sound awesome! Plus, have you seen the red/black and cobalt/black colored DSes? SEXY!
Lemme open up my own DS case and recommend some games.
Big Brain Academy: Stated before. A good game for wasting some moments, but best played in short bursts. The little exercises for your brain can get kind of draining after a while. The “ooh thinking so much” kind. Still, it’s fun and addicting to keep coming back to.
Puzzle Quest: mentioned before too. If you like Bejeweled and a little D&D thrown in, then this is a game for you. Addicting, and it’s the kind you can play for minutes or hours at a time. I have it for my PC and my DS. There are a few bugs in the DS version, but nothing that makes it unplayable.
MarioKart DS: Also has Wi-Fi play over the internet. Fun racing game with popular Mario characters, a definite must for multiple DSes in the house.
Animal Crossing Wild World: The game is basically a little village in which you live. That’s about it. You can grow fruit trees, talk to people, pay off your house, fish, find little things buried…overall, not too thrilling when playing by yourself, but friends can visit others’ towns by sharing friend codes. Also Wi-Fi enabled for internet play, and if your kids get it, you can visit each others’ towns.
Zelda - Phantom Hourglass: Heavy use on the stylus in this game. Also enabled for Wi-Fi as well as play with others nearby, though the multiplayer is a fun little game where you collect Triforce parts for points while your opponent guides three knights to try and slash you and end your turn. Though the fact you have to keep returning to a certain temple to keep the game going gets repetitive, especially since you have to do floors over and over again.
Elite Beat Agents: Mentioned before as well, quite fun, varying difficulties can be chosen. Allows for multiplayer by allowing you to face off against a friend in songs. The final level is quite hard. As in, “can bring grown men to tears” hard. 
Lost Magic: A quite basic RPG that plays a little like the old Warcraft, where you can guide your units with your stylus and tell them where to go or attack. The fun point is being able to draw runes on your touchscreen with your stylus to activate your spells. Also Wi-Fi Enabled.
Heroes of Mana: Even moreso like the old Warcraft games, as you have to not only guide units all over large maps, but also harvest raw materials to build things while in-battle. Wi-Fi enabled I think, haven’t played mine much.
Cooking Mama: “Bettah zen mama!” Play little cooking minigames to complete your dishes. Peel, chop, slice, dice, stew, saute…learn styles of cooking while having fun. I like it, I recommend it. Though peeling carrots seems so hard…
Nintendogs: Mentioned before, you can also visit other DS owners’ dogs by enabling “Bark Mode”. This can unlock new items and breeds. By using the microphone in your DS, you can communicate to your dogs by calling them over by name, and issuing commands like “Sit!” and “Roll over!”. Very fun for a while, and the cuteness can reel you in, but since you need to really care for them daily, it can get kind of old. I haven’t seen my puppy for months. He’s covered in fleas by now I’m sure. Though…don’t do it in public places other than at home, people will think you’re crazy. 
Luminous Arc: A very good RPG game not unlike Tactics Ogre or Final Fantasy Tactics, where battles are done on a grid-like battlefield. Has good humor that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and the voice acting is very good. I highly recommend it if you like roleplaying games. Although battles can take a while.
Trauma Center - Under the Knife: Become a surgeon! Use your stylus as a scalpel, a medical laser, a syringe, and other tools. Better classified as a Puzzle-type game, it isn’t gross in terms of blood or anything. I very highly recommend Trauma Center, as it’s quite unique and easily reels you in. The surgeries are all on a timer and usually aren’t any longer than five minutes at most, and you can always replay them for higher scores.
Rune Factory: Also Wi-Fi Enabled. You’ve been given a farm and land on which to grow your crops, but the caves nearby are also hiding secrets. Clear your land of debris and grow your crops according to season to earn money, as well as raise monsters for milk, honey, and eggs. While caring for your farm and interacting with villagers, explore the mysteries of the different dungeons nearby. Using raw materials, you can also craft items, forge tools and equipment, cook in your kitchen…plenty to do. Highly recommended.
Castlevania - Portrait of Ruin: Also Wi-Fi enabled. Explore a large castle while switching between two characters, each with their own style of play. Along the way, explore worlds hidden inside of large paintings to eventually take down the vampire who rules this castle. A variety of weapons and magic spells allows you to find your own style of play as well. After beating the game, you can play it again as different whole new characters too. I recommend this game as well.
Metroid Prime Hunters: Mentioned earlier, also Wi-Fi enabled. The controls can be a little tricky to get down, and if you have large hands, the way you have to hold the DS Lite can make your hand ache after a while; at least, it does for me. Despite this, it’s a very good FPS-style game that can offer a really good challenge. I recommend it, but I haven’t played mine much.
Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney: If you don’t get this game, it’s practically a sin. j/k Although you can use vocal commands for the game, (and you should when you’re able to and not completely in public, it makes it so much more fun), you don’t have to. As a rookie attorney, you’re constantly thrown into some complicated cases where nothing is as it seems. Investigate and gather evidence, then with your knowledge and evidence, press your witnesses in court. Catch them in their lies, uncover the truth, but be careful: mess up too many times in court and you’ll get an instant game-over. Start with the first in the series, and if you like it, check on the others. Plus some characters you can’t help but love, or love to hate.
EDIT: Oh yeah, and if you want to really make your DS stand out, check out these awesome skins you can buy for it. I bought the aloha black skin. I love it, makes it really stand out when you have a white DS with aloha print.
For the DS, I only really play puzzle-style games and short mini-games. I don’t want to solve adventures on the DS. I’ll use the Xbox360 or the PC for that. But I love puzzle games.
These are my favorite games:
Planet Puzzle League - Maybe the best puzzle game ever made.
Picross - I resisted getting this for a long time because I didn’t think it would be fun. I’ve tried Sudoku and it didn’t capture me, and this looks like Sudoko with pictures. But it works, and it’s amazingly addictive. I’ve been playing for probably an hour a day for the last month.
Clubhouse Games - mini-game collection with some really good games that make great use of the touchscreen.
Touchmaster - Another mini-game collection that I like particularly for the solitaire games.
Wow, Sam, considering that list and your preferences, I’m surprised you DON’T have Professor Layton and the Curious Village (whose virtues I extol here).
Still, I’m glad for this thread; I might find some stuff to get sometime myself!
Eh, I have Trauma Center: Under the Knife. The surgeries have this utterly BRUTAL curve, and I ran out of time trying to slice, dice, and julienne very early on in the game. I’d only recommend it if you have unreal reflexes (read: twitch gamer).
Yoshi Islands: Fun, but also a bit more challenging and less fun to play than I would have preferred. If the curve was a bit easier I’d be all over this. As it is, I’m sort of dreading getting back into it and trying to get all the character coins.
Zelda: Phantom Hourglass: Tons of fun. Highly recommended. Although there are a couple of things that’re stopping me from getting 100% completion (why yes I am one of those people).
Contact: Weird little game that I rather like. You’re a boy who’s helping this funny little professor rescue yon big and magical crystal from the baddies. There’s a whole bunch of meta going on as the professor will talk to you the player, but the boy doesn’t know about you. Nicely done, and you can use ‘stamps’ in battle – peel them off with the stylus and stick them on the battlefield for different effects.
Hotel Dusk: Room 215: Linear storyline where you’re an ex-cop turned salesman. Gumshoe your way through the noir scenery and solve the mystery of Room 215. (This game is pretty hard to get; I had to bid on 3-4 auctions on ebay before finally winning one) It’s sort of like an expanded point’n’click, and you hold the DS sideways like a book. Given how linear it is, I’m going to guess this is a play-once game.
To **Maui Lion ** – I saw that decalgirl website last night! I was SO tempted to buy the Hellraiser skin for my GC. 
How good is the quality of the decals?
[QUOTE=Leaper]
Wow, Sam, considering that list and your preferences, I’m surprised you DON’T have Professor Layton and the Curious Village (whose virtues I extol here).
Still, I’m glad for this thread; I might find some stuff to get sometime myself!
[/QUOTE]
Well, based on your recommendation I bought the game tonight on my way home from work. I’ll give it a try and report back!
I know I might lose a whole lot of respect for this, but Pokemon for the DS is an excellent game all by itself. Putting aside all of the ridiculous cartoons and merchandising, and strip away all of the cutesy graphics, and you still have a truly excellent RPG under there. Plus, because of the number of possible characters, moves, etc, it’s customizable to a ridiculous extent. Not only that, but once you beat the game, you still have a ridiculous amount of stuff you can do.
On the other hand, if you can’t be seen playing Pokemon, I can certainly understand. If that’s the case, I can’t recommend Phantom Hourglass highly enough. It’s fun, it’s funny, and it can certainly take down the boredom factor in oh, say, Introductory Chemistry class (or a long commute). But you didn’t hear that one from me.
I was browsing in best Buy today, and thankfully they were sold out of the Crimson/black units. They had several Cobalt/black, but those aren’t sexy enough for me to plunk down $130 for right now. I’ll wait for them to get more Crimson ones in stock.
[QUOTE=XWalrus2]
I know I might lose a whole lot of respect for this, but Pokemon for the DS is an excellent game all by itself.
[/QUOTE]
I would hope nobody would lose respect for you for that - Pokemon Diamond and Pearl are fucking awesome.
Like you said, the amount of depth in the game is absolutely insane. I have something like 100 hours on my cartridge, and that’s after starting over at one point after having put about 30 hours into it, and I’ve barely even scratched the surface. And if you start breeding Pokemon? Forget about it. The game basically turns into an extension of real life.
[QUOTE=lizardling]
To **Maui Lion ** – I saw that decalgirl website last night! I was SO tempted to buy the Hellraiser skin for my GC. 
How good is the quality of the decals?
[/QUOTE]
Well, to be honest, here’s the lowdown of mine.
Overall, the quality is very good. I have no qualms with quality, and it seems pretty durable. However, make sure you have good hand/eye coordination and flexibility. They claim it’s easy to take off, but in all honesty, as soon as it makes connection to your DS, it wants to stay there. Even if you pull it off slowly, it may stretch, and then all proportions can be thrown off. And getting out the air bubbles isn’t as easy as they like you to believe.
I accidentally ordered an extra one, which came in handy because I snapped one in half in frustration.
The slimmer parts are harder to get on.
After asking my cousin to help me, we got them on, but the one for the bottom in the inside stretched from taking it off and back on a few times, but some careful trimming with scissors helped and made us have to put it on in two parts, and you can’t really tell unless you look real close.
OTOH, my little brother who is 13 years younger than I claimed he put his own on completely by himself and it was perfect. So we know who is better with such things now, don’t we.
Overall: Very good decals, sturdy, looks very nice, but isn’t easy to take off like they say, and after it’s on, it’s on, so make sure you’re good with such things.
I see Maui Lion mentioned Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. I must recommend all the Ace Attorney games–I’ve just started the latest one, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. You probably want to get the first one first, because all the sequels follow a continuous storyline which might get spoiled if you skip around. The first three games feature Phoenix, but the fourth game features a new defense attorney named Apollo Justice and some new DS-specific features (the Phoenix Wright games were originally Gameboy Advance games in Japan.)
I see that Another Code: Two Memories is also mentioned somewhere above. In the US, this game is called Trace Memory. It is awesome, if a bit short.
Puzzle Quest is surprisingly addictive. I keep coming back to it.
Mario Kart: Since you have multiple DS’s in your family, you need this game. So much fun. You only need one copy, but we ended up getting one for each person so that we could race on all the tracks in multiplayer mode and use different characters and cars (otherwise, only the player who has the cartridge choose a car–the other players get a generic car, and you only get four tracks.)
I have the New York Times Crosswords and Picross DS…if you like pencil puzzles, you will like these. I’m not a huge Sudoku fan, but the sudoku game on Brain Age/Brain Age 2 is pretty good. I actually like Brain Age 2 better than Brain Age–there is a fun little piano game on there, for one thing.