That is true for most games. However, with Space Invaders Extreme, I like playing with the sound on much better, as you can mostly shoot along with the music beats. The experience is significantly tighter and much more organic when you play along the music, or so it feels to me.

Reply

i prefer hearing my DS games, soemtimes going so far as to bring headphones if I know I'll be gaming someplace noisy (like the laundromat).

Reply

Games like phoenix wright, professor layton or tetris could be played without the sound.
But games like the world ends with you should be played with the sound. There was a time I died because I didn't hear the warning when the HP was low.

Reply

What? That's like missing out on the storyline for me.. it's part of the game, and not hearing it feels like I missed something from it. That's obsessive-compulsive for you haha.

Reply

I mostly use the sound for Moonshell :P

Reply

The sound helps establish an atmosphere so I prefer to have it on when I can. I don't listen to music on its own though, so I would never feel inclined to listen to an MP3 player instead of something else. Phoenix Wright wouldn't be the same without the Objection! and Cornered! themes.

Because this article discusses sound, does anyone else prefer the volume wheel from the Game Boy Advance and earlier over the slide bar which the Game Boy Advance SP and the DS use? I find the slide bar less accurate, especially at night when I try to get the lowest possible volume without the sound cutting out.

Reply

Same as supa_s.

Depends on the game. And where I'm playing.

Most of the time I turn the volume down and that's it. But I always carry a set of (small) headphones in my pocket, just in case.

Reply

I like to have the sound turned up as often as possible, though sometimes it's not practical to do that depending on where I am. Still, there are some games that I just won't play unless I can listen to the music, at least my first time through. Like Phantom Hourglass or the Sonic Rush games.

Reply

There's a lot of factors that help me decide if I'm going to listen to my game, or my iPod. Obviously, I listen to my game when I play, say, Electroplankton or Jam Sessions. However, if I'm training my pokemon in a field outside a city I've already finished with in Pokemon Pearl, I use that time to multi-task and catch up on my podcasts.

If I'm playing at home and not listening to podcasts, then I like to plug my DS into my Altec Lansing computer speakers and crank it :)

Reply

I play with earphones or stereo speakers... The sound on many games is great, and the crappy sound system on DS simply can't provide the full experience...

even backup and hack some games to get the sound back to the original... english dubbed anime games are terrible...
Hope the same can be done with Final Fantasy IV, which I'm planning on buying the time it hit the shelves... But I really don't intend on playing listening to english voices...

Try playing "Dementium, the Ward" with and without phones... gosh, the heart sound, the creepy fx... all too great. Taiko no Tatsujin I play with the DS over a stereo speaker thats also my cd bag... its nice and it shakes with each hit on the drums... soooo funny!

Reply

I hardly ever listen to the sound, but if I'm going to listen (like on Advance Wars: DoR. The music on that game rawks!) I'm using my headphones. There's just no comparison between the DS' crummy speakers and a good set of earbuds.

Reply

The sound is such an integral part of the experience for me. I'll wait until I have a chance to use headphones before I play the DS - otherwise I feel like I'm missing out.

Reply

I usually like sound and music in games very much and try to experience in just as good quality as the graphics. But with DS games I rarely use headphones, because when I was trying to do so (Brothers In Arms for example), I only noticed how bad the quality of the sound effects and the music is.

Castlevania was enjoyable, though.

Reply

I haven't listen to most handheld games since I first got a gameboy color. Then I moved to the GBA and then DS and still I don't listen to most games sounds. I think what it is for me is that the music and sounds in Pokemon (which is one of the first games I bought for all three systems) got too repeditive for me. Most other games i will listen to for a while but after a while they become distracting and I pop on my mp3 player and listen to music or talk radio.

Reply

I always have the sound on. I turn it down a bit when a game's music gets repetitive, but off only when it would bother other people and I don't want to put in the earbuds.

I agree that the DS's volume slider isn't very accurate, especially since the useful range (from almost off to slightly more than quiet) is only a small part of the full width (I never understood why volume controls go up to 10 when you're only using 0-4 at most).

Reply

It depends on the game. Something like Crosswords or Picross doesn't need sound on, while others like Viewtiful Joe and Insecticide do.

Reply

I consider sound to be an essential part of the gaming experience, so I have the sound on about 90% of the time.

I recommend the Sennheiser PX 100 headphones for the DSL. They sound great, and fold up to about the size of the DSL itself, so they're very portable. They're about $50.

Reply

There are few games I've found the sound to be trivial on. As a fan of headphones, I've even run my DS through an amp and heaphones that each cost much more than the handheld itself. Of course, you only really need a decent pair of $20 headphones to experience the sound how it was intended.

http://www.amazon.com/Koss-KSC75-Portable-Stereophone-Headphones/dp/B0006B486K/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1214239612&sr=8-1 are great for the money.

Reply