Gaming DS Games That Surprised You?

[Jemmalen]

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime.

I wasn't expecting it to be so well written, but it actually is. The jokes aren't very juvenile, but they're actually witty and fitting, and the characters are pretty awesome too. It's just a really well written game and I think some companies could stand to take some lessons in comedic writing from those guys.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.

I am a huge roguelike fan, but I had very small hopes for a Nintendo DS based roguelike impressing me as much as say, Nethack or ADOM has throughout the years of me playing both. I'm a huge pokemon fan, and I definitely got behind the story and the gameplay of PMD. The AI was a little wacky at some points, but I hope things like that are fixed in the new one (which needs to hurry up and get an english release)..

And the two gems of DS games that surprised me..

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2 and Final Fantasy 4's DS port.

FFTA-2 boasts great graphical improvements, the music got redone which is always great, and the new character jobs add a lot more depth to the game - especially the new Chocobo Rider class as well as the Magic Cannoneer. It's now a good idea to bring some Moogles, instead of leaving them behind for Viera. The two new races are also very useful. I can't say much for the story yet, but I can see FFTA-2 being something I wind up playing for a good, long time. Again, hurry up with that english release.

Final Fantasy 4 DS only came out recently, and I may be fangirling a bit here since FF4 is my favorite of all the games, but the added depth of the Decant Ability System alone makes it a worthy nomination. The voice acting adds a level of depth to each character I could not experience in the many times I have played the game, only reading the words. But, hearing the emotion coming from the characters themselves is something that I will never be able to forget. They also amped up the difficulty a bit, which is also nice.

Nods also go to the Phoenix Wright series.. it's a book.. but BETTER.

 

[Sendoh]

Dragon Quest Heroes - Rocket Slime. It's distinctive humor and slime puns got me into the Dragon Quest series.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - I didn't like Phoenix Wright, so I was apprehensive at first. When I realised that the storyline was more novel-like than anime, I took to it immediately.

Animal Crossing - I didn't know what to expect when I played this game. I didn't expect a sim game which could last me from when I first bought my DS (1 year ago) till now.

 

[Icarus]

Definitely Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. It was the best DS game I've played lately.

 

[Hammis]

The Transformers Games Surprised Me.

I Thought They Would Be Another Crappy Movie Tie In But They Were Actually Quite Good.

 

[ZeroEXE93]

Electroplankton. I thought it was going to be another random gimmicky DS game but it was actually fun to play around with.

 

[wiithepeople]

And finally the opposite: I was a bit disappointed with Warioware Touched. I loved the two on GBA, but the DS one was too repetitive and recycled a lot of their content. The microphone minigames were a joke, using the mic is a nice idea but they're just too easy. And the storylines were beyond awful, they were not bizarre, absurd, funny or just plain daft as we've come to expect from the series. Which is sad

Agreed, especially with the bolded.

 

[CockroachMan]

Dragon Quest Heroes - Rocket Slime
Looked really silly and simple in the begining, but the game gets really addicting and fun with time, the cannon battles are simple but surprisingly fun! Got me hooked up for a long time..

Tingle's Rose Rupeeland.. (or whatever the name is..)
I ended up playing more of this than Zelda.. the story ends up being a lot better than I ever thought and the boss fights are brilliant..

 

[Agjsdfd]

Pokemon D/P.
Am an older pokefreak, was waiting for it soo long, coudnt wait so got the japanese one.^^

 

[VBKirby]

Bomberman Land Touch 2 (japan)

Considering how much I hated the first one, I've enjoyed the sequel a lot. Though it's all in Japanese, and I've gotten to a point that I have no idea where to go or what to do because of it. I'll have to wait for the US rom.

Pokemon D/P

It surprised me all right, but it surprised me how much I hated it. Nothing is as bad as Ruby/Sapphire, but this came very close to that level of suckage. I only bought pearl since it was on sale the day I bought it, and I'm glad I waited. It's far too complicated, and there's too much crud to keep track of. The only good things that came out of it were the route 202 theme, Pochama/Piplup, the old chateau where you get rotom, (that place creeped the heck out of mm) and the underground. (the underground is damn fun)

There are several things that bug me about that game, but the thing that pissed me off the most was how you could only catch certain pokemon by having all of the other GBA cartridges. I think that if I ever play pearl or diamond again, I'll download the homebrew that has all of the pokemon in the game. So unless you download that, D/P isn't worth it.

 

[ShadowStitch]

Maybe I'm just a jaded gamer who, after years of dedication to the hobby, knows exactly what he wants out of a game and is quick to recognize, acknowledge, and dismiss titles that don't meet up with my strict standards... but I find myself being sorely disappointed FAR more often than I am pleasantly surprised.

My biggest disappointments so far?
Pokemon D/P: for taking a graphical step backward from Emerald with its crappy polygons.
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker: for being such a big idea in such a very small, static world.
Izuna: for being just as repetitive and boring as every other boring dungeon crawler.
Etrian Odyssey: for drawing me in with cute graphics then delivering a crapass 3d roguelike.
Rune Factory: because they ruined a great idea with poor mechanics and terrible polygon models.
Hoshigami: for being so dated and clunky that I was reminded of what SRPGs were like before FFTactics.
Mysims: for being a cheap imitation of animal crossing, and being nothing like the wii version.
Fossil League: for being the most pathetic, low-budget, washed-out pokemon clone in existence.
Lost in Blue: for somehow making a Survival Kids sim game into a repetitive, mindless minigame fest.
Tingle's RR: for being almost unplayably oblique, without even the fun of tedium like harvest moon.

...And every other Nintendo property that forces me to use the stylus when I have a Dpad and 8 perfectly good buttons: Starfox, Metroid, Mario 64, and Zelda, among others.

My pleasant surprises?
The Sims 2: Castaway: for being the game I wanted Lost in Blue to be, and bringing back the SCUMM-style game engine.
Transformers: for being a surprisingly deep concept for a potentially throwaway movie tie-in.
Picross: I totally never expected to be so unapologetically hooked on this game.
Luminous Arc: for being a standard, unambitious, vanilla SRPG, but with engaging characters that kept me playing.
Cooking Mama: Something as essentially boring as cooking minigames became fun and even a little educational?
Touch Detective: because quirky art and hilarious dialogue can always bring shine to a bland game archetype.
Rockman ZX: you mean the Megaman games DON'T all suck these days? This is 2d gaming done right!
Dig Dug DS: Combining DD1 and DD2 into one game WITH a cohesive storyline? Old-school joy prevails!
Final Fantasy 3: for proving that polygons on the DS aren't THAT bad, and that classic games CAN be updated.
Super Princess Peach: I expected a watered down girls' game, but I got a superior mario-style platformer!

 

[ben_r_]

Mario Party DS... I had no idea I would be so addicted to that game! lol.

 

[camx]

Shadowstitch I agree. I may be an even more bitter older gamer however i DO give everything a chance. As for forcing me to use the stylus, I'm really sick of it and while the zelda oracle series are my favorite in the franchise, I get really depressed thinking the only two handheld offerings since them have been cheap watery gimmicks. I was surprised by Diamond and Pearl mainly because they kept the dpad controls and didnt try to "fix" something that wasnt broken. I got really addicted to DQMJ until i suddenly thought "this is IT??" and all the time i spent building my monsters is gone as I will NEVER pick it up again. SO many disappointments, from TetrisDS (far inferior to TetrisDX) to every single RPG minus FF3, the only one that uses the old forumals.. because they work...


What has been a surprise to me?

Ridge Racer.

Both Castlevanias. You mean they didnt make these more Nintendo Cool by shortening the game time three quarters and making us play 20 stylus only minigames full of "retro" Konami characters in 3 seconds?

Advance Wars DS is how it should have been done a long time ago and how it will probably be scrapped and never done again to appeal to a larger audience because we all know its too hard for that larger audience.

Rune Factory: Closest we're going to see to anything close to Harvest Moon and it's 2 sequels on the GBC, so thats probably why i loved it so much. Sorry I'd rather make money selling watermelons than hording items to marry some cute anime CHIX.

Geometry Wars: Wow I really had no clue what i was doing when I loaded it up (yesterday) but this will definately get some more of my time.

Last and probably most of all Kirby Squeak Squad: A little short but nothing has touched Kirby's Adventure closer than this. Puts SuperStar and all the other rubbish to shame. Great game!

 

[VBKirby]

Super Star and Dream Land 3 were much better than squeak squad.

 

[Nero]

American Girl: Julie Finds A Way

I'm not even kidding.. (Or am I..?)

~Nero

 

[Fieryshadowz]

Geometry Wars. . . seriously, at first I only got this game because it had Geometry in it. Hell I thought it'd be fun to have a Math-related game for my NDS and when I played it it was fun. NOTHING like what I imagined. I was thinking drawing Geometric shapes and then competing with them somehow . .. it was fun and amazing.

 

[_Snott_]

Dragonball Z Supersonic Warriors- I'm hooked
Mario Hoops 3 on 3- surprisingly addictive cause I usually don't like sports games
Drawn to Life- So much potential. I was surprised that as much fun I had designing everything the actual gameplay sucked bawls.

 

[Nero]

Mario Hoops 3 on 3- surprisingly addictive cause I usually don't like sports games

Only reasons you liked it was:

1.) Mario's in it
2.) The GFX are surprisingly good
3.) Mario's in it

~Nero

 

[_Snott_]

Mario Hoops 3 on 3- surprisingly addictive cause I usually don't like sports games


Only reasons you liked it was:

1.) Mario's in it
2.) The GFX are surprisingly good
3.) Mario's in it

~Nero

Get out of my head!!!!!!

Not 100% true. It had other qualities I liked....,but I can't think of them right now

 

[ShadowStitch]

Rune Factory: Closest we're going to see to anything close to Harvest Moon and it's 2 sequels on the GBC, so thats probably why i loved it so much. Sorry I'd rather make money selling watermelons than hording items to marry some cute anime CHIX.Â

QFT. I miss the days of actually FARMING in Harvest Moon. Nowadays it's become a challenge to try and fit all the mining, exploring, bribing, resource gathering, relationship building, tool upgrading and chica wooing into a single day...because they've specifically designed the games to be nearly impossible unless you partake of all the proffered game features. and I get so tired of having to play a micromanagement game with my HP so I don't pass out...what's with the dozens of magical amulets and other voodoo doodads? I want to grow corn and hatch chicks, not delegate an army of sprites!

Remember when you could actually finish your day's work and put your character to bed BEFORE midnight because you'd done everything there was to do for the day? Ah, those were good times.

 

[Fieryshadowz]

Offtopic: What is with all the similar-looking Profile Icons.

Yeah, I miss having an actual FARMING-Harvest Moon. =/