I've been pretty much convinced that for quick blasts while shopping and the occasional long game while visiting relatives, that I'd be best off buying a DS over a PSP.
So, can anyone provide me with a few mini-reviews, because I've no idea what's good. I nearly bought one today but they only had pink ones left. With it I eventually decided on Mario Kart because it was ace on the Super Nintendo, but I was considering some Pokemon game and the brain-test thingies. Oh and Mrs Pants might like the Dogs one. And that hotel one looks quite good.
Anyone?
DS reviews
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FatherJack
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Mario Kart came with mine, and it's an okay title, plenty power-ups and game modes keep it reasonably interesting. I think it's probably been superceeded by the Diddy Kong Racing release, but I haven't tried that one.
As far as Pokémon goes, we've yet to see a "proper" release, and won't until Diamond and Pearl are released in late June. The Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team game failed rather to grab me, the Ranger one looks needlessly gimmicky, Dash is a racing game and Link is a Tetris-like game.
Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon (from what I've seen of it) play exactly like their big brother versions on GameCube, the stylus control really enhances them both, and suprisingly the smaller screens actually feel better than playing on a TV - where they always seemed a bit zoomed-in.
Brian Training isn't my thing, nor are yappy virtual pets - but they've both been constantly-popular titles since launch.
Lunar Genesis is a revival of a MegaCD series which while being a decent RPG doesn't live up to the brilliance of the original.
Wario Ware is a collection of incredibly silly mini games, all using the stylus to draw, cut, move, scribble on and pop things. Very fast paced and a lot of fun to pass around.
My next buys are likely to be Advance Wars (strategy), Children of Mana, Magical Starsign and Spectrobes (all RPGs). The port of Final Fantasy III looks tempting, but I have played an emulated version before. I'm really waiting for Pokémon and Zelda, though.
As far as Pokémon goes, we've yet to see a "proper" release, and won't until Diamond and Pearl are released in late June. The Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team game failed rather to grab me, the Ranger one looks needlessly gimmicky, Dash is a racing game and Link is a Tetris-like game.
Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon (from what I've seen of it) play exactly like their big brother versions on GameCube, the stylus control really enhances them both, and suprisingly the smaller screens actually feel better than playing on a TV - where they always seemed a bit zoomed-in.
Brian Training isn't my thing, nor are yappy virtual pets - but they've both been constantly-popular titles since launch.
Lunar Genesis is a revival of a MegaCD series which while being a decent RPG doesn't live up to the brilliance of the original.
Wario Ware is a collection of incredibly silly mini games, all using the stylus to draw, cut, move, scribble on and pop things. Very fast paced and a lot of fun to pass around.
My next buys are likely to be Advance Wars (strategy), Children of Mana, Magical Starsign and Spectrobes (all RPGs). The port of Final Fantasy III looks tempting, but I have played an emulated version before. I'm really waiting for Pokémon and Zelda, though.
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FatherJack
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I actually ended up grabbing Theme Park today - plays just like the old DOS PC game, but it's a fuck of a lot easier to draw paths.
Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon are sometimes scoffed at by gamers, as they appear quite childish, but they are simple, innocent fun in my view.
In AC you wander around a town of anthropomorphic cartoon people, helping them out, sending messages, catching bugs, fishing and digging for fossils with the goal of gaining items/money to decorate/upgrade you little house. Different things happen depending on the days/season but that's pretty much it. It can be repetitive, but largerly you can do what you want each day.
In HM it's quite a similar scenario, as some things are dependant on the time of day, or the season - but the main idea is that you're left in charge of a farm. So you plant rows of crops, and get chickens, cows etc - then later on harvest the rewards and sell them. It's probably more repetitive than AC, as there are certain tasks - like watering and milking - that need to be performed regularly. Not sure if it's in the DS version, but the GC had additional mini-quests given to you, including finding someone to marry.
Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon are sometimes scoffed at by gamers, as they appear quite childish, but they are simple, innocent fun in my view.
In AC you wander around a town of anthropomorphic cartoon people, helping them out, sending messages, catching bugs, fishing and digging for fossils with the goal of gaining items/money to decorate/upgrade you little house. Different things happen depending on the days/season but that's pretty much it. It can be repetitive, but largerly you can do what you want each day.
In HM it's quite a similar scenario, as some things are dependant on the time of day, or the season - but the main idea is that you're left in charge of a farm. So you plant rows of crops, and get chickens, cows etc - then later on harvest the rewards and sell them. It's probably more repetitive than AC, as there are certain tasks - like watering and milking - that need to be performed regularly. Not sure if it's in the DS version, but the GC had additional mini-quests given to you, including finding someone to marry.
Hmmm. Sound a bit Sims-y. I reckon Mrs Pants would go for them, so I might get one for her at some point and give it a go.
I'm definitely going for Advance Wars, and I want a second game that I can play for a quick blast. I'll get more in-depth ones a bit later. I think Mario Kart DS is only a tenner on Amazon too.
I'm definitely going for Advance Wars, and I want a second game that I can play for a quick blast. I'll get more in-depth ones a bit later. I think Mario Kart DS is only a tenner on Amazon too.
FatherJack wrote:Mario Kart came with mine, and it's an okay title, plenty power-ups and game modes keep it reasonably interesting. I think it's probably been superceeded by the Diddy Kong Racing release, but I haven't tried that one.
As far as Pokémon goes, we've yet to see a "proper" release, and won't until Diamond and Pearl are released in late June. The Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team game failed rather to grab me, the Ranger one looks needlessly gimmicky, Dash is a racing game and Link is a Tetris-like game.
Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon (from what I've seen of it) play exactly like their big brother versions on GameCube, the stylus control really enhances them both, and suprisingly the smaller screens actually feel better than playing on a TV - where they always seemed a bit zoomed-in.
Brian Training isn't my thing, nor are yappy virtual pets - but they've both been constantly-popular titles since launch.
Lunar Genesis is a revival of a MegaCD series which while being a decent RPG doesn't live up to the brilliance of the original.
Wario Ware is a collection of incredibly silly mini games, all using the stylus to draw, cut, move, scribble on and pop things. Very fast paced and a lot of fun to pass around.
My next buys are likely to be Advance Wars (strategy), Children of Mana, Magical Starsign and Spectrobes (all RPGs). The port of Final Fantasy III looks tempting, but I have played an emulated version before. I'm really waiting for Pokémon and Zelda, though.
I'm 100% in agreement with all of this. I did notice that no one has mentioned New Super Mario Brothers. Absolute classic Mario, 'nuff said. Although it doesn't quite have the same feel to it as Super Mario World, it's still pretty special.
Also due out around Christmas/Thanksgiving/whatever is The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. It's slated as the sequel to Wind Waker on the GC and has continued the cel-shaded look that the GC pioneered.
I'm glad there are others into the Pokemon games here, I thought it was just me. The last one I played was Pokemon Blue on the Original GB many years ago.
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FatherJack
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Well, since having been stuck with just DS games for most of this week (I took the Wii, but The Apprentice and endless Casualty spin-offs won the popularity contest) here's a bit more about the six titles I own and have now pretty much played to death.
Animal Crossing: Wide World [img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img]
As I said above, pretty much a clone of the GC game. You walk around the little town, grabbing shells and selling them until you can buy a fishing rod, net or spade. Bit repetitive in a single sitting, you get more out of it by re-visiting on different days and seeing the events and other character's responses to you, or if you have a friend to play with and visit/trash each others towns. I hadn't visited my town for about a year and it had turned into a right shithole. Cleaning up around 500 weeds would be a practical exercise in how tedium saps a person's will. It's an oddly arrogant game, in that it expects you to play it frequently or things go awry, yet perversely only rewards you for playing in brief sessions.
Lunar Genesis [img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img]
Standard turn-based combat RPG, with much of the filling missing. You fast-travel between locations, there are minimal exploration opportunities inside buildings, connected by your basic "only one path" wilderness treks with roaming monsters triggering battles. So basically, just turn-based battles - these though, are let down by the ineffectiveness of the affordable healing items - even at the very start of the game, they heal less than a third of your weakest character's HP, which each monster will take away in a single swipe. Uses the mic to initiate an escape attempt at the start of battles, but it seems a little thrown-in.
Mario Kart DS [img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img]
The only one I've played all week. Some of the mini-modes are a little annoying (blowing up balloons with the mic), but the standard races are a tried and tested winning formula. Usual sets of powerups, lots of tracks including not a few classic ones from the SNES, GBA, N64 and GC. Unlockable stuff like cars, characters, tracks and competitions keep you coming back.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team [img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img]
Should have known better with this one. Precisely zero Pokémon spin-offs eschewing the standard battle formula have been good games. This is no exception. Should you care, you're a Pokémon yourself, type determined by a personality test (which I did at least 50 times and still couldn't get the one I wanted) and you descend a series of top-down-drawn dungeons mashing A to attack. While the Pokémon moves are nominally there, it's actually a Pokébastardised version of Fatal Labyrinth, from the Megadrive - itself a remake of Dragon Crystal on the Master System - which any Unix gamers would recognise as blatently Rogue.
Theme Park [img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img]
Saying it's like the DOS game but easier to draw paths as I did above, while true, doesn't tell the whole story. Because the DOS game had flaws. It was clumsy to operate, and gave minimal feedback on how to correctly place attractions and why guests were being spazzers. These flaws have been faithfully translated to this game. It's still a good game, it's just disappointing that what annoyed me in 1994 still hasn't been fixed. With a money cheat, this could provide some good monster-ride-building fun, but the base game where you're struggling to make a profit was always a bit of a grind.
WarioWare: Touched [img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img]
Continues to entertain, but gets a little bit "harder" each time someone completes a level. Since it only saves one "profile", it's not always clear what you personally have unlocked if it's been passed around a lot. As it progresses there are more frequent "what the fuck do I do here?" moments, but the penny usually drops on the second play. It's frustrating at times, which limits continuous play sharply, but it certainly does its job at keeping the pressure on you.
Animal Crossing: Wide World [img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img]
As I said above, pretty much a clone of the GC game. You walk around the little town, grabbing shells and selling them until you can buy a fishing rod, net or spade. Bit repetitive in a single sitting, you get more out of it by re-visiting on different days and seeing the events and other character's responses to you, or if you have a friend to play with and visit/trash each others towns. I hadn't visited my town for about a year and it had turned into a right shithole. Cleaning up around 500 weeds would be a practical exercise in how tedium saps a person's will. It's an oddly arrogant game, in that it expects you to play it frequently or things go awry, yet perversely only rewards you for playing in brief sessions.
Lunar Genesis [img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img]
Standard turn-based combat RPG, with much of the filling missing. You fast-travel between locations, there are minimal exploration opportunities inside buildings, connected by your basic "only one path" wilderness treks with roaming monsters triggering battles. So basically, just turn-based battles - these though, are let down by the ineffectiveness of the affordable healing items - even at the very start of the game, they heal less than a third of your weakest character's HP, which each monster will take away in a single swipe. Uses the mic to initiate an escape attempt at the start of battles, but it seems a little thrown-in.
Mario Kart DS [img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img]
The only one I've played all week. Some of the mini-modes are a little annoying (blowing up balloons with the mic), but the standard races are a tried and tested winning formula. Usual sets of powerups, lots of tracks including not a few classic ones from the SNES, GBA, N64 and GC. Unlockable stuff like cars, characters, tracks and competitions keep you coming back.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team [img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img]
Should have known better with this one. Precisely zero Pokémon spin-offs eschewing the standard battle formula have been good games. This is no exception. Should you care, you're a Pokémon yourself, type determined by a personality test (which I did at least 50 times and still couldn't get the one I wanted) and you descend a series of top-down-drawn dungeons mashing A to attack. While the Pokémon moves are nominally there, it's actually a Pokébastardised version of Fatal Labyrinth, from the Megadrive - itself a remake of Dragon Crystal on the Master System - which any Unix gamers would recognise as blatently Rogue.
Theme Park [img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img]
Saying it's like the DOS game but easier to draw paths as I did above, while true, doesn't tell the whole story. Because the DOS game had flaws. It was clumsy to operate, and gave minimal feedback on how to correctly place attractions and why guests were being spazzers. These flaws have been faithfully translated to this game. It's still a good game, it's just disappointing that what annoyed me in 1994 still hasn't been fixed. With a money cheat, this could provide some good monster-ride-building fun, but the base game where you're struggling to make a profit was always a bit of a grind.
WarioWare: Touched [img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_full.gif[/img][img size=12]http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/images/smiles/star_empty.gif[/img]
Continues to entertain, but gets a little bit "harder" each time someone completes a level. Since it only saves one "profile", it's not always clear what you personally have unlocked if it's been passed around a lot. As it progresses there are more frequent "what the fuck do I do here?" moments, but the penny usually drops on the second play. It's frustrating at times, which limits continuous play sharply, but it certainly does its job at keeping the pressure on you.