Anyone else got a Nintendo DS??

[CovenantJr]

Yeah, I really dig it, but the wife doesn't enjoy the sound it makes.

Headphones, my friend. Headphones.

I wish the game had a little less guesswork, but yeah, it's lots of fun.

I'm with you on that. I own the second game and while I do enjoy it, some of the thinking is...illogical.

[JazFusion]

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

The original and PQ: Galactrix are crack. You should totally get it.

[Cagliostro]

I'm almost done with the Ace Attorney game - LOVE IT. Probably my favorite game so far. I'm playing Pokemon which has turned into a Berry farming game for me right now, and I pretty much get on long enough to harvest and plant more. Once I have 10 of each type of berry, then I'll quit that and get back to the regular game.
But Puzzle Quest is still crack. Which amazes me because it really is just one puzzle played over and over again with minor variations. I really wanted it to be different puzzles, but it really is just one. With that said, why is it so frickin' addictive? I guess Tetris was the same way. It really is a weird combination of two genres that really works together, but probably wouldn't excite me much apart. I just wish the "story" was a little more prevalent and interesting, as opposed to just slowing down the action.
With that said, is the new Puzzle Quest with the space theme different enough that it is worth picking up? I understand that it is a new puzzle game at least.

[JazFusion]

With that said, is the new Puzzle Quest with the space theme different enough that it is worth picking up? I understand that it is a new puzzle game at least.

YES. The grid is different enough that it's not like playing the original (it's hexagonal), but you still have to match up three or more "gems" in order to gain points. And the gems replenish in all different directions.

The universe it's set in is huge, so there's lots of hours of addictive fun to go around.

[jacob Raver, sinTempter]

Age of Mythologies is a pretty damn good DS port, turned into a turn-based strat for the system.

[ninjaboy]

There are so many awesome titles to choose from!

I never got into the mystery/adventure sort of thing.. but I LOVE RPGs.. I was the biggest fan of Disgea for a long time, but it's jut TOO big.. TOO unlimited.. So along similar lines is Final Fantasy Tactics: A2 (which is awesome) but nowhere near as good as the Luminous Arc series. LA looks a tad dated though, but the storyline, plot and humour well make up for it. LA 2 looks fantastic. It's funnier and more engaging than the original, and they've made the combat even better. Luminous Arc 3 should be released later this year, so I'm holding my breath for that!

Anyone played Dementium? It's a first person zombie shooter that, to be quite honest, can get quite scary!!! And i don't scare easy! Possibly the best shooter on the DS right now - though i haven't played them all!

The Castlevania series are teriffic, though I'm stuck in Order of Ecclesia.. Very rewarding though!

As for racing games, Dirt 2 is fantastic, and Race Driver: GRID is possibly a little better designed, but without all the different modes / events in Dirt 2.

And.. PHANTASY STAR 0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cagliostro]

I own a Wii and PS3, and strangely enough, I'm still finding better titles on the DS than my other two systems.

Ace Attorney madness is consuming my soul. I've finished Justice For All, and hope to pick up Trials and Tribulations at some point.

I've picked up the other defense attorney game, Apollo something or other (I want to say Creed, but I think that is in the Rocky universe). And I played a demo of the Miles Edgeworth game, and that looks like fun.

They started releasing the Ace Attorney games on WiiWare recently, but so far they released the two I already have. Hopefully they will continue as the next one is the one I can't seem to find anywhere, and don't want to pay $60 on amazon for it.

[Holsety]

Trials and Tribulations is slated for a May 2010 release on Wiiware according to gamefaqs. One thing I can tell you is that I am pretty sure there are no spoilers in Apollo Justice for Trials and Tribulations (even though AJ does have very significant story stuff for Phoenix).

Cag, if it matters trials and tribs is my favorite in the series. IMO the best fillers, and the "main plot" is the most convoluted yet the best of the games, taking up a new plot for the first and fourth case of the game and then merging that with threads from the first two very effectively (and, from what I could see, nary a plot whole to be found!). Additionally, both cases 1 and 4 are entirely courtroom-based, which I tend to prefer over the investigation parts of the cases.

I also like Apollo Justice, the 4th game in the series, quite a lot. A fair number of fans seem to dislike it, and the most valid claim IMO is that Phoenix (who is not the main character) ends up being more compelling and developed than the new lead. On the flip side, I feel like something about the game (probably the courtroom music, which I felt was the best of the four) caused the trials to feel a little more intense, even when they were...wacky.

Also, because Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations were made before case 5 of the DS Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (it was a new case for the DS port) they contain no references to that case. But Ema Skye returns, taking the place of Gumshoe of all people (she failed her forensics tests... ) and I liked her new character a lot. (if you know the character archetype "tsundere", she is 100% "tsuntsun" and no "deredere")

I never got into the mystery/adventure sort of thing.. but I LOVE RPGs.. I was the biggest fan of Disgea for a long time, but it's jut TOO big.. TOO unlimited.. So along similar lines is Final Fantasy Tactics: A2 (which is awesome) but nowhere near as good as the Luminous Arc series. LA looks a tad dated though, but the storyline, plot and humour well make up for it. LA 2 looks fantastic. It's funnier and more engaging than the original, and they've made the combat even better. Luminous Arc 3 should be released later this year, so I'm holding my breath for that!

I have to admit, I tried LA but never really got into it, so I didn't even dl the second one. As for disgaea, I have to say that even though the original has a high status in my mind, most of the other NIS games I have played do not. Sometimes they have better gameplay (phantom brave had a no-grid turn based move system that was pretty fun to explore) but the stories...tend to be not very funny, or feel rather forced when they are funny. Disgaea had some kind of charm the others don't seem to...

One TBS I enjoyed recently was Devil Survivor. It's grid based in terms of movement, but when you "attack" another unit, it initiates a turn based battle (almost always a 3-on-3 fight) which lasts for 1 or 2 rounds. Your ability to get extra turns is based on whether you use effective attacks against enemies as well as stuff like agility (you can also get an extra turn if the enemy uses an ineffective attack against one of your characters, or lose an extra turn if they use an effective attack against you).

It's part of the megami tensei series, so the monster designs are ridiculously awesome; you can eventually get bishamon (buddhist war god), metatron (god's voice), and all sorts of other cool cats to help you out. And like any megami tensei game (heck like any JRPG) the game is primarily centered around kill/become/find/ god type stuff.

[Cagliostro]

Jaz - I'm almost done with the original Puzzle Quest, but I'm getting my butt kicked by the final baddie. Lord Bane's foul. Any tips, if you remember this horrible thing? I've only been able to get him under 100 once, and actually had more hit points than him for all of a round before he quadruple whammied me and knocked me out a few rounds later.

[JazFusion]

Jaz - I'm almost done with the original Puzzle Quest, but I'm getting my butt kicked by the final baddie. Lord Bane's foul. Any tips, if you remember this horrible thing? I've only been able to get him under 100 once, and actually had more hit points than him for all of a round before he quadruple whammied me and knocked me out a few rounds later.

Oh man. That really is one boss I will never forget beating.

I just used a bunch of spells on him and got lucky (I think a fire one worked really well?). I was a Druid, I think. If I remember correctly, there's some sort of healing spell or something you can pick up from a troll? I used that quite a lot.

It took me a LONG TIME to beat him. I think I gave up at one point and put the game down for a few months. Then I picked it up one morning and beat him with no sweat. I attributed that to my coffee, mostly.

Good luck!

[Cagliostro]

I had him at 50 this morning. If only he could not cancel about every damn spell I throw at him, I definitely would have had him.

I've now maxed out the experience points, so it appears the level gain I was hoping might turn the tide is not coming.

I'm playing as combination druid and monk (a drunk).
I kid. I'm a kidder.

[Cagliostro]

Beat him. I discovered recently that you can up your stats by paying for it, so I worked up my HP. It took a couple days, but victoly is mine!