The Nintendo DS
By Thonos
3/1/2016
As I have said in other console articles I have wrote, I was never a big fan of handheld devices. Even though I played some great games on the Playstation Portable, I was never a huge fan of it. I have the same feelings when it comes to the Nintendo DS. I played some great games on then system and while I did spend more time on it than my PSP, I have less favorite games for it. But that is not to say that the system is bad, for what it offered at the time this was a great system depending on what types of games you were looking for.
How I got a Nintendo DS was pretty funny. I was at work one night and a couple of guys on the crew I was working with were talking about the remakes of Pokemon Gold and SIlver that were coming out. I remember selling the original Gold and Silver pre-orders to customers back in 2000 but was never interested in the franchise myself. By the time Pokemon has becoming big over here in the United States I moved my gaming focus to PC. However, the guys on my crew did end up getting the remakes when they came out and kept saying how good they were. After the one guy showed me his copy of Pokemon Platinum (this was the current Pokemon game out at the time), I decided I would give one of the remakes a chance. After a little research I decided to get Soul Silver and a Nintendo DSi, which was the newer version of the Nintendo DS.
Over the course of my playthrough of Pokemon Soul Silver I put just under 200 hours into it. Between the sheer amount of content, trading online with other players, the events in game that changed depending on what actual day it is and just trying to catch them all, this was an amazing game for the system. One thing I have always known about the series is that if you look past the kid themed story and presentation, you have a very good strategy game. This was the first time I took any type of game to work with me so I could play on my lunch. While I did try the next new release in the franchise (Pokemon Black), I never got very far into it. To me, Pokemon Soul Silver was probably the best game I played on the DS.
Other games that enjoyed on the system where Suikoden Tierkreis, Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor and Advance Wars Days of Ruin. Suikoden Tierkries is based on the Suikoden series of games which I never got into. I saw this game, looked interesting, gave it a try and enjoyed it. Advance Wars is a series that always looked interesting to me but I never got into it since I never had a Game Boy Advance. Shortly after I got my DS I picked up this game along with Advance Wars Dual Strike and have not been disappointed. Being a fan of Shin Megami Tensei games, Devil Survivor was an obvious pickup for me and a game I found to be interesting and good. I ended up getting Devil Survivor 2 when that came out as well due to how much I enjoyed the first game.
While Bleach games never made it over to the PSP, they did make it over the the Nintendo DS. We ended up getting three games, my two favorites being Bleach Dark Souls and Bleach The 3rd Phantom. Bleach Dark Souls is a 2D fighting game that let you pick from 44 characters and go through a story, arcade and vs mode. Bleach The 3rd Phantom is a strategy RPG that uses the Bleach setting and characters to tell its story. Both games were very well done and games that continued to go back to even after I had completed them.
I ended up getting a decent collection of DS over time, nothing fancy but games that I did find interesting. Games like The Dark Spire, Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey, Lufia Curse of the Sinistrals, Knights in the Nightmare and Final Fantasy III are examples of other decent games that I got. Overall though I was never able to be fully overjoyed for the system. Maybe it was due to the fact that I never really took it outside the house much to use so when I was home I always preferred to play games on my computer. This is not to say I found the DS boring to play, the games I enjoyed on it I put a lot of hours into. I just never found that many games on the system that I found exceptional.
I own both a Nintendo DS Lite and a DSi. While the DSi is the better model, at the time I wanted a DS Lite to play Gameboy Advance games on. One thing I will say about the DS systems that I had was that they both held up very well and still look like new today. The dual screens on the DSi looked good and the touch pad worked very well on every game I owned that supported it. The only complaint I have about the DS is the sound, but even then I usually found it to have good audio playback, mine would just crackle every so often.
This is a system that I rarely collect for now. If I'm out somewhere and see a cheap game for it I might get it depending what it is. I did enjoy my time with the system and I do occasionally go back to play teh Bleach games on it. It was due to this system that I did get a Nintendo 3DS when that came out. While I am still not a huge fan of hand held gaming systems, the Nintendo DS did get me more involved to pay attention to the games that did come out on them.
By Thonos
3/1/2016
As I have said in other console articles I have wrote, I was never a big fan of handheld devices. Even though I played some great games on the Playstation Portable, I was never a huge fan of it. I have the same feelings when it comes to the Nintendo DS. I played some great games on then system and while I did spend more time on it than my PSP, I have less favorite games for it. But that is not to say that the system is bad, for what it offered at the time this was a great system depending on what types of games you were looking for.
How I got a Nintendo DS was pretty funny. I was at work one night and a couple of guys on the crew I was working with were talking about the remakes of Pokemon Gold and SIlver that were coming out. I remember selling the original Gold and Silver pre-orders to customers back in 2000 but was never interested in the franchise myself. By the time Pokemon has becoming big over here in the United States I moved my gaming focus to PC. However, the guys on my crew did end up getting the remakes when they came out and kept saying how good they were. After the one guy showed me his copy of Pokemon Platinum (this was the current Pokemon game out at the time), I decided I would give one of the remakes a chance. After a little research I decided to get Soul Silver and a Nintendo DSi, which was the newer version of the Nintendo DS.
Over the course of my playthrough of Pokemon Soul Silver I put just under 200 hours into it. Between the sheer amount of content, trading online with other players, the events in game that changed depending on what actual day it is and just trying to catch them all, this was an amazing game for the system. One thing I have always known about the series is that if you look past the kid themed story and presentation, you have a very good strategy game. This was the first time I took any type of game to work with me so I could play on my lunch. While I did try the next new release in the franchise (Pokemon Black), I never got very far into it. To me, Pokemon Soul Silver was probably the best game I played on the DS.
Other games that enjoyed on the system where Suikoden Tierkreis, Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor and Advance Wars Days of Ruin. Suikoden Tierkries is based on the Suikoden series of games which I never got into. I saw this game, looked interesting, gave it a try and enjoyed it. Advance Wars is a series that always looked interesting to me but I never got into it since I never had a Game Boy Advance. Shortly after I got my DS I picked up this game along with Advance Wars Dual Strike and have not been disappointed. Being a fan of Shin Megami Tensei games, Devil Survivor was an obvious pickup for me and a game I found to be interesting and good. I ended up getting Devil Survivor 2 when that came out as well due to how much I enjoyed the first game.
While Bleach games never made it over to the PSP, they did make it over the the Nintendo DS. We ended up getting three games, my two favorites being Bleach Dark Souls and Bleach The 3rd Phantom. Bleach Dark Souls is a 2D fighting game that let you pick from 44 characters and go through a story, arcade and vs mode. Bleach The 3rd Phantom is a strategy RPG that uses the Bleach setting and characters to tell its story. Both games were very well done and games that continued to go back to even after I had completed them.
I ended up getting a decent collection of DS over time, nothing fancy but games that I did find interesting. Games like The Dark Spire, Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey, Lufia Curse of the Sinistrals, Knights in the Nightmare and Final Fantasy III are examples of other decent games that I got. Overall though I was never able to be fully overjoyed for the system. Maybe it was due to the fact that I never really took it outside the house much to use so when I was home I always preferred to play games on my computer. This is not to say I found the DS boring to play, the games I enjoyed on it I put a lot of hours into. I just never found that many games on the system that I found exceptional.
I own both a Nintendo DS Lite and a DSi. While the DSi is the better model, at the time I wanted a DS Lite to play Gameboy Advance games on. One thing I will say about the DS systems that I had was that they both held up very well and still look like new today. The dual screens on the DSi looked good and the touch pad worked very well on every game I owned that supported it. The only complaint I have about the DS is the sound, but even then I usually found it to have good audio playback, mine would just crackle every so often.
This is a system that I rarely collect for now. If I'm out somewhere and see a cheap game for it I might get it depending what it is. I did enjoy my time with the system and I do occasionally go back to play teh Bleach games on it. It was due to this system that I did get a Nintendo 3DS when that came out. While I am still not a huge fan of hand held gaming systems, the Nintendo DS did get me more involved to pay attention to the games that did come out on them.