With all this talk of the DS lately 'round here on the board I decided to revisit my handheld gaming needs and decided to purchase one. Got the Onyx color DS Lite (pretty handheld but man does it attract fingerprints like flies to shit).
I picked up the Pokemon Team Rescue game because I loved playing the previous Pokemon games but it seems they diverged from the formula a bit and it isn’t as fun as the older ones were. I want to pick up another game or two but didn’t find anything that jumped out at me and sparked my interest. I’m looking for something that either takes advantage of the touch screen or the built in WiFi.
Phoenix Wright was sold out for a while, but it looks like they’ve got more in.
Trauma Center is very interesting.
Advance Wars DS for strategy war gaming.
Mario Kart DS has great wifi game play, but a whole bunch of people who disconnect when they’re losing.
That Mario Hoops game looks pretty good.
Nintendogs
Super Mario Bros. DS- Great graphics and polished look but still more of the same side view platforming. Some interesting levels. Nothing new here.
Mario 64 DS- An excellent game for the Nintendo 64 however doesn’t transfer well to the DS. Controls get frustrating and adjusting your field of view gets frustrating.
Mario Kart 64- Lots of fun and probably even more fun with wi-fi multi-player. However, once I played all the tracks I was bored and haven’t played it since.
Brain Age- Got boring real fast. However, I got my bang-for-the-buck by playing the 100 soduku puzzles.
Trace Memory- Interesting attempt at a Myst like mystery game. In the end though a rather boring playthrough and uninteresting predictable storyline.
Trauma Center- Played it for a bit but got bored. Way too much stupid dialog scenes that drag out. Got frustrated using stylus to perform operations while being timed.
Meteos- Promised to be the next tetris. Big disappointment.
Magnetica- My wife loved this game and finished all the levels. I didn’t like the fact that using the stylus my hand was covering the screen while I was trying to play. I like the PC version better that plays on YAHOO with the frog shooting the balls.
Advance Wars Dual Strike- I absolutely love this game. Strategy based battles. Every battle brings in a new element. A real thinking game. GREAT.
Tiger Woods Golf- Okay for a pocket golf game I guess. Can’t get too accurate with it though.
Games I’ve heard are good but haven’t played: Castlevania DS, Mario & Luigi Partners in Time, Star Fox.
Most of the best games for the system DON’T use the touchscreen that much, IMO. But it really depends on what you’re looking for. The stuff that I own and am very happy with includes:
New Super Mario Bros (great game if you liked any of the old Mario games)
Mario Kart DS (what archmichael said)
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (very much in the vein of Aria for GBA and Symphony for PSX)
Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time (basic action-RPG play, fun story)
Mega Man ZX (again, a lot of fun if you like old school Mega Man type stuff)
None of those games really have more than a cursory use of the touchscreen, though. Stuff I’m looking forward to before the holidays includes Yoshi’s Island DS, Final Fantasy III, and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. Again, not much love for the touch screen there, though.
Yeah, the touch screen is really only used for the unusual games, which is how it should be I think. I have New SMB, Mario Kart, and Tetris, which all use the traditional controls.
We also have Animal Crossing as well as two of the Brain games, and these all use the stylus well. In Brain Training the handwriting recognition is quite good, but I think it’s a bit misused. You are playing for speed in a few cases, and the recognition screws up once in a while; not really often, but enough to be annoying. In the Brain Academy game you just tap an onscreen keypad, which IMO works better.
If you’re into rhythm/musical/overall wacky games, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan is amazing fun. I find it really uses the touch screen to its fullest. It will soon be released in North America as Elite Beat Agents. Final Fantasy III is finally coming out in English too. And don’t forget, GBA games work great on a DS. I’m playing through FFIV right now, and loving it.
I like The Urbz (Sims) and Phoenix Wright the best. We bought Trace Memory but never finished it and we got Trauma Center - my boyfriend is still trying to finish it, but I lost interest in it a while ago. I liked the Urbz so much that I borrowed a friend’s Sims game for the PC but I hated it. The Urbz is different than any of the other Sims games I think, so don’t be put off if you don’t like the Sims.
I’ve personally enjoyed WarioWare Touched! and Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow quite a bit. My friend really liked Sonic Rush, but he’s always loved the series so your results may differ.
Lost Magic is an entertaining RTS RPG hybrid where you cast spells by drawing runes on the touchscreen. I rather liked it, but be warned, the controls can be a little uncooperative on occasion.
I’ve heard very good things about Mario Kart DS, Phoenix Wright and New Super Mario Brothers, though I haven’t had a chance to try them.
Even though some of the games mentioned are hard to get (Phoenix Wright and Castlevania) you should look into buying from a non-US seller. DS games are regionfree…
I bought Castlevania:Dawn of Sorrow for a paltry $35 here in Germany (where they have plenty of them in the stores)
The best game on the system in my opinion is Advance Wars DS. As mentioned above, it’s deep, fun, and just entertaining in general.
As far as wi-fi games go, Tetris DS is the one I’ve played the most. It only has two modes, unfortunately, but they’re both fun. I’ve also played Animal Crossing which is fun for a while. Mario Kart and Metroid Prime Hunters are fun sometimes, but more often than not you’ll end up playing some kid who has figured out how to win every time and it’ll get old.
The newest wifi game (just came out yesterday) is Clubhouse Games, a collection of card/board games. It’s fun on a bun. I played poker, blackjack, dots and boxes, bowling, and a few others online last night, and it was great. I’d love to fine some other dopers who want to play but my thread about it sunk like a stone. :eek:
Other random mentions:
New Super Mario Brothers is genius. You can blow through it pretty quickly if you want, but to reach all the levels and collect all the coins takes a lot of effort. I’ve been working on it slowly since the game was released and I’m maybe only 75% of the way there.
Magnetica is my favorite puzzle game for the system. If you’ve played “Zuma” you know what this is. It’s well done, and works great with the stylus. The different modes keep it interesting.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 is entertaining for a while. It’s a puzzle game that’s a little like “Lemmings” in which you have to manipulate the level to get mini Marios to the exit. It’s fun, and really difficult to score high on the harder levels. It can start to feel like work though after a while so I don’t play it that often.
Brain Age is well worth the price of admission. The game itself gets old after a while, but the included Sudoku is the best version on the system (don’t bother with the two standalone versions), and if you’re like me it’ll take you a long long time to get through all the puzzles.
So far my favorites have been Animal Crossing, Age of Empires, and Kirby: Canvas Curse. I was pleasantly surprised by Age of Empires, because I’m used to it being real-time build-em-up strategy, but for the DS it’s turn-based and I like that much better. Of course it’s much less complex than the originals, but I think it’s fun.
anyone know if the Guilty Gear adaptation is any good?
No love for Nintendogs? It uses the touch screen a lot - unfortunately, you have to talk to the thing a lot and you sound like a complete moron, but it’s absolutely adorable. You’re hard to live with, though - “Pepper! Pepper! Pepper! Why doesn’t he listen? Pepper! Sit down! Sit down!”
Man, this thread was the final straw that caused me to re-subscribe to the board!
Nobody has mentioned Rocket Slime yet! I know that it just came out a few weeks ago, but I think it’s probably the best DS game that’s been released so far.
It’s set in the Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior universe, but you play a cutesy slime whose village has been kidnapped. It’s basically an action/adventure game like Zelda, but the game’s mechanic is what makes it so fun - you hold one button to anchor your slime character in place, then you stretch him using the direction pad and let go to shoot him, rubber band-style, at enemies and items. It’s one of the funnest game mechanics I’ve encountered in years, but the story and characters are great too. Add to that an “Animal Crossing”/“Harvest Moon”-style town building system and massive “Advance Wars”-style tank battles and it’s quite simply a hell of a game and my favorite DS game so far.
I second “Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time,” “WarioWare: Touched,” “Animal Crossing,” “Nintendogs,” “New Super Mario Brothers,” “Advance Wars: Dual Strike” as well. But don’t forget “Trace Memory,” which I haven’t seen anyone mention yet - a great adventure game that uses the stylus and microphone system to unlock puzzles and solve mysteries.
Also, don’t forget Cooking Mama, a WarioWare-style cooking game that uses the stylus for everything and turns cooking dishes into a succession of quick, fast-twitch minigames. Amazingly fun and already a sleeper hit at only $19.99!
Also, there are some absolutely killer DS games coming out in just the next few months - the much-awaited remake of “Final Fantasy III,” then Contact, the successor to the cult classic “Earthbound” series from the Super Nintendo/Famicom. Also the completely insane, hilarious, and addictive Elite Beat Agents, in which you play three male cheerleaders that show up to avert crises, and then Touch Detective, a spooky and stylized mystery game that looks incredibly promising. Hotel Dusk, a noir adventure game, also looks cool but seems to have been pushed back again.
My personal faves: New Super Mario Bros., StarFox Command, and Mario Kart DS.Super Mario 64 DS is nice if you haven’t played the Nintendo 64 original, and True Swing Golf is great if you can get it for cheap (Target has it for $20 now). I’m also waiting to jump on Elite Beat Agents when it comes out.
If you want WiFi play, definitely get Mario Kart DS and StarFox Command.
Oh, and another vote for Cooking Mama and Big Brain Academy, both of which are low-budget fun in short bursts.
Nah, you can play Nintendogs without talking at all, but you can’t do the obedience trials without it. My son likes it, but I’m not a virtual pet person myself.
Oh, yeah, the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games are essentially a Pokemon redressing of the old Rogue/Hack computer dungeon crawls, which is why it doesn’t feel like a “real” Pokemon game. There’s also Pokemon Rescue Ranger that’s a spin-off title, but the next “real” Pokegame will be Diamond and Pearl, which aren’t due to be released in the US until early 2007.
Woohoo!!! I really do make a difference on the boards.
Thanks for all the great titles. Funny, the majority of these titles were not in the local GameStop that I bought the DS at. They had a very small selection which surprised me because even though I haven’t been following the DS that closely I thought there was a heck of a lot more games for it than what I saw. Guess I’ll be searching eBay and the local mom and pop video game stores and see what I can get.
Hey, maybe we can get a Doper DS game swap going on. Any takers? Anybody? No? Oh well, thought it was worth a shot at getting good games without having to look for them.
You know, our GameStop had nothing, too. EB had tons.
My boyfriend stole my Rocket Slime before the plastic was even off it. I bought another copy today - it must be good, I’m going to Europe and he won’t let me have it for the plane.