Topic: Underrated DS games?

[hudsonhawk]

So, before it got locked, people were talking in another thread about Lost Magic.  Lost Magic is, despite a lot of the press, a really really fun game.  It has some really infuriating design decisions (no pathfinding, insipid ally AI) which make a few of the missions exercises in patience, but the production quality is definitely there, the music is great, and the sprites are gorgeous.  It's really far from perfect, but if you like JRPG's and Fire Emblem, you might like this as well.

Another one is Rayman DS.  Especially if you've never played it before (I hadn't), it's a really fun, console-quality experience.  I'm sure especially on the DS Lite the big complaint (a lot of people thought it was too dark) is a moot point.  Just like Resident Evil, it's probably an inferior way to play the game if you've played it before, but if you haven't, there's definitely fun to be had.

My question: what other DS games are worth a shot that got low ratings in the press?  If you're like me, and you've burned through the library (I have a 45 minute train ride to and from work), you're willing to give the 2nd-tier titles a chance.

(On a side note, 2nd-tier titles that I played the definitely weren't worth playing include Viewtiful Joe, Snowboard Kids, and Spiderman 2).

[Kairon]

Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll...

_________________________________________________________________

(Originally posted on 3+ other threads)

Sprung is a dating game where you select dialogue options to play. It has both a "guy" quest and a "girl" quest since there are two main characters, and although everything about the gameplay is quite unimpressive (after all, you're just choosing what to say), the dialogue is amazing. Sometimes it's hilarious, sometimes it's punny, sometimes it's wacky, sometimes it's intentionally corny, especially the dream sequences when your transported to a faux 1940's black and white noir movie setting.

The closest comparison to Sprung I can make for general gamers is Lucas Art's classic adventure game series Monkey Island, which itself is a treasure trove of wit and off-beat humor.

Here are some sample snippets so that you can judge for yourself:

______
Leanne: Is that one of your standard lines or what?
Brett: No, really, I'm interested.
Leanne: oh, a strange guy approaches me at the club and he's really interested?! I'm luckier than a one-eyed dog in a meat house!
______
Brett: My name isn't important right now.
Shana: You are so right! The only name that matters is the one given to us by the Universal Mother. My earth name is actually Ariel O'laughlin Du Lac. But don't tell anyone. Just call me Shana in public.
______
Brett: Did you come here with anyone?
Shana: oh, no. When you belong to humanity there's no shame in showing up at a club alone.
Shana: ... oh so ... desperately alone ...
Shana: Do you ever find joy in rejection? I have to everyday. It's not so bad.
Brett: Do you ever think there's too much peace in the world?
Shana: HA HA! That's funny!
Brett: Thanks.
Shana: Isn't it lovely to be so attuned to the universe?
Brett: No really.
Shana: HA HA! That's funny!
Brett: I'm not joking, really.
Shana: Oh, I get it.
Shana: Breathe Shana breathe Shana breathe Shana.
Shana: Nom yo ho ren ge kyo nom yo ho ren ge kyo ...
Shana: Ahhhh ... better!
Brett: I've never met someone who wasn't embarassed to chant in a techno club before.
Shana: I've never met someone who could break my peace barrier. You are really an interesting individual.
Shana: Here, take this! (You have received the Cell Phone - Shana's #)
Shana: It's not actually my number, it's my grandmother's.
Shana: But if you call her, she'll take a message, place it in an empty bottle, summon the Mountain Gale on the Auronic Whistle ...
Shana: ... and then the Aspen Falcon will deliver the message to me. Don't forget to leave your callback number. See you later!
________

... I love this game!

Of course, EGM DID give it a 2.0 and most reviewers panned it. If you're willing to play a game where you simply choose dialogue options and get the mindblowing results above, then it might be worth tracking down a copy of Sprung, it should be relatively cheap by now! Also, it's worth noting this game's international pedigree! It was penned by an American Reality TV writer, developed by a French company, and is of a genre (dating sim) that the Japanese usually have an iron grip on!

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com
Kiki: OF COURSE I LIKE FLOWERS! WHY DO YOU ASK!

[Kairon]

Also, Tao's adventure. It's a very dungeon crawler-like dungeon crawler. So if you like to crawl through 50 levels of dungeons, here's your game: Tao's Adventure.

Oh, and have you played Pac-Pix? That game is worth purchase alone for the demented Pac-Mans that you end up drawing, especially when the game, in an attempt to animate your twisted creation, decides that pac-man's face is not his fice, but instead his chin, and your twisted mess of yellow takes off in the direction of his chin rather than his mouth.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com  

[hudsonhawk]

Thanks Kairon!  Tao's is definitely one of the titles I had in mind when I started this thread; I've been waiting for it to come down in price a bit before trying it.  I'm also thinking about giving Lunar a try.

I knew when you saw the thread title you'd come running with a Sprung recommendation.  The dialog has sold me; I'm picking that game up this weekend.

[Strell]

Polarium.

It's just so soothing.

[Kairon]

Quote
Originally posted by: hudsonhawk
Thanks Kairon!  Tao's is definitely one of the titles I had in mind when I started this thread; I've been waiting for it to come down in price a bit before trying it.  I'm also thinking about giving Lunar a try.

I knew when you saw the thread title you'd come running with a Sprung recommendation.  The dialog has sold me; I'm picking that game up this weekend.

Gee, am I THAT predictable? &P

Tao's adventure is an interesting title. The first thing you'll notice is that you can play almost the entire game with the stylus. Sure, you can move with the d-pad, but you select things with the stylus, and the touch screen gives you an 8-slice pizza pie which you can hold down to move in the direction of the slice of your choice.

The game world consists of the main town, and the tower which has 50 levels in it. The story seems (in the beginning at least, I haven't progressed far) quite suitable, with a naive protagonist, a skeptical and sometimes hostile town, and most of the game's wit included in your monster friend Peecho, a talking monster who you find early on and befriend.

Tao's Adventure has a monster-collection aspect to it in which you find monster eggs, hatch them, and level them, maintaining two active monster pals at all times but only 16 total. And the game's magic system is much more forgiving than Lost Magics, especially since you have fully turn-based battles and can make incorrect stylus entries all you want.

All in all, it's a decent/medicore dungeon crawler, but here's the exotic bit about it: The game may be developed by Konami, but it was developed by Konami Shanghai! Konami's Shanghai branch! Isn't that just awesome to know?!?! I totally envision a tiny team of wannabe game developers stuck in some basement somewhere hoping, working their butts off on this, their meal ticket from a major publisher.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[KDR_11k]

Shanghai? You mean the place where Ubisoft makes all those godawful ports?

How's the return-to-town logic in Tao's Adventure, do you just throw a portal and go home or do you need to return to a specific level (or even the entrance) and go back through levels you've been to before when going between town and tower?

And can you use a cockatrice corpse as a weapon?

[Kairon]

A simple spell allows you to go straight to the entrance of any level, or to exit the tower completely.

I have no conclusive information on the cockatrice question.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[IceCold]

Nanostray, if you can find it..

[JonLeung]

I will also vouch for Sprung.  It seems silly, but somehow I played it five times to get all the endings...  >_>  The dialogue is pretty humourous, it's not really a dating sim like it's made out to be, just an adventure (sure, it involves guys and girls trying to hook up, but with varied objectives).

(Unfortunately I think there's one piece of artwork that nobody knows how to unlock, and people seem to think it involves getting the laxatives into Conor's drink which no one can do...)

[hudsonhawk]

Quote
Originally posted by: JonLeung

(Unfortunately I think there's one piece of artwork that nobody knows how to unlock, and people seem to think it involves getting the laxatives into Conor's drink which no one can do...)

I think if that's what it takes, I don't think I want to know what it's a painting of.

[KDR_11k]

Water Closet rears its ugly head again. Hey Kairon, you were going to buy that, right? *smirk*

[31 Flavas]

I've had lots of fun with Metroid Pinball, as well. I know the standard line is to say, blah blah blah, total whore out of the metroid series, blah blah blah, but I don't see it. And i've had a lot of fun with it. I was going to say Resident Evil DS, as well, but hudson already mentioned that, besides the reviews were, i think, 7.7 - 8-ish, anyway.

I definatly second the vote on Nanostray. It's a pattern shooter that will not disappoint you. Music, concept art, and enemy models can be unlocked. You can also compete 'online' in so-to-say through "Nanocodes" after clearing a level. Unfortunatly unless you obsess over the game or hack the Nanocodes, you probably won't make the rankings on the Nanostray website.

Polarium and Meteos also get my vote if you like puzzle type games. Meteos didn't get trashed in reviews either, but it deserves mentioning.

[31 Flavas]

Some of the other DS games i've been wondering about opinions on from other people are since they either got low marks or are just well not tradtional "games".

Electroplanton
Lost in Blue
Lunar: Dragon Song

[Khushrenada]

Hudson Hawk, when you refer to a thread being locked, I'm going to assume you mean the "What DS game should I buy" thread. Which brings me to my next point. Why was that thread locked, yet there's a "what game should I buy" thread in the gamecube section and it's never been locked. What made the DS one a poll and the Gamecube one, not a poll?

Now, on underrated DS games, I say Advance Wars, which seems strange because it recieved a lot of high praise. The problem is, it got overshadowed by a bunch of other high profile releases like Nintendogs and the DS user base was still small so it didn't sell many copies and has been sort of forgotten. It's a great strategy game and a friend and I have had some good multiplayer games with it also.

I had a lot of hopes for Lost in Blue. Especially from the E3 trailer in Nintendo Power. Although it wasn't as great as I imagined it to be, it still does what it set out to do and provides you with a fun survival sim.

[Flames_of_chaos]

RRRRIIIIIDDDDDGGGGGEEEE RRAAACCCEERRR 6....4.. err DS lol.  Sorry I couldn't resist.  

[ShyGuy]

I vote for New Super Mario Bros. in this poll, cause a lot of people staff around here seem to underrate it.

[Spak-Spang]

Polarium is underrated and great.
Mr. Driller is a great game and underrated
From what I hear:  Kirby: Cursed Canvas is a great game and underrated.

[Flames_of_chaos]

Well in all seriousness Meteos is the underrated one I think it didn't do that great in sales and it was critically claimed. Canvas Curse did well in reviews  and did better than meteos.

Mr.Driller was great but it lost points because the US version is multicard multiplayer and in japan it was single and multicard.

Polarium was too dull for me but I'll give it to you that its underrated. But the fact in japan that there was a GBA polarium killed the DS only factor.  

[Garnee]

If you consider it so, Phoenix Wright is very underrated.  It's one of the best games I've ever played.  4reelslol

[KDR_11k]

Polarium was too dull for me but I'll give it to you that its underrated. But the fact in japan that there was a GBA polarium killed the DS only factor.

The GBA Polarium is out in Europe, too but it costs 10€ more.

[Flames_of_chaos]

Well phoenix wright would do better if capcom had a consistant supply of the game in the market.

[silentbob]

yea where the hell can i get that game?

[31 Flavas]

Last I heard, Amazon.com, itself, still has new copies of the game available for $29.99 + shipping.

[silentbob]

i just ordered phoenix wright and i bought castlevania off a friend :-D