The Darkrai or the lvl 50 Dragonite?
The current promo is the Event Key, which will allow you to change Rotom forms (excuse me: formmes), but that’s available via Nintendo Wi-Fi as well as visiting Toys R Us.
Hopefully you already got the lvl 100 Regigigas and the Shaymin from the February and March giveaways…
(Can you tell that Bricker Jr. is a huge Pokemon fan??) 
Well, of course. How else could you catch Giratina?
Pokemon Crystal was the only other version I had played. I looked at my old party once after I had been playing Pearl for a while, but then the next time I tried to look, the savegame was gone. Poor little Meganium… 
In Crystal, I had beaten the Elite Four, but didn’t have the patience to get any of the legendaries.
It was the Darkrai. We got all four of the ones you mention, plus last year’s Deoxys. The thing about a level 100 is that you can’t train it meaningfully, so it’s not as much fun to use.
Yeah, I hadn’t visited Bulbapedia for a few weeks before today, so I didn’t hear that it was at Toys R Us until after it was gone. There’s only about two weeks left to get it by WiFi, so I gotta decide whether to buy Platinum, or keep saving up for Rock Band 2. My wife doesn’t think that the music in Rock Band 2 is appropriate for our kids, so that pushes me toward Platinum.
This happened to me, too. When I found my old Game Boy, I also found my copy of Pokemon Silver. Back when Silver came out, I transferred my team (minus Arcanine, since I started Silver with a Cyndaquil) from Blue (Venusaur, Marowak, Gengar, Butterfree, and Starmie) to the newer game before I faced the elite four.
Flash forward seven years and the battery backup to Silver died, erasing all my Pokemon
I am nothing remotely resembling a serious gamer, and I adore my DS. There’s a huge variety of games available, and nothing has ever felt gimmicky.
As for particular titles, unless you want to see hours drain away, don’t get MarioKart. That is the most ridiculously addictive game I have ever played. It’s fun, and because you can just pick it up and play a single race, I find myself falling into “just one more game” syndrome, and then suddenly I’ve beat my record by nearly three seconds but it’s been, like, two hours.
Feel The Magic XX/XY is interesting because it uses all the possible control schemes - touch screen, buttons, and the microphone. It’s got limited replay value, IMO, and plot-wise it’s weird. One of the minigames requires you to cough up goldfish which you have swallowed. To impress a girl.
Super Mario 64 on the DS is pretty decent as well, though I don’t know how much of that is just that I loved the original Mario 64. There’s different unlockable characters and a few new twists but it’s fairly true to the original, which is nice.
For a JRPG fan like myself, the DS is pretty much the successor to the PS2 as the best platform for the genre, especially with Dragon Quest 9 supposedly being DS-only.
WARNING! WARNING! GRATUITOUS YET GOOD-HUMORED POKE AT Justin_Bailey INCOMING!
The DS is, like, the anti-Wii. Which is to say there is a ridiculous quantity of good games for it across most genres. Once you pick up your DS, it will not sit unused for any significant quantity of time. If someone else in your family wants to play your DS, you will not say “sure, go play it, I forgot where I left it but last I saw it was in the TV room downstairs”, you will say “it’s in my secret special place in my nightstand and you can touch it OVER MY DEAD BODY! now go buy yourself a DS already so we can play all these excellent games against each other over local connections”. I can play it in public while on the train and it doesn’t have a stigma, because all the cute girls know what it is and probably have one.
I completely agree with Commander Keen above: there is one system in each generation that is a must-have regardless of what kind of gamer you are, and for this generation, it’s the DS.
If you can swing it, get a DS Lite or even an original thick-bodied DS. The DSi (the newest version available in stores, comes with a camera) probably isn’t bad and will certainly play DS games, but you lose out on the ability to play Game Boy Advance games. There are some excellent games for that system, many of which you can pick up used for relatively cheap.
Admittedly, I think they’re porting some of the better GBA games to DS format, so having the GBA slot isn’t the necessity it once might have been. I’d still try to get a DS Lite if you can, just so you have the option.
DS Lites are also still plentiful and cost $40 less than DSis. On the other hand, you won’t have access to any of the DSi’s downloadable content.
There’s really nothing to speak of now, but who knows what the future will bring.
$70 less around here. If you’re buying the Lite new, that is - they’re not terribly hard to find used.
The lack of slot two is a problem for certain DS games, as well as GBA games - the Guitar Hero game for DS (games? I’ve yet to be able to afford it - my rhythm game love is sated by EBA, Ouendan and Taiko no Tatsujin) uses the slot for its controller, several games (the Pokemon games, I can think of, off the top of my head) let you get bonus material by putting a GBA card in while playing them, etc.
According to my son, the following things about Platinum are outstanding:
Your own personal villa in the Resort Area after beating the E4 and getting the National Dex
Getting both Dialga and Palkia in one game
The Battle Tower area – graphics and gameplay both are apparently amazing
Giratina, Rotom, and Shaymin in alternate forms
Considering I still see him raptly playing Platinum well after beating the E4, it seems this is a game with plenty of “afterlife”.
Firstly, I am humbly adding “make a recommendation about buying a DS on a message board” to my “Boy, if someone told me 10 years ago…” file. Now then…
There’s one thing you gotta, hafta, MUST understand about the DS and its games. Those cute, kitchy sims? Those “girl”-oriented games? Those retro 2D bralwers and platformers? It’s not a phase, and it’s not something the system will “evolve” out of. That’s the whole point of the DS. Fun little diversions that you can crank out 5-20 minutes at a stretch at. There are exceptions, of course (Time Hollow can really eat up your hours if you don’t pull yourself away), but for the most part, the DS has found its niche as something you can whip out while you’re waiting for the computer to load or the bus to arrive, and this is NOT going to change. You want depth, power, exhilaration, cutting edge, get a PS3.
Accept it for what it is, and yeah, it’s worth the money. About $169 where I got it from, and most of the games run anywhere from $15 to $25 new, a flat-out bargain these days. (Used games are an even better deal; they’re practially giving away Feel The Magic now.) If you’re concerned about value for your dollar, you run a much lesser risk than with just about any other portable system out there.
Of course, a lot of the games don’t have much replay value, and you’ll grow tired with more than a few of them over time. That’s where the miracle of modern capitalism comes in. Option 1 for a game you’re not sure about keeping: Rent. Believe it or not, Blockbuster Video still rents games, and you can get really good deals on the DS more often than not. Especially for “story” type games like Time Hollow, this is the perfect option: Immerse yourself in an engrossing interactive tale, get to the end, then return it for the next thrillseeker. Option 2: Sell back. This used to be a colossal pain, but Gamestop has streamlined the process so much that it’s almost as easy as buying. I was saddled with two games I didn’t want to spend another second with, International Track and Field and Contra 4, and all it took was a quick price lookup to rid myself of those disappointments and cut my losses.
You want game recommendations, just ask.
I just got a DS, Disgaea and Rythym Heaven, and I do not regret my purchase at ALL.
What DKW says is really true, though - a DS is only really good if you have a lot of little gaps in your day. You know what I mean - 45 minute commute, half an hour after lunch, 1 hour waiting for the missus to get off work, half an hour before bed - all these little gaps get plugged by the DS. And when you’re done / it’s your station / lunch hour is over, you snap it closed, stuff it in your bag and resume your life.
gasp
…
Sequel!?
OMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODetc
Best day ever.
I don’t know, I just accidentally killed a couple of hours playing Advance Wars Dual Strike. There is an enormouse variety of DS games; some of them are five minute diversions but there are some that are are massive time sinks.
Yeah, there are a lot of games that, given the ability to just sit down and play, I find myself wondering how the hell the battery was drained already - they eat the time that thoroughly.
There are a bunch of good RPGs - mostly remakes of 8 bit or 16 bit games (Final Fantasy III and IV, Dragon Quest IV and V, Chrono Trigger), with a couple Playstation remakes (Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, Disgaea), and a few originals (Avalon Code) - and a number of good visual novels - the Ace Attorney series, Hotel Dusk. Even the casual games - the Mama series, a bunch of rhythm games, puzzle games (including a half dozen sudoku variants) - can swallow you up. I’ve lost more time to ‘Just one more song…’ ‘Oh, I have time for one more puzzle…’ and ‘Hey, I just got a new recipe!’ than I think I’ve ever lost in ‘hardcore’ games.
Yeah, there’s a difference between “you can put the game down after five minutes” and “you want to put the game down after five minutes”. The former is a huge plus for handheld titles. The latter… probably indicates a boring game.