DS Games

[ysbreker]

I can vouch for the double pack. two games for the price of one is not something to be sneezed at. So far I've mostly played aria of sorrow. Somehow i like that game much more than harmony. But that might be just me. I'll finish Aria first and then tackle harmony.

[Roderick]

Harmony of Dissonance was cool, but there were some things seriously lacking there. For one, I had a hard time adjusting to the cartoony way the enemies were visualised after the extreme gothic seriousness of Circle of the Moon. Another thing that I felt was lacking was huge bosses: most all of them fit into a small room. But it's by far no bad game. The magic system may have been the weakest of the series, but the atmosphere is quite good and it's another fine platform game.

Can't hold a candle to the Sorrows, though

[toblix]

Okay, I thought Castlevania was just some lame platform shooter. Are the games really that good? What separates them from, like... Mega Man or whatever? I played a Castlevania on a NES one time, and I didn't really like it.

[Aussie Ben]

The new Castlevanias are nothing like that clunky piece of shit.

1) You can actually walk up stairs now.

2) Your character does not shuffle around like a walking sofa.

3) The game takes place in a massive overworld, similar to the later Metroids, and new powerups and abilities are earned as you explore and defeat bosses.

[baconian]

Aria and Dawn of sorrow are both classics. Get aria first, then dawn, the story is the best in any castlevania game, Portrait is basically the third of the series, and that'll be sweet.

The souls and weapons choices make this a bit of an RPG, but only a tad. Music is pretty addictive. Level design is brilliant in that way that only japanese games can be.

:tup:

[Roderick]

Portrait won't even have the same characters, right? Totally different story, I thought.

Same awesome gameplay though I love the little bits of RPG they tuck in there. I wouldn't mind even more, and more adventure elements. Already there are scarce puzzles in there; would be awesome to have even more mystery and secrets.

(Which reminds me, the only things that I thought were a mite disappointing about the Sorrows was that they didn't have secrets rooms and walls that you could discover. I want more secrets!)

[ysbreker]

There are secret rooms in both sorrows!

Aria of Sorrow: http://db.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbadvance/file/castlevania_aria_of_sorrow_castle.gif (green rooms are secret rooms)

Dawn of sorrow secrets faq:

http://db.gamefaqs.com/portable/ds/file/castlevania_dos_secrets.txt

[nsps]

The new Castlevanias are nothing like that clunky piece of shit.

1) You can actually walk up stairs now.

2) Your character does not shuffle around like a walking sofa.

3) The game takes place in a massive overworld, similar to the later Metroids, and new powerups and abilities are earned as you explore and defeat bosses.

Do you still wander around aimlessly and wait till it gets dark for clunky fighting?

[Roderick]

Did you watch the Angry Nintendo Nerd bash Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest? That was pretty awesome.

(note: the show is also sometimes extremely phony and scripted, but if you go with it it's fun entertainment and you get to see some really bizarre games)

[nsps]

What's this Angry Nintendo nerd show?

[Roderick]

http://www.screwattack.com/AngryNerdMain.html

Been going for about half a year I should assume. Bit shorter. It's a guy whose fulminating about crappily designed NES games. Like I said, it's scripted but enjoyable.

[miffy495]

Do you still wander around aimlessly and wait till it gets dark for clunky fighting?

The fighting is actually pretty well done now. The fact that you're using melee weapons takes some getting used to at first, but once you get the hang of keeping a proper distance from your enemies, it's as natural as shooting shit in Mega Man or Metroid is. As for the game mechanics of recent Castlevanias, Think Super Metroid. With castles. And whips. And vampires. And leveling up. And creating new spells by combining collected items. And shops. And flying medusa heads. And some degree of in-game plot revelation. You get the idea.

[Moosferatu]

I found a good deal on a copy of Touch Detective today, so I decided to get it to see how accurate the reviews of it were. I've played about an hour of it, and so far it appears that it got bad reviews solely because it's an adventure game. The music and graphics in it are top notch.

[Aussie Ben]

I agree. I love that Mackenzie will say one thing and think another simultaneously - makes the conversations a lot more interesting. There is a bit of pixel hunting, but this seems to be typical of every adventure game ever. The only one that seemed to solve that was Discworld, where you pressed a button and it showed you all the hotspots on your current screen. Why can't more games do that?

[Roderick]

My chief editor called and gave me awesome news: I get to write a 2-page review on Phoenix Wright 2 for the next [N]Gamer. Hell YES!

(Also, it's almost a done deal that I get to review Portrait of Ruin. This'll be the best freaking edition ever.)

[Moosferatu]

I thought Portrait of Ruin was being pushed back?

[Roderick]

In that case I'll get it later. There was no date yet or anything, I just got a promise I'd get the assignment =) When is Portrait set to arrive now?

[Moosferatu]

In that case I'll get it later. There was no date yet or anything, I just got a promise I'd get the assignment =) When is Portrait set to arrive now?

hmm... I don't really know. I could have sworn that I read somewhere a couple weeks back that it was being pushed back to the beginning of next year due to multiplayer issues, but I can't seem to find the source. I could be imagining things.

[Twilo]

The only one that seemed to solve that was Discworld, where you pressed a button and it showed you all the hotspots on your current screen. Why can't more games do that?

Unfortunately this was ruined by having the most random puzzles possible.

Use the worm with the string and then use the combined worm-and-string with the mouse hole to get the imp. What?

[toblix]

LET'S MAKE THIS A THREAD ABOUT ANNOYING ADVENTURE GAME PUZZLES!

That one in Simon the Sorcerer 2 with the wearing of the... rat, was it? Some small animal. Yeah, that was annoying.

[Moosferatu]

I just finished Touch Detective's four main cases (there's a bonus case where you wander around town talking to people), and it's an excellent game. I haven't played Trace Memory, so I can't compare them but this is definitely how adventures should be done on the DS. The entire game was quite enjoyable, especially the second case. :tup:

[vimes]

Trace Memory is a decent game with lots of flaws : the main plot is weak, the 'Cancel' sound is a high pitched fart, it is incredibly chatty (and the dialogs are ... well, in the tradition of Japanese anime) BUTI couldn't stop playing until I beat it. The game main strength is that it makes you care a lot about D's character and storyline very quickly ... this and the diverse but so-so gameplay are what made me going.

I just got hold of Touch Detective, I'll be checking it soon.

[miffy495]

Didn't bother finishing Trace Memory. It was alright, and some of the puzzles were really clever. (

closing and opening the DS to stamp an image from the top screen to the bottom was particularly smart.

) Unfortunately, the game just didn't end up being that compelling for me. The whole game felt a bit hollow and the characters were pretty damned wooden. While the situation and general plot were kind of interesting, the characters didn't really impress. When I play a game for its story and the story doesn't hold me, I leave. I'll probably pick up Touch Detective now though, given the overall positive response it's gotten on the Thumb.

[n0wak]

Anybody picking up Yoshi's Island DS? Getting some positive reviews and after playing the "platformer" that is Gears of War ( don't look at me, Cliffy B compared it to one) I'm kind of in the mood for a good classic 2D platformer. Unfortunately, there's like fifty million other games coming out at the same time.

[Nachimir]

Same as Miffy on Trace memory. I admired the clever stuff they did with the DS, but any care I had for D and Ashley was offset by the flawed and hollow seeming mechanics. Plus, it really annoyed me that "speed up dialogue" and "repeat entire dialogue" are mapped to the same button.