Sure, the DS is known to have its problems -- like hinge cracks and shoulder buttons that sudden give up the ghost -- but how does your handheld stack up to your other electronics? We know many DS owners who are on their second (or third) PS2, and we don't even need to start comparing numbers when it comes to the infamous 360 red ring of death (because we can't count that high). Not every system has its problems, however, and even those that are common don't strike everyone. Some people just get lucky.
What we want to know, however, is how reliable is your DS -- and your other Nintendo products -- when compared to those other systems? More reliable, worse, or about the same? Have you had any experience with Nintendo's customer service? If so, how was that?
We asked you a while back to draw something in a demo version of the Drawn to Life character editor. But now that (we assume) some of you have the game and have chosen an avatar for real, we want to know what it is. How did you choose to represent yourself (or, we guess, how would you, for those of you who want to play along with no purchase necessary)?
Did you draw yourself? Your friend? A zombie? A robot? A puppy? A pile of puppies? The Kool-Aid Man? Mario? Wario? Ernie Keebler? Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's Rat Fink? Some random scribbles? Swamp Thing? Ace Frehley? Potatoes? "The Scream"? Robocop? James Pond: Robocod? James Bond, Jr.? Law & Order's Jerry Orbach? Cap'n Crunch? The other Cap'n Crunch?
Well, okay, we know what many of you chose. Don't tell us about that.
Final Fantasy IV is making a change that makes everything new old again -- as in many later games, in the DS remake, characters will be able to learn abilities that were once unique to other characters in previous versions of the game. Siliconera has the details from a recent article in Jump magazine:
" ... one of the newer features to grace the Final Fantasy IV DS remake is the ability of your (main) party members to inherit the abilities of former party members. As I mentioned above, it is possible for Cecil to inherit Edward's Sing ability as well as Palom and Porom's Twin Magic ability ... This makes things a bit interesting as it allows you the ability to customize your characters will [sic] skills that highly benefited you from previous party members, though I don't know how much you benefited from Edward's singing."
Hmm. It's an interesting change, and we're sure opinions will be all over the place. Where do you stand? We're frankly undecided as yet, but it's not like you have to use anything ... so, does it really matter?
When we saw this yesterday, we couldn't help but feel a stab of jealousy, because there are loads of people out there touching Tingle -- and we're not among them. Tomorrow, loads more will join in the fun. Are you among them? You lucky European gamers (how often do we get to say that? bask in your moment of glory!) out there, are you planning on picking up Weirdly-Titled Tingle's Odd Offering? That is the title, isn't it? As for the rest of you gaming adventurers ... anyone making the leap and importing Tingle's RPG? We must admit that the prospect is tempting ....
There are a lot of games on the DS whose origins are in free online games. Some, like Diner Dash, Nervous Brickdown, and the upcoming N+ and WordJong, are good, or even great. Some are Elf Bowling 1&2. In every case of a free game getting remade as a DS cartridge, money is charged.
Do you have any games based on freeware? Do you plan on getting any in the near future? Is compelling gameplay enough to warrant a purchase for a portable console, when the experience can be had for nothing on PC? Or do you require significant expansion and upgrading before you'd even consider it?
Our personal view: even if a game costs nothing, that doesn't mean it has no value. We don't want to pay strictly for portability, but we're entirely willing to shell out for new content in a game whose progenitors were once free. Not Elf Bowling 1&2, though.
We happened across this article a while back and have been thinking about it ever since. We hear -- and talk -- a lot about romance and gaming, and this piece on couples who meet in virtual worlds was intriguing. After all, Nintendo's online service is probably the only one that makes this sort of hook-up close to impossible. The other consoles have not just games with immersive worlds, but also more flexible meet-and-message systems. Heck, even the lowly PS2 plays host to Vana'diel for many FFXI players (as do other consoles).
Nintendo can certainly bring people together through a common love of something great, but it probably won't be online, at least for now. But are any of you lucky enough to have found someone who loves Nintendo as much as you do? Sure, maybe we have to meet our significant others in meatspace, but we can still share something in our mutual love of great games.
Thinking about the recent Brain Age 2bundle and all the bundles that haunted the Wii launch has us thinking about the idea in general. In theory, we're not against it; one-game bundles aren't so bad, especially if you already want the game, or bundles that allow buyers to choose a combination of titles that suit them. But for the most part, it seems bundles are designed to make people spend money on things they don't want or need in order to pick up a desired piece of hardware, which is definitely something we're against on principle. How do you feel about bundles? Have there been a few that you didn't mind over the years, or do you avoid them on principle?
If Nintendo has anything, it's a lot of long-running franchises (oh, and also, giant piles of money). But should they all still be going? Deep in your secret heart, is there one you'd like to see retired? Maybe the games have taken a turn for the worse, or simply aren't fresh any longer. It's okay to complain sometimes, even if you love all things Nintendo. We'll still like you. So, if you have a beef, let it out, and tell us what you'd like to see disappear ... or at least experience a drastic overhaul.
We love the Sonic Rush Adventure trailer featured in yesterday's Friday Video. We figured that, since we felt like chatting about Sonic today in our morning discussion, we'd accompany the post with an encore of the trailer. The combination of overenthusiastic narration and suspicious obfuscation of screen events makes us laugh every time we see it. But, like all good art, it also makes us think.
We (I) have been accused of having an anti-Sonic bias, so we won't go into too much detail, but, simply put, the first Sonic Rush didn't meet with our approval like it did others'. It just didn't do a good enough job of recreating the authentic Sonic feel-- mostly because of the level design. But that's just our opinion! We want to know what you think.
Did you like Sonic Rush? Do you still play it? And are you planning to go in for the sequel?
Yes, we all know Pokemon games move off the shelf like hotcakes at a lumberjack's convention, but could we have guessed that Pokemon Diamond would be the best-selling game on any system this year in North America? We wouldn't have guessed that ourselves, to tell the truth. Not only that, but both Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl have already sold 3 million copies in the U.S. alone.
Would you have guessed the game would do this well? How many copies do you think will sell before the end of the year? Tell us what's on your mind.
If you're anything like us, you may have more than one DS. Unless you play a lot of multiplayer with your sad, lonely, DS-less friends, that extra unit may not see a lot of use. If that's the case, what do you do with that extra unit when it's not in use? Sometimes we let cats lick it, if they are so inclined, because we like to share, but it often sits forgotten on a table or bookshelf ... unless we decided to set up something funny (to see how long it takes for others to notice it). See above. For the record, you could not pay us to challenge Ein at multiplayer anything.
What do you do with yours? Or, if you are extra-free, what would you do?
The little hole in the side of the DS is nominally designed for the wrist strap, to keep your DS safe from slippery-hand syndrome. In addition, for the original DS, it provides access to the thumb-stick thing for Super Mario 64 DS.
However, that little indentation also provides another outlet for self-expression. There's no end to the junk you can dangle from your DS: cell phone charms, screen cleaners, extra styli, preorder-bonusstuff, homemade beadwork-- whatever you can imagine, you can tether it to the side of your console. Are you rocking any charms?
We post a lot about cases. We can't seem to help it; the DS is like a paper doll to us, and it needs an array of clothing. Also, we like to avoid scratching it when it's bouncing around in a backpack or purse. But not all cases work as advertised; there's nothing like unzipping your backpack only to find your games and system scattered around, lying in the layer of dust and debris that accumulates in the shadowed recess at the bottom of your bag. Others are just a pain; stretchy system "suspenders" are too tight or too loose, or snaps won't quite snap. Others seem to be dirt magnets and change color within hours of purchase, moving from cute light blue to nondescript brown. Tells us your bad case stories, so we know what to avoid.
On that note, are we the only ones not terribly pleased with the case included in the Brain Age 2 bundle? The pockets for the carts are almost too tight, and the clasp doesn't lie flush with the case, which means it's more likely to pop open just when you don't want it to pop open. As cases go, it's okay -- and it looks great -- but we've seen better.
Sometimes, you pick up a game just for the hell of it. Maybe you think it looks funny or like a good time waster, or maybe you're dedicated to a certain franchise or genre so much that a few poor reviews aren't going to stop you. You buy it anyway, and it ends up being just great -- for you, at least. It's even better when you find a game that didn't do so well at a bargain price, take a chance on it, and find out you love it like you've loved no game in recent memory.
These are always our favorites. It's an easy thing to buy a game that everyone seems to like or that gets great reviews. It just seems more satisfying when you happen across something and pick it up on a whim.
No, really, let's talk about whatever you want. It's Sunday, and for those of us in the U.S., it's a holiday weekend, so it's a good time to relax and discuss ... whatever. Like online petitions, for instance -- we get a lot of those. Do you guys believe they can ever do any good? We don't have to be serious, either. Doing much gaming this weekend, or spending the time outside? Anyone else getting tired of the heat and feel the urge to just stay in side and raise that brain age? Or, if you're in the mood to make requests, let us know what we're not talking about enough.
We asked you a while back to draw something in a demo version of the Drawn to Life character editor. But now that (we assume) some of you have the game and have chosen an avatar for real, we want to know what it is. How did you choose to represent yourself (or, we guess, how would you, for those of you who want to play along with no purchase necessary)?
When we saw this yesterday, we couldn't help but feel a stab of jealousy, because there are loads of people out there touching Tingle -- and we're not among them. Tomorrow, loads more will join in the fun. Are you among them? You lucky European gamers (how often do we get to say that? bask in your moment of glory!) out there, are you planning on picking up Weirdly-Titled Tingle's Odd Offering? That is the title, isn't it? As for the rest of you gaming adventurers ... anyone making the leap and importing Tingle's RPG? We must admit that the prospect is tempting ....
There are a lot of games on the DS whose origins are in free online games. Some, like Diner Dash, Nervous Brickdown, and the upcoming N+ and WordJong, are good, or even great. Some are Elf Bowling 1&2. In every case of a free game getting remade as a DS cartridge, money is charged.
We happened across this article a while back and have been thinking about it ever since. We hear -- and talk -- a lot about romance and gaming, and this piece on couples who meet in virtual worlds was intriguing. After all, Nintendo's online service is probably the only one that makes this sort of hook-up close to impossible. The other consoles have not just games with immersive worlds, but also more flexible meet-and-message systems. Heck, even the lowly PS2 plays host to Vana'diel for many FFXI players (as do other consoles).
If Nintendo has anything, it's a lot of long-running franchises (oh, and also, giant piles of money). But should they all still be going? Deep in your secret heart, is there one you'd like to see retired? Maybe the games have taken a turn for the worse, or simply aren't fresh any longer. It's okay to complain sometimes, even if you love all things Nintendo. We'll still like you. So, if you have a beef, let it out, and tell us what you'd like to see disappear ... or at least experience a drastic overhaul.
Yes, we all know Pokemon games move off the shelf like hotcakes at a lumberjack's convention, but could we have guessed that Pokemon Diamond would be the best-selling game on any system this year in North America? We wouldn't have guessed that ourselves, to tell the truth. Not only that, but both Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl have already sold 3 million copies in the U.S. alone.
Sometimes, you pick up a game just for the hell of it. Maybe you think it looks funny or like a good time waster, or maybe you're dedicated to a certain franchise or genre so much that a few poor reviews aren't going to stop you. You buy it anyway, and it ends up being just great -- for you, at least. It's even better when you find a game that didn't do so well at a bargain price, take a chance on it, and find out you love it like you've loved no game in recent memory.
No, really, let's talk about whatever you want. It's Sunday, and for those of us in the U.S., it's a holiday weekend, so it's a good time to relax and discuss ... whatever. Like online petitions, for instance -- we get a lot of those. Do you guys believe they can ever do any good? We don't have to be serious, either. Doing much gaming this weekend, or spending the time outside? Anyone else getting tired of the heat and feel the urge to just stay in side and raise that brain age? Or, if you're in the mood to make requests, let us know what we're not talking about enough.
