I got a DS Lite for Christmas and I have to say it’s a pretty nifty little gadget. The only problem is I really don’t know what to do with it. So far I’ve had fun just using Pictochat with my daughter who also has one, but I really don’t have any good games.
So here are my questions……
What games would you recommend and what type are they (FPS? RPG?..)
I keep hearing about an MP3 player for the DS – true? Where can I get it?
Ditto for the Opera web browser – anyone tried it? How do I get my hands on it?
The darn thing has a headphone jack but I can’t find any actual headphones for it – are they just playin’ with me?
Not really an expert on the other question, and there have been a couple threads on it before, but here’s my quick-hit game input. I own seven DS games, and like them all to various degrees - here’s what I think of them (roughly in the order that I got them):
New Super Mario Bros. - great game if you like the original Mario style of play. Not terribly long, but not really short either, and just a lot of fun to play through.
Mario Kart DS - more like MK64 than Double Dash, and that is an EXTREMELY good thing. Was very addictive, and I didn’t stop playing it 'till I had unlocked literally EVERYTHING… but since I’m not big on the 'net play I also haven’t picked it up since. Was worth the money, though.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - if you ever played Symphony of the Night (PS1) or Aria of Sorrow (GBA), this is in the same vein as those. It’s an extremely good game, with depth and decent replayability. Probably my favorite of the five games I got right after I got the system.
Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time - the Mario RPG of the DS. It’s pretty simplistic, very easy… and still pretty fun most of the time. Sometimes it gets a little slow-moving, but for the most part, it’s a fun one to play. It’s very well-done in terms of story and characters, if nothing else, and that makes up for the simplicity of gameplay to some degree.
Clubhouse Games - this is the game that’s basically a ton of other little ‘classic’ games. Not all of them are perfect, but enough of them are fun that it’s a good diversion. It’s something that’s kind of fun to play mindlessly while I’m doing something else, like watching TV or pretending to listen to someone else talk.
Yoshi’s Island DS - this might be the best game for the system right now. If you’ve ever played the old school Yoshi’s Island for SNES, this is like that, except the baby-crying noise isn’t nearly as annoying. Oh, and it’s got a lot more depth - the game designers basically pulled out every creative level-design that they could think of, combined it with a bunch of new baby-abilities, and squashed them all in to the game. On top of that, it’s a very easy game to beat, but can be a brutally difficult game to beat perfectly… which, if you’re someone like me, is a Good Thing. Excellent game, highly recommended if you at all like Mario-style platformers.
Final Fantasy III DS - this game is… well, I like it, but I can see where some people might not. It’s a very old-school RPG, an update of the original FF3 that was never ported to the US without changing the gameplay all that much. That means everything it implies - lots of encounters, some of which can be pretty difficult. No save spots in the dungeons. Finite numbers of lots of items, even Phoenix Down. That said, the class system is pretty fun, the story is at least coherent, and that very difficulty and old style makes the game extremely attractive to the RPG player who played (and loved) the early FF games.
I’m not a very big fan of the touch screen, so I’ve avoided a lot of the games that use it heavily. Friends have said very good things about Elite Beat Agents and Trauma Center recently, though, and I’m sure the other people on the SDMB will be along with their recommendations.
I got mine for Christmas as well. So far, I’ve mostly been playing FF III (I’m something of a completist, so I’m working on getting the Onion Knight job to be effective). It’s fun, if you’re a fan of old-school console RPGs. Other than that, I’ve been messing around with homebrew stuff.
I haven’t seen the official Nintendo mp3 player cart yet. I’ve been using an R4DS flash card kit (which I got from ModChipStore.com, if you want to take a look at it, or some of the alternatives). With Moonshell loaded on the flash card, I can play music and video files (the videos have to be converted to dpg format first–the software for doing so is free). There are quite a few homebrew applications out there, and some homebrew and ported games as well. You can even play Nethack on your DS. Using the flash card stuff isn’t too difficult, but it’s probably not up everyone’s alley–if you don’t enjoy tinkering for its own sake, it may not be for you.
I haven’t seen the Opera browser for the DS yet, but I’m keeping an eye out for it. I’ve only got a text browser running so far.
Oh, and any standard headphones or earbuds should work–if you can’t find any in the games section of the stores, check the computer or audio sections.
Mario and Luigi - Partners in Time is a great game. It’s a puzzle game more than a traditional platform game, and it makes exelent use of the two screens, and manages to keep the kontrols very simple while allowing for a lot of complexity. And It’s funny.
Metroid Prime Hunters is suposedly a very good handheld adaption of a FPS. I don’t get this genre myself, but others seem to like it.
I have the opera browser. Its servicable, but a little clunky. I got it thinking that in the next year or 2 city wifi might make the ds a cool lil mobile internet connection - looks like that might have been wishful thinking but maybe someday…
As for playing mp3s, I got a Ninjapass that lets you load apps on the DS and run DS roms. It can hold up to 8 games at a time which is cool cuz I don’t like carrying around a ton of stuff just to play different games. One of the apps it has is an mp3 player. Its cool but very barebones - don’t expect smart playlists or anything like that. I haven’t heard of any commercial mp3 players. Word of warning before getting this: it is not a simple device. It took me and a coworker (both engineers) several hours before we got everything working and saving properly.
Elite Beat Agents is arguably the best NDS game in 2006 (yeah, even better than New Super Mario Bros. and Yoshi’s Island, I said it).
Most of the other great titles (and there are lots of them) have been listed already, but I’ll throw out Starfox Command if you like first-person flight/combat games. The tactical elements are okay, but it’s the flying that sells the game, IMO. Playing it multiple times to unlock the other story paths (and get the higher difficulty levels) is a plus, and online four-player combat will keep you busy for ages.
I bought the family a DS Lite for Christmas, with a game for each of us.
We got Brain Age, with which Gorgonzola is dutifully training her brain. I think soon she may be able to levitate. I haven’t played it, but she seems to like it a lot.
I got Clubhouse Games, and I really like it. A few of the games are duds, but it’s worth it just for the Bowling, Darts, Solitaire and Escape. But you also get a ton of card games, dominoes, backgammon, and others. Great value.
My daughter got Nintendogs. This is basically a Tamagotchi on steroids. I have to admit, the little puppies in this game are perhaps the best simulation of ‘virtual life’ I’ve seen. They’re fun to just watch as they play. My daughter loves it. Our real dog, not so much.
A couple of days ago we picked up Electroplankton, which isn’t so much a game as it is a neat technological diversion - the program is essentially a bunch of different types of tiny creatures that have different properties. You can manipulate them to make them keep a beat, or tinkle like bells, or make other music sounds. Then you can play around with the stylus and create these moving visual/audio performance pieces. Pretty cool. It remains to be seen how long we’ll play with it.
The other was Elite Beat Agents. It’s a rhythm game set in the framework of a trio of cartoon ‘Agents’ who solve people’s problems by employing their awesome sense of timing. Along with a really aggressive commander who really needs to have his blood pressure checked. Who knew that helping someone find underwater treasure through the power of dance and song could be so much fun?
I’ll second the Final Fantasy III remake if you’re at all a fan of Japan-style console RPGs. Except for the graphics, it’s old-school through and through. The story is nothing to get too excited about, but the challenge is refreshing and the game mechanics are surprisingly sophisticated.
I also picked up Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin which is a lot of fun, though I’ve only played a couple hours of it. Brain Age and Big Brain Academy are pretty interesting, with Academy oriented more towards graphical logic puzzles and Age having more math and reading. I’ve also played a bit of Trauma Center on a friend’s DS and it seemed pretty cool if you’re into the stylus control.
Don’t forget that the DS Lite also plays all Game Boy Advance games, which are still being released. Final Fantasy IV and V have been ported to Advance and VI comes out next month. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past has also been ported from the SNES. Aside from RPGs, I’d highly recommend Metroid Fusion.
Currently I’m quite stuck on Children of Mana, hardly able to put it down (though I have had to, to do pesky things that normal adults should). I bought it when I was thwarted in my attempt to buy Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (which the store should have later this week, I’m going back when I get my paycheck).
I didn’t realize you could use your DS to surf the net. Interesting… doubt I’d use it though.
I recommend Trauma Center: Under the Knife (a surgical simulator with a silly anime storyline) and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (a courtroom sim with a silly anime storyline). Can you tell I like silly anime storylines?
Seriously, though, these are both great games. And Phoenix Wright has a sequel that either just came out or is coming out soon.
I’ll chip in and say Animal Crossing - so simple yet so damned addictive.
Also, as for the Opera browser, it is only released in Japan and Europe right now. As the DS can play carts from any part of the world, you could import the European version if you wanted it.
Ace Attorney: Justice For All is out now. It has some fun new additions (such as “Psyche-Locks” which must be unlocked with evidence to have people talk about subjects about the case they don’t wish to mention). Although the game play is similar, I suggest playing the original first, since the events of the second game take place after those of the first, and familiar characters from the first game make surprise appearances in the second. (Although the original has been hard to find, copies are currently available at various online stores.)
Whatever you do, don’t drop it. My son dropped his 2 weeks ago and it hasn’t booted since. It does make a nice rattling sound now but that’s hardly entertaining.
…your son broke a Nintendo product? I am genuinely impressed. Gameboys have been flushed down toilets, left outside in winter and a Gamecube had a sledgehammer taken to it and they all still worked.
^ Agreed. Nintendo’s products are pretty well known for their durability. Hell, I worked in their customer service department for a while, and I’ve learned first-hand it typically takes a pretty major force to bust one on those.
