Nintendo DS adventure games - time for a new section on the forum?

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if it would not be time to have a Nintendo DS section on the forum for the adventure games. I struggled recently to find any information about those adventures and extensive research was necessary. Yet, I am worried I might have missed one great game, or even a few.

So far I played the wonderful Undercover Dual Motives, Trace Memory/Another Code, Hotel Dusk Room 215, which are all excellent adventures and worth buying a Nintendo DS just to play those. At £100/$100 for the DS, it is like buying three games, so it is well worth the investment. You can play anywhere, and even without sound since there are no voices, just music, sound effects and writing. It is a bit like going back in time and rediscovering what adventures were in the old days. But the graphics are great, on two colour screens, and it does not seem to matter that they are small screens. It is as enjoyable as on the PC.

I started playing adventures on my TRS-80 Coco2 Tandy/Radio Shack computer when I was 10 years old, 25 years ago, games like Vortex Factor, Trekboer, SeaQuest, Black Sanctum, Shenanigans and Calixto Island. Those were great adventures, and still are, you can download them for free on the Internet now to play on your PC.

Another great reason to buy a DS, is that White Birds Productions will eventually get their game for the DS out, but when? I can't wait any longer, I have only three lives after all, and probably already lost two along the way.

I got a bit discouraged by CSI Dark Motives and I gave up in the end, however many of you might enjoy it if you liked the ones on the PC. For Nancy Drew The Deadly Secret of Olde World Park, well, it does not compare well to the other adventures above and to the original ones by Her Interactive which I love. Still, I enjoyed playing it.

The same for Thats So Raven - Psychic On The Scene, based I suppose on an American TV series. It is a bit weak and for children, but it is still an adventure and I'm still playing it. I played one of the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney so far, and started another one. I can't finish it, this is too different from the adventures I got to enjoy in time. You might like them better than I did.

Oh, and yes, for the first time I am actually enjoying playing Myst. I never understood why that game was so popular, because to me it looked just like a bunch of impossible puzzles to figure out. But since there are no more adventures to play on the DS for me, I am enjoying it tremendously and finally got to understand the great story behind the puzzles with the different ages of the island. The DS made me enjoy Myst, that is quite an achievement.

So, have I missed any interesting adventures for the DS?

Any idea of forthcoming adventures for the DS apart from the ones from White Birds Productions/Benoît Sokal?

Regards,

Roland Michel Tremblay
http://www.themarginal.com

Yes please, I have a DS - there was a link for games a while ago & I forgot to clickety click on it. Do you like puzzle games ? Prof Leyton & the Curious Village is good & Dr K something Japanesey is great too. And Tunguska is just out and the prequel to Wintersun - cannot remember the title but it sounds good.

By the way we have adventure game meets in London, the next one is this coming Sat - lunchtime. Please PM me if you would like to go. I'll bring my DS & some games .....

rmt,Broken Sword: the Shadow of the Templars is a GamboyA game and can be played on DS. A great adventure as a pc game and I loved the gameboy version also.

I also thought Trace Memory was well done and I probably will play that again when I have some extra time.

I haven't played the Myst version, but that sound pretty interestingso I'm going to ck that one out.
___________________________________________________

Jenny P, Ill have to ck out that prequel to Wintersun

Marie

Ankh, Curse of the Scarab King is being developed for the DS at the moment!


Bernard

Oh wow! Tunguska on DS, I didn't know! I just saw it on Amazon.co.uk! Thank you!

For the Wintersun Prequel, it is called Undercover Dual Motives, I mentioned it above, I classed it as the three best adventures on DS yet. I bet Tunguska will be amongst the best as well.

Thanks for the tip about Broken Sword, hopefully it won't be hard to find? I imagine GameBoy's games must be getting hard to find.

Great news about Ankh on DS!

Ok, I identified Professor Layton with an "a" instead of an "e". Anyone knows the title of this Dr K? I can't find it anywhere.

Thanks!

Roland Michel Tremblay
http://www.themarginal.com

Syberia , Sinking Island and Paradise are being developed for NDS .

The adventure games for NDS are mostly ones that have been released for PC.
The main difference is just the machine that runs the game.
Discussion about the story, gameplay and possibly hints/puzzles are relevant to both.
Right now, I don't see any compeling reason to make a new forum for it.
Thanks for the suggestion though. We will keep it in mind.

Actually, I mentioned many adventures in this post which do not have PC versions. And more were mentioned which I had no idea even existed. It is very difficult to learn that these games exist even when they have their PC version. I do understand your point though, why create a PSP entry on the forum if all those games are also on PC. Well, perhaps you could at least draw a list of all the adventures on DS and other platforms other than PC on some page of the main site? Just so we know?

Regards,

RM

rmt, I find it an odd way to introduce yourself to a new forum by telling the owner and sole monetary supporter of the site (MaG) how she should run it or how you think it can be improved.

The site is run by volunteers who give their free time to keep this site up to date and running smoothly. Member contributions to information they have come across are also vital. Rather than starting out by asking what the site can do for you, it may be more welcoming to see what you can do for the site as a member of the community. Feel free to post the info you find on new adventures for the DS and in the meantime enjoy the replies and suggestions from others. Also...if you search the forum there are pages of DS posts.

Ana

I am truly sorry, I did not intend to offend, it was just that, a suggestion. And it is because I could not find the info that I posted this post. Sorry if I offended anyone!

Regards,

RM

rmt, you may enjoy this article on Adventure games on DS.

Ana

Great article, thanks, I will read it.

Regards,

RM

You can find a list of DS games at this site. Use the drop down menu to find genres other than adventure.

http://www.gamespot.com/games.html?platf...amp;sortdir=asc

rmt I am glad you posted as I did nt relise these 2 games for the ds were out so thanks .Operation Winterson was totaly differant on the DS compared to the pc so maybe there should be differant walk throughs .It does seem difficult finding out about new ds games.Any way I am going to do a little research on the ones you have mentioned

Hi rmt, I've been enjoying adventures on the DS as well.
Pity you didn't enjoy the Phoenix Wright games, I like them a lot.

Here's what supposedly out so far:
Japanese in origin
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (aka Gyakuten Saiban)
Ace Attorney: Justice for All (aka Gyakuten Saiban 2)
Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations (aka Gyakuten Saiban 3)
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (aka Gyakuten Saiban 4)
Another Code: Two Memories (aka Trace memory)
Hotel Dusk Room 215
LifeSigns: Surgical Unit (aka Kenshuui Tendo Dokuta 2: Inochi no Tenbin)
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Touch Detective (aka Osawari Tantei: Osawa Rina)
Touch Detective 2 1/2 (aka Osawari Tantei: Osawa Rina Season 2 1/2)

Non-Japanese in origin
Hanna Montana
That's so Raven
CSI Dark Motives
Undercover Dual Motives
Myst
Nancy Drew Deadly Secret of Olde World Park

In production (note: some of these may never get released or not outside the country of production)
Sinking Island
Syberia
Last King of Africa (=Paradise)
Runaway 2 (already out in German)
JB Harold:Murder Club
Secret Files Tunguska
Jake Hunter
Time Hollow
Professor Layton and the Devil Box
Professor Layton and the Final Time Journey
Unsolved Crimes
The Silver Case
Flower Sun and Rain
Ankh (already out in German)
Nancy Drew The Mystery of the Clue Bender Society

There's a LOT of DS-adventures out in Japanese that may never be released outside Japan, so I won't mention them, but you can visit here --> already released and here upcoming if you are interested in what may one day come our way.

The Dr K thing is Dr Reiner Knizias Brainbenders - available at play.com for UK folks.

This is gold mine of information! Thank you all!

Regards,

Roland Michel Tremblay

PolloDiablo Please more info on Hanna Montanna .Thats So Raven ,Under cover duel motives please.........

Undercover is also available from Play, dragonuk ...

dragonuk44 I haven't played Hanna Montana and That's So Raven but here is some info:
Hanna Montana
That's So Raven

Undercover Dual Motives is the same as Undercover Doppeltes Spiel, a prequel to Undercover Operation Wintersun. It has some mini-games that aren't too hard once you know how to play them (instructions aren't always very clear).

Thats so Raven looks great for shoppity shoppers - it says something about fashion mishaps ...

thanks for the info .Looks like the bank card is in pain again ..

You're all going to love this rumour... Let's hope it's true!!

http://www.cubed3.com/news/9950



Scan of the article from the magazine

Thanks, Pollo. Verrry interesting.

Hey, that sounds great! One more reason to not mind those long waits in Doctor's offices or those traffic jams (as long as you are not driving and playing, that is)

I hope so .I saw some thing about this in the monthly nintendo magazine and that adventure games are out for the WII to .CSI for one .I would get Broken Sword if that came out .Looks like adventure games are on the way back in

About Tunguska on the DS, it is a bit of a shame that it is exactly like the PC version, but a sub-version since it is limited in many ways. I think adventure game developers should make at least a small effort to make the game slightly different. We certainly do not need a new walkthrough in this case.

I don't know, different objects for different purposes would be good. If they feel it is worth bothering transferring to the DS platform, they should make that effort. They could keep the same images and modify the game play slightly so it is a bit different, and so worth buying and playing again.

Playing the DS version made me want to abandon and re-play the PC version instead. Which I would do if I did not have a stock of other new adventures to play, and absolutely no time to play them. So I will finish playing it on the DS, as it is still in the top 5 adventures I played on the DS so far, and I can play it in bed just before falling asleep. It is worth noting that Tunguska would have been my number one adventure game ever on the DS if I had not played it on the PC before, and quite recently at that.

But really, you have to start with Hotel Dusk and Trace Memory/Another Code – Two Memories if you buy a DS and buy only two games to start up with. Those you have not played on the PC before.

It is simply amazing that those two games came from Japan. I would never have guessed, except of course for the recurrent theme of children losing their parents, that theme is certainly the strongest one coming out from Japan. I guess that what Japanese kids are most afraid of, is to become orphans. How refreshing! (I am being ironic…)

Regards,

Roland Michel Tremblay
http://www.crownedanarchist.com

I ordered Undercover for the DS !!!! Thanks to Roland for showing it to me on his DS.

EDIT Has anyone played Animal Crossing ? Is it good ? Will I fail miserably because I cannot strike matches or make meals like Lost in Blue 2 ?

Hi JennyP,

Animal Crossing is very relaxed, there is never any need to do anything you're not good at. There is no ultimate goal or any kind of pressure and you can choose your own tempo through the game. You can't fail or die. Also, the few things that do require dexterity (fishing, catching insects) are much much easier than in Lost in Blue. I liked it a lot. I must say the game is more fun if you can go online with the DS because it's fun to exchange stuff and chat a bit - also the mortgage will get paid quicker if you have "foreign" fruit in your village which is easiest obtained by going online (but again, you do not need to do so and you can get anything you want in other ways - just not as quickly).

Thanks Pollo - I never got as far as fishing in Lost in Blue. The first time I played it my teens died within 2 hours, the 2nd time I finally lit the fire & they just made it through the night. They didn't like my cooking either & if you seperated the characters one of them never got any water & died ...

Jenny p that happened to me to

My son will only get me games where I am unable to decimate my people, Dragonuk. I was hoping for DS Paint but he said I would murder great works of art..

I just bought a Nintendo DS Lite (It's PINK TOO!)

I don't really want to create a new thread, so I'm bumping this one. Where can I get a good list of reviews for the NDS that is, well, gameboomers approved? I just checked the one on gamespot and they gave Myst 3.0 - I'd much prefer reading reviews that are written by adventure gamers, and the ones at adventuregamers.com are not sorted so I can't really pick out just the NDS ones.

Sally -- I don't think such a list exists.

If anyone does have a list of Nintendo DS reviews written by adventure game reviewers, please let us know.

Prof Leyton is a good game if you like puzzles Sally, and there are a few adventures out too. I would give Nancy D a miss though.
I loved Picross & pic pic although they are puzzle games and Twin Code was great - Hotel Dusk is brilliant too. Hope helpful.
EDIT Mine is pink too !!!

I played Hotel Dusk and loved it also. Tracy Memory was a very good one too, and they are both adventure games. I'm waiting on Jake Hunter Detective Chronicles which I ordered last month because the screens I saw made the game look pretty interesting. I also have the Nancy Drew The Mystery at Olde Worlde Park, but haven't got around to playing it yet so I can't make any pro or con comments on it.

Lucien made a list of DS adventure games in a thread over at JA+
http://justadventure.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1213547735
Probably a good place to start.

(I never heard of "Twin Code." Are you sure you aren't thinking of "Another Code," which is sold in the US as "Trace Memory?")

I just bought a DS lite and I can't find a place to buy Hotel Dusk.

Would love to see a section here especially for trading.

The trades go in the Trading Post like any other games.

Ana

Thanks for the list, Jenny100. I had no idea Runaway 2 is on the DS!

So far I sprang for Animal Crossing, Another Code, and Professor Layton and the Curious Village. This is going to cut into my adventuring budget. I guess it's time to increase it!

Press Release

Great news. Not enough DS adventure games out there, and hard to find sometimes. Glad to see a new one coming, hopefully to Canada as well.

Thanks Pollo!

A question for our Nintendo DS experts -- will European games play on Nintendo DSs purchased here in North America?

Yes, the Nintendo DS games are region free.

Thanks!

Anybody played this one, [Flower, Sun and Rain], in Nintendo DS?



I've heard high praise about original PS2 game, kinda cult praise. (In Korea, some people play Japanese video game.)

But for NDS US version, well, it got too low review score.
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ds/flowersunandrain?q=flower%20sun%20rain

So wish to ask, if there are some people who played it.

Thanks.

Yes, I have played it. It is really weird. There is not much of a story, and the puzzles are strange, too. The characters you encounter have all lost something and it is your task to find it. You have to read through lots of pages of brochures and notes you find, and then enter a number in a machine. But there doesn't seem to be any logic to what number belongs to what puzzle, at least I haven't discovered it yet...

I love my DS games but for me this game doesn't sound like it would be to much fun to play and after all thats why we play them is for the enjoyment. I'll probably do a pass on it.

Marie

I hear there is a new Professor Layton out now. Anyone played it ?

Yes Orchid Girl....I've been playing it and I love. If you liked the first one, you will like this one. It's very much like the first with all the puzzles and story. I'm not that far in on the story yet but so far I like it. I wish it were a little more exploration than puzzle, but I'm loving it.
Barbara

Iv'e been considering the Professor Layton games, they sound like the would be fun to play, I like a good mystery. I will have to ck them out thanks, Sly One, for your input.

Marie

Marie I think you will like them. I played both of them and I really liked them. The puzzles can be a bit challenging sometimes, but you get to buy some hints with the coins that you find throughout the game so it helps. I like the story and the mystery of it. Lots of fun. I just started the Hardy Boys (got it yesterday) and so will let you all know what I think soon.
Barbara

I am looking for Professor Layton and Pandora's Box. Does anyone know where I could purchase it? I have searched various sites but evidentally it is so old no one carries it anymore. I really really like this series.

Thanks for any help you can give.

No, Pandora's Box is not old, it's been released in the United States a couple of days ago and will be released in Europe later this month. Please note, it is called Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box in the United States, perhaps that's why you can't find it?

Thanks SlyOne for the info, will have to go get a copy.

Barbara, I just saw a copy of the Professor Layton Curious Village on ebay and I'm bidding on it now, should know if I get it in a couple of days.

Do you need to be connected to the internet with your DS to use the coins or is that within the game consule.

I have the Hardy Boys on my wish list on Amazon but I haven't purchased yet. Ill be watching the post to see what you think of it Barbara.

Thanks,
Marie

Hi,

I have already played Prof. layton and Curious Village and loved it! I am now playing the diabolical box, which I understand from a previous posting is the same as Pandora's box. Thanks for the info. I love these games and wished there were many more like them for we more "mature" players

marie,

The hint coins are in the game itself, you click or touch any object you see on the screen and some will give you a hint coin.

I, for one, simply loved Flower, Sun & Rain! It's strange and surreal and completely unlike anything else I've played before. I can understand why some people almost hate it but for me it was one of the most interesting gaming experiences I've had in a long time.

Thanks Orchid Girl and yes Marie the coins are in the game itself as orchid girl mentions. Good Luck. I will keep my fingers crossed that you get it. I'm sure you will like it. I sure did.
Barbara

EDIT:

Hi All, I have been looking for Undercover: Dual Motives somewhere but it appears to not be sold here in the USA. Is that the case? Is there somewhere one can find the game to play? I would love to get my hands on one as lots of good talk about it in this post. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Marie,

So far I am liking Hardy Boys (Treasure on the Tracks). I am so glad that I got it. The hint system is great (good thing too as there is no walkthrough or hints anywhere) but so far I haven't needed one and I'm enjoying that as well. Again, I'm not very much into it and I have gotten stuck a couple of times, but have been able to work my way out and move on. I really am enjoying it much more than I thought I would. I did say I'd come back and let you know and I didn't want to forget. If you have any questions please ask and I will keep you posted as I go along but I thinks it's a good one so far.

Barbara