Nintendo DS - Greatest portable gaming system ever?

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 2:23 am

professor ganson wrote: As far as handheld line-ups go, I'd have to say the GB is my favorite, but I've never owned an original GB. Does anyone still use those clunkers to play GB cartridges? Is there any advantage to doing so?

There is no advantage at all to using the original GB to play GB b/w games, unless you like blur. Actually, the screeen is bigger, but the blur and inferior screen pretty much cancel that advantage out.

Neo Rasa · Post by **Neo Rasa** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 2:26 am

Brian I think you misunderstood me, I'm not trying to say the NGPC is the best handheld ever, just that it has a very accessable core library of high quality games and that it's a great handheld.

What did you find wrong with the GB version of Samurai Shodown? It has all of the moves, great control, all of the characters, and even some elements missing from other versions like the items that appear on the ground. Also, I found KoF '95 to be weaker than the Samurai Shodown port and KoF '96 GB to be superior to KoF '95. Real Bout, KoF '95, and Kof '96 are also missing characters. That said, I still plan to pick them up and the NGPC.

Personally I think KoF'96 is the best of the GB SNK ports overall, that was a dumb typo on my part where I said '95 instead. I loved how KoF'96 made up for its deficiencies by putting Orochi Leona/Iori in and adding in tons of extra endings and final battle content. Definitely an above average effort.

Sonic Rush is soooo good. I can't believe Sega (and/or Dimps) actually pulled it off and made Sonic awesome again.

I'm so impressed with how well Rush recreates the feel of the Genesis Sonics in that you have so many different paths you can speed through that still take some skill. I loathed how in Sonic Heroes instead of "levels" you had long rails with exactly ONE way to get through each level and any deviation from that resulted in instant death.

Also, DS owners, it doesn't have too much "replay value" but make sure you all buy Trauma Center ASAP. Touch screen surgery with General Hospital-caliber people yelling at each other about medical responsibility inbetween, it's glorious.

Nintendo hasn't really started hyping "New Super Mario Bros." yet but that game is going to be insanely popular in Japan. I don't think people realize that in Japan that game is literally Super Mario Bros. 5.

The only thing the DS is missing is more Atlus involvement. They brought the awesome Trauma Center to the table as well as that Puyo game (which has single cartridge multiplayer for up to eight people!) but they should get some Megami Tensei stuff on there ASAP.

Also SNK needs to get on the ball and dump all their '79 through '88 games on a single DS cartridge and sell it. Then after it's a huge hit they can bring out the big guns and do their '89 to '90 games. After that it's Neo Geo port compilation time for the 360 with Live play.

I can dream.

jp · Post by jp » Wed Nov 30, 2005 4:04 pm

Neon wrote:.

Better than Saturn? Fuck no.

You are correct. The Hitachi Navi GPS HiSaturn is, technically, a portable system. It wins... on the grounds of being SEXY!

Or as the Hammer Bros. would say: "IT IS TEH HOTNESS! AND PWNS TEH DS WITH TEH HOTNESS!"

I love that part of the game.

But back to the DS:
Obviously, it competing with the GB/GBA right now can't really happen game wise. I was just looking at the bigger picture: Wifi, touch screen, dual screens. Just really damn good stuff that makes portable gaming THAT much better. So much so, that I pray Nintendo makes a DS2 when they're moving on. I really don't want a portable system sans dual screens one of which has touch functionality.

Games wise, I think in about a year or two the DS library itself will make up for the lack of GB games and put it slightly above the GBA. I mean, Mario Kart DS IS the best Mario Kart ever. Sonic Rush is definitely up there as one of the best Sonic games ever. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is, IMO, THE best Metroidvania ever (can't be dissin' the PC-Engine game or III though,

). I hear the rhythm games are damn good too, so I may have to buy those as well. Jump Superstars looks damn good, so there's another import for me.

Pinball games are about to be pouring out the ass on the system. Soon we'll have Pac-Man Pinball and 2 or 3 other games. Though none will ever defeat Necronomicon. *drools*

I wish people would do more with the shmups. Nanostray is damn cool, and I love it, but like sethsez said, it is flawed. More horis would be great for the system though. Especially if some of them utilized it much like Sonic Rush did.

Platformers wise the DS is already gearing up to kick ass. New Super Mario Bros., Super Princess Peach, and Success' game that I never played or read up on. Of course, Sonic Rush is already an amazing platformer on its own.

The RPG front is already looking impressive as hell too! Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time is HILARIOUS! The gameplay is spot on. Its BEAUTIFUL! And all around a damn good experience. I'm having a hard time putting it down. And soon we'll have a remake of Final Fantasy III on there. Not to mention World of Mana (which looks f'ing awesome) and Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles (which I think could be better on the DS, for some reason).

And the DS is already king of mini-game type deals. Feel the Magic, Wario Ware Touched!, and Yoshi's Touch N Go are great games.

Adventure games? Trace Memory, Phoenix Wright, Lost in Blue. All highly creative and quite nice (from what I hear, I've only played Lost in Blue).

So yes, in a year, DS = must own for any fan of gaming. Shit, its a must own now. Too many AAA titles coming out now.

PS- Sega, if you are reading this for some reason, ALIEN FRONT ONLINE NEEDS TO BE ON THE DS! Not the f'ing NGage. The DS! With a mic! And dual screens! It would be SPLIFFTACULONDEROUS!!!!!!

Edit:
Saturn rants are out. DS rants are in. HUZZAH!

cigsthecat · Post by **cigsthecat** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 4:29 pm

I really didn't want to buy any more portables, but Princess Peach and the new Mario are going to make me buy one I think. I bet I'll really enjoy the lawyer and surgery games too.

snap monkey · Post by **snap monkey** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 5:05 pm

I just got a DS a couple weeks ago and it's probably the best handheld I've ever owned. Great system, great games, I'm happy.

One thing that would impress the hell out of me is if they ever statred making rail shooters for the DS. Using the stylus to play something like Rez or Panzer Dragoon Orta would be a ton of fun as the touch screen is pretty darn accurate and I think that would easily offer more control than an analog stick/d-pad. Atleast I think so, I'll have to see how well they pull off Metroid Prime: Hunters before I'd know for sure.

P.S. Glad to see some NGPC love, Cardfighter's Clash is amazing.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 6:27 pm

snap monkey wrote: P.S. Glad to see some NGPC love, Cardfighter's Clash is amazing.

SNK Playmore announced that a DS version of it is coming! I hope it turns out good.

Neo Rasa · Post by **Neo Rasa** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 6:28 pm

The Metroid Prime Hunters demo controls VERY smoothly, but at the same time the final game will be completely different. Have you seen the newest trailers? It almost looks like a Dreamcast game!

That demo was made in like two weeks before E3 because they just wanted to show off how cool it would be to have an FPS with the stylus, then everyone saw it and got blown away at the time. Now the game is going to have a full single player adventure and everything along with the online play.

I hope to God it's successful, imagine sprite based FPS like Doom and Doom II on this machine with online play, microphone chat, it would be glorious. Sprite FPS would probably be pretty easy to port to it also.

I'd also love to see some rail shooters. On that note I'm surprised a Sega Smash Pack hasn't been released on it yet given how prolific that line of compilations is.

I think it shows how great the DS is that it's at this point where none of us are really complaining about any aspect of it and all we have left to say is along the lines of "It would be so awesome if ______ game got put on it!"

Neo Rasa · Post by **Neo Rasa** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 6:29 pm

BrianC wrote:
snap monkey wrote: P.S. Glad to see some NGPC love, Cardfighter's Clash is amazing.
SNK Playmore announced that a DS version of it is coming! I hope it turns out good.

We probably won't see it for several years though like what happened with KoFEX and (the highly underrated) Metal Slug Advance. I think SNK Playmore Japan just announces handheld stuff at random and doesn't start actually developing anything until a year later. I'm still waiting on that Metal Slug 1 GBA port.

Still my favorite game company ever though.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 7:04 pm

When I get my paycheck tommorrow, I'm blowing it on a Mariokart DS Bundle. Metroid Prime Pinball was going to happen sooner or later, after all, Samus spends most of her time rolling around as a ball anyway.

Hopefully Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow hasn't become hard to find yet. What's up with Metroidvania games and their extreme rarity?

Super Princess Peach? Looks like the tables have turned for Mario...

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 7:19 pm

its alright. in hindsight i could have lived without it, but now there are a few i need to get. meteos, phoenix, and a few others when i have the ca$h.

tsunami0ne · Post by **tsunami0ne** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 3:35 am

Just a word of warning before you guys plunk down $35 for Super Princess Peach, it's probably not as good as you think it is. It's very easy and uninspiring. I was hoping for another surprise hit like Wario Land 4, but no, not even close. Approach with caution.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 3:53 am

tsunami0ne wrote:Just a word of warning before you guys plunk down $35 for Super Princess Peach, it's probably not as good as you think it is. It's very easy and uninspiring. I was hoping for another surprise hit like Wario Land 4, but no, not even close. Approach with caution.

Ironically, the same thing was probably said about Wario Land 4, which I also found to be extremely good.

cigsthecat · Post by **cigsthecat** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 7:05 am

tsunami0ne wrote:Just a word of warning before you guys plunk down $35 for Super Princess Peach, it's probably not as good as you think it is. It's very easy and uninspiring. I was hoping for another surprise hit like Wario Land 4, but no, not even close. Approach with caution.

What Mario game would you compare the difficulty to? None of them are very hard anyway.

tsunami0ne · Post by **tsunami0ne** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 6:37 pm

cigsthecat wrote:
tsunami0ne wrote:Just a word of warning before you guys plunk down $35 for Super Princess Peach, it's probably not as good as you think it is. It's very easy and uninspiring. I was hoping for another surprise hit like Wario Land 4, but no, not even close. Approach with caution.
What Mario game would you compare the difficulty to? None of them are very hard anyway.

Any Mario game where you never died throughout the entire game. This is one of those games where you almost never feel pressured... EVER (well this may not be true, I forced myself to play all the way up to World 4 before I quit in disgust.)

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 10:04 pm

tsunami0ne wrote:Any Mario game where you never died throughout the entire game.

Oh, like Yoshi's Island?

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 10:13 pm

Something I hate about the DS is the button layout. Since the Y and X buttons took the place of the A and B buttons, it's annoying as hell trying to play a GBA game.

UnscathedFlyingObject · Thu Dec 01, 2005 10:21 pm

Yeah, I always wish A & B were the inside buttons since they are too close to the border of the DS. They make my hand cramp really fast even though I've got small hands.

jp · Post by jp » Sat Dec 03, 2005 1:48 am

Picked up Viewtiful Joe for DS today... and I am damn impressed. Running the game on two screens? Thats insane, and solidifies my belief that Panzer Dragoon on the DS would be bliss.

But yeah, beautiful game. The gameplay is intact, and the puzzle touch-screen elements are superb!!!! I would actually go as far as to say this is an AAA title, I really can't find anything wrong with it. In fact, I like it more than VJ1 and 2 so far. The touch screen elements are just... cool!

I also went ahead and pre-ordered Animal Crossing. If it has NES games on it like the GC one did... then yippee. Also, I really can't pass up online first party titles. Its about damn time Nintendo started doing this.

Man, and I still need to get Trauma Center, Lost in Blue, Lunar, Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Trace Memory, Pac'n'Roll, and probably a few more titles. Damn... such an awesome time to be a DS owner. IMO it is the true winner of the holiday season release... rush... thingy.

PS- I really wish EA would quit trying to make DS games. The DS is for CREATIVE developers who want to do something new. And thus far virtually everything EA has done for the DS has sucked horribly.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 2:45 am

jp wrote: PS- I really wish EA would quit trying to make DS games. The DS is for CREATIVE developers who want to do something new. And thus far virtually everything EA has done for the DS has sucked horribly.

The problem is that EA or the original developers of the games haven't been making most of them. EA keeps handing their DS games to outside developers with some terrible results. I heard that the Madden games, Sims 2, FIFA, and Need For Speed Underground 2 are at least somewhat decent, but not as good as they should be (except maybe for FIFA). I'm not thrilled with how they handed Burnout Legends DS to Visual Impact instead of the original developers. Also, a big thumbs down for the decision to hire Sensory Sweep for more than one game. That was just plain lame.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 2:47 am

Before I continue, may I also throw a large "LOL" @ Shoe from EGM who last year very confidently predicted in an editor column that the PSP would beat the DS on "Sony brand name alone."

I also want my wifi DS Puzzle Bobble.

And Princess Peach looks good enough to almost be a sequel to SMB3, look at all that sweet donut lift action!

Neo Rasa wrote:The Metroid Prime Hunters demo controls VERY smoothly, but at the same time the final game will be completely different. Have you seen the newest trailers? It almost looks like a Dreamcast game!

For those who haven't seen the impressive new Metroid Hunters trailer, click here and download the first video which is labeled "Direct Feed Trailer (11/03/2005)":

http://media.ds.ign.com/media/682/682835/vids_1.html

Based on the Hunters sample levels, I was NOT interested in buying the full game (as much as I enjoyed the demo for the novelty it was). That and the fact it originally was going to have next to no real 1 player game other than mundane "side missions" which reportedly would just have been "warmups" to the multiplayer game.

But based on the new trailer, it appears that Hunters may have a full epic quest to play through and is shaping up to look more like a real Metroid Prime sequel. Perhaps Nintendo took the somewhat negative feedback to heart and whipped NST into shape.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 2:59 am

That Metroid Prime Hunters trailer rocks. After seeing that trailer, I'm glad that the game was delayed a bit.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 3:11 am

Burnout Legends got a 3.5 from IGN. Of course, I stopped buying EA games entirely a year ago after they picked up the NFL exclusive license, so I could care less.

I'm probably going to go pick up Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time tonight... I don't see anyone else with this here yet, so I'll post a few impressions when I get it.

jp · Post by jp » Sat Dec 03, 2005 4:10 am

Vexorg wrote:
I'm probably going to go pick up Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time tonight... I don't see anyone else with this here yet, so I'll post a few impressions when I get it.

That game spawned this thread actually!

And it is truly one of the most fun and funniest games I have ever played. I was literally laughing my ass off at some parts (l337 hammer bros.). Great game. I'm 14 hours into it and I don't think I'm even half way done. Good stuff!

Neo Rasa · Post by **Neo Rasa** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 4:53 am

LoneSage wrote:Something I hate about the DS is the button layout. Since the Y and X buttons took the place of the A and B buttons, it's annoying as hell trying to play a GBA game.

Ideally the settings would allow you to customize the GBA controls to anything you want like the GB Player on the Gamecube.

I wonder if that can be added? Are "firmware updates" possible for the DS?

EA on portables has always been a joke (Third Age on the GBA excepted). I'm looking forward to what they put on the Revolution though. Supposedly each of their fall sports games for the Revolution are going to be designed completely around the controller (instead of having poorly implemented stuff like the first Tiger Woods DS etc.)

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 7:45 am

I just grabbed Mario and Luigi, and promptly lost three hours to it. I just finished the second cobalt star piece, so I figure I've got a ways to go still. And those l33t Hammer Brothers? I pwned 'em. *duck and run*

Post by **system11** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 12:50 pm

sethsez wrote:I urge any and every Sonic fan to buy Sonic Rush. I rank it above Sonic & Knuckles easily, and since "the Genesis games" seem to be the litmus test for any new Sonic game, I think this one joins their ranks easily.

I'm afraid I urge Sonic lovers to avoid Rush. It does some things very well, the boss fights are interesting, the bonus sections are great, but I find this just strays even further down the 'hold right to complete' road.

The problem is - Sonic simply goes WAY too fast in this - the LCD has a problem showing you what's going on, even if you can register it in time yourself. That's fine though, because the game is on rails. It's one long loop into loop into slide, into sequence of springs, into slide, into loop (etc) - very little player involvement. Some of the time if you try to deviate from this path, you simply fall off the map, even in level 1 - vast sections where there is no floor. You have to memorise the layouts to survive in level 2, with its frequent bottomless pits - and unlike earlier Sonic games, you're moving so damn fast there's no hope of seeing them and then doing something about it. The twin screen aspect is quite nice, but actually flicking focus between them is tricky and annoying, not helped by the DS screens not matching perfectly in brightness and contrast. It's just a rollercoaster ride, like Sonic Heroes turned back into 2d.

It pains me (as a huge Sonic fan in the past), but I wish I'd bought this from GAME - who have a 10 day return policy, because this would have used it. At least Sonic CD is out on the PS2 now, so I bought that to cheer myself up after this brutal let down.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 3:51 pm

Just got the Mariokart DS Bundle! It totally rocks!!

I'm going to have to hunt down Dawn of Sorrow, because I liked the previous game and wonder if the sequal is any better?

PSP? What's that?

jp · Post by jp » Sat Dec 03, 2005 4:52 pm

FatCobra wrote:Just got the Mariokart DS Bundle! It totally rocks!!

I'm going to have to hunt down Dawn of Sorrow, because I liked the previous game and wonder if the sequal is any better?

PSP? What's that?

I would say that yes, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is a good bit better than Aria of Sorrow. Though the plot of Aria was way better.

Also, anybody have Jump Superstars and Devilish? How are they? I have Devilish on the Genesis and love it.

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 7:48 pm

bloodflowers wrote:the game is on rails. It's one long loop into loop into slide, into sequence of springs, into slide, into loop (etc) - very little player involvement.

But... it isn't. There are plenty of paths through each of the levels (Altitude Limit being the most confined, and also the most annoying in terms of pits) and if you're going for the highest possible scores you need to be able to figure out the best possible paths, which never involve "just holding right." Hence the comparison with NiGHTS... if you're playing it just to beat it, then it's going to be unfulfilling.

And why is the complaint that the game is just holding right always paired with people complaining about falling into bottomless pits? When I've seen people complain about Rush I always see these two complaints together, and I've come to the conclusion that if you're constantly falling into pits, maybe you should be doing more than just holding right.

jp · Post by jp » Sat Dec 03, 2005 7:49 pm

sethsez wrote:
And why is the complaint that the game is just holding right always paired with people complaining about falling into bottomless pits? When I've seen people complain about Rush I always see these two complaints together, and I've come to the conclusion that if you're constantly falling into pits, maybe you should be doing more than just holding right.