Elite. Beat. Agents.

Trust me on this.

Also, Mario vs DK 2, Castlevania Portrait of Ruin, Cooking Mama, Starfox Command, Megaman ZX...

YES... Elite Beat Agent is awesome. Most of the songs are new to me, but they sound awesome.

Final Fantasy III is very good too, if you are a fan of old school RPGs.

And Kirby Squeak Squad, if you are into that kinda thing. I'm think of buying it from my cousin once he's done playing it

Jump Ultimate Stars, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All, Ouendan.

For older games not already suggested, there's tons of Must Haves that should be much reduced now. Mario Kart, Metroid Prime Hunters, Trauma Centre, Wario Ware Touched, Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, Contact, Tetris, etc.

Describe some of these? Elite Beat Agents? Contact? Cooking Mama?

Well I haven't played any of those games (simply listed Contact as its reputedly a very good game), but Elite Beat Agents is, if I'm correct, a sort of dance game when you tap symbols on the screen to the beat of the music. It's like DDR but rather you use your stylus. From this, you'll see cheerleaders/agents dance in an effort to encourage people in comic strip styled situations.

Contact is an RPG without the usual clutter of menu systems. You're to go around helping this professor who crashlanded his ship on the Earth and motivates Terry (the character you control) to help repair his ship. The game has two styles, the bottom style focuses on Terry and has more luscious realistic graphics, whilst the Professor's ship on the touch screen has an isometric 8 bit quality. The storywriting is said to excel, where the Professor is not quite what he seems, and he often talks to you, the player, about Terry, the character you're controlling.

Cooking Mama is a stylus focused games which sees you completing missions by fulfilling recipe sequences that Mama teaches you. In that regard its a very stylus intensive game like Trauma Centre, but has a cute and brightly colourful exteroia. Don't let the game's graphics fool you, this is supposed to be an amazing DS game.

Yoshi's Island DS can best be described as explosively orgasmic platformer sex. Seriously, if you like 2D platformers at all, you have to buy it. HAVE to.

Also, any game with a three-word title, the first of which is Jump and the last of which is Stars is worth your money to buy it from crazy-ass Japanland... or Target.

Craig suggested Starfox Command, and I agree-- just don't buy it if you don't know anyone else with a DS, as the single-player becomes tiring.

SX, go to your local BestBuy or Gamestop and download the Elite Beat Agents demo. That's how I got hooked...

And I agree with Bat on StarFox... It's a decent game, but it's not 'StarFoxy' enought... StarFox should be an 'on the rails' shooter, not a strategy game. And the 'endings' aren't worth playing the stupid thing through for.

For Jump Super/Ultimate Stars, I'm not an anime/manga fan or a fan of fighting games. I seriously can't play a fighting game for more than ten minutes.

I'll try Elite Beat Agents, God bless free demo, but it doesn't sound like something that would hold my interest...

Contact sounds fun. I prefer to rent RPGs though, I don't find much replay value in them. So that's going on the rent list with Trace Memory, which Siv convinced me a while back to rent. Hooray for BlockBusters that rent portable games. 😀

I'm probably going to get Trauma Center: Second Opinion, just out of lack of more interesting titles for the Wii, but I really don't do well with arcade-style gameplay like that. SO is just a remake of the DS version, right?

Cooking Mama looks like the thing I'd have to distract Dad before I buy, just to make sure he doesn't thwap me when I turn around holding the box.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

TC:SO is a remake of the DS game and its story missions, yes, along with the usual added content including more missions an surgical tools.

Well, here's a list of all DS games I have, and what they are and my opinion of them.

Sonic Rush - I assume you have this and know about it already, but it's VERY fun. If you're not a fan of time trials then it will bore you. FAST. It's only 2 hours max to complete, then do it again as Blaze, and 15 minutes for the final boss and you're done. It's VERY fast and fun, but only if you're REALLY good at games like this and want to get badass time scores.

Mario Kart - It's Mario Kart. It's good. It has 16 tracks from SNES-N64-GBA-Gamecube, the online gameplay is pretty poor, but fun when you FINALLY get it working. The fact you can play with a whole bunch of people on a single cart is always a good thing.

Super Princess Peach - Suprisingly good. It could have been a GBA game, for all graphics are concerned, but the gameplay shines. It's a puzzle platformer, where you have to do one of Peach's 4 emotion based skills to get through areas of the game. It's pretty lengthy and has elements you'd compare to Super Mario World, though it can be slow at times. Getting all the Toads and completing the game twice to unlock everything can be annoying. I've yet to even bother with the post-completion extras, because I'm too lazy and the game drained me, but I am pretty sure I got at least 15 hours out of it.

Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney - Ok. Look. Buy this game. I don't care that you don't like anime/manga, that's an ART STYLE, this is a game that includes that style of art, but uses it for something beautiful. This is the nearest thing we've had to a point and click since the last Monkey Island game, it's witty, funny, brain taxing and has a REALLY good storyline. Basically, you're a lawyer and your mission is to prove your client innocent of murder by investigating crime scenes, interviewing witnesses and then, in court, presenting the evidence and shouting OBJECTION! it's hard to sell this game because of it's unique nature, but TRUST ME, it is the best thing ever.

Brain Age - It's functional. Gets old FAST.

New Super Mario Bros - It's Mario Bros with better graphics and 2 new mushrooms. If you like Mario Bros, get it. If not, don't.

Trauma Centre - THIS GAME WAS FORGED BY SATAN! ...I used an action replay cart and still can't finish it without screaming. Ingenious little game, though.

Starfox Command - As Wonderbra said, you need 2 player for it to be fun, but Tricia, who is a Starfox Fanatic loved it from the getgo, it has 10 endings, at least 12 playable characters and a new "campeign" style setting. It includes like every Starfox character ever, but the gameplay is very tedious without the 2 player dynamic.

Megaman ZX - FREAKING HARD!!! This is possibly the best platformer game I've played in years, though. It's very immersive, as the action is non-stop and the difficulty is relentless. I've actually not been able to finish the final boss yet, but I started on the hard character, opposed to the easy one. Only drawback is that it's YET ANOTHER continuity reset for the Megaman series. The good news is that it's akin to Megaman X or the Zero series, opposed to that damned Battle Network.

Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow - It's Symphony of the Night, where you play as Dracula (if Dracula was a teen). Basically, think of the SNES Metroid if it had RPG elements. Leveling up, getting new weapons/armour. It's a superb game and well worth the plunge, especially as it's a bargain title these days.

Castlevania Portrait of Ruin - I only had 20 minutes of playtime on it, from what I gathered: it's Dawn of Sorrow, but with the main Castlevania continuity, instead of the "future" timeline. It's 2 player, so you can play alone, with AI helping or a friend, and it works very smoothly, and of course Richter Belmont (the best protagonist of the series) is unlockable. Tis a sweet ass lil' game and I shall buy it again.

Elite Beat Agents - DDR for your DS, almost. But with really entertaining anime/manga sections, not everyone's cup of tea, but I love it.

Phoenix Wright, Justice for All - It's better than the first one.

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I didn't get to play Mario vs DK 2 before playing it, but it seems to be a puzzle platformer which seems insanely fun, plus it's the first Nintendo game to use Pauline (from the original Jumpman game, Donkey Kong) in like 25 years.

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Thing to note, excluding Brain Age and maybe Princess Peach, all of those titles were MUST HAVE for me. I rarely if ever buy games which I'm "interested in", in the case of Elite Beat Agents, I was ordered by several people who know my tastes, everything else, they were things I had pre-ordered and NEEDED.

My DS collection would be TERRIFYING if I bought things which I wasn't sure on, like Animal Crossing, Metroid, Meteos, Advance Wars, Children of Mana, Contact, Tetris, Cooking Mama and Point Blank.

Question: As someone who plans to purchase a DS in the near future (and a Wii), I wonder is the DS Lite any better then the regular DS other then it being smaller for more comfortable use?

I cannot stress enough that you really have to get Yoshi's Island DS. It's easily the best 2D Platformer since EVER.

DS Lite: Lighter and easier to hold with stylus games. Stylus is easier to get to, wider and more comfortable. 2-4 more hours battery life. 4 light settings, which are useful for playing in sunlight.

DS: More speakers/better sound quality. POWER button is a button and not a switch. Start/Select are easier to reach and bigger. Doesn't look like an annoying ugly slag when a GBA cart is inside, infact it looks BETTER when there's a GBA cart inside.

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That's all I notice, anywho.

Quote:

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Ok. Look. Buy this game. I don't care that you don't like anime/manga, that's an ART STYLE, this is a game that includes that style of art, but uses it for something beautiful.

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SX has already said he owns PW1. =O

But yes, he needs PW2, much much better then the first.

I already intend to buy PW2 at the first oppertunity. In fact, I have a gift card set aside for it.

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Only drawback is that it's YET ANOTHER continuity reset for the Megaman series.

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Continuity reset? ZX is of the same continuity as the classic, X and Zero series. It's just separated by a long stretch of time.

Elite Beat Agents is an absolute delight. Quirky, catchy and addictive.

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DS Lite: Lighter and easier to hold with stylus games. Stylus is easier to get to, wider and more comfortable. 2-4 more hours battery life. 4 light settings, which are useful for playing in sunlight.

DS: More speakers/better sound quality. POWER button is a button and not a switch. Start/Select are easier to reach and bigger. Doesn't look like an annoying ugly slag when a GBA cart is inside, infact it looks BETTER when there's a GBA cart inside.

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Sounds like overall a DS Lite would generally be the more comfortable and better access-wise choice. Any who, thanks for the info.

You forgot "DS: Cheaper by about $30, the price of a DS game."

Don't forget Clubhouse Games (42-something in Europe). Sure, it's just board games and card games et al - but it's wild fun in multiplayer, which all but three games support - nay, require (CPU opponents obviously fill the gap in single-player, mind).

Multiplayer isn't an issue to me due to lack of friends. Also, almost everyone I've seen with a portable system has a PSP if anything. I'm kinda suprised; almost nobody I knew in Biloxi had a PSP, and almost nobody I know here has a DS.

Well, there's always Wifi, via a compatible router or a $20 dongle.

The dongle thing does not work. Furthermore, it crashes XP computers if you unplug and replug it.

I know, because I've tried WiFiMAX PSP/DS compatible thing. It jammed my Internet and it crashed my computer.

My router is compatible, but both DS and PSP won't take 128-bit WEP, and Dad won't downgrade to 64-bit.

I know pretty much nothing about the DS, but doesn't Nintendo make an offical dongle thing? Maybe that'd work better.

They do, and they seems to work fine on the computers of everyone I know who has one.

I've had no problem with Nintendo's offical dongle... It won't work for the PSP that I know of, but it works fine with both my DS and my Wii... And it's hot swapable

Hopefully I can use the Wii for the internet; I don't feel like buying one if it won't work for both DS and PSP, it just isn't worth it to me. Especially since I have no online DS games atm.

I won't need it for the Wii because I have an internet hookup thingie in my room specificlaly set out for consoles - and the Wii won't even be in my room, it'll be either in the basement or in the living room - and I think the PS3 has 128bit WEP compatibility, so that thing will be left for hte Wii, in case it does not.

Hey, as long as we're on the subject about getting things online, here's my dilemma: I am on a campus with only wired access (there are some wireless networks, but none I can get the console to connect to). So I'm supposed to try the official Nintendo dongle, right? Well, as it turns out, a little research shows that the firewall I'm using - ZoneAlarm - apparently completely refuses to work with the thing, and the only workaround is to flat-out uninstall the firewall (dumb idea). I know there's an official wired connection adaptor, but I only have access to one wired connection, and constantly switching it between my computer and my Wii is probably more effort than it's worth.

So, yeah, thoughts here?

Could try a different firewall. Kerio Personal Firewall was always my favorite free firewall back when I used a software one.

www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm

Or another possible option would be to stick a second network card in your computer, and then bridge the connection to that official wired connection adaptor you mentioned. Network cards are dirt cheap, and you'd just need a cable to go with it. (probably crossover)