Hi all,

We're buying Nintendo DS Lite's for the kids this Christmas (3 girls and 
a boy between ages 4 and 10) and I need some game recommendations. I 
don't know much about the platform or the games available for it.

I want to get them games with good playability/longevity, rather than 
gimicky titles that won't keep their attention. They all enjoy the Lego 
games on the PS2 and they've spent hours playing SuperTux on the PC.

I don't mind buying older titles, especially second-hand ones!

I'm sure they'd like the multi-player link-up feature, but I guess each 
Nintendo needs a copy of the same game to play?

I've heard Animal Crossing is good.

Game recommendations/advice appreciated

Thanks

Reuben
reu### [at] pearsecouk

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New Super Mario Bros. and Professor Layton and the Curious Village. Both 
might be hard for a 4 year old but should be fine for 7 and up.

 - Slime
 [ http://www.slimeland.com/ ]

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I suppose Scribblenauts would be the most innovative game in recent history
(might even surpass Portal in that category), but I don't know if it would be
too difficult for a 4yo or even a 10yo (although in the latter case it could
work). I believe it would be cool for *you*.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Reuben Pearse wrote:
> Game recommendations/advice appreciated

Considering their ages, I would say Yoshi's Island is a good choice. 
It's a wonderful platformer with nice graphics, many levels, easy play 
on most levels, with cute, although sometimes annoying sounds. My little 
brother thoroughly enjoyed the SNES version, which is very similar. On 
the NDS version there are some mini games you can unlock, and there is 
even an enemy museum where you can view all the enemies you have 
encountered and beaten. While the game is mostly easy, to get 100% on 
all the levels requires great skill, so there is a certain amount of 
replay value there as well.

Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is fun, though it is very hard. You control the 
main character with only the stylus which is gimmicky, but 
well-executed. Some of the levels had me tearing my hair in frustration, 
because time is not on your side. I never liked time limits of any sort.

Super Princess Peach is a game I have not played too much, but from what 
I have seen it appears to be a well-made platformer more geared towards 
girls than boys.

The Castlevania series is nothing short of awesome. These are action-RPG 
platformers where you get to explore huge worlds. I have played both 
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. POR's 
soundtrack is among the best to be found anywhere and allows one to play 
as both the leading hero and the leading heroine. With both games you 
can acquire many items and unlock different game modes and even a sound 
mode, so the replay value for these tiles is very high. The violence 
level, however, may not be appropriate for young ones, depending on what 
you let them be exposed to.

New Super Mario Bros. is a probably must-have for any NDS owner. Great 
music, pleasing graphics and wild levels make this platformer great fun 
for all ages.

Sam

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Hi Reuben,

The DS game that I recommend most highly is "New Super Mario Bros DS". 
It is clever, challenging and very enjoyable.  My boys who are aged 10 
and 7 absolutely love it.  They are going to receive the just released 
Wii version for a Christmas present.  Looks like similar game play but 
with multi-player (up to 4) in the actual game levels.

NSMB-DS includes a mode where 2 players can play head to head from the 
one game card.  This is in special levels rather than the full game but 
they share items and themes.

Longevity is certainly there.  It is the game that we all go back to 
most often.  There are several different character modes / abilities and 
each level can be played in different ways depending on which of these 
you have.  You change / upgrade by acquiring items and the mode carries 
over from level to level.  Doing say World 3 Level 5 as 'Mini Mario' is 
distinctly different from doing it in other modes.  There are lots of 
secret areas to look for.

Apart from that, I would also recommend 'Tetris' and 'Super Mario 64 
DS'.  The 'Brain Training' and 'Professor Layton' games are also good. 
If you like fast twitch games then 'Geometry Wars: Galaxies' is great.

Have fun!

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>  I suppose Scribblenauts would be the most innovative game in recent 
> history
> (might even surpass Portal in that category), but I don't know if it would 
> be
> too difficult for a 4yo or even a 10yo (although in the latter case it 
> could
> work). I believe it would be cool for *you*.

Scribblenauts is a game with a very cool, innovative gameplay mechanic that 
is rather poorly executed as an actual complete *game*. The worst offender 
is the controls, which is too bad, because it wouldn't be that hard to 
improve on them.

 - Slime
 [ http://www.slimeland.com/ ]

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Slime wrote:
> Scribblenauts is a game with a very cool, innovative gameplay mechanic that 
> is rather poorly executed as an actual complete *game*.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/969-Scribblenauts

I always enjoy Zero Punctuation reviews. (May have spoilers, if there is 
such a thing for such a game.)

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   I ordered stamps from Zazzle that read "Place Stamp Here".

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On Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:55:13 +0100, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>
> http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/969-Scribblenauts

Another point of view:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/9/23



-- 
FE

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Some games require each person to have a copy, others have the ability
to share the cartridge when the players are in the same room. The back
of the boxes says either Multi-card play (each person has to have a
card) or Single-card download play.

My advice, since it is a Nintendo platform, is Mario Kart. My whole
family plays this, parents and sister, over the internet. Occasionally
with cellphones open and on speaker so we can yell at each other.

Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is good too. My sister and I bought it to play
when we gather on family get-togethers.

After that, it depends on the kinds of games they like. I bought a DS
for a bunch of retro RPGs that got released for the system. Lunar:
Legend and Final Fantasy: Tactics Advance were on the Gameboy Advance,
which will play on the DS and DS lite, but not the DSi. For the DS,
Chrono Trigger and Children of Mana. Stratagy games like Final Fantasy:
Tactics and Heros of Mana are fun.

NintenDogs was interesting for a little while, might be fun for kids
that don't have pets.

Phoenix Wright is fun, so is Trauma Center, but both of those might be a
little tough on the younger kids. First is a detective series, solving
murder mysteries. Second is hospital/surgery/scifi, unexplainable but fun.

The DS line can also load some emulators, to play games from other
platforms. I keep several old Nintendo and SNES games on hand for this.

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stbenge wrote:
> Reuben Pearse wrote:
>> Game recommendations/advice appreciated
> 
> Considering their ages, I would say Yoshi's Island is a good choice. 

forget age, it's one of the best platform games ever. :)

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