Minish Cap?.... :)

[toblix]

So I have this DS Lite I bought, and I've played all the games I want, and since you people seem to have played a lot of these video games, I thought I'd present you with some questions I have formed:

1. How is playing GBA games on my DS Lite different from playing DS games, other than the sticking out thing? Any differences with regards to battery life, for example? Does sleep mode work?

2. I'm going to buy the Mario & Luigi: Whatever It's Called GBA game, and I also saw a Zelda game available for the GBA, Minish Cap. Any good? I loved the one on the SNES, with the running and cutting bushes and throwing vases and stuff.

3. And then I saw another GBA game, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Is this the game I'm talking about, the cool SNES Zelda game with the swordfighting and the green diamonds or whatever?

4. Is it likely that Nintendo release these old Zelda games in a special DS version, or are they considering GBA games as an equal part of the DS game, you know, market, or whatever?

5. I've seen some screenshots of GBA games, and they look like they're blurry or something. How is the 2D GBA games compared to the DS? For example, the Mario & Luigi games.

6. If I loved Phoenix Wright and Mario & Luigi and New Super Mario Bros., and hated Trauma Center, is there a formula for recommending some great GBA games for me to buy?

Sorry for asking so much, but what else could I do? "Google" it?

[lobotomy42]

So I have this DS Lite I bought, and I've played all the games I want, and since you people seem to have played a lot of these video games, I thought I'd present you with some questions I have formed:

1. How is playing GBA games on my DS Lite different from playing DS games, other than the sticking out thing? Any differences with regards to battery life, for example? Does sleep mode work?

2. I'm going to buy the Mario & Luigi: Whatever It's Called GBA game, and I also saw a Zelda game available for the GBA, Minish Cap. Any good? I loved the one on the SNES, with the running and cutting bushes and throwing vases and stuff.

3. And then I saw another GBA game, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Is this the game I'm talking about, the cool SNES Zelda game with the swordfighting and the green diamonds or whatever?

4. Is it likely that Nintendo release these old Zelda games in a special DS version, or are they considering GBA games as an equal part of the DS game, you know, market, or whatever?

5. I've seen some screenshots of GBA games, and they look like they're blurry or something. How is the 2D GBA games compared to the DS? For example, the Mario & Luigi games.

6. If I loved Phoenix Wright and Mario & Luigi and New Super Mario Bros., and hated Trauma Center, is there a formula for recommending some great GBA games for me to buy?

Sorry for asking so much, but what else could I do? "Google" it?

2 & 3. Minish Cap is great. It plays a bit like A Link to the Past, but changes up the formula enough to keep things fresh. Yes, A Link to the Past for GBA is the same as the SNES version, which is the game you're thinking of. The GBA version also has an added multi-player mode and some sound changes.

4. That will probably never happen.

5. GBA games look the same on the DS as on the GBA, except a bit brighter (since the screen is brighter). There's also a slight difference in resolution, so there's a small black bar on the top and bottom. Screenshots of handheld games usually look blurry because they are very tiny screens!

6. There aren't really any games like Trauma Center on the GBA. Maybe you dislike the fast-paced action, so stay away from WarioWare? Probably you just hate the difficulty, so stay away from...really hard games.

[Moosferatu]

1) Sleep mode works, and I believe GBA games are easier on the battery.

2) Minish Cap is . It looks pretty, but is probably the least good Zelda game I've played.

3) Yeah, the GBA A Link to the Past is the same game as the old SNES Zelda. It's really good, and far far superior to The Minish Cap.

4) I doubt they'll make NDS releases of any of their old Zelda games. I really hope that they'll at least re-release Link's Awakening and the two Oracle games for the GBA, so they can at least be played on the DS, but I'm guessing this isn't very likely either.

5) GBA games look great on the DS. No troubles.

6) You could check out Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission. There are also GBA ports for most of the original Mario games. The Pokemon games are supposed to be good, but I never played anything past the original Blue. The Castlevania games are also supposed to be good, and then there's always Wario Ware.

[edit: sorry for the repeats. I'm slow.]

[Marek]

for Minish Cap.

(I was in fact prepared to pwn you hard after reading the thread title. Fortunately I realized that would not be necessery.)

[toblix]

(I was in fact prepared to pwn you hard after reading the thread title. Fortunately I realized that would not be necessery.)

...How hard?

Anyway, I just ordered Link to teh Past. If I finish that, Minish Cap is next. And then... maybe Zelda: DS Stylus Version or whatever they'll call it.

What are the other great Zelda games? I thought about playing the original on an emulator or something, but it seemed too... old, you know. Are the 3D versions (N64/GC) good?

[Twilo]

Sleep mode does not work for GBA games on the DS (Lite, at least)

Also, occasionally a line of pixels on the screen doubles-up (is twice as thick) for GBA games; this is mostly invisible but I notice it sometimes in Pokemon Emerald.

Considering that my GBA is the original launch model with no backlighting or recharging, it is is still significantly preferable to play on the DS.

[Thrik]

I've never seen any of that doubling, but yeah it definitely doesn't have sleep mode for the games I've played. However GBA games tend to have good provisions for saving: Mario Bros 3 on the GBA lets you save and resume that save once for example, in addition to the regular 'save at castles' system.

Playing the same games on a GBA and then the DS really is a terrific reminder of how far the screens have come since then. Even the GBA SP with the backlit screen is shit, and is roughly half as bright as the darkest DS Lite brightness — possibly even less.

[Moosferatu]

Sleep mode does not work for GBA games on the DS (Lite, at least)

hmmm, you're right. I thought I remembered the closing-the-lid-sleep-mode working, but I just check it. You can, however, manually activate sleep mode within some GBA games, such as Metroid Fusion.

As for the other Zelda games, I haven't played any of the 3d ones, but I can say that all of the 2d gameboy ones (Link's Awakening, Oracle of Ages, and Oracle of Seasons) are excellent. Here, check out this thread.

[toblix]

Well, how does saving work in Link to teh Past? It's not really a problem that sleep mode doesn't work, but I'd like to know why. I refuse to believe it's technically impossible or even hard to do it. Does the screen at least go black when you close it?

[Moosferatu]

You can press Start anywhere and get the option to Save or Sleep. Saves don't save your exact position though. If you save in a dungeon and then load the save, you'll be taken back to the start of the dungeon. Everything you did will still be done though. If you load a save in the overworld you'll be taken to the last building you were in. Sleep works like DS sleep, but you have to press L+R+Select to turn it back on. Nothing happens if you just close it.

[Wrestlevania]

[...] stay away from WarioWare

Blasphemy!

WarioWare Inc. on GBA is the funniest game I've played in ages! Had me sniggering like a school boy on every stage. And, whilst it's not as refined as Rhythm Tengoku, it's positively bursting with character and comedy. (It's also the easiest rhythm action game I've played, but I've not played many.)

You'd be a fool to write it off out of hand, seriously.

[Aussie Ben]

...How hard?

VERY hard. Minish Cap is a bucket of Marshmallow Fun. It actually includes some NEW tools, rather than only using the Power Glove and the Boomerang for the umpteenth time. Hooray for the Gust Jar! Also, I really like the Wind Waker graphics as 2D sprites.

Other GBA games to recommend:

- Astro Boy: Omega Factor (but if you suck at uber hard games, like me, play it on easy mode, as you still get to see all of the game this way, it's just the mental difficulty is toned down to a manageable level)

- DK: King of Swing (although, you mightn't like this one - the difficulty level ramps up after a couple of levels. Brilliant action puzzle game, though)

- Drill Dozer (NO QUESTION. GET THIS GAME.)

- Kirby & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (it's got four player simultaneous co-op play, but even if you can't do that, it's still a good game.)

- Sabre Wulf (Not recommending this because I like Rare - I'm recommending it because it's an awesome game that nobody played. If you like stealing treasure and running away, this game is for you.)

- Wario Ware Twisted (All the fun of Wario Ware, but in twisty mode. A major improvement over the original, and LEAGUES better than Touched.)

And that's all I have to say about that.

[toblix]

Thanks, I'll look into these. There are no problems with cartridge sizes and stuff, right? The rumble pak cartridge is bigger then the ordinary ones, but that just means longer, right?

[Thrik]

I've seen that massive Wario Ware cartridge plugged into a DS Lite.

[lobotomy42]

Blasphemy!

WarioWare Inc. on GBA is the funniest game I've played in ages! Had me sniggering like a school boy on every stage. And, whilst it's not as refined as Rhythm Tengoku, it's positively bursting with character and comedy. (It's also the easiest rhythm action game I've played, but I've not played many.)

You'd be a fool to write it off out of hand, seriously.

Dude, it's probably my favorite game of all time, I was in no way writing it off. He simply asked for game suggestions based on a somewhat small list of preferences, so I tried my best to extrapolate from there. I love Trauma Center and I love WarioWare more than any of the games he listed as positives so extremely simply logic suggests he'll hate WarioWare. Granted, this is a seriously oversimplified way of making predictions, but it's what I had to go on.

[miffy495]

Dude, how could you have never played any of the 3d Zeldas? They are among the best games in the history of EVER. Ocarina is best, followed by Wind Waker and Majora. I loved Minish Cap, but as Zeldas go there are better. Out of the 5 portable ones, it ranks #3, behind Link's Awakening and LttP. If you're interested in the 3D Zeldas and have a gamecube, might I recommend the Zelda Collector's disk that they released a couple of years back? Has full versions of both NES and both N64 Zeldas, so you'd only be missing Wind Waker. It was never retail, a subscriber's bonus with the Nintendo magazine and bundled with new gamecubes for a few months. Still, there should be plenty of copies around if you check eBay or something similar.

And yeah. Warioware Twisted looks kinds ridiculous sticking out of a lite, but plays just fine, so whatever.

Ben, the only one on your list that I don't have is King of Swing. I'd heard it was kind of meh. How strong is your recommendation on this one? The rest of the list kicks ass, so I'm inclined to trust your judgement.

[Aussie Ben]

Well, I have a bit of a soft spot for Rare DK and friends, so seeing all the references of a billion obscure characters from DKC2 (like that pirhana with the big lips!) was also part of the enjoyment factor for me.

BUT, that being said, I personally thought that the game was genius. Every couple of levels, a new mechanic would come into play, whether it would be levers that you have to hold with one hand only, picking up and throwing rocks, fighting against the wind inside a tornado, turning wheels, grabbing onto pegs being fired by cannons while they're arcing across, grabbing slippery ice (which you must do more quickly so you don't slide back down), grabbing the tail of a swimming skeleton fish boss and then hurling him repeatedly into a wall...there always seemed to be something more by using the same simple controls.

I think what turned off a lot of people was the fact that the difficulty was a total and complete bitch. It really does go normal -> hard -> ass rape difficulty.

It really does.

Can't wait for the DS one, though!

(Also, it warms my heart that someone actually owns Sabre Wulf besides me. That game rocks. "For the Empire, WOT!")

Toblix:

Twisted Front Twisted Back Drill Dozer

[miffy495]

(like that pirhana with the big lips!)

*Gasp!* Lockjaw? I'm in!

(Also, it warms my heart that someone actually owns Sabre Wulf besides me. That game rocks. "For the Empire, WOT!")

"Leg it!"

Twisted Front

Last but not least, how the hell did you get your hands on a copy of Game and Watch collection? I tried to join up with Club Nintendo and register my buncha japanese games, (See: Now Playing) but they wouldn't take me because I'm a canuck...

[Aussie Ben]

Let me just say that it's good to have a friend in Japan who isn't really interested in the promotional items from Club Nintendo, but will add his game codes to the collaborative account.

The real problem with Club Nintendo is that you can't spam your account with multiple copies of the same game. So you can't say, buy seventy copies of Polarium on the cheap and enter them into the same account. You would need to make seventy different accounts, because it only accepts any one code from any game or console once.

Luckily, I'm a bit mental and collect stuff like the Famicom GB Micro and the Mother 3 Deluxe Box, which bumps up the points a bit.

By the way, if you're interested in those game music CDs from Club Nintendo, gimme a yell on one of those messenger things, I've got them all ripped. Oh, and I wouldn't recommend getting 'Collection from eBay or something unless you're totally nuts about collecting. There's only three games on there and they've all been previously released. There's only the novelty factor to go for, because you can actually use it as a watch and alarm now. But even then, that's flawed because the alarm won't work if you're in sleep mode. NOT APPARENTLY GENIUS. Here's hoping they bring out a proper DS collection.

*Gasp!* Lockjaw?

You are my new best friend. Oh, just don't expect Cranky to be...you know, Cranky. They really should rename him to "Helpy" now, because Nintendo just can't get his raving bitter hatred of everything new right. "Sometimes our sprites would change size for no apparent reason!"

[Wrestlevania]

I've been playing Minish Cap on and off (which says a lot on its own) for a couple of months now and I just can't get into it. I've always found 2D Zelda's puzzles to be frustrating and not exactly intuitive, so I'm no fan of the series in the first place.

[toblix]

What's this? Mixed opinions?

Anyway, based on my available... means of playing these games, I'll be able to enjoy

1. Link to teh Past

2. Ocarina of Time

3. Majora's Mask

Then, when I get a[ccess to a] Wii, I'd be able to play:

4. Wind Waker

5. Twilight Princess

And when it's released I'll be able to play:

6. Phantom Hourglass

The old NES games seem booring, as does the GBC games. I'm totally a graphics hooer.

[Thrik]

I dunno about Minish Cap, but I'm sure looking forward to Phantom Hourglass, which is the direct sequel to Wind Waker apparently. I only just found and watched that video so I've suddenly become quite excited about it.

[Wrestlevania]

Phantom Hourglass, along with Twilight Princess on Wii, is one Zelda game I'm really looking forward to. The DS game especially looks like it's got tonnes of as-yet undocumented tricks and treats; using that steamboat to get from island to island whilst fighting off pirates(?) looks especially fun, as does the touchscreen control of the boomerang.

[Aussie Ben]

The old NES games seem booring, as does the GBC games. I'm totally a graphics hooer.

Booooo. The GB ones are fantastic. Particularly Orcacle of Ages. Time Travel actually being used properly, and one of the coolest villains in a game I've seen for a long while. Agree with you about the NES ones, though. People seem to like them for the same reason they like Kid Icarus and Ice Climbers. Because they're archaic crap, but no-one will admit it. YEAH.

[Moosferatu]

Booooo. The GB ones are fantastic. Particularly Orcacle of Ages. Time Travel actually being used properly, and one of the coolest villains in a game I've seen for a long while. Agree with you about the NES ones, though. People seem to like them for the same reason they like Kid Icarus and Ice Climbers. Because they're archaic crap, but no-one will admit it. YEAH.

Yeah, Oracle of Ages was brilliant.