Despite all the abuse I’ve heaped on this system, I went ahead and picked one up today. Mainly because the PSP still doesn’t have a single game I want to play, and I’m not about to spend over three hundred bucks on a handheld system.
All in all, it’s a fun little toy, I guess. It’s clunky and awkward as hell, of course, but these things aren’t meant to be played for more than an hour or two at a time anyway. Picked up Meteos (surprisingly fun, although I’m fucking abysmal at it) and Mario 64 DS, which seems like it will be fun once I figure out the awful controls. The system hasn’t really wowed me yet, but since I only paid twenty bucks for it (thanks, trade-in credit!) I don’t feel gypped in the slightest.
So aside from those games, what else is decent for the system. And don’t say Nintendogs, you wiseasses; I’m not a six-year-old girl. I’ve heard the Kirby and Yoshi games are both decent platformers, and that Advance Wars is cool if you can get past the steep learning curve. Anything else I should look out for?
I can’t put down ADVANCE WARS. The learning curve is mitigated by a really nicely written campaign, which introduces you to all the elements of the game at a good pace. There’s a lot more content than in the past two releases, and I just love the simplicity/complexity of the combat. Great game, and a strong contender for the best portable game this year. (Though HOT SHOTS PSP is a close second.)
KIRBY is also good, though it’s pretty thin overall. It’s a great way to kill a half hour, though. The later levels make you work pretty hard to get everything, which I appreciate.
And when ELECTROPLANKTON finally makes it here I’ll have to carry a box of tissues everywhere, since I’ll be creaming every time I turn it on.
What Russ said. Kirby is actually a grand little platformer, and Advance Wars: Dual Strike is a very satisfying strategy game. Both use the advantages of the DS without being gimmicky. Kirby would be completely impossible to pull off on any other console, and difficult to reproduce even on a PC-with-mouse port. Advance Wars, like all good console strategy games, has a lot of miscellaneous data (unit stats, terrain stats, money, etc) that would normally be stuffed away on menu screens. Here it’s put on the top screen, visible at a glance, and that makes all the info the game gives you much easier to manage.
Another suggestion: Did you enjoy the original WarioWare? If you did I recommend picking up WarioWare: Twisted (for the GBA, not WarioWare: Touched for the DS). It’s very well done, probably the best WarioWare released so far. The game pak contains a motion sensor that senses small rotations clockwise or counterclockwise, and you play the game by just turning the console… you rarely need to press any buttons at all. Believe it or not, 95% of the time the control feels rock-solid. I wouldn’t recommend playing this on the bus, though… Some versions of the GBA are easier to spin around than others:
Best: Original GBA, though you have to contend with the unlit screen.
Good: Nintendo DS, with the game displayed on the bottom screen. It’s a little unwieldy spinning around DS considering the top of the clamshell gets in your way when you have to turn more than 90 degrees. It’s still very workable. This is how I played the game.
Worst: GBA SP. It has a clamshell design, which is hard to turn. Worse, the action is displayed on the TOP of the clamshell, and you hold the system by the BOTTOM, meaning it’s hard to keep your eyes on the action when you make big turns.
Other big games coming up- The new 2D Mario platformer, and Metroid Prime: Hunters. Metroid will feature full wireless internet multiplayer.
Originally Posted by Dan Whitehead And so very butch.
Hey, that’s a rainbow of HATE that Kirby is rolling on. You don’t get more hardcore than that.
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll give Advance Wars a shot. I was worried it’s the type of game where you need a human opponent to really open up the strategy, but it sounds like the CPU is decently challenging in the single-player mode…?
Goemon (Mystical Ninja) is awesome as well but it’s quite heavy on Japanese text. Here’s hoping Konami will bring a translated version to the West.
Other cool games: Polarium, while looking shit, is a great puzzle game. Kirby is a must if you like platformers and it’d be wise to pick up Castlevania when it comes out. The same goes for (online) Mario Kart. Gaming doesn’t get much better than that.
I got a DS partly for the same reason. As cool as the PSP looks, the games library is nothing but rehashes of games that are already out there. The other reason was that the DS is legitimately different from anything else. Sure, the PSP has a bigger screen and better graphics; so does my PC. Whoop de doo.
I’m probably going to be the sole defender of Nintendogs here. My wife bought a DS just to play this, and I have to say, it’s actually pretty intriguing to have a game character that actually learns. It’s no Black & White, but it’s still interesting. And yeah, I do find it odd that somebody would dismiss Nintendogs as being for six-year-olds, but be excited about Kirby.
You’ll probably think this is a gay choice as well, but if you like Warioware at all, check out Feel the Magic. It’s the same sort of minigame approach.
I picked up Advance Wars DS, but I haven’t played it yet. But since I was completely sucked into it on the GBA, I don’t expect this to be any different. I’m pretty excited about the turn-based Age of Empires coming to the DS next year. It seems like if you want turn-based strategy, you have to get a handheld these days.
Concerning Advance Wars difficulty: I’m about half way through Dual Strike and the difficulty is about right. Hard enough to make you carefully plan your strategy, not so hard that it becomes frustrating. That’s a big change from the previous game (Advance Wars 2). That game will KICK YOUR ASS and make you cry like a little six year old girl.
Advance Wars DS also has multi-gamepak multiplayer AND single-gamepak multiplayer. So you can hook up with any of the dozens of people you know with a Nintendo DS.
Originally Posted by Nigel St. Buggering And yeah, I do find it odd that somebody would dismiss Nintendogs as being for six-year-olds, but be excited about Kirby
Actually, I mainly just enjoy stirring up the Nintendo faithful. Plus, my dislike of Nintendogs has nothing to do with its cuteness and everything to do with the fact that it’s NOT A GAME. It’s a Furby. You pet it and it makes noises and cute stuff happens, but there’s no point, no purpose, and nothing even remotely resembling a challenge. Kirby may be colorful and silly, but at least there’s a *point.*
I wasn’t blown away by the Gamecube WarioWare, honestly, so I’ll probably skip the latest versions. It’s kind of fun, sure, but there’s nothing there to justify my forty bucks.
Just to bring the DS back into the mix I figured I’d mention that:
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is due out this week. Aria of Sorrow for the GBA was a blast and this is a direct sequel. Should be good. 2D Castlevania rarely goes wrong.
Lunar: Dragon Song is out as well. The DS gets its first traditional style RPG with this one. The Lunar series is a classic and while they may have bungled this one a bit it should still be worth checking out I suppose. Not up to series standards, but not completely horrible.
Also due out this week is Trauma Center, a wacky surgery game that makes good use of the stylus. From what I hear it’s supposed to be pretty good and has some replay value to boot. It’s nice to get some unique stuff like this and that Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on the way.
Lost in Blue and Trace Memory are also out so the DS is shaping up to have a pretty decent and varied little library and there’s more good stuff to come before the end of the year.
I might try and pick up Castlevania this week. It’s one of those games I’ve been waiting for.
Trauma Center gets released this week and that looks interesting. It’s basically an handheld version of the Operation game. You play a surgeon and use the stylus to do different medical procedures. The video demo I saw of it was pretty neat. I’ll probably pick it up this weekend and give it a try.
Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, 9.3 on IGN. Haven’t read it yet, but that number works for me.
And I read in a preview somewhere (maybe on IGN… or Gamespot) about Metroid. The Prime Hunters game was definitely delayed into Next year but the Wi-Fi stuff is being added so that’s ok I guess. They’re also working on the Metroid Pinball game that looks pretty ok too. AND the coolest thing is that whatever I read (wish I could find it) mentioned a 2D Metroid game being worked on for the DS as well. They even had a subheading for it, but my brain sucks and I can’t remember what it was… It sounded cool and had a dark kind of menacing vibe to it.