Got to see/try out some upcoming DS releases at PAX...

[Vexorg]

Today I was able to attend PAX (Penny Arcade Expo,) and Nintendo had a very impressive showing there (Absolutely nothing in the exhibit area gave any indication that the next-gen consoles even existed. SCEA and MS also had booths, but both were rather pathetic, with SCEA showing off a couple of who-cares PS2 releases and not even an acknowledgement of the PSP's existence, and MS had little more than a token presence, they seemed more concerned with pushing OneNote than any Xbox stuff. This doesn't surprise me much since everything MS is doing at this point is going to the 360 anyway.) Among other things including a playable Zelda Twilight Princess demo, they had a whole bunch of upcoming DS releases available for play. I only got to play a couple of them, but here are some impressions of what I saw. Keep in mind this is all pre-release stuff, YMMV:

Mario Kart DS: This one looks susprisingly good, and runs very smooth. I didn't pay much attention to gameplay, but if you've played a Mario Kart game before, you've pretty much got it.

Sonic rush: This one also looked rather nice and ran quite smoothly, but the gameplay and level design seemed to be suspiciously reminiscient of the previous Sonic Advance games (which people at the booth were complaining about.) The boss fights looked interesting though. I'd say wait for reviews on this one.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow: This one I didn't get a chance to play. You can pretty much see what I saw of it on the videos at ds.ign.com. It had some nice effects to it though, and as a fan of Aria of Sorrow, this one remains high on my list.

Viewtiful Joe DS: I didn't really get a very good look at this one, but it seemed a bit blocky and seemed to be running slow (of course, I was seeing this on big LCD screens, it probably looks better scaled down to the DS screen. Without getting to play it, I also couldn't get a good impression of how it plays.

Metroid Prime Pinball: I can't imagine this is high on anyone's list here, but it seemed to be a reasonably solid pinball game, although it was a little gimmicky

Unfortunately, New Super Mario Bros didn't make an appearance there that I saw, but there was one out-of-order DS demo station, so it might have been there and I wasn't around to see it. Unfortunately, I only had a couple hours to spend there due to other obligations, but overall, there seems to be some good stuff coming for the DS in the near future...

I also got a chance to try out a GBA micro for a couple of minutes. In spite of the size, it is actually quite manageable, and has a very nice screen (which actually wasn't a whole lot smaller than a GBA game displayed on a DS screen, and seemed to be a little bit brighter.) Also at the show was a vintage Stern Super Cobra arcade game for some serious old-school shmupping action.

[StealthNinjaScyther]

Makes me wish I had a DS. Yeah, I was there too.

I haven't played any of the Sonic Advance titles, but I found Sonic DS to be quite enjoyable. I especially liked how it made use of both screens to show off gameplay. Worked surprisingly well.

Didn't play Mariokart too long, but it was fun while I did play.

Metroid Prime: Hunters had an exclusive PAX demo. Seems to play just like the first demo did, but it's a little more expansive. I liked the FMV it showed off.

The micro really is something to see. I'd take it over an SP any day. Once the price goes down. Nah, I'll probably just get a DS, but I'll admit that the micro is more tempting than it has any right to be.