Anyone else got a Nintendo DS??

[kevinswatch]

True Jay, but how do you improve on perfection? For my money those are the most beautiful 2D graphics short of Yoshi's Island.

True and very true (YI and CT are definitely #1 and #2 in the world of 2D graphics).

But still, I already own the game. Twice. I understand that the fact that it would be portable now is sweet, but it's still the same (yet awesome) game. I don't like paying money for something that I already own.

-jay

[Holsety]

I still think that Seiken Densetsu 3 had better graphics than Chrono Trigger. At least in terms of bosses (which is what I pay most attention to). As for character sprites it's a matter of preference...I thought SD3's looked better but CT's characters were a little more interesting (frog knight, random nerdy girl VS typical gladiator, typical fighter, typical valkyrie).

I've tried to choose bosses that IMO compare well, sorry if you disagree.

Dolan

VS Grand Gaia


Dolan's lower body is cut off because he climbs up a tower and hangs off the rooftop to attack you. I believe the two are fairly comparable bosses. Dolan looks a little wussy in this comparison because I couldn't find him on the right scale to match Grand gaia.

Meanwhile here are the disembodied evil creepy bosses.



Zeal's appearance here is hurt because I couldn't find a good still of her w/ the black omen in the background. The black omen's exterior is really cool looking, though IMO not as cool as the creepy dark dimension that you fight Zable Fahr in. For references sake here's a video of the black omen fight:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxNzs79CIvw

All that being said, I find Zeal to look really fucking ridiculous and silly looking, especially the quirky little smile she's got going there. Not to mention she's the easiest "whole party 1 HP bosses" in RPG history since her other attacks are extremely weak and she doesn't try to disable your healing.

And SD3 has the coolest final boss(es). There's 2 other possiblities, but the best is the Dragon Emperor. He doesn't just sit in one place like most boring bosses, instead he shifts positions around the screen and breathes fire across the screen. The main disappointment IMO is that he always flies off screen and then lands somewhere else - you never see his entire body envelop the screen. The least they could have done is make a big shadow before he lands...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWmKzE2tDEk

Now compare that to Lavos.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-n9LA4F3Yo&NR=1
I've never really been sure what Square was trying to get across with Lavos. Is it that he has the DNA of all life on the planet, and looks extremely lame and stupid, therefore all life on the planet is a reflection of his lameness and stupidity?

Note. This is a bad status spell. Lavos takes a uniquely stupid, absurd pose. Chrono seems to be following suit. Is Lavos infecting the characters of Chrono Trigger with his unique brand of lameness? Perhaps Lavos has only been running from planet to planet, hiding himself in the core, because on his home planet the other Lavoses made fun of him for being so ugly. Now that he's reached earth he's trying to make humans follow his path so that he feels less sad. I've never felt more sorry for a final boss. Instead of "saving the world," our motives are misdirected towards "putting this poor, god-forsaken creature out of its misery." In the secret best ending of Chrono Trigger Lavos sheds his cocoon and becomes a beautiful butterfly.

Wait. What am I thinking? Chrono Trigger does have the best graphics!

QED. Gato gets all my silver points.

[Worm of Despite]

You make a very good case. Seiken 3 and Chrono are highly similar, coming at a time when developers were squeezing all the power and art they could from the SNES. That said, Chrono's art is more distinctive to me. It's like comparing two songs, and it's the song with the most memorable melody and ideas. The bosses you pick are pretty good, though I think there's a lot better ones in CT (Magus, for one; his music was great, too).

As for me, I doubt I'll get CT on DS. I beat the game last year, and there's no new graphics or extras to this one. It's pretty much a port, whereas FFIV on the DS is a full-blown remake with 3D graphics, improved music and other fine details.

[Holsety]

(Magus, for one; his music was great, too).

I will agree that each and every one of the "character sized bosses" in Seiken Densetsu 3, with the exception of Death Jester and Bigeu, are completely lame in comparison to Magus. In particular the Darkshine Knight (such a cool name too) on the Dragon Emperor's side looks extremely lame.

His shoulders and his waist look really stupid to me. The way his arms are pulled up make me think of a gorilla. I dont want to kill a gorilla! ((Ok, clearly my tastes in bosses are formed entirely through an overactive imagination.)) Plus, his legs - all you can see are the greaves - make him look extremely stubby. He could have been another Vader but his appearance ruined it. The sad truth is that Death Jester, especially when wielding his scythe in battle, looks scarier than the Darkshine Knight:

IMO for such a pixellated image, his eyes and mouth do an amazing job at capturing the sort of malice/humor thing going on there.

Moreover Ozzie, Slash and Flea >>>>> any of the "villain's cronies" from SD3.

But in terms of the big monster type bosses I thought SD3's were way cooler than CT's.

EDIT-After making the comparison between the darkshine knight and the Jester, I realized that what I'm really saying is that the Joker is much more engrossing than Batman.

[JazFusion]

An anal quibble: Phantom Hourglass isn't a port, but a new game in its own right. I guess it is kind of a "mini wind-waker" to some extent though (4 grid sea instead of a really large one).

Picky, picky. :p

Your feelings on the above games were all in line with mine, so in spite of some random gamefaqs users who reviewed it I'll give it a try sometime. Did you ever try Dawn of Mana, Legend of Mana, Heroes of Mana? Got any opinions you wanna share if so?

Actually, Children of Mana was the first in the series I've played.

Here's some more games I really enjoy:

Puzzle Quest - I love this game. There's not much else to be said about it, other than it's awesome.

Chocobo Tales - Scoff all you want, but I really enjoyed this game. There's TONS of mini and micro games and a battle system with cards.

Electroplankton - I'm going to put this on the list because even though it's not a traditional game, it's really neat. You just basically make music with the "games" they have.

[Holsety]

Chocobo Tales - Scoff all you want, but I really enjoyed this game. There's TONS of mini and micro games and a battle system with cards.

I have actually played this game too. I'd say it's really a damned good game considering what I was expecting. The card game was boring IMO, just something you did to get to more minigames. But the minigames were all really fun. Definitely a good investment.

I actually like the Chocobo Racing game on the PS1. It's not mario kart but it has its charm. But the chocobo dungeon games...ugh. Like most (but not all!) of Japanese roguelikes, it's a lot prettier and a lot less fun than the original.

[Worm of Despite]

Just got Kirby Super Star Ultra. The graphics are more colorful than the original (and that's saying a lot). The most fun you can have with a 2D platformer, despite the easiness and the lack of intricate levels ala Mario. Having the catchiest music ever also helps!

[kevinswatch]

That's out? I loved Kirby Super Star for the SNES. One of my all time favorites. I'll have to pick that up sometime.-jay

[Holsety]

That's out? I loved Kirby Super Star for the SNES. One of my all time favorites. I'll have to pick that up sometime.-jay

Yes, and there's some new content too You can:

-Play through a tougher, completed version of Spring Breeze (it has the blimp level from the original Spring Breeze).
-Play through all the "campaigns" in the original Kirby Super Star as meta-knight, plus a new boss.
-Do a sort of "arena" style challenge with a helper (one power only, no sucking) instead of as kirby.
-A tougher arena with some new bosses and no maximum tomatoes.
-Three new mini games (the old ones can be unlocked though).

[Worm of Despite]

I wish they'd put the NES Kirby's Adventure in there as a hidden extra *mutter* But I suppose that'd be too perfect.

[Holsety]

I wish they'd put the NES Kirby's Adventure in there as a hidden extra *mutter* But I suppose that'd be too perfect.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirby:_Nightmare_in_Dream_Land

Sorry. You'll have to cash in for two games.

[Worm of Despite]

Meh. Super Star does it for me, plus I played that game on my Virtual Console not long ago.

[jacob Raver, sinTempter]

My son has one.

GTA: Chinatown Wars just came out for the DS ( www.gamespot.com/ds/action/grandtheftau ... tch-review ) ... not a huge fan of GTA3+, but still, seems an amazing port...

[CovenantJr]

My son has one.

GTA: Chinatown Wars just came out for the DS ( www.gamespot.com/ds/action/grandtheftau ... tch-review ) ... not a huge fan of GTA3+, but still, seems an amazing port...

Hmm. Though the reviewer claims this doesn't resemble the early top-down GTAs, it clearly does. Which is a good thing, since GTAs 1 and 2 were my favourites. I might pick it up sooner or later.

[jacob Raver, sinTempter]

I liked the originals a lot too, simple fun mayhem, top-down baby...

[Cagliostro]

I bought one after I learned the intarweb was not be used for entertainment purposes at work. So I started playing. I started with two sequels of the biggest time-sucks on the GBA - Advance Wars and Final Fantasy Tactics.
I had trouble getting into Advance Wars: Days of Ruin or whatever, mainly due to the disappearance of CO powers. At least if they are there, they are not there in the early parts of the game which is as far as I've gotten.
Final Fantasy Tactics 2 started off especially slow, but really started to hit its stride after a few hours in. I was really enjoying it.

Then I bought Pokemon Platinum.
I've been playing the hell out of this title. It's the same old schtick with a new coat of paint, but things just work....better. And it is fun. I'm a little disappointed to still see the berry-time-suck-gardening game, which I found fun originally when it appeared in the series, but started to realize I was harvesting more than I was building my Pokemon. Now, I'm just harvesting enough. It seemed like in the previous incarnations, I had a better idea of where I was most of the time, but I seem to have towns not sticking with me very much. I think I had a bit of the same problem in the last incarnation with the GBA too, but it has been a while. I just got Fly and can utilitize it, so I suspect I'll get more knowledgable on the towns. But I hate the silly little ways they block you from certain towns. It's been a while since I've played a Pokemon game, and the last one angered me too, but this one at least seems more fun overall to me.

The thing that has been thrilling me the most with the DS is that I can use my wireless connection. Some games have nice additions for this, but I especially like that I can hook up to my Wii and download demos of games for the DS.

[Cagliostro]

Well, based on recommendations from this forum, before I heard the wife was to be laid off, I picked up the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney game, which I am enjoying even if I am especially bad at it. I also picked up Puzzle Quest which at first wasn't getting what all the hoopla was about, but the fact that I can't seem to put it down now seems to be answering that. Then I went outside of all that with the game Rhapsody, which I had seen some stuff about previously about it being a musical RPG. It looks silly and fun put an average RPG with bells and whistles. I haven't started playing it, but brought it up to see some of the songs, and found out they are in Japanese. Oh well, I'm sure it will still be fun, and expect I'll get to it one of these days. But now, Pokemon Platinum and Puzzle Quest are the ones I'm especially paying attention to right now, with the occasional meddling with the Lawyer game.

[CovenantJr]

Puzzle Quest does sound fun. I'm considering it.

[Holsety]

Well, based on recommendations from this forum, before I heard the wife was to be laid off, I picked up the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney game, which I am enjoying even if I am especially bad at it. I also picked up Puzzle Quest which at first wasn't getting what all the hoopla was about, but the fact that I can't seem to put it down now seems to be answering that. Then I went outside of all that with the game Rhapsody, which I had seen some stuff about previously about it being a musical RPG. It looks silly and fun put an average RPG with bells and whistles. I haven't started playing it, but brought it up to see some of the songs, and found out they are in Japanese. Oh well, I'm sure it will still be fun, and expect I'll get to it one of these days. But now, Pokemon Platinum and Puzzle Quest are the ones I'm especially paying attention to right now, with the occasional meddling with the Lawyer game.

YES I'm so happy you like (you do?) Phoenix Wright. Great game IMO.

[Cagliostro]

Yeah, I really dig it, but the wife doesn't enjoy the sound it makes. Now that she is home all the time, it will make this difficult. I suppose I could turn the sound off, but it seems a game that you want the full experience with. So, as of last night, I made it to chapter 3. The game is definitely getting more difficult. I wish the game had a little less guesswork, but yeah, it's lots of fun.