These are the games I've played thoroughly on DS so far:

Contra IV- best $20 you can spend on your DS. You can ease into it with easy mode if you suck, but normal is very challenging and hard will own your life. The levels, while completely new, feel like throwbacks to the older games which is cool, and the bosses are fucking awesome. Challenge mode provides lots of replay value and cool unlockables like alternate playable characters and fully playable NES Contra and Super C. Highly recommend it.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin- The story is lackluster, the levels and monsters get repetitive in the 2nd half and Charlotte is a useless character for 95% of the game, but if you dig the post SOTN gameplay, you'll like this. I had fun with it, but if you're not into the "metroid-vania" style games you won't like this either.

Planet Puzzle League- If you like puzzle games you need this. It's just like Tetris Attack on SNES. Very addicting and fun in short (or long) bursts.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2- This was my first SRPG and I was completely hooked at first. Put 30-40 hours into it in a hurry, but then I lost motivation and haven't touched the game since. If you're into the whole FF job/class system, there are tons of jobs and abilities to mix and match to get your perfect party. The problem is you'll have to put a significant amount of time into the game before you unlock any of the really cool ones like Ninja or Chocobo Knight. The cartoony graphics and borderline retarded storyline seem really geared towards kids, but if you can get past that the gameplay and strategy elements are quite deep. Also, there are over 300 quests so it'll keep you busy for a long, long time.

Final Fantasy III- Unless you're fienin for another old school FF game, don't bother. Job system is cool, but the game feels generic and the storyline is non-existent. Hope you like grinding cause you'll have to do that a lot. Most people complain about the lack of save points, but none of the dungeons (except the last one) are longer than 30-40 minutes so I didn't find it to be an issue. The game is decent overall and kept me busy until FF IV dropped.

New Super Mario Bros.- Ridiculously short and easy, but it's fun and a neat throwback while it lasts. The graphics are cool and the level design is classic 2D Mario, but I wasn't a big fan of the new power-ups. The mega mushroom is cheap and makes things unnecessarily easier than they already are. The blue shell, while cool, is underutilized and seemed to serve little purpose. I would have liked to have seen raccoon mario or the cape instead. Despite being short (I only played it for a little bit each night before bed and I had finished it in no more than 2 weeks), I would still recommend it.

Mario Kart DS- What can I say. You know what you're getting when you buy this. Unlike Mario Kart Advance, this one is very playable and feels more like the N64 game. Mission Mode and classic levels were a nice touch.

I heard Ninja Gaiden rapes your touch screen so I'm too scared to try it.

Cool, I'll check it out when I get a chance.

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Castlevania... what about the other one?

I plan on playing it soon, but in the other thread Bomberman said Portrait of Ruin was much better so I played that first.

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Final Fantasy Tactics - I hear that there is no ending or point to this game

This is likely true.

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Final Fantasy III- I got word that the game's life system doesn't allow you to raise players without a phoenix dawn. That type of bullshit would drive me nuts, especially if there are tons of 1 hit wonders like in FFIV.

This is not true. You can't buy phoenix downs, which means you will have a limited supply to use wisely, but it's not as big an issue as it sounds. Anytime you defeat a boss your party will be restored. There are springs in most towns that will restore your party. Also, if you have a white mage you can cast raise/life. Just keep one in your party and this will never be an issue. It wasn't for me.

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New Super Mario Bros.- Would you recommend this for someone who has been unable to beat any Mario game except for Galaxy.

I would say its easier than Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. 1-3. You can save often, which helps, and if a level is really giving you problems just use the mega mushroom and run right through it. On the other hand, if you didn't like the other 2D mario games, this won't change your mind.

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Mario Kart DS - I will probably get this... is the blue shell bullshit as bad as with the Wii?

It's not nearly as bad as on Wii, but sometimes BS will still go down on the last stretch of a 150cc race. According to someone on here, you can dodge the blue shell with a well timed turbo, but I was never able to pull this off.

As for Castlevania, you might just want to wait for this:



No anime on the cover already makes it win.

GPFontaine wrote:

Who is the naked girl?

A better question would be, why is she holding a gigantic cocktail sword?