Even the best games sometimes have flaws, though we often gloss over them when trying to sell our friends on our favorites. But today is a day for honesty (because, uh, we said so), so we thought we might discuss those flies in the ointment. From issues with "blue" in Brain Age to Trauma Center adding even more difficulty when arbitrarily deciding you've done something wrong, we've seen dark spots in even the best of what the DS has to offer. Of course, that leads to another question: could that explain why, despite all of the great games on our favorite handheld, the reviews often seem a little lower, on average, than games for other systems? Or is there another reason that you suspect?
DS Daily: It's great, but ....
Even the best games sometimes have flaws, though we often gloss over them when trying to sell our friends on our favorites. But today is a day for honesty (because, uh, we said so), so we thought we might discuss those flies in the ointment. From issues with "blue" in Brain Age to Trauma Center adding even more difficulty when arbitrarily deciding you've done something wrong, we've seen dark spots in even the best of what the DS has to offer. Of course, that leads to another question: could that explain why, despite all of the great games on our favorite handheld, the reviews often seem a little lower, on average, than games for other systems? Or is there another reason that you suspect?
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(Page 1)2. My first reaction to this entry was also that it's most likely because there are so many more games, there's just more chance of a crappy developer making a game.
Posted at 9:31AM on Aug 21st 2007 by Chicago_Josh
3. Brainage hears my blues fine. I am avoiding mariokart becasue the snaking noobs.
Posted at 10:18AM on Aug 21st 2007 by moolcool
4. @#1, that remided me of the Gamespot reviewer who gave Gears of War 90%, but Red Steel 55%, even though Red Steel is a really good game. I havent talked to one person who thinks it deserved the mark the guy gave it. Conversely, Plenty of people I know think GoW is crap, and they werent Nintendo/Sony fanboys, some were even M$ fanboys. Critics just expect launch titles to be as good as the titles that are released after a year or so of the console being out. What good exclusive 360 games were available at launch? or PS3? even the DS just had a bunch of mingames and SM64DS. I can't even remember what the PSP had, mainly because I didn't care, but still...
Posted at 10:30AM on Aug 21st 2007 by FantomRedux
5. 1. Anyone who thinks Gears of war is crap is a moron, not deserving to play videogames
2. Red Steel sucked badly
3. I think this happened because of the many different aspects of DS games, you have the touch screen, the D-Pad and Dual screens so if you dont use all of them well your game is likely to be rated poorly.
eg Luminous Arc which got everything right except touch screen so it got poor scores.
Posted at 10:40AM on Aug 21st 2007 by RedWing
6. Puzzle Quest is amazing and has occupied my DS almost constantly since I purchased it. That said, the coding sucks. I've had to train myself to be very careful with it, unless I want an illegal move penalty. Every once in a while, bugs will occur, like when you level up in the bestiary. Sometimes this actually rewards you, my game gave me twenty-something points to add to my character, but most of the time the screen just gets screwed up. The controls lack polish, enough to prevent my girlfriend from getting into the game. As far as the A.I. "cheating" as some claim, I disagree. They remember every time the enemy does it to them, but conveniently forget when they get a string of combos. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this game, but it has severe issues that almost prevent me from enjoying the game.
Posted at 10:54AM on Aug 21st 2007 by Mark McClure
7. I agree with #1, critics alot of times are bad at doing there jobs. I haven't been involved in gaming all my life so when a company makes a remake of a classic I try it and I'm hooked. But then these critics say they've been there done that, and say it's a crappy game, just because it's a remake. It might not be the same experience, but come on, sometimes remakes are better. Doesn't anyone agree?
Posted at 12:00PM on Aug 21st 2007 by 092a1b60
8. Like when they put better graphics into it?
Posted at 12:02PM on Aug 21st 2007 by Potent1
9. Control schemes. That's a huge part of it. With other console games, you are pushing buttons that are always going to behave the same way - no funny angles or touch sensitivities to worry about, at least not in the same way as with a touch screen. Developers just haven't got it down yet.
I never had a problem with "blue", though. Ever. If nothing else, "red" has been the one to catch me up, and even then it's only happened twice. How on earth do -you- people say "blue"?!
Posted at 3:23PM on Aug 21st 2007 by Your Lost Socks
10. At number 6:
Don't forget the fact that the AI cheats.
Posted at 3:50PM on Aug 21st 2007 by salchemist
11. any post about great DS games reminds one of Phoenix Wright, not just the Greatest Game of the DS but also one of the greatest games of all time. And Phoenix Wright has no flaws.
Posted at 4:53PM on Aug 21st 2007 by The Ninth Doctor
12. OBJECTION!
There is one flaw, there's not enough Phoenix Wright in the world! :P
Seriously, I want to be able to download new cases online. :D
Posted at 7:23PM on Aug 21st 2007 by Tim
13. @10: It doesn't cheat on me, and I find it much more easier to beat than a skilled person. But I agree completely with @6, the testing team at Infinite should have been more rigorous. I played the PSP version and it looked better, but I missed the touch screen controls.
Posted at 9:23PM on Aug 21st 2007 by Wilerson
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1. I suspect that the reason why so many games score low is that we are talking about the most popular system currently out. When you're #1, you attract lots of developers, and not all of them are as skilled as the others.
What would be more interesting is to see how many great games are out for the DS compared to other systems -- for example, are the numbers comparable to the PS2? Are there more great games out for the DS or less?
Also, I tend to value the opinions of my friends and family over the opinions of critics -- there have been a few games that have ranked highly that I think are crap, and there have been a few more that have ranked lowly that I think are great.
Posted at 9:15AM on Aug 21st 2007 by SmileyDude