Topic: My DS Awakening

[matt oz]

Handheld systems/games never really interested me.  I've always been a console gamer, and was perfectly comfortable playing games in front of a TV.  Christmas 2003, I received a GBA as a gift from my parents.  I didn't really like it that much: I had to play it under direct light, and Nintendo announced the backlit SP about a week later in January, which really pissed me off.  I ended up purchasing only 3 games for it, and sold it last year after gathering much dust.

That pretty much turned me off the DS when it came out.  I was already losing interest in the Gamecube, plus all my money was going toward $50 games on release day that would just go down to $20 or $30 in 2 weeks due to poor sales.

So earlier this year, Circuit City had a deal where you could buy a DS and it came with Nintendogs for $130.  It sounded like a good deal, and I heard a lot of good stuff about Nintendogs.  Plus there were other games I was interested in, like Mario Kart, Castlevania, and Meteos.

So I began playing Nintendogs, with my cute little Shiba Inu and Welsh Corgi, and was pretty much obsessed with them for a couple of weeks.  Then I lost interest again.  I don't know what it was, but I just wasn't interested in any video games.

But yesterday, I decided to go out and purchase Mario Kart DS.  My mom just set up a new wireless router in our house, and I thought it'd be cool to see if the wifi multiplayer would really work.  And of course, it works perfectly.  And this is probably the second best Mario Kart game in the series.  I'm disappointed that there's only 16 courses (at least that I've seen), but the awesome battle mode makes up for it.  This is definitely a game I'll be playing for a while.

When I was at the store yesterday, I saw another game on the shelf that caught my eye.  It's called Trace Memory.  I bought that too, and read about it online when I got home.  It seemed to get very mixed reviews, so I'm considering returning it in exchange for Castlevania.  (I haven't opened it yet.)  Any suggestions?

Oh, and one burning question: is there any way to keep my hands from cramping while playing?  After every course in Mario Kart, I have to take a break because my hands hurt.  Is there a better way to hold the DS or something?

[Jensen]

I stopped playing Mario Kart after I got a gold star because of the hand cramping issue.  I'm ok with other games, though.

[Hostile Creation]

My hand cramps horribly with Super Princess Peach.  Well, it did starting out anyway.  I guess it let up.
(By the way, SPP is an excellent game; a unique platformer, very Mario but very reminiscent of Kirby as well.  I'd say it's about 10 hours, main quest, give or take, but the extras are ridiculous (including three extra stages in each of the eight worlds, after you beat the game.)

Yeah, so I like my DS.  And NSMB comes out soon

As for Trace Memory, it depends on your taste.  It's a point-and-click style adventure game, with more to offer in terms of atmosphere than action.  That's from what others say.  I haven't bought it yet, I'm going to get it when it drops to fifteen or twenty.

[thepoga]

buy Meteos

[Requiem]

You should wait to return Trace Memory.....


New Super Mario Bros. comes out this week.

[KDR_11k]

Jensen: I didn't even bother with a star, in fact I don't think I've even unlocked all grand prix cups. The hand cramping is nasty but the blue shell is an even bigger problem.

[Hostile Creation]

"buy Meteos"

Yeah, I'm going to have to reiterate this.  My favorite puzzle game, ever, and possibly my favorite DS game.
And that's from Yoshi Touch & Go, Warioware Touched, Super Mario 64 DS, Kirby Canvas Curse, Advance Wars DS, Nintendogs, Electroplankton, Jump Superstars, Sonic Rush, Super Princess Peach, Mario and Luigi 2, Mario Kart DS, and that Zookeeper game.

But that's a tough choice, because all of those games are excellent.  

[matt oz]

Thanks for all the advice.

I returned 'Trace Memory' to Best Buy today, and exchanged it for a CD and Paper Mario for the Gamecube.  It's really fun so far, but it seems to be the exact same game as the first one...  Good thing I'm starting my summer job next week, because there's still about 10 DS games I'm interested in.