I am looking for game suggestions for the Nintendo DS. I also wouldn't mind GBA and DSi games--if there are enough good games in one or the other of them, but not both, it might help me decide on whether or not to upgrade to DSi. The type of games I like best are games with simple rules, simple controls, but not simple to win, especially at advanced levels. Also, the rules and controls should be the same throughout the game, but may be slightly different in different variations of the game. As you get to higher and higher levels, it should simply get harder, either by going faster, or just requiring more careful thought. Good examples that I can think of are Sudoku (I've got one of them already, a good version), Minesweeper (Is there a DS version of that?), Tetris and Super Collapse 3 (both on my Amazon Wishlist). Can anyone else think of any other such games?
It's not out yet, but I saw Scribblenauts on CO-OP (see about 10:35 in) this week. It looks incredible, ridiculously fun to play and very simple too.
It seems like you like puzzle games, so I would recommend Professor Layton and the Curious Village. It's an adventure game where you have to solve lots of puzzles. There is a web browser demo on the official site.
Have you tried out the Brain Age games yet? The DS supposedly excels in the types of games youre looking for. Oddly enough though, I've never jumped into that Genre and usually use my DS for RPG gaming. If you want some advice on those i've got tons of games to suggest lol
The problem with both those games is that they contain a wide variety of puzzles, or brain teasers in the case of Professor Layton, not one puzzle with constantly different data. I own Professor Layton, but not Brain Age (either version). I like the individual puzzles in Professor Layton, but don't care so much for the background story. Also, once you solve all the puzzles, there isn't much room for improvement, such as higher levels. They'd almost be as good in book format (except the book can't tell you "Sorry; try again."). Another problem I've read a lot about online with Brain Age is its (their) handwriting recognition and speech recognition--if a lot of other people have problems with these, then I will too.
The remake of Final fantasy 3 for DS looks to be really nice, and ive played thru the original to know it is classic FF.
I've found most DS games to be an immense disappointment. I basically just use it to play Mario Kart. I also enjoyed Zelda Phantom Hourglass and Sim City DS. Mario 64 was fun but the controls were horrible. I bought FFIII but have yet to play it.
If you like strategy games, may I recommend Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced 2 and Final Fantasy Revenant Wings. They are both very different styles, but they focus on lengthy strategic battles... very enjoyable games. Aside from Phantom Hourglass, they're my two favorite games on the DS. Other than those two, I've just played Dragon Quest V which was released on the DS and though the storyline was fantastic. A warning though... if you've never played a Dragon Quest game before, even the new games stick to an archaic turn based battle system that may be frustrating to newcomers.
I heard that Revenant Wings had basically broken AI on the players and that FFTA2 was insanely complicated and confusing.
I'm not really sure in what way Revenant Wings supposedly has a broken AI... Revenant Wings is one of the best made games I've seen for the DS. I found that it didn't have the sometimes brain-numbingly difficultly that you often see in SRPGs, but that the game was challenging enough that you would sometimes have to replay battles once or twice before succeeding. Just fantastic in my books. As for FFTA2 being complicated and confusing... It certainly has a longer learning curve than most games, especially if you've never played an SRPG before, but, at the very least, it's much easier than previous installments to the Final Fantasy Tactics franchise. With something like 60 classes and 500 quests, there's tons to do and experience... trying out the different classes, and trying new equipment and abilities in battle... it's a really entertaining game.
I honestly disliked it. The series has come so far since those days that the game has simply not aged well. The same goes for all of the first three Final Fantasies. VI is the first one that has actually held up well over the years.
Some of these games seem to be what I'm looking for. Before going to the Touchmaster website just now, I had always thought it was more or less just a collection of classical, non-computer games (cards, checkers, etc.). (Maybe I'm mixing it up with Clubhouse Games?) As it turns out, it does have those, but it also has some simple, puzzle-type video games--exactly what I'm looking for. I can't find a homepage for Touchmaster 2, but I would assume the games are all in the same general league?
I would highly reccomend Picross for the DS. It's best described as a cross between Sudoku and Mine Sweeper. A LOT of fun.
I find I like the remake of Final Fantasy IV better than the remake of III. Could be because IV had more of a story while III was very loosely held together. It's not a fault of the original game--the first three FF games were not vastly different--but it's a problem they only partially mitigated in the remake, by making the jobs impermanent and adding a bit more story to it. I have Final Fantasy Tactics A2 and like it quite a bit. Yes, the learning curve is steep if you've not played an FFT game before, but since this is a game that will take many hours to complete, the time invested in learning it is very worthwhile. I would warn anyone interested in trying it that the story is very thin. It's the gameplay that sells this one. Your party is infinitely customizable, and every battle can play out differently based on your party, jobs, and equipment. There's also quite a bit of variety in the types of battles--they are not all simply "kill every monster."