How well is DS doing...

[Goragoth]

The games for the DS do seem to be very much polarised into really aweful or really good categories with not that much inbetween. I don't know why this is, maybe some developers simply do no "get" the DS and that is why they fail, or maybe there is another reason? Personally I couldn't care less since there are plenty of really good titles to choose from and I always read reviews before buying a game so I would never buy any of the crap games anyway. Unless you are expecting gifts from clueless people or are prone to impulse buying it really shouldn't matter one bit that there are crappy titles for a platform as long as there are also plenty of quality ones.

I own:
Mario Kart
Mario64
Animal Crossing
Advance Wars
Metroid Pinball

and they are all great games.

The handheld console market is plenty big for both the PSP and DS, especially since a large portion of those buying the PSP probably would never buy DS anyhow. I'm looking forward to a bit of competition in this space, in the end it should benefit us all.

 

[see colon]

I own:
Mario Kart
Mario64
Animal Crossing
Advance Wars
Metroid Pinball

all first party titles? you should really check out lost in blue. it's fantastic.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6142782.html

Despite Nintendo's efforts to increase DS supplies at retail, supplies of the system are still tight. Some secondhand shops are starting to sell the DS for over 30,000 yen ($260), or double its suggested retail price, while recent online auctions have seen the system fetching around 20,000 yen ($174

that's just rediculous

 

[Ty]

all first party titles? you should really check out lost in blue. it's fantastic.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6142782.html

that's just rediculous

Lost in Blue? I was genuinely curious about that till I read the reviews on how monotonous it gets.

Have you checked out that Ace Wright, Attorney one? I heard the dialogue is quite entertaining.

 

[Corwin_B]

Lost in Blue? I was genuinely curious about that till I read the reviews on how monotonous it gets.

Have you checked out that Ace Wright, Attorney one? I heard the dialogue is quite entertaining.

Phoenix Wright is genuinely awesome. It doesn't use the DS much (except for Chapter 5, which is a brand new chapter, whereas Chapter 1 to 4 come from the GBA version, which was never translated in English), but the dialogues are witty and fun, and the adventure is quite good. Definitely a must-own game for anyone who likes adventure games.

Lost in Blue is an excellent title, if you are into this kind of management games : you have to balance exploration of the island and survival. It uses the DS pretty well thanks to a variety of minigames, and has decent 3D graphics.

Another game you should not miss is Trauma Center, although it is quite hard.

 

[Goragoth]

Good point about my list being first-party titles, although I would say that it doesn't really invalidate my point that there are many great games for the platform. Nintendo are a games company and they excel at it unlike any other (aren't they the second biggest games publisher, I suspect after EA?)

I have heard about Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, but right now I have already spent way too much on my DS. I've only had the thing for about two weeks and I've already bought the games that I listed plus I have Castlevania on order and my GBAMP should arrive soon. I did hear somewhere that PW:AA is no longer in production so I might try to secure myself a copy before it gets hard to find.

I'm also waiting for: Mario and Luigi 2: Partners in Time, Metroid Prime Hunters and Guilty Gear: Dust Strikers.

Games I would like to see on the DS: a Diabloesque hack-n-slash RPG, a good RTS (Starcraft: DS anyone?) and an MMORPG (might be tricky with the limited memory on the device but if someone could pull this off it could be very cool).

 

[see colon]

Games I would like to see on the DS: a Diabloesque hack-n-slash RPG, a good RTS (Starcraft: DS anyone?) and an MMORPG (might be tricky with the limited memory on the device but if someone could pull this off it could be very cool).

take a look at what developers have done on the ngage with less ram, less pixels, and a software 3d solution. Roots, for example, is a blatent diablo rip-off. Pathway to Glory is a Commandos type squad based strategy game. and while there isn't a real MMO on the system, there is pocket kingdom (marketed as an MMO, but it's not really). i'm more impressed with Elder Scrolls: Shadowkey. i said a while ago, nintendo should be poaching current/former ngage developers because they have a similar (arm 9 cpu) platform and could benefit greatly by fleshing out their library. a properly marketed elder scrolls game sometime after Oblivian hits retail could do wonders for their "kiddy" reputation everyone keeps talking about.

 

[Corwin_B]

Games I would like to see on the DS: a Diabloesque hack-n-slash RPG, a good RTS (Starcraft: DS anyone?) and an MMORPG (might be tricky with the limited memory on the device but if someone could pull this off it could be very cool).

Chronicles of Narnia is a decent Diablo-like hack&slash, by the folk who did the Lord of the Rings games on the GBA. Not great, but decent.

 

[Goragoth]

take a look at what developers have done on the ngage with less ram, less pixels, and a software 3d solution. Roots, for example, is a blatent diablo rip-off. Pathway to Glory is a Commandos type squad based strategy game. and while there isn't a real MMO on the system, there is pocket kingdom (marketed as an MMO, but it's not really). i'm more impressed with Elder Scrolls: Shadowkey. i said a while ago, nintendo should be poaching current/former ngage developers because they have a similar (arm 9 cpu) platform and could benefit greatly by fleshing out their library. a properly marketed elder scrolls game sometime after Oblivian hits retail could do wonders for their "kiddy" reputation everyone keeps talking about.

Well, the only thing I was a little doubtful of was the MMORPG. 4MB RAM seems awefully tight for anything could be truly considred an MMO game but I'm sure you could pull off something limited (for example something like Diablo2 did with its Battlenet multiplayer, not MMO by any stretch of the imagination but it would be a start).

Nintendo does have trouble attracting good adult licences for their systems, partly a chicken-egg problem where their systems have a "family" stigma that I think in the minds of many devs precludes it as being a system to release more "mature" games on (Resident Evil being one big exception). IMO they should really develop one or two decent R16 rated licences in house and use those to attract the "I won't play anything if it's not dark and brooding with lots of blood, gore and boobs" crowd. Nintendo always say they are inclusive, making games for everyone but the truth is that at the moment they offer very little for the so called "hardcore" gamers and it's kicking their ass (particularly in America). Personally, I don't care since I would rather have a fun game than a violent one any day (not that the two are mutually exclusive) but I'm not representative of gamers in general. </rant>

Oh, and a DS elder-scrolls title would rock!

Chronicles of Narnia is a decent Diablo-like hack&slash, by the folk who did the Lord of the Rings games on the GBA. Not great, but decent.

Yup, I read the gamespot review of that game and it sounded very mediocre. There's also a Pokemon dungeon crawl game out in Japan that sounds interesting but what bothers me about all the new hack-n-slash RPGs is that they expect you to form a party (either controlling multiple characters or with AI controlled characters). I much prefer the Diablo style with just one character somehow. I don't know, there's probably a decent GBA title out there that does what I want but right now I have plenty to play anyhow.