Pimp me DS games!

[Rich Stokes]

I'm finally sick of Advande Wars DS.

I want strategy/tactical games or anything that's totally bugfuck and unique to the DS. The weirder the better.

Also, anything that my girlfrind can play. She likes Loco Roco and Katamari Damarcy, so like I say, bugfuck is good.

[Achilles]

I'm just playing Battles of Prince of Persia. The Card / Strategy mix works very very well.

[Heortling]

Get an import copy of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan.

It may sound simple but trust me, it is the best game around for the DS.

[Rich Stokes]

Get an import copy of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan.

It may sound simple but trust me, it is the best game around for the DS.

That sounds suitably bugfuck. Sign me up!

[Rich Stokes]

Get an import copy of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan.

It may sound simple but trust me, it is the best game around for the DS.

Actually, how easy to play is that if you don't speak Japanese? The screenshots are covered in characters I don't understand! Are they just flavour cutscenes, or do they relate to the actual gameplay?

[YerMum]

My gf is addicted to Animal Crossing Wild World, it's not too insane, but it is a great toy :D

[Breogan]

I dont have a DS, but given the current X-Com craze that I support 100% I would buy one just to play the GBA "RebelStar Tactical Command"

[YerMum]

I dont have a DS, but given the current X-Com craze that I support 100% I would buy one just to play the GBA "RebelStar Tactical Command"
Which if I remember rightly is released over here in a couple of days...

:D :D :D

[lordcomte]

Actually, how easy to play is that if you don't speak Japanese? The screenshots are covered in characters I don't understand! Are they just flavour cutscenes, or do they relate to the actual gameplay?

Really easy, it is still just a game after all. I was able to use a little common sense and navigate the menus quickly and easily. Top option brings you to the game, little dancing people on the map is where you go, et cetera. I've had a couple of first time gamers pick it up and they figgured it out quickly.

[Rich Stokes]

My gf is addicted to Animal Crossing Wild World, it's not too insane, but it is a great toy :D

I lost a goodly portion of my life to Animal Crossing on the Game Cube. My ex got really competitative about it and I lost all my animals, so every day I'd go and dig up all the neat stuff in her village. Then I'd post rude notes on the notice board in her town so she'd see them. Plus I used to write "Nom Sux!" on Blanka's face whenever I met him on the train.

We split up not long after that...

[Rich Stokes]

Really easy, it is still just a game after all. I was able to use a little common sense and navigate the menus quickly and easily. Top option brings you to the game, little dancing people on the map is where you go, et cetera. I've had a couple of first time gamers pick it up and they figgured it out quickly.

Not like that stupid Ah, My Goddess game on the dreamcast then (which turned out to be a trivia game, in japanese. D'oh!)

[Rich Stokes]

What's that weird surgeon game like? is it any good?

[YerMum]

I lost a goodly portion of my life to Animal Crossing on the Game Cube. My ex got really competitative about it and I lost all my animals, so every day I'd go and dig up all the neat stuff in her village. Then I'd post rude notes on the notice board in her town so she'd see them. Plus I used to write "Nom Sux!" on Blanka's face whenever I met him on the train.

We split up not long after that...
Heh, currently we're both in the same village, and she seems to end up doing most of the fruit picking for me :D
That might change if she gets a second copy now I've bought a Lite, but we'll see

[sicnaxyz]

What's that weird surgeon game like? is it any good?

Trauma Center?

It's pretty good. I haven't finished it because it's hard (and I suck) but I really liked it. I recommend it.

[Vigorous Ape]

Trauma Centre is great. It really utilises the touch screen.

You cut people open, pull out their insides and then sew them up again. What's not to like?

[SpoDaddy]

Age of Empires DS is a fantastic strat rpg; I actually like it even more than Advance Wars DS.

Elektroplankton is a fun little toy style game; you basically make your own music with all sorts of wacky interfaces.

Warioware Touched is an incredibly wacky and unique game that is true to the series.

Super Princess Peach is a fun platformer that is very female friendly.

Pokemon Trozei is fun, Meteos is a really unique and exciting puzzle game, Tetris DS is a great Nintendo themed game of Tetris with full online play.

New Super Mario Bros is fantastic, Metroid Prime Hunters is one of the best FPS' I've ever played (and it's on a handheld no less).

Point Blank DS is a wacky light gun port that is actually pretty fun with the stylus, Animal Crossing is fun, Tony Hawk American Skateland evokes memories of Jet Grind Radio and is a blast to play (plus it's got great wifi support).

Nintendogs is a must-own for dog lovers, Kirby Canvas Curse is a unique and brilliant "platformer", Brain Age is a fun and wacky mental exercise, Lost in Blue is a fun little stranded on a desert island game that every Lost fan should grab.

Mario Kart DS is a no brainer (best kart game ever), Sonic Rush is the best Sonic game since the Genesis days, Viewtiful Joe DS is a really fun old school beat em' up puzzler.

Trauma Center is great, Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow is the best Castlevania game ever (narrowly beats Symphony of the Night and Bloodlines), Metroid Prime Pinball is a great pick up and play game and a great translation of the Cube games to the pinball format.

I might be forgetting some good stuff but that's a good start.

[Rich Stokes]

Trauma Centre is great. It really utilises the touch screen.

You cut people open, pull out their insides and then sew them up again. What's not to like?

Best advert for a game I've ever heared!

SOLD!

Pretty exhaustive list there Spo', I'll check out what I can.

What's the controlls like on Metroid? I thought the other games I'd played on the DS that tried to use the touchscreen as an analogue controller were pants. I mean, mario 64 DS was shockingly bad to the point of being essentially unplayable. But I hear good things about Metroid.

[b4d0m3n]

Get an import copy of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan.

It may sound simple but trust me, it is the best game around for the DS.

I just got this today. I will triple recommend this. :) Very awesome. Very hard.

[SpoDaddy]

What's the controlls like on Metroid? I thought the other games I'd played on the DS that tried to use the touchscreen as an analogue controller were pants. I mean, mario 64 DS was shockingly bad to the point of being essentially unplayable. But I hear good things about Metroid.

Yeah, Mario 64 sucked with the thumbpad, the only way to play that is with the dpad (or even better on a Nintendo 64, although I admit it's really cool to have it portable). Metroid is great because it uses the dpad for forward/backward/strafing movement and you use the stylus as mouselook; it's the most precise and fun control for a FPS that I've ever seen. It takes the keyboard+mouse controls from PC FPS games and makes them easier to use, even more accurate, and much more fun. There's a short adjustment period, as with all new control layouts, but soon you'll be whipping the stylus around blasting everything in sight with pinpoint accuracy.

[magustrate]

Age of Empires DS is a fantastic strat rpg; I actually like it even more than Advance Wars DS.


I'm going to have to disagree about Age of Empires. The game is buggy, slow and the computer takes FOREVER to make decisions sometimes. I really wanted to like it, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I love strategy games too. Especially turn based ones like this.

Big Brain Academy hasn't been mentioned yet. That's a really fun little mental puzzle game that I found quite enjoyable. Matching, memory, analyzing and other little games intended to make you think. There are 15 of them. It's only $20 new and great fun!

Other than that, I'm still looking for cool new DS games too... I have great hopes for Yoshi's Island DS and Elite Beat Agents.

[Trombone4Hire]

I can vouch that Trauma Center, Wario Ware Touched, Kirby's Canvas Curse, Age of Empires, Animal Crossing, Big Brain Academy, Mario Kart, and Phoenix Wright are great. A note on Age of Empires: save after every turn. It's fast, easy, and will keep you from tearing your hair out should your game freeze. Here are some fun games I didn't see mentioned:

Cooking Mama. You go through a series of minigames to create meals of various complexity. It's cheap, and a fun time-waster. It's not Wario Ware, but it's close enough for the money.

Metroid Prime Pinball. I grew to love pinball after working at a pizza place for a year and a half. If you like pinball and dig Metroid, you will lose years of your life 10 minutes at a time.

Elite Beat Agents. It's the sequel to that game with the Japanese title with exclamation points after each word, now in English and shipped to your home country for your convenience.

[Calliope]

Osu! Tatatake! Ouendan is pretty much distilled awesome. Actually, I really like the American version which has also been mentioned, "Elite Beat Agents". Some people don't like the musical choices, but I find -most- of them to be pretty passable, and the ability to read the (re-written) scenarios and whatnot is worth the price of admission.

Phoenix Wright- Oh holy hell, this game is fantastically addictive and I don't even know why. At its core, most of the game is similar in interface and structure to a Japanese dating sim.

Let me repeat that: A Japanese dating sim

...and yet, the whole lawyer thing, the investigation, the characters, yelling "objection!" and "take that!" every five seconds in a court of law...I actually had to go and shell out an extra $10 for the import version of the sequel, because I could not wait for the American version.


Brain Age is also pretty solid, and it's also fairly cheap, if I remember (even by DS standards).

Trauma Center is very good, but be warned, a few parts of it are -punishingly hard-. If I never see another Tertari virus in my life (even on the Wii version, which I have yet to play), it'll be too soon.

New Super Mario Brothers is pretty much a can't-miss, also.

If you want an -extremely- quirky game (albeit occasionally flawed), look at "Lost in Blue". You play a guy who's stranded on a desert island with some girl, and you have to carry out day to day activities like food gathering, making tools, etc., all while gradually trying to get yourself rescued.

...I just noticed that none of those are really "strategy" games, as such, but they're all pretty good examples of the weird, offbeat stuff the DS lends itself to (with the exception of New Super Mario Brothers, which is so compelling precisely BECAUSE it's so conventional).