I’m finally picking up a DS to play on a business trip I’m taking next week, so I’m looking into games. I’ve already decided that I’ll get ‘The World Ends With You’, but I’d like to get a few others. For you DS players, what would you consider your ‘must haves’? I like RPGs, but I’m down with just about any genre if the game is good.
Thanks in advance.
-Mink-
Puzzle Quest. It utterly wrecked my life last semester until I finished the campaign with two different character classes. Jesus, it’s an RPG with Bejewled attached; how can you NOT get addicted?! I personally love it on the DS, but if you have it on 360, PSP, or PC, don’t rebuy it. Otherwise, imagine getting to cast spells in your Bejewled map to make it go better, all while competing against an enemy, exploring a map, and building a small army of stat-enhancing mounts.
Magical Starsign. I don’t know anyone who’s played it and hasn’t liked it. Cute story (too cute?), but the gameplay’s pretty deep thanks to the lunar-based elemental damage system. It’s kids in space, fighting enemies and solving mysteries, but damn if it’s not fun as hell. And seriously, cute as a button.
New Super Mario Bros. I was just blown away by the sheer amount of fun and depth in this game. As much as I enjoy 64 and Galaxy, I’d been pining for a Super Mario World/Mario 3-esque game for years, and this fit the bill perfectly. Everyone on earth says it’s super easy, but I’m stuck on World 5 atm. I’d add more description to this, but really: it’s map-having 2D Mario. If you don’t “get” that, then please, buy an NES/SNES.
Phoenix Wright (any of 'em). I’ve never even touched one. But I’ve watched two separate people be slowly torn to shreds by the awesomeness of this series. I miss my friends, I really do. If you want the adventure gaming but would like some Indie Cred instead, grab Hotel Dusk. Solve court cases by sniffing out evidence, questioning witnesses, and dealing with drama. . . point and click adventuring at its finest. HD does the same, except you’re a detective and it’s all noiry and shiz.
Elite Beat Agents. Once again, a total life-wrecker that may also end with you breaking your DS in half or stabbing it with your stylus repeatedly. I, for one, had to hear a particular Good Charlotte song far more times than anyone should ever have to, so you might want to consider importing the Japanese version. It’s a rhythm-action game involving a lot of tapping, spinning, and dragging of the stylus, but the aesthetic is bizarre enough to make it work like new.
Club House Games
Professor Layton
Tetris DS
Advance Wars
Phoenix Wright bored the crap out of me and most people I know felt the same. It’s more like reading a boring story than playing a game, as you spend a lot more time clicking through text than doing much of anything else.
Picross is a perfect puzzler.
Agreed. Phoenix Wright was like reading a crappy manga. Or what I imagine that’s like. You have to completely buy into the story and characters to get any fun out of it, because there’s not much game to speak of. I didn’t, so it was a complete waste of time.
Zelda
Since you like RPGs, the Final Fantasy III remake and probably the upcoming remake of IV, and the upcoming Dragon Quest remakes.
Castlevania
Ouendan 1 & 2 if rhythm games are even slightly interesting to you
Elite Beat Agents if rhythm games are even slightly interesting to you and you’re scared of playasia.com
hey now, is tetrixDS really any good? It took me a long time to come to grips with the fact that I could no longer play TetrisDX (color gameboy version) on the DS… I felt better thinking that it sucked…
I second Final Fantasy 3 if you’re into that sort of thing. Elite Beat is OK, but may be difficult on a plane. Mario platformers are always great, and Mario Cart is also a fun diversion.
Some like Meteos, but it’s no TetrisDX.
Ouendan and EBA, as described above.
Puzzle Quest, as described above. Really accessible, really easy to pick up and put down. The thin veneer of RPG gives the bejeweled mechanics the what they needed in my case to be played more than once or twice.
The upcoming Etrian Odyssey 2 (the first one is a pain to get ahold of) is looking to be more of the same excellent old school RPG stuff that works well portable.
I’m sure people have reasons for not mentioning it, but Shiren the Wanderer is a great roguelike game (huge thread here talking about it) that works really well on the platform, down to the wireless stuff.
Also, a larger stylus along these lines is a cheap and easy way to really improve your game experience, especially for fast paced games like World Ends and Ouendan. The import places like Play Asia have plenty of options, some markedly better than others, but it really does make a difference.
Yeah… It was too much like some Cartoon Network adaptation of Law & Order, only without Sam Waterston or Jerry Orbach around to make it watchable.
Picross DS. Absolutely essential.
Phoenix Wright is somewhere in between a sierra style adventure game and an old school text adventure. It’s a normal example of the former and a terrible example of the latter. It’s got a decent sense of humor and personality, but I would not recommend it. I didn’t get more than halfway on the first one, and the second got given away after fifteen minutes.
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=20712
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=22942
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=26944
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=27195
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=27810
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=29901
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=31451
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=31746
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=33392
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=34679
Thanks Alan. I tried using the search before I posted the thread, but it didn’t accept ‘DS’ for some reason. I’ll comb through those.
Also, I didn’t think an update would be all that bad, considering that new games are out all the time… :)
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I’ve made a little list for my visit to the store… I think I’m leaning toward Final Fantasy III and Professor Layton, but there are definitely a few others I’ll be tempted by because of what you’ve said here.
-Mink-
EDIT: Scratch that… I’m now all about Mystery Dungeon. Sounds like my kind of painful RPG. I never would have known about that if not for this thread, so thanks again.
Bah. Y’all are crazy. Yes, Phoenix Wright is light on the interaction, but it’s the best thing to happen to the adventure genre in years and one of the best series on DS. Hotel Dusk…hhhh. Wanted to like it. But too much of the game relies on triggering events by going into places/examining things. Not “oh, I need to talk to the hotel manager so I will go to his office” type triggering, either (though there’s a bit of that), but “oh, my fifteenth time through this hall so far this game will now result in some kid playing there because I did something else completely unrelated”. Combine that with a pretty wide open map in which about 10% is actually significant at once, and no reminder of what your goal is, and you can save, and then come back the next day to wander around lost because you have no idea what you needed to be doing. Not that you necessarily knew in the first place.
Puzzle Quest is a universal favorite. Granted, you’ll max out on it after about 50 hours, but those 50 hours will be thoroughly enjoyable.
The Phoenix Wright games aren’t as bad as the haters would have you believe. It really comes down to whether or not you like adventure games.
New Super Mario Bros. would be fine except for the horribly flawed save-point system.
I have mixed feelings about Professor Layton and the Curious Village. That is, I enjoyed the game, but it has no replay value and the pixel-hunt part of the game drove me crazy.
Say if one were to be living in the middle of the African savannah for a solid month. What would one do to keep his DS alive for a long period of time without having any source of reliable power…
Hypothetically.
Don’t forget Kirby: Canvas Curse. It a very old DS game - back when they were all supposed to be about drawing or something - but still awesome. Genuinely new gameplay for a platformer.
The World Ends With You is the new DS hawt sauce. This year has been fantastic for DS games: Prof. Layton, Advance Wars, Shiren, and TWEWY are all great.
Mystery Dungeon: Shiren is definitely worth it, and I’ve been having a great time with TWEWY.
Mario Kart DS
New SMB
Puzzle Quest
And either of the Castlevania’s are good picks.