Gaming on the Nintendo DS

A few weeks ago I tried Guitar Rock Tour for the Nintendo DS.  It was not horrible, but it really got me wanting to try a real guitar peripheral game for the DS.  The peripheral games cannot be rented through Gamefly (or if they can they do not come with the peripheral), so I had to buy it to try it.  I had a gift card for Toys R Us and even though it was only enough for half the price of the game I decided to get it there since at least that way it was new and out of pocket it would not have been much cheaper or about the same if I bought it used.

I have only had it for a few days now, but I have played enough to be glad that I did buy the game.  I really do not own many DS games and none are ones that I really like.  Now I have at least one good game for road trips and such.  I still find the controls a little uncomfortable and I think that is because I have small hands, but it is still tolerable and a much funner experience than the game without the peripheral.

The best thing about this game is that I actually know some of the songs and like them.  Most music games I dislike the songs (such as all DDR games I have played) or they are only okay (such as the Rock Band ones that come with it).  This one, though, I actually like a good portion of the songs and play with the sound on, which is extremely rare for me to do with a portable game.

Overall this is a really fun game, although I do not recommend it for kids because I think they may have even more trouble than I do with the controls due to small hands.  Those older than 12 or 13 should not have much trouble, though.  Also, the songs seem to be good clean ones as far as I can tell, so it is pretty kid friendly in this way.  The graphics are not anything special, but then again with this type of game you really are too busy pushing buttons and strumming to notice anyways.  I do really like that it comes with a little pick shaped stylus for strumming and it fits in a slot in the peripheral buttom thing.  Now if only that also had a slot for the game cartridge, as that would be totally awesome.

Hannah Montana Music Jam for Nintendo DS is an action adventure game based on the Hannah Montana Disney Channel show.  The game is a pretty good reflection of the general stuff that goes on in the show.  The gameplay is mostly running around between places and switching between being Miley and Hannah.  There are different mini games you play along the way doing things like posing for pictures, playing guitar, and figure skating.  Overall these mini games are pretty easy and fun.

This game, however, has very limited game depth.  It will probably take most only a few hours to beat and the mini games may offer some more entertainment beyond that, but I doubt it is worth purchasing for anyone.  The worst part is that the graphics make the plot part pathetic, especially since the characters look nothing like themselves for the most part.  In particular, Miley’s dad looks quite odd.

Franklin’s Great Adventures is an okay game for kids, however, I found by level 3 the adventure levels got pretty challenging.  In fact I had to give up on level 3 because I could not figure out what you are supposed to do to get further.  The mini games nicely use the DS controls, such as blowing a sailboat through a level and touching the screen to sort stuff in Franklin’s room.  The other controls and graphics, though, are pretty much GBA quality and I think that is because this was released as a GBA and DS game at the same time in almost identical format.

Overall this game may entertain fans of the turtle, but it can also get frustrating.  Also, there is a lot of on screen words and no talking of the text, so younger kids may need help to really enjoy the game or they may just find it confusing because they skip the text.  I recommend this as a rent and not a buy if not just a game to be entirely skipped.

My Fun Facts Coach is part of  the Coach series of games that mostly include language teaching games.  This game is kind of fun, but it is really limited to just being interesting for about 15 minutes a day, as it does not have the unlimited lesson track like the language ones and rather just has daily training.  After you do the daily training for the day playing is kind of pointless.

I do not entirely not recommend the game, as honestly it is a rental I did not want to mail back and would like to buy.  I like the trivia aspect and it has some good categories of questions, such as Body, Mind and Soul, and Your World.  I, however, think the Social  Life category is ridiculous and not just because I got most questions wrong.  It just a really odd category with some ridiculous generalizations.

Overall it is an okay game in the series and a little more interesting than learning a language, which can sometimes be tedious, but those give more entertainment time per sitting than this.  It seems like it would be fun to play through the daily training daily, but at the same time I imagine you would exhaust the topics after a while, as the depth in the encyclopedia aspect does not seem to promote a big depth of topics to quiz you on.

The Cheetah Girls: Pop Star Sensations is an adventure type music game.  It is set after between the happenings of the second and third Cheetah Girls movies.  It may be a fun game for Cheetah Girls fans, but other than that it is not a very well put together game.

The game levels are organized into days.  You do a variety of tasks helping different members of the band and try to have the target score by the end of the day.  You can go back and do tasks to get the target score.  The tasks include things like composing music by tapping the notes in the correct order, dancing by tracing paths, and singing in rhythm by blowing or singing or pressing B at the right time.  The last part is  the most disappointing, as you really cannot just sing along unless you really know the lyrics because it does not show the lyrics and you are just seeing bubbles reach a meter.  I found the only way to do it is pressing B as constantly blowing in rhythm is tiresome.  I think singing would work, but I do not know the songs good enough to even try that way.

While this game does have a decent plot and some good games that I think fans of the Cheetah Girls will enjoy, I found it tedious and boring.  Then again I do not like the Cheetah Girls or music or fashion.  The main thing that put me off about this game is the graphics are horrible.  I usually could care less about graphics and I tend to care more about gameplay, but boy are these graphics so unrealistic and poor quality for a DS game. The girls do not look like themselves at all and the downtown scenes are incomplete with odd pinkish background stuff around the edges.

Big Mutha Truckers is not a game I ever really expected to try.  I just kind of randomly added it to my Game Q because it was one of the few available now games for the Nintendo DS.  I had really low expectations for this game (by the way I rarely go in with high expectations) and ended up being quite surprised at this game.  Sure the graphics are pretty low quality, but the game play aspect, which is way more important to me, is quite fun and unique.

In this game you play as a trucker trying to make the highest profit in 60 days in order to be the one to inherit your mom’s trucking business.  You pretty much just drive around the map to different cities and outposts buying and selling truck loads.  A lot of the time you are racing against a rival truck driver to the next destination and you get a good bonus if you win (or lose money if you lose!).   The girls in the bars in each location give you tips on what to buy and where to sell an item in order to make the biggest profits, i.e. they tell you what is in demand in a particular location.  In the garage in each place you can refuel, repair, change trailer type (this determines what you can buy and sell, but you can constantly change it for a small fee), and upgrade your truck.

Overall I found this to be a fun game, as it combines two of my favorite type of games (racing and Diner Dash style games).  I will admit I kind of got burnt out on playing it after an hour straight and then mailed it back in order to hopefully get a new rental soon.  However, I imagine this being a game I would come back to regularly if I owned it.

Kim Possible: Global Gemini for Nintendo DS is a game based on Disney’s animated Kim Possible television show.  The game is very well animated much like the show.  I have not seen the show in a long time, but the missions in the game mostly do not seem to resemble anything from the show.  However, since I have not seen it in a long time and I have not seen at least half the episodes I cannot definitively say the plot is not at all based on certain episodes.  The characters at least are definitely much like in the show mostly featuring Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable, Rufus, and Wade.

The game is a relatively  easy adventure style game with you going through the levels by jumping with B, using a grappling hook with A, and other special gadgets with X. The first level gives a good tutorial advice as you go through.  Depending on the mission you play as Kim Possible or Ron Stoppable.  The game has two difficulty modes.  The first is Agent.  I did not find it interesting enough to go through this whole mode, but I assume you unlock the Spy difficulty level after beating Agent mode.

Overall this is an okay game.  I think fans of the show will probably enough the game.  I just am not much into adventure style games these days and get bored after a few levels unless they have something extraordinary about them.

Guitar Rock Tour is a cheap Guitar Hero knock off if you ask me.  I personally have not tried the real Guitar Hero, as you cannot rent it with the peripheral guitar thing.  This game is pretty good, though.  I just doubt it is as good as Guitar Hero on the DS.  I do like that it has drums and guitar and not just guitar.

In this game you play different songs per gig and try to keep in beat to pass the song. If you miss too many in a row you lose.  I found easy mode and even medium mode tolerable, but hard mode was too much for me.  Actually for the guitar even medium and easy were tough.  Having to tap the different notes on the guitar is just not too natural feeling.  The drums are more natural controls because you just hit buttons on the left or right side of the DS based on which side the beats are.  I guess part of it is that I just cannot handle the five different colors on the bottom.

Overall I found this an entertaining game, but I cannot help to imagine that the peripheral from the Guitar Hero games is very necessary to enjoy a guitar playing experience on the DS.  Thus even though I have not tried that series I am more inclined to recommend it than recommend this game for someone that wants a music game for on the go.  I only recommend this if you only want the drum playing experience, however, the depth is not all that great.

Below is the list of Nintendo DS releases scheduled to be in stores by tomorrow.

Jumble Madness - This is an anagrams word puzzle game.  The game has several variations including classic jumble, multiplayer mode, and a story mode that includes a jumble Jong version. In Classic Jumble you can play the familiar Jumble game at your own pace or against the clock trying to beat you best time.  In Jumble Crosswords you play a twist on the two classics that combines the concepts of jumble and crossword puzzles.  The Jumble Madness mode is the story mode, which has Jumble Jong, which is probably a lot like Word Jong .

Babysitting Mania for Nintendo DS is a Diner Dash like game with you acting as a babysitter instead of a waiter.  You basically just tap the screen to pick up messes, change diapers, stop the kid from causing more messes, pick up laundry, do laundry, and get bottles ready.  It is really easy to play.  The ultimate goal is pretty vague and the progress towards the goal is pretty much non existent.  Thus I quickly just found this a tedious game with no point to playing.

The graphics are okay for a Nintendo DS game.  The sound is just as annoying as all other portable games, but that is just due to my dislike for playing portable games with the sound on.  The controls are entirely just tapping the screen and nothing else.

Overall I do not recommend this game even if you like Diner Dash, which I personally do like.  Perhaps some Diner Dash lovers will like this game, too, for a change of activity, but I would recommend renting it first because you may be disappointed in this like I was.