Recommend DSiWare games

[johnblade]

I just got myself a new DSi XL system two days ago for $119 dollars in a special promotion sale. I was wondering from the people here on racketboy who bought some DSiWare, what games you would recommend to buy and maybe a brief explanation and what should avoid at all cost even if it's a remake of an old game.

I just got my first 2000 Nintendo Points Card and use it all for Shantae: Risky's Revenge (1200 points) and Zenonia (800 points). Bought are very good games from what I am playing now. Hope this topic might be useful for me next time when I am getting myself two 2000 Nintendo Points Card.

[alienjesus]

I just got myself a new DSi XL system two days ago for $119 dollars in a special promotion sale. I was wondering from the people here on racketboy who bought some DSiWare, what games you would recommend to buy and maybe a brief explanation and what should avoid at all cost even if it's a remake of an old game.

I just got my first 2000 Nintendo Points Card and use it all for Shantae: Risky's Revenge (1200 points) and Zenonia (800 points). Bought are very good games from what I am playing now. Hope this topic might be useful for me next time when I am getting myself two 2000 Nintendo Points Card.

I think I can help here. I'm from the PAL region, so as you're north American, some of these games may have different names. I put the ones I remembered as being different in brackets.

Mighty Flip Champs is a pretty fun puzzle game by the guys who made Shantae. You have to use a wand to flip the bottomscreen to the top and progress through the level by rearranging platforms in this manner.

Dark Void Zero is a short but very fun 8-bit style game from Capcom. It got better reviews than the actual dark void did XD.

Nintendo's artstyle series is fantastic. I'm especially fond of picopict (pictobits), boxlife, Intersect and Code (Base 10), but KuBos (Precipice) and Aquite (Aquia) are good too. Not a fan of Nemrem (zengage) at all though, avoid that one. I cant emphasise enough that this is a MUST HAVE series if you like puzzle games, and perhaps if you dont. Its actually the series that turned me into a puzzle game fan!

3D Space Tank (X-Scape) is a brilliant sequel to japan only 3d space shooter X for game boy. It takes a little while to get used to it, but when you do, it's EASILY one of the ebst games for DSiWare.

Dragon Quest Wars is a fun little strategy grid game, albeit a simple one. You choose a team of 5(?) monsters and fight the opponents team. Different monsters can attack in different ways and have different amounts of health, so theres some strategy and customisation to be had in your team selection.

Bird and Bombs (Spotto!) is a great little 200 point game if you ever have the spare points. Its limited on replay, but the few hours you have with it are wonderfully fun.

Mario vs DK is a good puzzle platformer where you have to get some robotic mario toys to the exit of the level whilst manipulating the environment to stop them dying, kinda like lemmings but not really.

Metal Torrent is a fun bullet hell shmup by nintendo, that whilst not breaking any boundaries, is good for a quick blast.

Pop Island is a brilliantly fun game of capture the flags, with surfing penguins and skateboarding elephants.

Reflect Missile (Trajectile) is a great puzzle game by Q games, but one which requires patience. Starship defence/patrol is easily the best tower defence on the system, and I highly recommend it.

Tales in a Box (Looksleys line up) is great little game when you get it to work, where you look around the DS in a 3D persepctive (using head tracking) to find hidden objects. Much better than it sounds.

Art academy is a pretty well rounded art package for DS, Much better than i expected in fact. I'd get it if you enjoy drawing or painting in any way.

Man, I forogt how many DSiware games i own XD. Thats not even all of them. If all that was a bit TL;DR, then buy the art style games, starship defence, and X-scape.

[irixith]

Haha I picked up a 2000pt card recently for Shantae and Zenonia -- but then Zenonia suddenly came to PSP minis, and IMHO it's a far superior version. Now I have 800pts to spend on DSiWare myself.

I'd add to the above posters list with AlphaBounce -- breakout as an RPG. One of the real hidden gems on the service.

[k.vlaros]

Of those not mentioned....

Glow Artisan is a neat puzzle game that rivals the Art Style series (of which I have/had about half)

And don't skip out the "slimmed down" versions of Puzzle League [Tetris Attack], Dr Mario, or True Swing Golf. They're solid options if you don't own retail copies.

About for the $2 G.G series games; I'm still debating buying a couple on DSiWare versus importing the collection of 30 from Japan (***).

[gtmtnbiker]

Dark Void Zero is a short but very fun 8-bit style game from Capcom. It got better reviews than the actual dark void did XD.

I really like this game a lot. It's a lot of fun. I hope Capcom creates a follow-on sequel with new levels some day.

Nintendo's artstyle series is fantastic. I'm especially fond of picopict (pictobits), boxlife, Intersect and Code (Base 10), but KuBos (Precipice) and Aquite (Aquia) are good too. Not a fan of Nemrem (zengage) at all though, avoid that one. I cant emphasise enough that this is a MUST HAVE series if you like puzzle games, and perhaps if you dont. Its actually the series that turned me into a puzzle game fan!

Ditto on Pictobits & Boxlife. They're both very interesting. If I had to choose between the two, I probably would choose Boxlife.

Mario vs DK is a good puzzle platformer where you have to get some robotic mario toys to the exit of the level whilst manipulating the environment to stop them dying, kinda like lemmings but not really.

This is pretty good. I don't have any of the Mario vs Donkey Kong DS titles. Is this game different from those or is it the same but cut-down version?


I also have the Shantae's Risky Revenge, Mighty Flip Champs, Paper Airplane games but I haven't played them yet. I also have the EA Sudoku game which is ok for 200 points.

[Ivo]

I think with the 3DS that these gems will become that much more relevant. Maybe would be a nice Racketboy article idea with the best "retro-inspired" games (i.e. DSiWare games with retro gameplay).

Ivo.

[alienjesus]

Mario vs DK is a good puzzle platformer where you have to get some robotic mario toys to the exit of the level whilst manipulating the environment to stop them dying, kinda like lemmings but not really.

This is pretty good. I don't have any of the Mario vs Donkey Kong DS titles. Is this game different from those or is it the same but cut-down version?

Its actually its own game, and it has like 100 levels. Its actually basically Mario vs DK 3, it's a game in the series in it's own right, and for only 800 points. Its worth noting that whilst the goal is similar in all the MvDK games, they all play ever so slightly differently. As I said before, this ones more like lemmings, whereas the first on GBA is a puzzle platformer similar to DK '94 on game boy, and the other 2 on DS are similar to the DSi one, but with slightly different mechanics - for example, in the DSi one, you cant stop or turn around your mini-mario army, so you have to plan ahead to stop them walking into danger - which is how it resembles lemmings.

I also have the Shantae's Risky Revenge, Mighty Flip Champs, Paper Airplane games but I haven't played them yet. I also have the EA Sudoku game which is ok for 200 points.

I havent got around to shantae yet (came out last Friday here) but it looks good. I wasnt a huge fan on Flip Champs. Paper airplane is ok, but perhaps a bit pricy for what it is. Out of those 2 warioware mini games, pyoro(bird & beans) is the more playable, better value game imo. It also contains Pyoro2 as an unlockable, which is nice.

[AmishSamurai]

the artstyle games, A Kappa's Trail, Dark Void Zero, Dragon Quest Wars, Mario vs Donkey Kong, the Mr. Driller game, and Oregon Trail are all worth looking into.

[swiftzx]

Alright, so I have 1200 points and don't know which is better: Cave Story or Shantae: Risky's Revenge. From those who played both, which did you prefer more?

[irixith]

Alright, so I have 1200 points and don't know which is better: Cave Story or Shantae: Risky's Revenge. From those who played both, which did you prefer more?

If you've played Cave Story somewhere else (PC, PSP, Wii, etc.......) I'd give it to Shantae. It's a lot of fun, and I personally enjoyed it more than Cave Story. There's only so many times you can play Cave Story before it loses it's lustre.