The All-New Handfun Thread (NDS, GBA, PSP, NGPC, WS...)

[chand]

Just got a PSP for my train commute to work. Got Lemmings and Loco Roco 2 with it...what other games provide good commuting entertainment?

I was commuting recently and played a lot of Lumines, if you like Tetris-esque puzzle games that's a really good one, it made the journeys fly by for me (I haven't played Lumines II but it's supposed to be as good if not better). Exit and Crush are a couple of other good puzzler in my opinon; Exit is a side-on game where you have to rescue people from buildings which has a really unique style and starts off really simple before it fries your brain, while Crush is particularly cool, you have to make your way through these maps by flipping between 2D and 3D, top-down and side-on views (you can get a better idea of what I mean fromthis trailer. Oh, and Echochrome, the weird Escher drawing puzzle thing, that's ace. As for other types of games, God Of War: Chains Of Olympus is amazing, the Ratchet and Clank game, Daxter, Patapon and either of the Syphon Filter titles (Logan's Shadow slightly edges it) are all worth getting, the GTA titles are fun. I also got massively addicted to Everybody's Golf 2 at one point. There's a Sega Mega Drive Collection which is worth getting for the two Sonic games if old-skool is your bag.

[The Boston Crab]

I just got GTA: Chinatown Wars on the DS. Impressive! Characterisation up to the usual standard, digging the vibe and it plays pretty much as well as could be hoped for! Actually, it's better to be honest. I thought it was going to be a return to the old PS top-down but it's got a pretty cool roaming isometric camera which works really nicely. The music is pretty awesome too, best DS soundtrack I've heard in a long time.

[ozziechef]

I agrew about GTA, it's surprisingly good on the DS and it's fun recognising locations from the XBOX game, my only criticism is the roads are too narrow and it's pretty tough not to crash.

[The Boston Crab]

It's true that the roads are pretty narrow but the auto-lane-aligning is pretty useful here. I find that I'm zipping right up the middle between two lanes. Bad sentence, I just woke up.

[turnstyle]

I was commuting recently and played a lot of Lumines, if you like Tetris-esque puzzle games that's a really good one, it made the journeys fly by for me (I haven't played Lumines II but it's supposed to be as good if not better). Exit and Crush are a couple of other good puzzler in my opinon; Exit is a side-on game where you have to rescue people from buildings which has a really unique style and starts off really simple before it fries your brain, while Crush is particularly cool, you have to make your way through these maps by flipping between 2D and 3D, top-down and side-on views (you can get a better idea of what I mean fromthis trailer. Oh, and Echochrome, the weird Escher drawing puzzle thing, that's ace. As for other types of games, God Of War: Chains Of Olympus is amazing, the Ratchet and Clank game, Daxter, Patapon and either of the Syphon Filter titles (Logan's Shadow slightly edges it) are all worth getting, the GTA titles are fun. I also got massively addicted to Everybody's Golf 2 at one point. There's a Sega Mega Drive Collection which is worth getting for the two Sonic games if old-skool is your bag.

Thanks for this, really helpful. I've picked up Lumines and Exit for now, but Crush does look interesting. Might have to investigate at a later date. I really fancy the GTA games, but I'm just working through GTA4 on the 360, and if I start playing another GTA game at the same time I'm sure I'll just get confused.

I played the echochrome demo on my PS3. I really liked it, but...I felt the camera moved way to slowly and it really tarnished the experience for me. Maybe I missed something.

I've also picked up MGS and Silent Hill. I'm a big fan of the series, and they're releasing the two in a cheap double pack this month. Done!

I'd love a western RPG, but...it appears there isn't even one on the system. Maybe a good JRPG would do it, as long as it doesn't have random battles.

[falafel]

Do Oblivion and Fallout 3 not count?

[Baxter]

THIS ISN'T A CONVERSATION ABOUT HANDFUN!

[jutl]

Back on topic - I'd highly recommend this:



Rittai Picross

Don't worry about the fact it's in Japanese. If you've ever played Picross it's fairly obvious what's going on, and the tutorials are largely visual.

[falafel]

THIS ISN'T A CONVERSATION ABOUT HANDFUN!

Oh yeah, bugger. Sorry.

Well, to get back on topic: Chinatown Wars is great fun but, sadly, my big silver clunky original DS is really struggling with the brightness issues. Clearly Rockstar have gone for a proper GTA dark-dark-dark grimy look and as far as I can see they've pulled it off, but they also seem to be counting on the probability that almost nobody (except me) still possesses that old insubstantially-backlit piece of hardware.

Which is frustrating, because I really don't want to spend more money on a DS Lite, even if they do have a better backlight, because they're exactly the same otherwise. I wouldn't mind getting a DSi but then my homebrew stuff won't work any more. Stupid Nintendo.

Oh yeah, and I lost my stylus and you can't find an original DS stylus for love nor money these days so  I am limited to trying to play Elite Beat Agents with my Guitar Hero plectrum, which is lame.

PS, speaking of which, who else sort of loves that level with the Chicago song where you magically resurrect a little girl's dead Daddy through the power of dance?

[The Boston Crab]

You can also adjust the brightness settings of GTA:CW in-game, so presumably it's something they did consider.

Unless, of course, you've already tried this...

[lardboy]

Oh yeah, and I lost my stylus and you can't find an original DS stylus for love nor money these days so  I am limited to trying to play Elite Beat Agents with my Guitar Hero plectrum, which is lame.

PS, speaking of which, who else sort of loves that level with the Chicago song where you magically resurrect a little girl's dead Daddy through the power of dance?

I managed to get a knock-off of a DS stylus in Gamestop, paying about £5 for 3, which seemed a rip off, but they didn't have the official ones.  It's probably better than using the stylus though.

I too love the resurrection level, almost as much as "Over The Distance" on Ouendan, the "slow one" in that game which is probably my favourite level of all three games.

On a general note, anyone who hasn't played Professor Layton is an idiot.  Or doesn't like puzzle games.

[Still Not George]

DSi looks very interesting, particularly on a technical level. Less gimmicky crap, more memory (both RAM and storage) and a chunkier Wifi connection = win.

[falafel]

I managed to get a knock-off of a DS stylus in Gamestop, paying about £5 for 3, which seemed a rip off, but they didn't have the official ones.  It's probably better than using the stylus though.

I too love the resurrection level, almost as much as "Over The Distance" on Ouendan, the "slow one" in that game which is probably my favourite level of all three games.

On a general note, anyone who hasn't played Professor Layton is an idiot.  Or doesn't like puzzle games.

1. I can only find DS Lite styluses which are fatter and don't fit in my old DS - was this one definitely old-style?

2. Best Ouendan song is "Monkey Magic" by far, tho I can't remember if that's in 1 or 2.

3. Layton kind of got on my tits after a while, though that's probably down to the Generation Y attention span and early-onset dementia.

[lardboy]

1. I can only find DS Lite styluses which are fatter and don't fit in my old DS - was this one definitely old-style?

2. Best Ouendan song is "Monkey Magic" by far, tho I can't remember if that's in 1 or 2.

3. Layton kind of got on my tits after a while, though that's probably down to the Generation Y attention span and early-onset dementia.

It was definitely an old DS stylus as I used it with my old DS; it was mostly metal, with plastic end bits.  It was over a year ago that I bought it, so they might have stopped selling them completely in the hope of getting people to trade to a DSi just for the sake of too many lost styli.

My love for "Over The Distance" is mostly because there's no whistles and claps in it, just like "You're the Inspiration", but the target layout is lovely as well.  Just hard enough not to be boring, but not frustratingly difficult

Layton I enjoyed, but found it a bit silly that you're not solving a big puzzle in the game.  The story held your hand so much that I didn't feel connected to the overall story at all.  I did love the puzzles though, despite having to resort to an FAQ later on.

[falafel]

The puzzles are good, yep. Though often I came across one where the answer was just ridiculous (particularly the ones involving some sort of wordplay). You know, the kind of thing where the right answer is actually any one of a number of equally legitimate responses and the creator has just chosen the one that seemed 'cleverest' or perhaps the only one they can think of.

The story is a nice little conceit to hang the puzzles around but yes, it doesn't go anywhere (or hadn't by the time I'd given up - I got hold of it six months ago so it's all a bit blurry now). It's nice how you can revisit the puzzles later. Really, the whole affair is a bit like "Puzzle Monthly" (or whatever) minus that alternating generic smiley person on the cover who is almost the whole point of "Puzzle Monthly" (or whatever)...

digression?

[The Boston Crab]

If you didn't finish Professor Layton, I'd recommend going back to it, just to see how things are rounded off. It's actually a rather sweet little tale in the end and the way things were unveiled put a smile on my face. Some of the puzzles fucked me RIGHT off, especially that chocolate keyboard one, the only puzzle where I actually just HAD to cheat and find the solution online...and for which I honestly couldn't lambast myself, having found the answer. I thought most were great though, I very rarely felt cheated and more often than not felt genuine satisfaction at having worked it out with a mixture of logic and a flicker of inspiration. I also really got involved in the vibe of the village, the music and art direction set a charming tone. In fact, I'm pumped for the sequel, obviously knowing it'll be more of the same is quite a pleasant feeling - there's no way they can fuck it up and I can only predict improvements. I understand what lardboy means in that there's no wider puzzle arc for you to solve, a la Phoenix Wright, you just go along solving the mini puzzles and proceedings nudge forwards and unfold by themselves but that was ok for me. I bought into the conceit early on so I was able to just enjoy the atmosphere and follow it like a book.

GTA: Chinatown Wars is still rocking my handheld world, by the way. Obviously the lack of voicework means the story isn't quite as involving as previous entries but the fundamental gameplay is killer. Some of the additions, such as forcing police cars to crash to decrease your wanted level are absolutely inspired, much much more fun than evading a radar and staying still for a bit. Some people have said it's a bit fiddly later on using the stylus to toss Molotovs while running and shooting and blah blah...seems perfectly good to me. The PDA is also inspired, I never thought they'd pull it all off but it's probably the most complete 'mature' game on the DS.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

DSi looks very interesting, particularly on a technical level. Less gimmicky crap, more memory (both RAM and storage) and a chunkier Wifi connection = win.

Aye it looks cool, although I'm annoyed because it presumably means they're not going to make a camera for the regular DS. The old gameboy camera was one of the most fun things ever, but I'm not about to buy a whole new console to recreate the experience.

[falafel]

I'll have another crack at Layton then.

GTA though has improved greatly now I've found the brightness controls - cheers for that! And wow, what a game. It made the trip to work zip by this morning. The graphics alone are hugely  impressive - they've taken the DS's capabilities and gone all the way - really turned out something that looks great by any standard. Thumbs right up.

[turnstyle]

Exit on the PSP is brilliant!! Thanks Chand, it's just the sort of game I was looking for.

Erm...that was it.

[lardboy]

Back on topic - I'd highly recommend this:



Rittai Picross

Don't worry about the fact it's in Japanese. If you've ever played Picross it's fairly obvious what's going on, and the tutorials are largely visual.

Really enjoying this ^^.  Mind you, I loved Picross DS, so it's not entirely surprising that this is one for me as well.

GTA Chinatown is next on my list of real purchases, as it won't work on my old R4, but I'll wait for a few months until I can get it for a tenner on eBay, I think.  It's the sort of thing that'll be perfect for long summer train journeys.

[ozziechef]

I heard it works fine on the R4, just havethe 1.18 firmware and the 'fixed' version.

Also that 3D picross game rocks - any other obscure Japanese puzzlers anyone can reccomend?

[buntyman]

I had GTA on the Edge cartridge thing to test it and I decided it was so good i'd buy it for real (a mere 17.99 on amazon).  I've had some problems with losing data on these dodgy devices so for games involving a lot of saved progress (such as zelda which i sadly lost and can't face playing through again) I buy the real deal. On initial impressions, this does appear to be up there with Mario Kart and Tetris for the best games on the DS.

[waste of chops]

I heard it works fine on the R4, just havethe 1.18 firmware and the 'fixed' version.

Also that 3D picross game rocks - any other obscure Japanese puzzlers anyone can reccomend?

Loopop Cube: Lup * Salad is a pretty nice platform/puzzler. I really think Puzzle Series Vol. 6: Illust Logic is a superior Picross game to Nintendo's own offering, too (although you might be all Picrossed-out for the moment) -- there's also a colour Picross version but I'm not so enamoured with that one (and I definitely disagree with what that Eurogamer review says about the original Illust Logic being rubbish, because it quite clearly isn't).

Also it's not really obscure now that it's been released in the West, but Pic-Pic is utterly awesome. Everyone else seems to think that the "Drawing" puzzle mode is the best, but they're wrong; it's clearly the Minesweeper-meets-Picross "Magipic" mode that's better than the other two.

Finally, if you have the means to play GBA games then Guru Logic Champ is aces.

[candlelightoptometrist]

Fuck, I'm an idiot. I appear to have drunkenly bought a Japanese DSi online. Just got home from work to find it waiting for me. No fucking shops seem to have UK power adaptors in stock until 3rd April though so I am reduced to merely looking at the endearingly cute pictures in the instruction manual (there's one warning users not to put the console in the microwave) and filling up the flash card I also got with games etc.
Some interesting game recommendations in this thread, thanks for those.

[ozziechef]

I thought the DSi had clamped down on the ability to use things like the R4?

[candlelightoptometrist]

sorry, unintentional double post.

[candlelightoptometrist]

That's why I got the Japanese version. Apparently flash carts are currently unusable with the firmware that the EU version will ship with, but the Acekard 2i is reportedly working fine with the older firmware (I hope so).

Edit:I ran out of patience; flash cart confirmed working fine with this unit. May have killed the battery by failing to charge it for 8 hours first however. Oh well...

[Baxter]

I rarely give my appliances a full first charge and the only battery I have had fail badly was on a three year old laptop, I think you're safe.

[candlelightoptometrist]

Got my charger. As others predicted, the new functionality of the DSi is rather pointless so far. The sub-Photoshop facial monging and sub-SoundForge audio manipulation are quite fun for a short while.

I like the audio player though, L and R trigger samples over MP3s as Mario jumps/a spaceship shoots/random visualisations occur.
Finally, a worthless gimmick that I can enjoy.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Any chance you could post a one of these sub Photoshop efforts? I'd be quite interested to see how good/bad they are.