DS Thread

[Stomski]

I went away on business recently and took the DS with me for the journey/time in the hotel. I thought I'd give hard mode of Osu Tatakai Ouendan a go again.

A few days later and I've completed it on hard mode and unlocked the cheerleaders. Hussah!

That last level was so much fun.

I'm tempted to get Elite Beat Agents now, but I fear the charm will wear off without the crazy J-Pop soundtrack.

[Gav]

I found Elite Beat Agents to be one of the most charming games on the system. There's some duff tunes on it, but some are amazing.

You're the inspiration is so sappy. I love it.

[Stomski]

Oooh... Turns out there's Ouendan 2!

[Cullen]

I liked EBA better than Ouendan 1 which I liked better than Ouendan 2. EBA really captures the charm of Ouendan 1, but with American songs. Didn't like most of the songs in Ouendan 2 - they put more j-pop songs in than j-rock in order to broaden the appeal of the game in Japan. From a gameplay point of view Ouendan 2 is the best, then EBA, then Ouendan 1.

Finished Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin on Friday. It was fun but not nearly as good as Dawn of Sorrow for those who've played it. It's essentially the same gameplay but the removal of the soul system was a big disappointment for me.

I'm going to start Contact today the last of the games in my current DS back log. Hopefully I'll be done by Christmas so I can play Zelda.

[Jaymz]

I started Phantom Hourglass at the weekend, the control system is good, but annoying as well. I don't like having to use the stylus all the time and moving on the text requires screen tap rather than a button press [hotel dusk let me tap or press A or press R].

[Gav]

Since getting Metroid Prime 3 and Mario Galaxy, I've had absolutely no time for Phantom Hourglass, which is a real shame. I did the same thing with Minish Cap for the GBA. Still haven't completed that bugger.

[Jaymz]

Yeah, I used to leave games unfinished all the time. So now I try to just concentrate on one until it's done, by which time the other games I want will have gone down to an affordable level. Maybe.

[Jaymz]

Mario Party DS

Was playing this at the weekend with friends. Great fun, never played a mario party before. Tried the one player earlier, computer likes to cheat a bit.

[Cullen]

Ooh Mario Party DS, I'd forgotten about that. Is it online?

I've given up on Contact fairly early on. So much promise but ultimately let down by the utterly shit combat. You just press a button and wait for you character to trade blows with the ememy until one runs out of hit points. Such a shame as the rest of the game is so charming.

Started playing Ouendan 2 again instead. I'm onto the last level on Hard. The Ouendan/Elite Beat Agent games are definitely the best things on the DS for me.

[Gav]

I got EBA back from a friend (eventually) and for the life of me, i can't do Jumping Jack Flash on Chieftain mode.

It's impossible.

Also: Mario Party is not online. Arse.

[Cullen]

Bah get some skillz boyo then you'll be able to beat JJF. Practice is the key.

And if Mario Party DS isn't online I'm not getting it. Mario Party on your own, much like any party on your own, sucks balls.

[Gav]

Yeah, i think they really missed the point on this one. Then again i'm tempted to just give up on Nintendo's online service because it's so terrible. Multiplayer games should not be a total chore to set up.

I don't know what it is, i think I've been stuck on it for so long that I've become intimidated by it. I do brilliantly on all the others, but for some reason i get stuck on one specific part near the end.

[Jaymz]

if you have 3 other friends with a DS then Mario Party DS is great fun. You shouldn't have moved away Johnny!!

I need to start playing EBA and Ouedan 2 again, up to the boss stage on 3 star on both of them and failed.

[Cullen]

I finished Ouendan 2 last week, and got enough points to achieve the second highest rank which unlocks 'hidden mode'. On easy mode this hides the timing circles so you just see the hits, on the other modes the hits actually disappear as well about a second before you need to tap them. Tried a few levels and thought fuck that - totally solid. I also didn't feel like grinding out the 50 million point I needed to get the top rank. I got the top rank in EBA because I liked almost all the songs, but there's about 5 or 6 in Ouendan 2 that I really don't like and didn't feel like spending the time it would take to perfect each one. I'd already perfected and S-ranked the song I liked on Hard and Insane so I'm happy. A mate of mine at work has S ranked every song on every difficultly in hidden mode. He's a machine.

After that I decided to correct my ultimate shame for the Ouendan games and go and finish Ready Steady Go on Insane (the last level on the highest difficulty in the first game of the series for those that don't know). I reached it the day before EBA arrived about a year ago, and went onto EBA rather than finish it. So I sat down last weekend to do it - died 4 times then did it on the 5th. Couldn't believe it. Once you've been through the other two games Ready, Steady, Go is so easy. I remember spending about 8 hours beating it on NORMAL and about 5-6 on Hard, and I do it in 10 minutes on Insane after a year of not playing it.

Really proves how much better you get at these games the more you play. Levels you thought were hard become easy and you wonder why you struggled in the first place. It also highlighted to me that Ouendan 2 is really is the better game. I prefer the music is Ouendan 1 but technically O2 is so much superior. The levels in O1 seemed boring after playing O2. There are some great songs in Ouendan 2 though - especially the 3 hidden levels.

All in all if you own a DS and don't own one of these games then you are doing yourself and your console a great disservice.

[Stomski]

Yeah, first time I played Ouendan 1 last level on Normal it took me ages to beat it. I finally cracked it on a 2 hour train journey.

Then a year later when I decided to play through hard, I did it on about my 4th attempt.

[Cullen]

So I'm playing Zelda on the DS at the mo. I'm having a rather love hate relationship with it at the moment. On the one hand the touch screen control are ace, drawing on the map is ace, the new items are ace, the dungeons and bosses have so far been ace and sailing is ace. On the other hand the Temple of the Ocean King can fuck right off. It's a temple that you have to visit several times, each time going through the same rooms again (until the 5th time when you get a portal to skip down a few levels) to reach the new ones. Oh and did I mention it's against the clock, has invincible baddies you have to sneak past, and must be done in one go without saving because it resets whenever you leave? Yeah it can fuck right off.

The whole thing is at odds with the whole of the rest of the game, which is ace, and the Zelda series in general. All other dungeons can be done in about 10-20 minutes and have lots of sections that lead back to the start, so if you die or save and quit you can easily get back to were you left off in a matter of seconds. Not so for the Temple of the Ocean King.

Also I think I'm a bit sick of the Zelda series at the moment. I think I've pushed too many blocks, lit too many torches and flicked too many switches. I'd really like Nintendo to do a non-Zelda game in the same genre - I'd think it'd be interesting to see what they would come up with without having to adhere to the Zelda series staples.

[elliotthopkins]

How are you playing these Japanese games on your DSs? Are they Japanese DSs or will normal DSs play all games?

Just curious.

Elliott.

[Gav]

Nintendo DS is region free, so Japanese games will work fine on it. The only problem is of course, being able to read Japanese.

[Jaymz]

cullen said:

you can easily get back to were you left off in a matter of seconds. Not so for the Temple of the Ocean King.

I kept forgetting how to do areas in the temple, and would waste time pondering how to get to the next level, when I should have just written on my map. And it does get much easier to breeze through once you get all the items. Just until then...

[Cullen]

jaymz said:

cullen said:

you can easily get back to were you left off in a matter of seconds. Not so for the Temple of the Ocean King.

I kept forgetting how to do areas in the temple, and would waste time pondering how to get to the next level, when I should have just written on my map. And it does get much easier to breeze through once you get all the items. Just until then...

Oh yeah the levels you've already done get easier on subsequent attempts but it's annoying that you have to do them again at all, especially as they are so time consuming.

Where are you up to James? I've just beat the temple with the clawshot and I'm about to, you guessed it, do the Temple of the Ocean King (yet) again.

Oh and we should totally trade ship parts online. I've got Stone Chimneys coming out my ass.

[Cullen]

gav said:

Nintendo DS is region free, so Japanese games will work fine on it. The only problem is of course, being able to read Japanese.

The japanese versions of the Phoenix Wright games even come with the full english translation. They are much cheaper than the UK/US versions too as they were released on a budget label in japan. I think I got 2 and 3 for £16 each months before their US release.

The forth game in the series doesn't feature an english translation, but will be out here next month I believe. I need to finish cases 4 and 5 on the third game before then.

[Jaymz]

cullen said:

Where are you up to James? I've just beat the temple with the clawshot and I'm about to, you guessed it, do the Temple of the Ocean King (yet) again.

Oh and we should totally trade ship parts online. I've got Stone Chimneys coming out my ass.

I finished it a while back, it's fairly short. Dunno what ship parts I have, mostly the demon one, but I didn't get a complete set.

[elliotthopkins]

Well I bought one tonight. I haven't started playing with it yet. I have brain training.

What tips can people give me for its use?

Elliott.

[Gav]

elliotthopkins said:

Well I bought one tonight. I haven't started playing with it yet. I have brain training.

What tips can people give me for its use?

Elliott.

Use the provided stylus to move and tap objects on the screen in relation to the game.

No need to thank me!

[Cullen]

I'd only play Brain Training for 15-30 minutes a day. You get more out of it if you play a little every day. Unless you love Sudoku of course.

This might leave you with spare time you'd rather be spending playing your DS. If that's the case, well good news, the DS is chock full of great games in just about every genre. I'd pick up Elite Beat Agents first.

[elliotthopkins]

See Gav, John's post was a lot more 'welcome to the club'. :-)

Hurrah.

It looked ace when I turned it on the screen looks a lot clearer than the PSPs I've seen.

[Gav]

Hahaha. I'd recommend Elite Beat Agents, Zelda and New Super Mario Bros first off.

[Cullen]

Ok so I finished Zelda about a month ago. My opinions haven't changed much since the last time I posted about it. As a DS game it is great; the touch screen controls are fantastic. Animal Crossing should have played like this. Pokemon most definitely should have played like this. As a Zelda game it fell flat. The puzzle were too simple, the collection elements annoying, and the Temple of the Ocean King was a disaster.

I've also just finished Trace Memory (aka Another Code in Europe), an adventure game by the same developer as Hotel Dusk, and I'd recommend it to anyone who liked Dusk. The touch screen controls are wonky (infuriating in places) but I thought the story, atmosphere and puzzles were better. However I'd try to get it as cheap as possible - it's only 6 hours long and although I think that probably about the right length for the story and gameplay (any longer and it would have felt stretched) but I'd have felt ripped off if I'd paid the full £30 for it.

I'm taking a break from the DS for a while, as I dust off my PSP and get ready to play some Final Fantasy Tactics. I just realised it's been 18 months since I last played a game on my PSP, which is pretty shocking.

[Jaymz]

I finished Professor Layton and the Curious Village recently. It's fun enough, but some of the puzzles will drive you crazy. And finding some of the puzzles is a nightmare, end up tapping every pixel on the screen at times.

[Cullen]

Yeah I'm going to pick that up. Got to support any and every point-and-click/puzzle-based adventure game that comes out so they don't die off again, and hopefully become more popular.