You illustrated that with Hotel Dusk...? I dunno, that seems a bit strange to me. It was hyped in all the places I read, mostly because they expected it to be under-hyped... Naturally, I preordered it, popped it in... And... Yeah. I couldn't get into it after playing for about an hour or so. I suppose I can blame it on Trace Memory; I thought that game was pretty good, if short. Not many people seemed to like it, though... It was pretty good. When I heard Hotel Dusk, I *had* to get it 'cause the makers. THEY LET ME DOWN, DANGIT. I'll try it again, but...

Same sorta thing happened with Justice For All... I loved the first AA, so I expected more from it. Hardly anyone talked about AA before it came out, though I remember seeing 'Gyakuten Saiban' in that little... the little thing in Nintendo Power that lists all the upcoming games. The name sounded really awesome. After that, JFA let me down a bit, but at T&T fixed all that; I just didn't look at any of the hype. Of course, now I have a coffee addiction going on. I'm trying to learn to gulp down coffee with Godot.

Feel the Magic, I'd heard almost nothing about when I got it. I just read some thing about goldfish... And I had to have it. Short lil' game, but it was totally worth it. It's just so bizarre, yet charming.

Deep Labyrinth's a weird one. It was Atlus, so I auto-attached a 'Hey, this could be pretty fun' thing to it. I remember having heard about it back when the DS was considered likely to fail, and people brought up screens to prove the DS's graphical capabilities or sommat like that. Anyways, the game is... It's not great, but it's not half-bad. I played about 15 hours of it, I think, and liked it well enough.

I think a lot of people dismissed Pokemon Ranger... Yeah, the game's a bit childish. Yeah, it's Pokemon, but without all the nitty-gritty like IVs and EVs and stuff. Yeah, it's really short. But it was still pretty fun. Like, a 8/10 game or so. I had a lot of fun with it.

Anyways, what I guess I'm trying to say is, like, when you hear about a game or series that you think you might like, find out *just* enough to really be sure 'Yeah, this game sounds good enough to be worth the money' or 'Nah, it probably won't be worth it'. I mean, you have to take a risk sometimes, but like, if you get caught up in a game's hype, you'll end up being disappointed if it's an 8/10 game. And 8/10 isn't bad.

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Puzzle Quest! What a great game, and how prudent and circonspect were everyone before it came out.

Also, while *I* had high hopes towards Etrian Odyssey, reviewers were all "not for everyone" and "old school be careful". Well, to some extent yes, but I've taken my share of enjoyment out of this one, and keep some of it for later.

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I forgot to add: Zoo Keeper. I do enjoy a good Bejeweled-alike in my time. Such free Flash games ported to the DS don't seem to get a lot of good press, but I have not been disappointed from their solid gameplay. I can't wait for N+!

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I have to say the most recent game i purchased that was just mind blowing from what i expected was transformers autobots.......i ont know how hyped it was on teh ds but the autobots and the decepticon games are COMPLETELY diffrent and the game is voice acted!!.....but the thing that drives me to play it is the online community.....the wifi isnt sooooo much fun at first but then it grows and is awsome.........

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I'm glad you chose Hotel Dusk for the picture, that is a great game and I love the style, it's almost like Shenmue. A mind blowing game where I was uncertain, but not expecting disappointment was when I first played phoenix wright. I didn't know what to think of it before I bought it since, I knew it was popular, but I hadn't played it. Now I'm on the third game and still enjoying it. :D

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Let me just say, I am gay for Kyle Hyde.

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Prism: Light The Way. The soundtrack is just catchy enough to get lost in moving little light blobs around forever. The levels get amazingly difficult, but I'll always bring it on a trip to see if I can get beyond level 80.
Hotel Dusk is great. I did play it because of the hype, but I wasn't let down. The calm tunes and comic sketch art style really bring the characters to life.
I'm half way through Dementium, and I've never been this engrossed to what's going on in my DS screen before. Granted, I only play in the dark with the handheld right up to my face... but to me, that's the only way to play it.
For the Phoenix Wright series, my favorite case was the last one of the first game. Being that it was added to the original repertoire of the Japanese game and made specifically for the DS (dusting for prints and spraying for blood was new) gives me high hopes for Apollo Justice.

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Uhhh... Picross. Budget game, 6 months ago, still playing it.

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I've mostly stuck to the big name releases, with two exceptions: Hotel Dusk and Trace Memory. Hotel Dusk was a fantastic surprise and it is one of the few games where I started to really care for the characters. I loved the puzzles, the story, and the pacing for the most part. It made me go back and buy Trace Memory, but I haven't finished that one yet.

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@ Foodie_Monster

I agree. I was all about his 'I don't care if I was fired, I don't care if I've broken the law, I've got a crime to solve!' attitude from the first five minutes.
I've never been so stoked on the development of character's personality.

The only other game I think flew under most people's radar is Point Blank DS. It's a GREAT arcade shooter and now it's portable, multiplayer, and touchscreen. I can't understand why no one was excited when it came out...

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Here's a question: is there anything that plays even vaguely like Onimusha on the DS? I need to scratch that "collect stuff to buy stuff" action-game itch on the go...

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Hmmm, I don't own many sleeper hits. I guess Picross wasn't hyped much. Not sure if Cooking Mama was hyped, but I liked that, too. I own(ed) Puzzle Quest, but that was too much of a glitchy pile of garbage to count as a sleeper hit. I know I'm probably isolated in saying I hated that one. The large amount of random-map enemies, CONSTANT game freezes, UI glitches and overpowered-ness of the final abilities just ruined the game for me.


@10 I'll have to look into Point Blank DS. From what I've seen, it looks like a pretty fun little game.

@11 I second that question. I loved the two Castlevanias, but I've played those to death, and those are mostly "find equipment" games. Not so much collect-and-buy.

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Is it too late to chime in? I was very surprised by Rocket Slime. I figured it would be fun and silly but the game play was also so new and fresh. After playing for a while I noticed it was actually pretty high up on gamerankings so I guess it wasn't a sleeper after all.

@1 I agree with Feel the Magic. I grabbed it for $6 at Sears in a "why the hell not" moment and it turned out to be very fun.

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Etrian Odyssey all the way! I haven't stopped playing it since it came out in May, and it sucks me in further and further as I keep playing. I read Atlus is making a sequel already for Japan!

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Brothers In Arms!

It got some bad reviews because it's nothing like the Console BiA games, but when viewed on its own, it's a terrific game, and about the best shooter game I've seen for DS.

It's also a good showpiece for the quality of graphics and sound that can be put on a DS too. Definitely a gem!

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1. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
2. Garfield's Nightmare
3. Warioland 4
4. Gunpey DS

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