Just got a DS, what games should I get?

[Rob_Merritt]

I know there are probably a lot of threads on this but since qt3 doesn't allow searches for something as short a "DS", I'm asking again. Just got a DS, what are the must have games, especially for someone like me who mostly play pc and 360 games?

[Jab2565]

There is a huge variety of DS games out now, what genres do you perfer?

[Rob_Merritt]

I guess rpg, adventure and strategy but i'm open to other stuff.

[Tom Ohle]

New Super Mario Bros
Phoenix Wright
Those are my favs, but I admittedly don't get as much time in on my DS as I'd like, or as much as a lot of other guys around here do.

[KaoFloppy]

Strategy: Puzzle Quest.
other: Elite Beat Agents, Brain Age
RPG: Etrian Odyssey, Izuna

I'm about 1/2 year out of date. Oh, and search this site using google, and you should find the monthly DS games threads. I guess this will be this October's version.

[Wholly Schmidt]

The two DS games I've gotten the most mileage out of are Worms: Open Warfare 2, and Picross.

There are lots of great games, but those are just the two I can come back to over and over again (Worms mostly for the multiplayer).

[Dirt]

You should have gotten a PSP. Unless the DS is for your son, the PSP has surpassed the DS in games for adults.

[Marcin]

You should have gotten a PSP. Unless the DS is for your son, the PSP has surpassed the DS in games for adults.

Oh gods, not this again.

[Lizard_King]

I think the greatest value I got out of my DS was the Ouendan/Elite Beat Agents series. Other than that, I played a good amount of Trauma Center, and from there it's just been GBA rpgs. That's not to say I didn't buy a ton of DS games; I did, consumer whore that I am. But the Ouendans are the only killer app I've really seen for the touch format.

If I still had to play portable games (it was only due to lack of access to a console that I used it), I'd probably give the new Zelda a whirl. It's been getting rave reviews from some unexpected places.

[SergioBAM]

Advanced Wars. Apart from the 12-year-old little girl dialogue it's fine.

[Lizard_King]

Advanced Wars. Apart from the 12-year-old little girl dialogue it's fine.
Good catch. Personally, I liked the GBA original, or at least ended up playing it a great deal more.

[Alan Au]

http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=20712
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-t...ad.php?t=22942
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-t...ad.php?t=26944
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-t...ad.php?t=27195
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-t...ad.php?t=27810
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-t...ad.php?t=29901
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-t...ad.php?t=31451
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=31746
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=33712

- Alan

[krokodile]

I was just going to say... I made the same mistake of making a new thread when I got my DS.

Which I never play, by the way.

Also: Don't get Puzzle Quest.

[Alan Au]

Also: Don't get Puzzle Quest.
I agree; it's way too addictive. It will cause you to become horribly sleep deprived.

- Alan

[Other Brendan]

Picross
New York Times Crosswords
Kirby's Canvas Curse
Brain Age 1 or 2 (if you like Sudoku)

[ZekeDMS]

Elite Beat Agents, Puzzle Quest, Trauma Center, Harvest Moon:Rune Factory, Phoenix Wright, those are all favorites of mine. PQ is on PC and X360 though now, so that may be the way to go with either of those. I also enjoyed Trace Memory and Hotel Dusk quite a bit, and Deep Labyrinth is a fun dungeon crawler.

If you're so inclined, Jump Superstars is pretty good. Warioware:Touched is fun, and for general mini-game enjoyment, Rub Rabbits and XX/XY are excellent.

As mentioned by Brendan, Canvas Curse is great. Sonic Rush is also good, it's much closer to old school 2D sonic than anything else in a long time.

[flyinj]

Etrian Odyssey. The best DS game yet.

The new Zelda is fantastic, and Picross is addictive as hell.

If you're in Europe, or are import-friendly, get Anno1701. It's an amazingly well programmed sim-city meets settlers type game.

[tromik]

Phantom Hourglass and Hotel Dusk.

[roguefrog]

Etrian Odyssey
Kirby Canvus Curse
New Super Mario Bros
Legend of Zelda - Phantom Hourglass
Advance Wars
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan("Hey! Fight! Cheer Squad")
Elite Beat Agents
Mario Kart DS
Puzzle Quest

[Rob_Merritt]

You should have gotten a PSP. Unless the DS is for your son, the PSP has surpassed the DS in games for adults.

I bought a psp at launch. Has a nice layer of dust on it.

[Brakara]

Elite Beat Agents
Advance Wars
New Super Mario Bros
Planet Puzzle League
Puzzle Quest

[E-phonk]

I'd argue to wait with advance wars, since the sequel will come out in januari and it will be great (with online/voice options).

Puzzle quest is great if you didn't play the PSP version, New Super Mario is certainly exactly what the title says it is, Elite Beat agents is great, and Zelda:Phantom Hourglass is certainly the best adventure game on the system.

FF3 is a good oldschool JRPG, and I also enjoyed age of empires. Other good titles are mario kart, castlevania (both DS games), animal crossing, tetris ds, DQ:Rocket Slime, clubhousegames and phoenix Wright.

[Charlatan]

I was just considering getting either a PSP or a DS and would echo that Picross, EBA, Zelda, and Puzzle Quest are all great choices. Haven't seen anyone mention Worms, and that was always a favorite when I played it on the PC a few years ago.

If you aren't against imports, there's always Ouendan, which I'm sure is mentioned in every one of those linked threads above. Plus here, I just saw.

I've heard nothing but great stuff about Canvas Curse, but the only place I've been able to find it is on eBay - and around $25 for a freaking USED version. That's insane.

Don't forget the Warhammer game that's coming out in a month or two - though that's available on the PSP as well, so you'll have a choice.

Rob, I'm curious though, and I guess it's a slight derail, but why buy a DS if you have a PSP? Are there games on the DS you just couldn't get on the PSP, or was the DS a better ergonomic fit or what?

[Lizard_King]

Yeah, Rocket Slime was a lot of fun. Forgot about that.

[snowcrash22]

New York Times Crosswords


Seconded, even though I can't get past Thursdays (On a Mon to Sun scale of difficulty) with anything other than a score of F (on the A+ to F- scale of success)

I also really dug the New Super Mario Brothers

[Rob_Merritt]

The DS is slightly more portable, my kids have DSs so multiplayer options open up a bit. Much better battery life. Just something different.

[Warning]

I really liked Kirby Canvas Curse. It was the first DS game I played and probably the one I have had the most fun with.

[tylertoo]

My top 4 DS of '07:

Etrian
Puzzle Quest
Worms 2
Zelda

If you get Worms, make sure its the newer sequel, by different devs than the first Worms DS and much better.

Oldies but casual goodies:

Mario Kart
Clubhouse Games

[SergioBAM]

Mario Kart DS wireless is a real blast.
I remember bussing it to uni one day and playing mario kart with a dude in the middle of the bus. It was awesome, there we were taunting each other from either end of the bus, while all the other passengers were looking on, jealously I presume... :)

[J. Matthew Zoss]

I'm really digging Age of Empires: Age of Kings right now. I like it more than Advance Wars DS, honestly.

Tony Hawk's American Sk8Land is a really fun little game that you can find cheap these days.

And I hate to self-promote, but my company Destineer has a really fun little word puzzle game called WordJong due out next month. I wouldn't shill my own stuff, but it is really very good.

Self-Reported!

[bigdruid]

I really want to recommend Etrian Odyssey. But Etrian Odyssey is like buying a big-ass Costco-sized box of Cap'n Crunch after you haven't eaten it for 20 years. You have a bowl, and it's great - just as good as you remembered. Then you have another bowl...and another...after a month of continuous eating, the box *still* isn't empty, and you are so goddamn sick of eating Cap'n Crunch that you wish you'd never fucking heard of it.

That's Etrian Odyssey. So either resign yourself to quitting the game before you get to the end (*long* before you get to the end), or prepare for a slogfest that drags on long after the game itself ceases to be fun.

On the other hand, the new Zelda is pure love. Puzzle Quest is great (but unbalanced - you'll never lose a single fight ever again after you hit lvl 20 or so). Kirby, Super Mario, Mario Kart, Ouendan, Castlevania DS - all great fun.

People love Phoenix Wright, but I was pretty meh on it - it's an adventure game, so you pretty much know going in whether you're going to like it or not.

[Alan Au]

PSP has surpassed the DS in games for adults.
Oh? I didn't realize that the PSP had adult titles.

- Alan

[Moore]

Oh? I didn't realize that the PSP had adult titles.

- Alan

IT HAEV MOOR BL00d. MOOR MATUR.

[Taranis]

It looks like its a DS Christmas at my house this year both my kids are getting one, and to prevent yet another DS thread I was wondering what the best kids games are?

I have a 10 year old girl and a 6 year old boy. My son plays Lego Starwars and sports games on our Xbox and my daughter prefers games like Spongebob: Battle for Bikini Bottom.

Any suggestions? I haven't played anything Nintendo since the original 32bit system.

[E-phonk]

The big hit titles like animal crossing and nintendogs are very succesful with girls.

[krokodile]

I'm really digging Age of Empires: Age of Kings right now. I like it more than Advance Wars DS, honestly.

Good stuff, right? I liked it, but I found it way too difficult for a portable, 'play for 10 minutes and then do something else' game.

If they made a PC version of it, I'd probably play it, but as it stands, I've only managed to beat the training, and one level on the Atilla campaign, despite it supposedly being the 'hardest'.

I can't, for the life of me, beat the first Japanese mission.

[Alan Au]

I keep going back to Advance Wars DS. I mean, Age of Empires 2 is charming, but it doesn't have the same longevity.

- Alan

[Lizard_King]

It looks like its a DS Christmas at my house this year both my kids are getting one, and to prevent yet another DS thread I was wondering what the best kids games are?

I have a 10 year old girl and a 6 year old boy. My son plays Lego Starwars and sports games on our Xbox and my daughter prefers games like Spongebob: Battle for Bikini Bottom.

Any suggestions? I haven't played anything Nintendo since the original 32bit system.
Elite Beat Agents (for the millionth time, I know) has certainly crossed the gender divide with its appeal, and I can't imagine it would be tough for kids who haven't learned to be tone deaf yet. Plus that way you can avoid getting your daughter games that should be illegal under "mind numbing torture" like some of the above mentioned "games for girls".

Also, as far as more female-oriented games go, Super Princess Peach is a sound platformer with a female protagonist that I enjoyed a great deal, and I can't imagine it being less worthwhile than Battle For Bikini Bottom. It's also not hard without being retarded, which is a tougher line to walk than you'd think.

Other than that, all I can think of is Rocket Slime if you think they might be looking for a little more depth in their cute games. Really depends on the kid; I have nephews who PSH at the thought of anything less complex than whatever the cutting edge RTS is, and ones for whom the Wii average is about right.

[tromik]

Can anyone put all the GBA and DS Castlevanias in some sort of order? Either best to worst, or most newb-friendly to most hardcore?

I have Dawn of Sorrow, which looks amazing, but I find it pretty hard. I've never been any good at these action platformers with melee weapons.

I did like the Metroid games on GBA a lot, I prefered the story and the weapons, although I guess the gameplay itself is pretty similar. I did get the DS metroid game, which I like, but I lost the thumb-thingy, and it's so fucking painful to play for over five minutes with the stylus.

[malkav11]

Can anyone put all the GBA and DS Castlevanias in some sort of order? Either best to worst, or most newb-friendly to most hardcore?

I have Dawn of Sorrow, which looks amazing, but I find it pretty hard. I've never been any good at these action platformers with melee weapons.

I did like the Metroid games on GBA a lot, I prefered the story and the weapons, although I guess the gameplay itself is pretty similar. I did get the DS metroid game, which I like, but I lost the thumb-thingy, and it's so fucking painful to play for over five minutes with the stylus.

Circle of the Moon is probably the worst on all counts (funnily enough, it's also the easiest of the GBA games to find, and quite cheap.).

Harmony of Dissonance *might* be the easiest, since a couple of the spells are really cheesy and easily abused.

Dawn of Sorrow is probably the best.

Honestly I haven't found any of them so far to be particularly hard except in the boss fights, and those you can often level grind to beat or cheese past by spamming some of the more powerful spells and/or having a whole ton of healing items. And I'm not very good at action games, for what it's worth.

[Jab2565]

Re:Castlevania games, here is my preference from best to worst,

Dawn of Sorrow, Aria of Sorrow (might have the name wrong, last GBA Castlevania). Circle of the Moon, Portrait of ruin, Harmony of Dissonance.

I don't know why but I did not like Harmony .

Re: Strategy games, I didn't like Age of Empires DS, but I do like the advance wars series.

I'm still loving Picross, it's one of my favorite puzzle games so far.

[E-phonk]

I keep going back to Advance Wars DS. I mean, Age of Empires 2 is charming, but it doesn't have the same longevity.

- Alan

Yeah, advance wars is a game that you can easily spend dozens of hours with.

[tromik]

I wish there were more action games on DS. I really don't care for the platformers that use the stylus and the Touch Generation stuff.

I'm really looking forward to Contra 4, and I'm praying that Capcom hires those dudes to make Bionic Commando 2.

[tylertoo]

Etrian Odyssey is like buying a big-ass Costco-sized box of Cap'n Crunch after you haven't eaten it for 20 years. You have a bowl, and it's great - just as good as you remembered. Then you have another bowl...and another...after a month of continuous eating, the box *still* isn't empty, and you are so goddamn sick of eating Cap'n Crunch that you wish you'd never fucking heard of it.
This is the perfect analogy. I loved Etrian Odyssey, and played it for about two months non-stop. But then I had to walk away. But I will go back to it. I will. After Zelda, Worms 2, Front Mission, the Advance Wars sequel...

[Jab2565]

I just picked up Sonic Rush 1 and 2 with the toysrus sale, overall I'm not liking one alot, way too many bottomless pits . The boss fights are decent however, I haven't tried the 2nd one yet which may have improved alot.

[Rob_Merritt]

I ended up getting 9 DS titles. Between gift cards and the TRU 3 for 2 sale, I went overboard a bit.

I got
Elite Best Agents
Crash of the Titans
Planet Puzzle League
Spiderman 3
Thrillville Off the Rails
Drawn to Life
Touch Detective 2 1/2
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Duck Amuck

I wanted to get a Phoenix Wright, Trama Center and Hotel Dusk but they weren't anywhere to be found.
I've only opened the first 5. I love Elite Beat Agents and Spiderman 3. Spiderman 3 suprised me as well but I love its control setup. The only one I don't like so far was Thrillville.

[tromik]

Drawn to Life
Touch Detective 2 1/2

Drawn to Life isn't a great game by any means, except that the character you draw, despite all your best efforts, will look like a horribly retarded mutant I even drew mine in overalls for that inbred look. Then I named him Stlomth.

As hideous as the drawing of my character was, when I realized that the game animates him, I lost my shit and ran around showing friends and co-workers what I had created.

The game itself is okay, and a decent mix of RPG-lite touch stuff and platforming.

I rather liked Touch Detective, and was surprised by the dialogue and how great the art style was. Plus, for a mystery adventure, there's a lot less talking than there is in Hotel Dusk.

[malkav11]

I wanted to get a Phoenix Wright, Trama Center and Hotel Dusk but they weren't anywhere to be found.


Amazon (or their Marketplace sellers) have all of the above. eBay too, I'm sure.

[Rob_Merritt]

Amazon (or their Marketplace sellers) have all of the above. eBay too, I'm sure.


yeah you can get almost anything out of print via market place sellers and Ebay but I don't like dealing with those.

[malkav11]

Amazon has Trauma Center and Phoenix Wright 2 new, though.

[Rob_Merritt]

Amazon has Trauma Center and Phoenix Wright 2 new, though.


Ah, I see Trauma Center is in stock new. I should grab it then..

[Gourmand]

Can anyone put all the GBA and DS Castlevanias in some sort of order? Either best to worst, or most newb-friendly to most hardcore?

I have Dawn of Sorrow, which looks amazing, but I find it pretty hard. I've never been any good at these action platformers with melee weapons.

I did like the Metroid games on GBA a lot, I prefered the story and the weapons, although I guess the gameplay itself is pretty similar. I did get the DS metroid game, which I like, but I lost the thumb-thingy, and it's so fucking painful to play for over five minutes with the stylus.

I had trouble with Dawn of Sorrow myself, until I figured out the trick. The fast weapons are total utter shit for anything other than breaking lamps for hearts. The real items you want to be using are things like the Axes/Maces.

With those big hitters, you can jump, swing in midair, have the hit arc to the ground, and then tap the trigger (Left? I forget), and you'll be free to move and run around again, etc. The ability to tap the trigger and use the evasion move to escape the longer swing time completely broke the game for me.

It went from a frustrating challenge, to a trivial task. I think I still struggled on the big Bone Dino boss, but even he wasn't that bad.

On the main topic: I'm told you can convert to portable movie viewing on the DS if you buy one of those flash carts. I don't own one, but second hand opinions tell me it's pretty neat.

[Fuzzydevil]

I still need to finish Dawn of Sorrow. Got bored trying to find the last soul you need before you can get the "true" ending.

From memory I actually used one of the more powerful katanas in the game. With jump, you can hit twice in mid-air and then instantly a third time the second you hit the ground, and it's fast enough that you can dance away almost immediately after doing so anyway. So I seem to remember, anyway. It's been awhile.

[Jab2565]

I've been playing sonic rush adventure since thursday, and it's one of the better sonic games I've played in some time. The level design is well done, with the exception of some enemy and spike placements. There are a bunch of missions for you to do which adds replay, but I'm stuck on one right now involving combos.

[ZekeDMS]

Well, cheap spikes and pits have been staples of Sonic since the first game, so I don't really mind those myself. I just get my rings and move on. So would you say SRA is better than SR? If so, I guess it's gonna have to go on my list ASAP.

Once I can afford it, anyway. Rune Factory is too great to sell, and I've gotta buy Ace Combat 6 ASAP, so I guess I have to burn through Beautiful Katamari at hyperspeed :(

[RichVR]

Three that I like are:

Trauma Center: Under the Knife
Metroid Prime Pinball
Star Trek: Tactical Assault

Of course, YMMV etc.

[Alan Au]

It's worth nothing that Trauma Center: Under the Knife has a pretty brutal difficulty curve--it's more like a difficulty cliff, actually.

- Alan

[tromik]

Well, cheap spikes and pits have been staples of Sonic since the first game, so I don't really mind those myself. I just get my rings and move on. So would you say SRA is better than SR? If so, I guess it's gonna have to go on my list ASAP.
I liked Sonic Rush better. I really don't like the adventure stuff in SRA.

I need a DS game that I can play in 2/5/10 minute bursts. Zelda and Castlevania are just way too involved for a break/bus ride. I need something slow and paced, but that satisfies in a short amount of time. Suggestions?

[ZekeDMS]

As usual, I suggest Rune Factory. Most caves have save points often enough, and you can get to your home save in about 15 seconds anyway. It's a good short burst game with a bit more time devoted to exploration as you see fit.

Alan is right on Trauma Center, I've finished the game, several times, but one level is just fucking brutal and I don't know how I ever finished it once(10 minutes, 5 kiryaki surgeries). But it's a great game, even with some frustrations it'll give you.

[wildpokerman]

Meteos.

[MattKeil]

Couple lesser-known games I've been enjoying:

Drawn To Life - Mario-style platformer with adventure elements, except you have to draw your hero, various platforms, and other game items you come across in the course of the levels. Not perfect, but a very cool use of the touchscreen without getting too obnoxious about it.

Glory Days 2 - If you ever played Wings of Fury (and I did...incessantly), you'll love this. It's basically Wings of Fury updated with paratroopers and some modern warfare touches. Side-scrolling plane combat at its best for the first time in a long time.

New York Times Crossword Puzzle - No, seriously. It's great. A co-worker and I have been playing it together off and on for weeks. If you have any interest at all in crosswords, track it down.

Contact - Weird little game by Suda51 (Killer7, No More Heroes) that has you cast as...well, yourself, using your DS to help people in a strange alternate universe you contact via the handheld system. Plays kind of like a top-down MMO in a way. Not perfect, but worth playing just for how unique it is.

[Anti-Bunny]

Final Fight One
Meteos or Tetris
Mario Cart DS
Yoshi's Island

[Jab2565]

Well, cheap spikes and pits have been staples of Sonic since the first game, so I don't really mind those myself. I just get my rings and move on. So would you say SRA is better than SR? If so, I guess it's gonna have to go on my list ASAP.

Once I can afford it, anyway. Rune Factory is too great to sell, and I've gotta buy Ace Combat 6 ASAP, so I guess I have to burn through Beautiful Katamari at hyperspeed :(

I've spent more time with SRA then SR, SR is more like the classic sonic games, but SRA seems to have alot more things to do.

You ride ships in SRA using the stylus, each one has it's own gameplay mode. The missions are what your going to spend alot of time with, I think there are around 70 missions to do.

Re Trauma Center, that game is really hard, there is one surgery I can't do ( the one with the poison triangles.)

I was considering picking up Rune Factory, but I've read that their already making a sequel to it.

[Xemu]

I've been making my way through Phoenix Wright and really enjoying it. It is much more akin to a traditional adventure game than anything else, but I find it unique and charming.

[malkav11]

Trauma Center was a lovely concept and I enjoyed it for about five, six levels. And then *bam*, it was way too hard, and at least in part because it wouldn't always register my commands. When/if I get a Wii, I'm going to be interested to see if the Wii version is any more responsive.

[Jab2565]

I've played the Wii version of Trauma center, it's alot more responsive, but I found it alot harder. The one surgery that I had trouble with on the ds, I was at least able to cheat somewhat to do it, on the Wii no such luck.

[Fuzzydevil]

Barring one or two levels I actually thought Trauma Center was pretty easy and vastly overrated, difficulty-wise. Up until the Original Sin levels, and the bonus levels, anyway. Those surgeries broke me.

Incidentally, be proud. This thread made me dig out my DS and play things. Finished Castlevania DS for the first time last night, Advance Wars has once again held my attention for a few hours, and I'm trying to get every single last Koma in Jump Superstars. Now all I need is Phoenix Wright 3.

I'd recommend all of the above, incidentally. Adored Castlevania DS, though many claim Portrait of Ruin is better. Advance Wars DS is brilliantly paced and intelligent without being complicated, Jump Superstars is... well, it's Smash Brothers on a handheld, only all in Japanese and a FAQ is required, while the Phoenix Wright series are some of the funniest games I've had the joy of playing in recent years.

[tromik]

Holy crap, Picross is great! It's exactly what I was looking for. Perfect for 15 minute breaks at work.

I'm wondering if I would like an electronic Sudoku that has the same sort of style and rules (game lets you know when you make a mistake and penalizes you for it) as this.

[Jab2565]

Brain age 1 and 2 both have sudoku puzzles , and it does have a mode that penalizes your mistakes (5 errors and you lose). I'm also loving Picross and I'm slowly but surely beating free mode.

With Phoenix Wright 3 out now I was thinking about getting 2 since it's pretty cheap on amazon. For story purposes is playing 2 important?

[Fuzzydevil]

Oddly I knew more about three than I did about two, prior to the release of the second. From what I know, you should really play all three in order. You can probably skip the first one, but there are a few bigger plot elements set up in the second that tie into the third. As far as I'm aware you'd be okay with playing the third first, but I'd not recommend it, for the full impact.

[tromik]

Brain age 1 and 2 both have sudoku puzzles , and it does have a mode that penalizes your mistakes (5 errors and you lose). I'm also loving Picross and I'm slowly but surely beating free mode.
I love the free mode in Picross, too. But the system of letting you know your mistake, penalizing you for it, and giving you the answer is a great way to learn the game.

I haven't avtually finished the normal mode, mostly because I'm at the point now where if I do make a mistake, I can complete a huge chunk of the puzzle because of it, which feels like cheating.

[ZekeDMS]

PW3 is a playable game on its own, but I wouldn't due to story purposes. Plus, the fourth case of number 2 is just fucking epic, and should be played.

[Fuzzydevil]

Totally. The end of the 4th case of PW1 had me cheering, but PW2's final case was amazing. I was wondering when that sort of thing was gonna crop up, really, and the final few things you had to do to finish the case were great.

[Rob_Merritt]

Wasn't there suppose to be a First person perspective RPG (ie Bards Tale, Wizardry, Eye of the Beholder, might & Magic) on the DS?

[ZekeDMS]

Well, Deep Labyritnth is RPG lite. Doesn't um...well, that Atlus game I forget the name of counts I expect, that people have said is super long.

I would love Eye of the Beholder on DS though, the structure it had on Sega CD would work very well for the format.

[TheWombat]

Just picked up Front Mission yesterday; they only received two in at the GameStop here and I had pre-ordered one using some trade-in credit.

So far it's pretty good. It's, um, Front Mission, in all of its picky turn based glory. The DS version is pretty easy to work with--the interface is actually friendlier I find than that of Front Mission 4 on the PS2 (I never played the SNES stuff)--and the combat is pretty solid. Doesn't seem to be anything elaborate like facing but supposedly with higher skills you can target specific parts on the Wanzers or something.

The story of course is what you'd expect--dystopian future warfare mixed with teen angst love affairs and lots of emo anguish--but it looks pretty sharp and makes good use of the DS' capabilities as far as I can tell.

Getting Panzer Tactics next week, so should have a good stash of turn-based goodness for a bit.

[tylertoo]

Wasn't there suppose to be a First person perspective RPG (ie Bards Tale, Wizardry, Eye of the Beholder, might & Magic) on the DS?
Are you thinking of Etrian Odyssey? Unforgiving and very addictive.

[tromik]

I remember hearing that the Brain Age games were cheap, but I didn't realize just how cheap they were. Is it worth buying both?

[Misguided]

Are you thinking of Etrian Odyssey? Unforgiving and very addictive.

Yeah, that has to be the one. Good game. My favorite part is the mapping interface.

[Jab2565]

re: Etrian Odyssey, very unforgiving game and it's one that you can screw yourself early enough if your not careful. I enjoyed it but it's easy to get burnt out playing it ( I got to the 3rd to last floor before I gave up.)

Re Brain age: If your picking it up for the sudoku puzzle's then both are easily worth it. ( They each have around 100 in them). As for exercises, I think I found Brain age 1 to be easier since it focuses on number exercises, but Brain Age 2 has alot more exercises then 1( I haven't unlocked them all yet).

[Alan Au]

Personally, I like the Brain Age 2 exercises better, since they're marginally more "applicable" to real life situations, like reading music or making change.

It is true that Phoenix Wright 2 case 4 is epic, but I wish it had included a fifth case. PW1 had an extra case added for the DS version, and I believe PW3 has a new DS-only case as well.

- Alan

[bigdruid]

re: Etrian Odyssey, very unforgiving game and it's one that you can screw yourself early enough if your not careful.
How can you screw yourself early in that game?

EO is pretty unforgiving early, but after about the 7th floor, the challenge drops precipitously (or maybe it's because I'm anal about exploring each floor before going to the next, so my characters were overlevelled?)

[Jab2565]

There are some party layouts that can be very hard at the early levels, and it is possible to run out of money for healing early on. I didn't have these problems but I've heard people over at the gamefaqs did. I went for a balanced party which kicked alot of ass.

[bigdruid]

Oh, I forgot that you can run out of money and not be able to stay at the inn (there's a race between "inn price inflation" and "income growth" that gets a little tight before income growth explodes wildly - when you get to those insect-like FOEs that drop like 1000 gp your money worries are over forever). It's one of the design decisions I didn't like - there's no reason for the inn to get more expensive. At least in the original Wizardry there was some rationale behind paying more (the more expensive rooms healed you faster) - it made me feel like the innkeeper in EO was price gouging ("Welcome adventurers! You look like you really need a room, so our prices have just gone up 30%!")

Although I suppose you could always make some 1st-floor gathering runs to heal up if you got stuck on the wrong end of the inn pricing curve.

[malkav11]

It is true that Phoenix Wright 2 case 4 is epic, but I wish it had included a fifth case. PW1 had an extra case added for the DS version, and I believe PW3 has a new DS-only case as well.

- Alan

It would be nice if they had, yeah. But I think the first one had originally been a DS-specific special edition of that game or something along those lines, in Japan. And now we're just getting GBA ports as DS games (which is silly when we could just get GBA games...it's not like the DS can't handle them.).

You're wrong about PW3, by the way. At least from what I can tell from reviews.

[Jab2565]

From the reviews I've read PW3 has 5 cases, but I think they're all part of the same timeline, unlike PW1 which had the fifth case added in as a bonus.

[ZekeDMS]

I am definitely loving Sonic Rush Adventure. The levels are good and have more environmenty bits, and the mini-games spread around seem fun. Good bosses too, very creative, especially by the admittedly not always creative Sonic standards. The second boss(pendulum ball in a cup guy) really entertained me, especially once I put the difficulties on normal. Much more rewarding.