Bordersdown's Super Ultimate "Best DS Games Ever" Thread

[Champloo]

What a great thread. It's easy to see how it would have taken hours to compile.

[DeathAdder]

I'm not sure this flaw is actually crippling: native French speakers don't know the genders of French nouns.

I get the impression that in conversation, the native French just tend to "talk through" the gender, so that an abbreviated "l" sound is used irrespective of the correct "le" or "la".

When I came home after a month in France, surrounded almost entirely by native speakers & having met very few English during my time there, she corrected me for not using "pas" at the end of negation. I'm pretty sure I picked this up from locals - of course, it's quite possible they were just being polite and not correcting my mistake, but I think that I've listened to language courses since which have confirmed that the French tend to do this. (EG: "je suis un pomme" = "I am an apple"; "je ne suis pas un pomme" = correct way to say "I am not an apple"; "je ne suis un pomme" = common conversational shortcut for "I am not an apple").

Stroller.

Maybe, but this DS title is not aimed at native speakers, and while the French may well talk through the le or la, if you don't know the gender, you're going to come unstuck when you want to use un or une, ils or elles, and you will be unable to make the adjective agree correctly.

Native English speakers often don't know English grammar - they just know what sounds more-or-less right. You can't compare the way they learn with how speakers of other languages learn.

The lack of genders makes this next to useless, in my opinion anyway, since I need another source to look them up.

[Strolls]

Maybe, but this DS title is not aimed at native speakers, and while the French may well talk through the le or la, if you don't know the gender, you're going to come unstuck when you want to use un or une, ils or elles, and you will be unable to make the adjective agree correctly.
...

The lack of genders makes this next to useless, in my opinion anyway, since I need another source to look them up.

I don't think My French Coach should be used as a sole language-learning resource - but nor should any language book or audio course, either. I've borrowed about 3 courses on CD from my local library - why would you depend on one?

My French Coach should just, IMO, be regarded as another way to learn some vocabulary, and one that's more fun than trying to memorise a dictionary.

I don't ever remember any of the genders - use un or une, ils or elles - and I can certainly get away with carrying complex conversations in French (when I'm in practice), discussing hang-gliding and associated weather conditions with native speakers.

Stroller.

[DeathAdder]

Fair enough. It just seems enough to me to be enough to disqualify it as one of the DS's best. Not the series in its entirety - as I said, the Chinese one is very good. As it starts from the basics, it just seems silly to me not to get beginners into the habit of learning the gender.

[Strolls]

Well, I mentioned the French version because I haven't used any of the others in the Language Coach series - I'm pretty sure there was a First Play thread in which someone reviewed the Japanese version. I would be quite happy for toythatkills to change the entry to refer to the "My Language Coach series" & point out this shortcoming. As for it being "one of the DS's best" - well, this is in context of the very sparse Utilities section that also includes "100 Books You'd Never Buy In Paperback" :P

[egparadigm]

Something I'd like to know is which games are best for travel purposes. The only games I have for DS atm are Zelda and Phoenix Wright. Because both are logic-based and tend towards linearity, it can be very frustrating when you get stumped whilst on a journey. I often get my DS out on the bus, start playing, get stuck after five minutes, keep hammering away for ten minutes without success and ultimately return it to my bag.

As I'm not a big puzzle fan, it's difficult to know what would be a good choice.

[toythatkills]

Pretty hard to say, actually, since Phoenix Wright is something I quite enjoyed playing on the bus; not needing to use a stylus really helps! That, and puzzle games, which are perfect for short journeys!

I'd say platformers would be a good bet, for sure. Retro Game Challenge too has a few different games so there's bound to be something you find nice! If you like RPGs, they're pretty perfect, since if you can get stuck you can always just mess around and grind for a bit, so they're good for fifteen minute sessions here and there. I want to recommend Ouendan and the other music games, but they're pretty rubbish on the bus! Big Bang Mini is horrible on the bus too but the other shooters are probably pretty good.

This post might be a bit more vague than you were hoping for

[gaanbo]

Something I'd like to know is which games are best for travel purposes. The only games I have for DS atm are Zelda and Phoenix Wright. Because both are logic-based and tend towards linearity, it can be very frustrating when you get stumped whilst on a journey. I often get my DS out on the bus, start playing, get stuck after five minutes, keep hammering away for ten minutes without success and ultimately return it to my bag.

As I'm not a big puzzle fan, it's difficult to know what would be a good choice.

Space Invaders Extreme might be a good choice.

[MisterBubbles]

any of the fighting games mentioned also AoE mythologies has a save anytime feature so you can get into 15-30 heavy session then just save it as you near your journeys end

[abigsmurf]

Professor Layton is a great one for busses. It's rare a puzzle will stump you longer than a bus journey.

I play a lot of RPGs, the sleep feature on the DS makes them a lot better than you'd think on busses (just make sure you keep the DS charged)

Never play heavy touchscreen using action games on a bus. You don't really how much you're bouncing around until you need to be really accurate or have to trace a set path on the screen.

[toythatkills]

Professor Layton is a great one for busses. It's rare a puzzle will stump you longer than a bus journey.

Good shout.

Never play heavy touchscreen using action games on a bus. You don't really how much you're bouncing around until you need to be really accurate or have to trace a set path on the screen.

Haha, yeah. I tried to play Big Bang Mini on the bus the other day, and it took me 45 minutes worth of travel to do one level that should have taken two minutes. Every time I'd be close to winning there'd be a massive bump and I'd smash my ship into some enemy bullets by mistake. Disaster.

I never had trouble playing Ouendan on a train though.

[abigsmurf]

Oh god, Ready Steady Go on a bus.

*after 10 tries in a row*

"awesome I'm on the final section I could actually do thi..."

*BUMP*
*miss* *miss*
GAME OVER

"Argh!!!!!!!!"

[S_rank]

Really good thread I didn't get a chance to vote but I think there are a few games that need adding

Mario vs donkey kong march of the minis .
yoshi island ds.
trauma center series
honey comb beat. really good logic puzzle game that doesn't get the love it deserves and the endless tetris sort of mode in it is solid also

[JamesS]

I couldn't get on with Honeycomb Beat. I never really managed to work out an approach to solving the puzzles that was much more advanced that just randomly trying stuff to see what happened. I might have to give it another go.

[davesol]

What a great thread. There are definately 5 or 6 games that I'd like to get hold of based on reading this. Really impressed with the amount of time that must have gone into writing all that.

Thanks to everyone who contributed, whether you realised it or not (I stole a few comments from First Play!)

I was so chuffed to see my civ revolution opinion quoted. It's inspired me to contribute to First play more