Post by ReZourceman on Jan 2, 2007 7:59:14 GMT -5
Hello one and all.
Grab yourself a comfy chair and settle on up around my 2006 DS End of year review. I will be reviewing my year with the DS, and the games that I purchased - So they may not all be new. At the end I will rank all of my games in order. I will also be noting in the individual summaries if I completed the game (Ie did they keep my attention, or was I motivated enough to do so)
(In chronological order)
The games that I purchased Pre-2006
Polarium
Advance Wars Dual Strike
Mario Kart DS
Sonic Rush
The Games that I purchased in 2006
Mr Driller Drill Spirits
Pokemon Link
Metroid Prime Hunters
Animal Crossing
New Super Mario Bros
Mario and Luigi Partners in Time
ElectroPlankton
Dragon Ball Z Super Sonic Warriors 2
Ultimate Spider-Man
Star Wars Episode 3 : Revenge of the Sith
Bomberman DS
SBK Snow Board Kids
Metroid Prime Pinball
Super Princess Peach
LEGO Star Wars 2 : The Original Trilogy
Bust a Move DS
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney
Megaman ZX
StarFox Command
Pokemon Ranger
Final Fantasy 3
Asphalt urban GT 2
So my first purchase of last year was Mr Driller Drill Spirits. I must of got it in about April time ish as this is when I started my job, thus had enough money to throw so much of it at video games. I bought it pre-owned as it was cheap and the puzzle is very simple - You drill out (By pressing 1 button) large chunks and youve got to make your way down without getting crushed. I like the style and the colours, but it didnt keep me amused for too long TBH.
Pokemon Link is an interesting and unique puzzle game. It works well on the DS and has a full, hard, good and lengthy adventure mode. Pretty solid, but not mind blowing.
Metroid Prime Hunters - I dont need to go too much into this as I suspect most people have it, but great gameplay and fantastic graphics. The best thing about it, is that it proves GREAT FPSs can be made for DS if the developers put a little love in.
Animal Crossing is very enjoyable, although I feel that when youve exhausted everything theres not a lot to do. Its thoroughly worth buying though, because when you are occupied by it, it consumes your life!
New Super Mario Bros - An excellent new 2D Mario game? Hell yes. And it delivered. Truly Nuff' Said! (Completed)
Mario and Luigi Partners in Time was a new and fresh experience for me. Ive never played an RPG like it, and it was enjoyable however I feel they could make it much better (That sounds a bit harsh...but Ill expand) There could be a lot more stat alteting items, and I got a tiny bit bored with it. Maybe these things would be better suited to different RPGs, but I will say that the game is still VERY good and genuinely funny!
ElectroPlankton was a very strange purchase. I guess it was a bit of an impulse buy, when I saw it I was very shocked because I didnt know it was getting a Europe release...Also the case is nice and shiny. You make music by playing with different kinds of...tadpole like beings lol. Sounds crazy, and it is! But it can be very relaxing and rewarding and beautiful to watch...However it is rather (/Very) short lived, and you wont get much play time out of it. A £19.99 price tag would of been better suited.
Dragon Ball Z Super Sonic Warriors 2 suprised me. I picked it up as I used to be a DBZ fan, and it was cool to see a variety of characters. It was also nice to Super Saiyan up, but SS3 and SS2 are considered different characters, which is a bit annoying - You should be able to "level up" in battle. All in all a cool little fighter.
Ultimate Spider-Man. If you didnt know Im a huge Spidey fan. Ultimate Spidey is nice at first and its a somewhat good idea (Fight bad guys, AND (literally) save people)
One of the games I bought that really impressed me was Star Wars Episode 3 : Revenge of the Sith. Its on sale a lot of places now, and I thoroughly recommend it - Its a great 2D platformer/Side scrolling action game (Cant REALLY call it platformer) with some nice featurs - Especially for a SW fan. Nice light saber deflections and duels stuff like that...Also a few modes so great replay value! (Completed)
Bomberman DS, again a great cheapie! Its on sale most places for less than £20, and in Sales online for under £15...Which is fantastic. Standard Bomberman stuff, which also utilises the DS features in special modes!
SBK Snow Board Kids yet another great cheapie! I got this for like £9.97 or something. Its a total redesign from the classic (Imho) games on the 64 which I was a HUGEEEE fan of. I was suprised TBH but this is a really good game also! Theres a fair amount of levels, fairly nice control scheme and a few good characters and things to unlock. A sequel is highly needed...they can boost it from "Fairly great" to "8.8 Great" !! *Winks* tightening the control scheme and giving a bigger trick library, would make this a Mario Kart/DKR standards of game, game. I kid thee not. (Completed)
Now for the best pinball game Ive ever played ; Metroid Prime Pinball. This was an import game that I got, and it was £19.99 with the Rumble Pak...SOLD! Its freaking awesome. The graphics look great and its a more than + Pinball game. Its crazy fun racking up hyooge scores on the leaderboard, and its great as I have the top score and my friend cant shift it! (Which doesnt happen to me too often on games!) (Completed)
Super Princess Peach is a pretty nice platform game with a nice, if somewhat shallow puzzle element in the form of emotions. Obviously its pretty much the campest game ever and you dont want to be seen when you buy it *Winks* but nevertheless its pretty entertaining.
Time for the heart breaker of the year. I vowed NEVER to trade in any DS games, no matter how bad - Just so I could have a huge amount. LEGO Star Wars 2 : The Original Trilogy was an exception to that vow. I am a HUGE Lego fan *Looks at sig banner* and a somewhat SW fan, and a huge DS fan = DS Lego SW game, I was FUDGING PUMPED for this. When my local shop got it in on the Friday not the Monday I was like WHHHOOO and I read the instruction manual and drooled at the case all through the day at work. Then I played it. Ive never played a game like this before - And thats not a compliment. Buggy buggy buggy buggy buggy, and Im not talking about a vehicle you can build Geeus seriously. You turn invisible sometimes, the camera angle is ATROCIOUS and the camera "Control" feature moves the view about a milimetre. Awkward ugly port onto the DS basically. No effort put in WHATSOEVER by the developers. A truly sickening game and the worst Ive played in a very very long time. (So I traded it in for a later game)
Bust a Move DS is a great take on the series. In line features with most previous incarnations, and a choice of D-Pad or touch screen control, which is great to have the option. A few good modes also!
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, well who thought talking could be so fun! Its a very cool, story driven, engrossing law game where you examine the evidence and feel smart when you solve a case!
Megaman ZX. Hmmm not bad,...but the levels are a bit big, and un action filled and its a little too hard and complicated. Thats why I stopped playing it. Needs to move a little faster and be less boring and get powerups for the suit more often to be a good/better game, although not too bad.
I was really looking forward to StarFox Command, and I wasnt too disapointed...But I didnt like it for the reason I thought I would. The actual SF bits arent great - Just simple find and destroy dog fights. Which is a bit carpy - I wanted Lylatwars stlyed levels, with a bit more free roaming thrown in. The controls are pretty good though. The strategy aspect Imho is actually stellar - Really enjoyable, especially with exact courses for ships to take being made with the stylus, a great aspect. Its not Star Fox though! :-( (Completed)
42 All Time Classics is the game I traded for SW. Infinitely better lol. Very full game, and theres something in there for everyone, the controls are good and its great, truly great on Wi Fi...Even if I did nothing but get my arse handed to me on chess many times!
Mario VS Donkey Kong 2 March of the Minis I was intruiged by this game, and its another cool Puzzle game by Nintendo. Its a bit like a Puzzle game involved with paltform-ness. You need to stop the Toy Marios from dieing (Walking into enemies, falling off large drops) by altering the levels. Not too bad, but TBH I did get a little bit bored.
I bought Pokemon Ranger because i craved a Pokemon game. Its not bad and the graphics are quite cutesy and nice, and the controls and scheme of how you capture Pokemon is really nice (Spinning a BeyBlade type contraption around them, with possible help from Partied Pokes) but other than that you really dont do a lot. It mixes a bit of RPG element in there, with levelling up your BeyBlade (HP and Length of Capture line) but they cant really keep you occupied for long before you get bored.
Time for eye puncher. Final Fantasy 3. F a n t a s t i c graphics. Like holy cow! Great RPG too. Im not too big of an FF fan, but its pretty hard, nice graphics, nice schemes and cool powers and many items and different options with different jobs. Huge too! Very cool indeed!
Finally my last purchase of 2006. Asphalt urban GT 2, as I wanted a good street racer for the DS. Not too shabby I guess, although I had heard some slightly better reviews than it maybe deserved. Its got more of an arcade feel than I would of liked, but its still pretty solid. Its got nice graphics, and you can change the style of your ride (if a tiny bit restricted) and you can change performance quite in depthly. Also its got Cars and Bikes and a lot of modes. If the gameplay and "pimping" was a bit better this would be great...but its still good. Also on loading screens theres the PussyCat Dolls which is pretty nice to look at (Imo) Although the song by Moby ("Lift Me Up") gets annoying on the title screen (But thats what the volume buttons for, right?)
Now for the hard part for me, putting all my games in order from top to bottom of how good they are!
Advance Wars Dual Strike
Mario Kart DS
New Super Mario Bros
Final Fantasy 3
Star Wars Episode 3 : Revenge of the Sith
Sonic Rush
Animal Crossing
Metroid Prime Hunters
Mario and Luigi Partners in Time
SBK Snow Board Kids
Bomberman DS
Metroid Prime Pinball
Asphalt urban GT 2
StarFox Command
Bust a Move DS
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney
Super Princess Peach
Dragon Ball Z Super Sonic Warriors 2
Polarium
Mario VS DOnkey Kong 2 March of the Minis
ElectroPlankton
Pokemon Link
Mr Driller Drill Spirits
Megaman ZX
Ultimate Spider-Man
Pokemon Ranger
LEGO Star Wars 2 : The Original Trilogy
So my essential purchases awards this year ; The games that everyone must own are ;
Final Fantasy 3
Star Wars Episode 3 (For cheap)
and
SBK (Also if you find it cheap)
Hope you enjoyed this or found it helpful!
Same time next year?
Grab yourself a comfy chair and settle on up around my 2006 DS End of year review. I will be reviewing my year with the DS, and the games that I purchased - So they may not all be new. At the end I will rank all of my games in order. I will also be noting in the individual summaries if I completed the game (Ie did they keep my attention, or was I motivated enough to do so)
(In chronological order)
The games that I purchased Pre-2006
Polarium
Advance Wars Dual Strike
Mario Kart DS
Sonic Rush
The Games that I purchased in 2006
Mr Driller Drill Spirits
Pokemon Link
Metroid Prime Hunters
Animal Crossing
New Super Mario Bros
Mario and Luigi Partners in Time
ElectroPlankton
Dragon Ball Z Super Sonic Warriors 2
Ultimate Spider-Man
Star Wars Episode 3 : Revenge of the Sith
Bomberman DS
SBK Snow Board Kids
Metroid Prime Pinball
Super Princess Peach
LEGO Star Wars 2 : The Original Trilogy
Bust a Move DS
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney
Megaman ZX
StarFox Command
Pokemon Ranger
Final Fantasy 3
Asphalt urban GT 2
So my first purchase of last year was Mr Driller Drill Spirits. I must of got it in about April time ish as this is when I started my job, thus had enough money to throw so much of it at video games. I bought it pre-owned as it was cheap and the puzzle is very simple - You drill out (By pressing 1 button) large chunks and youve got to make your way down without getting crushed. I like the style and the colours, but it didnt keep me amused for too long TBH.
Pokemon Link is an interesting and unique puzzle game. It works well on the DS and has a full, hard, good and lengthy adventure mode. Pretty solid, but not mind blowing.
Metroid Prime Hunters - I dont need to go too much into this as I suspect most people have it, but great gameplay and fantastic graphics. The best thing about it, is that it proves GREAT FPSs can be made for DS if the developers put a little love in.
Animal Crossing is very enjoyable, although I feel that when youve exhausted everything theres not a lot to do. Its thoroughly worth buying though, because when you are occupied by it, it consumes your life!
New Super Mario Bros - An excellent new 2D Mario game? Hell yes. And it delivered. Truly Nuff' Said! (Completed)
Mario and Luigi Partners in Time was a new and fresh experience for me. Ive never played an RPG like it, and it was enjoyable however I feel they could make it much better (That sounds a bit harsh...but Ill expand) There could be a lot more stat alteting items, and I got a tiny bit bored with it. Maybe these things would be better suited to different RPGs, but I will say that the game is still VERY good and genuinely funny!
ElectroPlankton was a very strange purchase. I guess it was a bit of an impulse buy, when I saw it I was very shocked because I didnt know it was getting a Europe release...Also the case is nice and shiny. You make music by playing with different kinds of...tadpole like beings lol. Sounds crazy, and it is! But it can be very relaxing and rewarding and beautiful to watch...However it is rather (/Very) short lived, and you wont get much play time out of it. A £19.99 price tag would of been better suited.
Dragon Ball Z Super Sonic Warriors 2 suprised me. I picked it up as I used to be a DBZ fan, and it was cool to see a variety of characters. It was also nice to Super Saiyan up, but SS3 and SS2 are considered different characters, which is a bit annoying - You should be able to "level up" in battle. All in all a cool little fighter.
Ultimate Spider-Man. If you didnt know Im a huge Spidey fan. Ultimate Spidey is nice at first and its a somewhat good idea (Fight bad guys, AND (literally) save people)
One of the games I bought that really impressed me was Star Wars Episode 3 : Revenge of the Sith. Its on sale a lot of places now, and I thoroughly recommend it - Its a great 2D platformer/Side scrolling action game (Cant REALLY call it platformer) with some nice featurs - Especially for a SW fan. Nice light saber deflections and duels stuff like that...Also a few modes so great replay value! (Completed)
Bomberman DS, again a great cheapie! Its on sale most places for less than £20, and in Sales online for under £15...Which is fantastic. Standard Bomberman stuff, which also utilises the DS features in special modes!
SBK Snow Board Kids yet another great cheapie! I got this for like £9.97 or something. Its a total redesign from the classic (Imho) games on the 64 which I was a HUGEEEE fan of. I was suprised TBH but this is a really good game also! Theres a fair amount of levels, fairly nice control scheme and a few good characters and things to unlock. A sequel is highly needed...they can boost it from "Fairly great" to "8.8 Great" !! *Winks* tightening the control scheme and giving a bigger trick library, would make this a Mario Kart/DKR standards of game, game. I kid thee not. (Completed)
Now for the best pinball game Ive ever played ; Metroid Prime Pinball. This was an import game that I got, and it was £19.99 with the Rumble Pak...SOLD! Its freaking awesome. The graphics look great and its a more than + Pinball game. Its crazy fun racking up hyooge scores on the leaderboard, and its great as I have the top score and my friend cant shift it! (Which doesnt happen to me too often on games!) (Completed)
Super Princess Peach is a pretty nice platform game with a nice, if somewhat shallow puzzle element in the form of emotions. Obviously its pretty much the campest game ever and you dont want to be seen when you buy it *Winks* but nevertheless its pretty entertaining.
Time for the heart breaker of the year. I vowed NEVER to trade in any DS games, no matter how bad - Just so I could have a huge amount. LEGO Star Wars 2 : The Original Trilogy was an exception to that vow. I am a HUGE Lego fan *Looks at sig banner* and a somewhat SW fan, and a huge DS fan = DS Lego SW game, I was FUDGING PUMPED for this. When my local shop got it in on the Friday not the Monday I was like WHHHOOO and I read the instruction manual and drooled at the case all through the day at work. Then I played it. Ive never played a game like this before - And thats not a compliment. Buggy buggy buggy buggy buggy, and Im not talking about a vehicle you can build Geeus seriously. You turn invisible sometimes, the camera angle is ATROCIOUS and the camera "Control" feature moves the view about a milimetre. Awkward ugly port onto the DS basically. No effort put in WHATSOEVER by the developers. A truly sickening game and the worst Ive played in a very very long time. (So I traded it in for a later game)
Bust a Move DS is a great take on the series. In line features with most previous incarnations, and a choice of D-Pad or touch screen control, which is great to have the option. A few good modes also!
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, well who thought talking could be so fun! Its a very cool, story driven, engrossing law game where you examine the evidence and feel smart when you solve a case!
Megaman ZX. Hmmm not bad,...but the levels are a bit big, and un action filled and its a little too hard and complicated. Thats why I stopped playing it. Needs to move a little faster and be less boring and get powerups for the suit more often to be a good/better game, although not too bad.
I was really looking forward to StarFox Command, and I wasnt too disapointed...But I didnt like it for the reason I thought I would. The actual SF bits arent great - Just simple find and destroy dog fights. Which is a bit carpy - I wanted Lylatwars stlyed levels, with a bit more free roaming thrown in. The controls are pretty good though. The strategy aspect Imho is actually stellar - Really enjoyable, especially with exact courses for ships to take being made with the stylus, a great aspect. Its not Star Fox though! :-( (Completed)
42 All Time Classics is the game I traded for SW. Infinitely better lol. Very full game, and theres something in there for everyone, the controls are good and its great, truly great on Wi Fi...Even if I did nothing but get my arse handed to me on chess many times!
Mario VS Donkey Kong 2 March of the Minis I was intruiged by this game, and its another cool Puzzle game by Nintendo. Its a bit like a Puzzle game involved with paltform-ness. You need to stop the Toy Marios from dieing (Walking into enemies, falling off large drops) by altering the levels. Not too bad, but TBH I did get a little bit bored.
I bought Pokemon Ranger because i craved a Pokemon game. Its not bad and the graphics are quite cutesy and nice, and the controls and scheme of how you capture Pokemon is really nice (Spinning a BeyBlade type contraption around them, with possible help from Partied Pokes) but other than that you really dont do a lot. It mixes a bit of RPG element in there, with levelling up your BeyBlade (HP and Length of Capture line) but they cant really keep you occupied for long before you get bored.
Time for eye puncher. Final Fantasy 3. F a n t a s t i c graphics. Like holy cow! Great RPG too. Im not too big of an FF fan, but its pretty hard, nice graphics, nice schemes and cool powers and many items and different options with different jobs. Huge too! Very cool indeed!
Finally my last purchase of 2006. Asphalt urban GT 2, as I wanted a good street racer for the DS. Not too shabby I guess, although I had heard some slightly better reviews than it maybe deserved. Its got more of an arcade feel than I would of liked, but its still pretty solid. Its got nice graphics, and you can change the style of your ride (if a tiny bit restricted) and you can change performance quite in depthly. Also its got Cars and Bikes and a lot of modes. If the gameplay and "pimping" was a bit better this would be great...but its still good. Also on loading screens theres the PussyCat Dolls which is pretty nice to look at (Imo) Although the song by Moby ("Lift Me Up") gets annoying on the title screen (But thats what the volume buttons for, right?)
Now for the hard part for me, putting all my games in order from top to bottom of how good they are!
Advance Wars Dual Strike
Mario Kart DS
New Super Mario Bros
Final Fantasy 3
Star Wars Episode 3 : Revenge of the Sith
Sonic Rush
Animal Crossing
Metroid Prime Hunters
Mario and Luigi Partners in Time
SBK Snow Board Kids
Bomberman DS
Metroid Prime Pinball
Asphalt urban GT 2
StarFox Command
Bust a Move DS
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney
Super Princess Peach
Dragon Ball Z Super Sonic Warriors 2
Polarium
Mario VS DOnkey Kong 2 March of the Minis
ElectroPlankton
Pokemon Link
Mr Driller Drill Spirits
Megaman ZX
Ultimate Spider-Man
Pokemon Ranger
LEGO Star Wars 2 : The Original Trilogy
So my essential purchases awards this year ; The games that everyone must own are ;
Final Fantasy 3
Star Wars Episode 3 (For cheap)
and
SBK (Also if you find it cheap)
Hope you enjoyed this or found it helpful!
Same time next year?
