DS Games

[daisybell]

I guess I want to know what other people are playing, if I've missed out on anything good, what people got for Christmas etc.

If you have reviews or recommendations, I'd like to hear them.

I didn't actually get any games this Christmas though I want to buy some in the sales- I'm haven't decided what, though. The last game I bought was Professor Layton when it came out in November in Europe (with not enough copies, Nintendo of Europe completely misjudged demand for it, it's still selling for £45 on Amazon, which is about $66 [ack, the exchange rate has dropped so much ;_;]) and it was fun- and ever so pretty, too. I'm not sure it's £45 worth of fun, however... I got it for around £25 in a supermarket.

I've heard good things about Chrono Trigger though I haven't played many RPGs- it's not out in the UK yet, I think it comes out in the next couple of months. The Neopets Puzzle Adventure game comes out in January here, and I think I might get it, it's not as dreadful as many licenced games, it's not ugly and I might get some nice items on Neo from it too. I haven't actually given any money at all to Neopets, ever- there's never been any merchandise I've wanted to buy, or any Neocash items I've wanted that much.

The highlight of my gaming year was the third Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game, Trials and Tribulations. It wasn't out in the UK until this Autumn, after Apollo Justice (more stupidity from Nintendo of Europe. Either that or Nintendo really don't like Europeans) so I got an imported copy in the spring; it's definitely my favourite game of the series. Apollo Justice was disappointing, not terrible but the characters just weren't as likeable.

[Usul_Princess]

EDIT: (AGH!!) I lost 3 paragraphs of recommendations because I hit backspace!!!

*sigh* okay, now where was I?... (Read this when you're REALLY looking for an in-depth opinion on games, or bored.)

Andy likes Phoenix Wright, but that's an extremely hit or miss game with mixed reviews

You should start buying games that you're already partial to in general. LIke for example, I love both action and puzzle oriented games, and there are enough of both to keep the DS worthwhile. Strategy games are my favorite, but ones that don't suck are extremely hard to find. I only have 7 DS games, but I highly recommend 5 of them if you like both action and puzzle.

New Super Mario Bros.-

(A must have for people who owned the series growing up.) It's a mix of The original 1985 version, part 2, and part 3. The 3-D graphics on this are awesome. The line up is the same; Save the Princess. The difference is the game makes itself somewhat too easy because in the original, there was no way possible to "back track" and get more lives when you ran out, and you couldn't save. In this game you can do both; You can keep redoing World 1-1 and accumulate 99 lives, and not ever have to worry about running out because collecting the 100 coins will give you 1UP back. The saving though is different before Post-Game: You collect token star coins (not regular coins) In order to save your place. You spend 5 coins each on a Toad house to save your place exactly wherever you're at in the game, or it'll ask you to auto-save when you complete a mini-castle or a big castle. The save option is free and completely enabled in post-game. There are also about 20-25 minigames in here too, including Poker. Fun! No complaints here.

Super Princess Peach-

My favorite game of all I own. A spinoff of Mario with the same concept, Peach saves Mario. The format of the game is different (in a likeable way though). The coins actually serve a purpose in this game: To buy items in the store like weapon upgrades for your parasol (her little damsel-in-distress talking umbrella is her weapon). Her lives work more like hit points, and her superpowers work like the Neopet faerie energy bar in the battledome. There's a gauge that shows how much energy is left to use her additional powers, which are her emotions. Happiness (Yellow Heart icon) - Makes her fly. Rage (Red Heart icon) - Sets stuff on fire, and kills any enemies near her. Crying (Blue Heart icon) - adds haste to running, Calm (Green Heart Icon) When you're low on hit-point hearts, the green heart will restore them by taking some energy from your gauge if it's full. To restore the gauge, the parasol will "eat" enemies you come across and refill it up again.

Pretty sexist ablilites, and it had poor reception in the US because of that, but I still love it. There are 3 minigames that you'll unlock too just by playing the main game. There are also several puzzle pieces that you can collect by completing the game and the post game in a separate stylus puzzle game. The other thing that's different is that you have to collect 3 hidden/trapped toads per round, and you can't beat the final boss until you've collected all 125 toads beforehand. That's the main "deal-breaker" of this game, it's tedious, and you should only buy it if you love Mario, but want a different twist on the game, and if you like torture. Good luck getting your hands on one: It's also discontinued, so find one on Amazon for like $35.-$40.

Brain Age 2: A game compiled of several different minigames like Sudoku, tetris, word scramble, & memory matching. All of these test your memory response time. The faster you score, the younger your brain "age" will be closer to your chronological age. Very fun game, but don't play it everyday. It'll quickly lose it's point if you play it every single day for 2 months.

CrossworDS: A nice large selection of 3 simple games: Word scramble, Wordsearch, and of course Crosswords. (All 3 have easy, medium, and hard difficulty. "Hard" gets unlocked after you complete all medium difficulty.) Ideal for doctors visit waiting rooms. it's quiet, and keeps you focused on the task at hand. I don't play my own copy often, but I love having it around when I want a change of pace, or I'm sick of Brain Age 2.

Nintendogs: This is actually a fun game! Each series comes with about 6 or 7 extra breeds you can unlock with dog trainer points. There are several different copies that all do the same thing, just pick the copy with 2 or 3 breeds you'd own in the game. You'll be pleasantly surprised when you unlock more.
There are two downsides to this game though. Even though I recommend it, this is a game that possessed me to buy the DS cheat "Action Replay". You'll never have enough money to support your dog(s) if you don't train them for competitions. (You can own up to three). I don't like competing my dogs that much. If you enable infinite money, (Something like 1 million dollars) you can pile up supplies/rations/toys, buy more puppies, and remodel the inside of your "house" in any different style you want.

The second downside is that the game requires so much memory, that there aren't separate user data files. So 3 dogs max per game. Period. The puppies don't die, they don't age, and they can't breed. (the breeding was a letdown for me.) They can runaway, but they do come back. They'll never run away if you spend an ungodly amount of time with them. (like 10 hours per puppy. There's a way to 'cheat' with that too, so it won't take a year.) (I'm gonna buy a second copy with my Christmas money.)

*whew*. I warned you!

[daisybell]

Heh, I bought Super Princess Peach and Nintendogs when I got my DS lite on its launch day in the UK, in June '06. And I still haven't finished Peach, I suck at platformers.

The mixed reviews for Phoenix Wright have taught me something- the games I will love most aren't necessarily the games that get the best reviews. It's hard to know exactly which ones to try, therefore. But graphic adventures are my favourite genre. Another Code (or Trace Memory as it was called in the US, I believe) was a bit too short, but it was pretty. Hotel Dusk was a good game, even prettier IMO (I hadn't come across rotoscoping before in any great quantity), though again not all reviewers liked it. Reviewers complained that there were no new gameplay elements in the second and third Phoenix Wright games, and that they were just plain ports from the GBA games and made no advantage of the DS' features, but I think they missed the point: graphic adventures are about stories, and as long as the gameplay works there's no need to add gimmicks. Apollo Justice only proved that, for me. Sure, it got better reviews but the stories weren't as interesting or involving and the new gameplay elements weren't that great anyway. /rant

[Usul_Princess]

Heh, I bought Super Princess Peach and Nintendogs when I got my DS lite on its launch day in the UK, in June '06. And I still haven't finished Peach, I suck at platformers.

Heheh, me neither. I'm still at post-game 1 star. And I've had it for 9 months now. (I'll be using Action Replay for getting to 2-star, because beating bowser II a second time, and clearing all the minigames is too hard for it's own good.)

I agree about the GBA ports. I'm glad that if you happen to have invested a lot of money in GBA that you can play them on the Lite console, but it's just not the same. It drove me nuts that the top screen is blacked out. Plus, I was very unimpressed with the amount of "nostalgia" games they had.

[Joey]

I got Chrono Trigger for xmas and I haven't gotten to try it out yet, but it looks like a good one, I've heard nothing but praise from all my friends with similar gaming interest.

Since you've already played Phoenix Wright and I recommend that to everyone, have you heard of Elite Beat Agents? It's a rhythm game similar to DDR where you use the touch pad in time with the music. It's got a really fun premise and it's good for just a casual pick it up anytime game.

Also, you can't go wrong with Phantom Hourglass. It took everything that sucked about Wind Waker and made it awesome, it probably has my favorite gameplay out of any Zelda game.

I'll think of more later :D

[daisybell]

I loved Elite Beat Agents, once I got into it, and I wish they'd made a sequel. I know I could import one of the Japanese games (Ouendan, was it called?) but I'm not sure if I'd get on with it or not, or if I want to go to that much effort.

That reminds me, though, I did see a couple of reviews for a rhythm action game called Zubo, by EA. EA used to be the games publisher to avoid like the plague, but they made a bit more effort this year. Anyway, IIRC Zubo wasn't brilliant but worth waiting for when it hit the bargain bins, was the gist of the reviews. But if anyone else has played it already, I'd like to know if it's worth it if it's going cheaply.

I got Phantom Hourglass last Christmas, and gave up on it when I was in the temple with the Phantoms for the third time, I think... I don't like stealth, I really don't, or the timed aspects, and the repeated dungeons got terribly frustrating and boring even with the halfway checkpoint. I got it out again a few weeks ago and I've got the Phantom Sword now, so I don't have to worry so much about the Phantoms. I've lost momentum, though, because I don't feel brave enough to face the final boss battles.

EDIT: I might as well go and look at all the other potential DS games-to-buy I made a list of... Lock's Quest (got good reviews, but I don't know if I'd like it and it seems like no one else played it), Trackmania (I like driving games, but not serious ones, I just like to mess around), Colour Cross (well, I'm going to get this one anyway, it's just an evolution of Picross which I know I like), The World Ends With You (heard lots of good stuff about, but again, not sure if it would be my thing or not) and Viva Pinata.#

Oh yeah, and I heard quite a few mentions of Bangai-O Spirits as a good game that fell under the radar, but I'm pretty sure that being a shooter, it wouldn't be something I'd like that much.

[Kari]

I loved Elite Beat Agents, once I got into it, and I wish they'd made a sequel. I know I could import one of the Japanese games (Ouendan, was it called?) but I'm not sure if I'd get on with it or not, or if I want to go to that much effort.

There's not much difference between EBA and Ouendan, just the language, which isn't much of a barrier. If you know how to play EBA, you can play Ouendan.

Chrono Trigger is good, but I haven't played it in years. Like all RPGs, it's pretty long and story-driven, so there's lots of button mashing through text that might get old by the end.

I also recommend Harvest Moon. I'd skip over Harvest Moon DS because it's glitchy, but Island of Happiness just came out this year and is supposed to be better, even if the stylus-only controls get old. I like Rune Factory more, even if farming isn't the main way you can earn money, and it's relatively short (you can beat the game in one in-game year, and it only takes that long because of a dungeon that's only open in winter)

[Madge]

I shan't recommend any DS games, but you could get a DS rom thing - I got one, and I can download and play roms that I get on the internet. GREAT if you want to play games without spending $60 on them; still very good if you want to download homebrew (games people code for DS themselves); also good if you want to try out a game before you buy it. They cost about the same as one game (including a memory card), maybe a tiny bit more.

The DS roms are not illegal in themselves because you can use them to play homebrew games (I quite like DiceWars, it's like risk), but I doubt very many people do.

As for Oendan, thanks to my roms I've played both games, and there is no language barrier, the only thing is you can't read the little stories about each person you're helping.

Links on rom carts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_D ... ge_devices I just skimmed it, I'm not sure what information it has
http://www.dsflash.com/ Some information?

Didn't really look at either link though, too lazy.

I'd recommend the M3 DS Simply or the CycloDS. The cyclo DS can have emulators on it so you can play SNES games on your DS. I use a Simply though (I got it before the Cyclo was released)

If you're super interested, drop me a PM and I'll get my friend who knows everything about this sort of thing to recommend you a cart and an online store.

[chocolatefairy13]

I got a DS for Christmas...Metallic Rose.
I love it!
My older brother got the blue DS and he mostly likes the "Pic-to-chat" feature.

I also received 7 games.
I've tried each of them, but not extensively (haven't had time!).

Mario Kart DS
I'm a huge fan of the Mario Kart series, so this was a must-have for me.
Definitely recommended!


Mario Party DS
I'm also a huge fan of the Mario Party series, and this one has all of the charm of the others in the series.
The mini-games are awesome, but the story mode can be a bit tough due to the A.I. skill.


Super Mario 64 DS
SM64 was possibly the greatest game of all time.
It's nice to play it again and re-live the memories of my (early) childhood without having to drag the old N64 out of storage.
Me like!


Cooking Mama
I played the 1st Wii CM game and loved it, and this is WAY better.


Cooking Mama 2
Fun, but not as good as the original.


Personal Trainer: Cooking
I love to cook.
I've been in the kitchen with my mom and grandma for as long as I can remember.
I enjoy watching Food Network and looking up new recipes and techniques.
So it was a given that I would want this game.
No matter your skill level, this game has something for you.
The bad thing is that some of the recipes use specialty ingredients that can't be found in North America or probably even the UK.
I did use this to make some delicious banana walnut brownies yesterday, and there are many more recipes that I'd like to try.



Petz Monkeyz House
What can I say?
I love monkeys, so a video game where you take care of monkeys "Sim-style" is perfect for me.
The graphics aren't that great, and if it weren't for the fact that there are MONKEYS(or is it "monkeyz"?) in this game then I wouldn't recommend it.


--------

That's it!
I hope to pick up New Super Mario Bros. sometime soon, and maybe Neopets Puzzle Adventure........if I can afford it.

[Officer 1BDI]

Well, you've already played the four games I would have immediately suggested. *is an Ace Attorney fangirl*. You may want to check out Hotel Dusk as well. I unfortunately didn't take to it as well as others have (I admit to getting so utterly frustrated a quarter of the way through that I fell back on a walk-through for the rest of the game just so I could finish without seeing another blasted Game Over), but it's very similar in style to the AA series, and maybe you'll enjoy the plot and characters more than I did. I second Daisybell's sentiment about its graphics.

I also finished Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time about a month ago (woo! So late to that party...); it's a turn-based RPG, so if that's not your style then you may want to skip it, but I thought the game was very entertaining, and even though I'm not into fighting games I enjoyed the battles. I've heard good things about the prequel, too.

I've also heard excellent things about Mother 3, but I don't think that's available outside of Japan. :/

[daisybell]

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time was so funny, especially the Hammer Bros who talked in 1337. I haven't completed that one either, I can't beat the last boss. I'm really bad at boss fights.

[chocolatefairy13]

I can't wait for Scribblenauts!
It comes out next year...late...next...year...

http://ds.ign.com/objects/143/14304256.html

[Huggles]

I got a $25 gift card for Wal~Mart from my brother, and since I refuse to step foot into one of their stores, I used it online. Apparently, they let you turn them in for cash here, but then that would mean going inside even if not shopping there. I used to work for them, and they're evil. Anyway, I bought My Japanese Coach for giggles and somewhat for serious. I'm actually impressed for what it does for the price.

Now, I don't expect to become fluent from the game alone, obviously, but I've got quite a few grammar and vocabulary books and cds and people online to poke to perhaps be somewhere in a couple years. I'm not sure how helpful it is for beginners who literally know absolutely nothing about the language, and haven't been watching anime subs and listening to Japanese voices for a couple years. It's fun so far, and I'm considering buying the Spanish version. I took four years of Spanish in high school and tested out of it for college, so I'd be much better at judging the relatively quality of the translation. But you can practice writing, and compare your recorded voice with the translator's. There's even one of those squiggly sound line things for comparisons.

I paid 10 dollars out-of-pocket for what wasn't covered by the gift card and shipping. I think their language games run around $29.99 and if you're just curious, it's a whole lot less money to potentially waste than what I've seen elsewhere online and tv. Rosetta Stone being the most ubiquitous and one I personally haven't read much good about.

[Goldenchaos]

Yoshis Island DS!

You can get the Neopets Puzzle Game thing, but its subpar, and not worth the price (Not that I paid for it.)

[Jessi]

I got Hotel Dusk: Room 215 for Christmas, and I'm not that far into it but I'm really enjoying it so far. Since you love Phoenix Wright, Daisy, I'd really recommend checking it out. It's kind of similar in the things you do - finding 'evidence', solving puzzles, etc.

My hand starts to hurt from holding the DS like a book, though!