Prometheus
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This thread is for DS game recommendations, as you might have guessed from the title. 
With so many games out there, I figured that it might be fun to see if there are any more overlooked gems out there. DSiWare games count, too (these also apply to Nintendo 3DS owners, too, but since their roots are in the predecessor's line, they belong in here).
Please specify whether a game is DS, DSiWare, or (in rare cases) DSi-enhanced (especially the latter, because that can put a damper on importing). And don't worry about repeating games that have already been mentioned - part of the fun of threads like this is getting a wide range of views on why people like particular games!
(Note for Nintendo 3DS owners: The "DSiWare Highlights" shelf in the eShop does not show the entire DSiWare library, and as far as I can tell there is no current way to browse the entirety of it, even though it is all present. However, if you know the name of a DSiWare title, you can type it into the eShop's search box in order to be taken directly to its store entry.)
I'll start off with a bunch of my own recommendations, though I will be leaving some out for the time being, because I'd rather put a focus on some that are likely to be less obvious to most people here.
42 All-Time Classics (or, Clubhouse Games, in North America) (DS) - A collection of traditional card, board, and miscellaneous games, which supports up to four players (both locally and online) and has an in-game chat feature similar to PictoChat (which is of course there primarily for doodling nonsense and taunting other players ). The name says it all, really. Whilst I'm not a big fan of the card games (which are the sole reason for this game having a 12+ age-rating in Europe), there is plenty of fun stuff here, such as a stacking game where you must try not to topple the pile of blocks, or a game where you must shake up a bottle of lemonade and not have it explode while you're holding it. I never go anywhere without this one, as it's great for passing time whilst waiting for things, and it's downright hilarious with multiple players (for which you only need one cartridge).
Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS) - The most refined installment in the Animal Crossing series to date. This game is not for anybody who wants fast action, explosions, or anything like that - it's aimed at being a relaxing experience, and it does this very well. You create a character by answering a set of questions that determine how your face looks (guides for getting the face you want exist out there, of course), and then arrive by taxi in a little village filled with animal-people. You're then told that a new house is ready for you, at which point you suddenly find yourself forced to work for a raccoon tycoon, who will continually force you into mortgages that you don't want! You can pay them off (or not, if you prefer living in a tiny shack) by catching fish and insects (for which there are some quite interesting descriptions both in your inventory, and if you give them to the museum instead), digging up things, shaking trees (for either fruit, or items hidden in non-fruit-bearing trees), and selling what you find, or you could donate some of the things you find to the local museum, instead. Furniture and clothing items you find are added to an overall catalogue, so that you can buy them via mail-order if you ever want another one (or if you're playing the game with someone who doesn't have them yet). You can also buy coffee at a bar, the (random) flavour of which seems to impact what fossils you will dig up on that day. It's very much an acquired taste, but there's years' worth of stuff to do here if it is your sort of thing.
Art Academy (DSi-enhanced) - Not a game, but a set of art-lessons on a cartridge, along with a free-painting mode. The pencils, paints, and brushes behave quite realistically, and it's actually quite useful (not to mention space-saving) for those who wish to improve their abilities but who don't have the free time to attend classes. My only gripe is that when used with the DSi, DSi XL, or Nintendo 3DS, you cannot transfer your paintings to the SD Card, although in these three machines you are able to take reference photographs to use whilst painting in free-mode.
Aura-Aura Climber (DSiWare) - A somewhat overlooked new IP, in this game you play as a little star called Aura-Aura, who has fallen out of the sky. He has one move, and that is to grab onto little hand-holds that are floating in the air using the "A" button. He can also be moved around using the d-pad whilst he is in motion or to aim him whilst he's clinging to a stone. This game is primarily aimed at score-attacking, and for its 200 Nintendo Points (or £1.80 on the 3DS' eShop) price, it has quite a lot of game to it.
Bird & Bombs (or, Spotto!, outside of Europe) (DSiWare) - Another overlooked new IP, this one comes from Intelligent Systems. In a world populated by anthropomorphised birds, you play as the Spotto Trooper, who is a cute little army guy who specialises in throwing bombs. He's sent in to deal with the delightfully implausible event of the president's daughter being kidnapped by ghosts - and the course of action deemed best by the president is to blow the ghosts up by throwing bombs into their mouths. The Spotto Trooper is located in the lower-left corner of the bottom screen, and on the right is a dial with which to adjust the trajectory of his throws. Ghosts are located on both the top and bottom screens, along with obstacles that your bombs can bounce off of, or which block you from hitting ghosts in a conventional way. If you manage to kill all of the ghosts on one stage without missing and wasting any bombs, you can earn power-ups that will, on killing one ghost, send extra bombs ricocheting around the screen - if you do this right, it is sometimes possible to kill all of the ghosts in a level with one shot. As with Aura-Aura Climber, this is really a score-attacking type of game, and it, too, is 200 Nintendo Points/£1.80.
Chronos Twin: One Hero in Two Times (DS) / Chronos Twins (DSiWare) - A rock-hard twin-screen platform game which originally began life as a GBA title that was later (logically) replaced by the DS version prior to release (this is why the game's title screen proclaims it to be "Chronos Twin DS"), and which at one point gained some notoriety for some allegedly plagiarised artwork (not all of it is covered in this link - I'm pretty sure that Mega Man Zero is affected, too, looking at some of the game's sprites), as well as for aping Akira Toriyama's art-style a lot in its cutscenes. Chronos Twin was only released in Europe for its retail run (where it fared undeservedly poorly, due to being produced in a small run and then not being promoted AT ALL), but was later released to the WiiWare and DSiWare services globally, under the slightly different name of "Chronos Twins". You play as a fellow called Nec, whose world is being destroyed by a villain called Twime, who has managed to take over by being in both the past and present at the same time - thus, an invention is created to allow our hero to do the same. The game is played on both screens at once, with the lower one representing the past, and the upper one representing the present, with an alert appearing if danger appears in one of them but not the other. This is actually less confusing than it sounds, as it's been handled quite well - if there is a hole in one time but a platform in another, the platform takes precedence and keeps you safe, for example. This is not a game for those who don't like challenges, though - this is even more difficult than the first Mega Man Zero game (which is itself famed for being quite tricky), and needs a player who doesn't shy away from difficult games. If you do like that sort of thing and want something different, though, this is a game for you. The DSiWare version is an *absolute steal* at 500 Nintendo Points/£4.50, considering that the original retail version was sold for £30 (which I was more than happy to pay for it at the time, so all of you lucky folks buying the download version get a much better deal ).
Elite Beat Agents (DS) - A rhythm game starring a band of secret agents who solve the world's problems with the power of song and dance! This game doesn't take itself seriously at all, and that's a good thing. It has a host of well-known songs (though they are performed by good soundalikes, and not the original artists - however, some of these soundalike songs are superior to the originals, if you ask me, such as Without A Fight), and several difficulty modes. You use the touch-screen to tap rhythm-markers in time with the music (these are represented by circles that close in on dots on the screen - the ideal time to hit for a "Perfect" tap is when the circle is right over the dot's outline), over a series of bizarre scenarios ranging from helping a babysitter with some kids, to helping a Texan oil mogul make back his millions, to saving the world. It also has at least a couple of scenarios exclusive to the multi-player mode, and these can be hilarious (especially the Y.M.C.A. one).
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS) - A Capcom game which, as with so many of Capcom's franchises, has suffered from not being promoted much, if at all (indeed, the only one time I saw it promoted, it was on Capcom USA's own website), Ghost Trick places you in the now-dead shoes of a man who must solve his own murder, and the mysterious events surrounding it and connected to it, which eventually come to involve the whole town. It's a witty, well-made puzzle game that involves possessing inanimate objects and turning back time in order to save innocent people from meeting their demise across a series of different scenarios that you must travel between by using telephone lines (which, the game tells us, is the only way ghosts can travel from place to place). The world the game takes place in has a lot of personality, and it really does feel "alive". If you liked the Ace Attorney games, you're quite likely to enjoy this, too - it's by some of the same people, and the localisation really shines. It's a struggle to avoid spoilers with this game, as every moment of it really is that good, so the best thing I can suggest is to check to see if the demo is still downloadable via the Nintendo Channel for the Wii - this would describe it better than I possibly could.
Mega Man Zero Collection (DS) - You knew there'd be a Mega Man game or three on this list, and here's the first of them. This is a collection of the entire Mega Man Zero series from the Game Boy Advance, plus a small amount of extras, and a mode where you can play through all four games from start to finish as one big game (albeit with a reduced level of difficulty). You play as Zero (already well-known from the Mega Man X series) after he has been awakened by a resistance force in the year 23XX to find the world in the grip of a war, and his own kind (Reploids - ultra-advanced robots from the far future) being persecuted. The player then must take on missions and fight big bosses, using a varied selection of weapons (which in some of the games can be levelled up, which gains you new moves for them). These games are known for being challenging, though I never found any past the first one to be too bad, myself. If you're after a meaty challenge, you can't really go wrong with four games in one, here.
Mega Man ZX (DS) - Taking place three centuries after the Mega Man Zero series, Mega Man ZX is set in 26XX, in a time where the wars of the past are long-forgotten (and where Reploids and humans are almost indistinct, apart from a triangular mark that Reploids bear on their forehead), but the souls of the ancient heroes are preserved in mysterious relics called Biometals. "Chosen Ones" (of which you choose from a male, Vent, or a female, Aile, at the beginning of the game) can use these Biometals in order to transform into armoured forms that grant them the armours and powers of the heroes of the past. If you liked the Mega Man Zero series (which laid the groundwork for some of ZX's features) as well as Metroid, you'll probably enjoy this too, as, along with fighting big, animaloid robotic bosses (Pseudoroids) which have been created to harness the Biometals' powers without being Chosen Ones, exploration is involved, which is enhanced as you gain new powers and armours from new Biometals. The ultimate objective is to stop the head of a powerful company from sacrificing the lives of millions in order to feed his ambition to rule the world.
Mega Man ZX Advent (DS) - This is the sequel to Mega Man ZX, taking place four to six years later when the world is considerably more stable. Once again there are two Chosen Ones as protagonists (Grey, an amnesiac Reploid kid, and Ashe, a young woman who was orphaned and knows little about her past), and an even bigger villain to face, as a prominent member of the centuries-old global government has been plotting to destroy everything in an attempt to "reset" and purify the world. This game answers a lot of questions raised by the first (such as how Chosen Ones came to be so, and some more about the origins of the Biometals), and also sets the stage for a third game which has yet to be made in spite of sales ultimately being roughly the same as the preceding game (this is done by covering the backstories of antagonists Prometheus and Pandora). Of course, being a sequel, it provides more of what made the first game good. There is more Metroid-style exploration, too, but ZX Advent improves over ZX in that fewer of the game's areas feel like they exist only to make it take longer to get from Point A to Point B - they all feel like they have a purpose in this game. The main Biometal you use in this game, Model A, allows you to transform into the bosses you defeat, instead of just copying their powers and weapons - this changes the experience considerably, and can be used both for offence and defence (one of the bosses is an *enormous* powerhouse that you can use to shield yourself with in a pinch, for example). If you liked Mega Man Zero Collection and Mega Man ZX, this is a definite must-buy.
Mighty Flip Champs! (DSiWare) - A puzzle-platformer that features levels with multiple "pages". This is less confusing than it sounds. The main gameplay takes place on the top screen, whilst the lower screen will reflect the next page that you can flip to, and will show where you will land if you flip to it (which is done by pressing any face button on the console). The early levels only have two pages each, but this quickly increases, leading to even more devious puzzles. To score highly, the objective is to flip through the pages as few times as possible. It's devious and addictive, and features many moments where you'll shout either "Eureka!" or "You bastards!" - it's a great start to the now-ongoing "Mighty" series on DSiWare and 3DSWare. It costs 800 Nintendo Points/£7.20.
Monster Tale (DS) - A brilliant game that is already being tragically overlooked, Monster Tale is a platformer/virtual-pet hybrid that is perhaps what Pokemon might be like if it were a part of this genre. It's from the same team that made the reportedly-excellent Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure. You play as a blue-haired girl, Ellie, who somehow finds her way to the world of monsters, and soon finds herself chosen to be the bearer of a magical bracelet that allows her to shoot orbs, much like in a Mega Man game. She also finds a monster egg that hatches to reveal a creature that takes a liking to her, who she names Chomp. As the game progresses, you need to explore the world to gain new abilities (very much in the vein of Metroid, Mega Man ZX, and Mega Man ZX Advent), find items for Chomp, and try to overthrow a group of tyrannical children who got to the monster realm first and selfishly took it over. Whilst it's mostly a platform game, the lower screen serves as a home for Chomp, where he will use, eat, or play with items you find or buy for him, as well as read books in order to gain more intelligence. All of these things will influence how Chomp will evolve and grow, and what moves he will learn in order to fight for you with - there are a ton of different forms in the game, and each will influence how you play in different ways. Chomp's time on the upper screen is limited by a decreasing vitality bar that appears while he is up there fighting with you, but you can call Chomp between the screens with a button-press - while he's on the lower screen he's able to rest and learn, and sometimes you'll need to send him there to activate switches that jut out from under the floor of the top screen. It's a brilliantly crafted game which really deserved a worldwide release - thankfully, even though it's a US-only release, it's not a DSi-enhanced title, so it's safe to import regardless of where you are. It's a must-have if you like Metroid or the two Mega Man ZX games.
Over The Hedge (DS) - Yes, a movie-based game, in a list of hidden DS gems. This title is based on the Dreamworks film, which in turn is based on the comic strip of the same name. Whilst it has some issues with polish (for example, it has some noticeable graphical bugs that really shouldn't have made it through testing, and some of its menus could be a bit better thought-out), the game itself is actually quite solid, and if you can find it for a cheap price, it's well worth a look. Essentially, it's a stealth game in the vein of Metal Gear Solid, but with less cutscenes, more game, and a cast of cute-and-cuddly animals. You have to steal food and consumer goods as part of an effort to entice endangered species to move to the woods, so that the local authorities will declare it to be protected land. You can find, buy, and use various gadgets to help out in the levels, and you must avoid being spotted by both humans and household pets in the homes that you're raiding, whilst also avoiding getting distracted by televisions and stereo systems (which affects some characters more than others, since they don't all have the same attention-span - you need to hammer one of the buttons to snap them out of it, and then quickly move out of range). Both screens are used in a simple but very effective way - the top screen shows the game as a third-person 3D platformer, whilst the bottom screen shows a top-down view of everything that's going on around you, along with markers to show the range of TVs and radios, and the field of vision of humans and pets. It will also help you to see things that the perspective of the characters on the top screen sometimes won't, since the characters are small forest animals with a limited viewpoint. Effectively using both screens to get around is quite important. Not only is it quite solid gameplay-wise, it's also quite challenging; I wouldn't be too surprised if many of the audience that this was originally aimed at didn't actually finish it - even I'm finding some bits to be quite meaty, and I'm much more used to difficult games. That's why I'm recommending Over The Hedge, at any rate - it's got more to it than one would expect from a movie tie-in game, and if you can pick it up for a handful of coins (as I did about a year ago), it's definitely worth your while.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS) - A point-and-click game where you play as a rookie lawyer who has to defend clients and get to the bottom of mysteries surrounding cases, in a semi-contemporary version of our own world, set about ten years or so ahead of real life. The legal system in the games is, of course, fictional, but the representation of it is somewhat based on the real-life Japanese system, even down to ruthless prosecutors who will do anything to get a conviction (knowing this fact will make you look at the consequences of failure in this game in an entirely different, and much more frightening, light). Accordingly, the lack of a jury presented a minor issue for the localisation team! Anyway, gameplay is split into two distinct phases in each case: At first, you see an overview of the crime, and then you must investigate crime scenes using either the touch-screen, the d-pad and buttons, or both (whatever you prefer), to search for evidence. After that, you must talk to witnesses in court, press them for more detail, and present evidence when you spot contradictions. The witnesses mostly have punny names (all these years later, I still chortle at "Cody Hackins", myself), and you deal with some pretty hilarious ones as time goes on. Since the first three games in this series were actually up-ports from a series of Japan-only Game Boy Advance games, this particular title served as a revival for the series there, and thus it has a final case at the end which makes better use of the DS' features (this only came into play again in the fourth game, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, which was built for the system from the ground up). If you like point-and-click titles, or just want something that's a breath of fresh air from most other titles, I would highly recommend this. It also helps a lot that, being entirely dialogue-based, you can save and put it down at any time, and be brought back to exactly where you were when you re-load your save. I will note that I cannot in good conscience recommend the second and third games in this trilogy (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations) unless you really like the first one. Not only do they not stand on their own as well, but the two follow-ups were localised by a different team - these two games are barely literate, and are full of bad spelling (a young child would be rightfully embarrassed to turn in work like that), and grammatical and structural errors that sometimes make it difficult to know what you're supposed to do. There are also some gigantic glaring typographical errors that REALLY spoil some very key moments. Being text-based games, this should never have been allowed to happen, so I would only recommend those if you love the first game.
Shantae: Risky's Revenge (DSiWare) - This game is a gem. It's the long-awaited sequel to the criminally-little-known Game Boy Colour game, Shantae (which the developers hope to release on the 3DS' Virtual Console service at some point, where it should finally get the attention it always deserved), and it's one of the most polished, well-made platformers I've ever played. As with Monster Tale, it's got quite a lot in common with the two Mega Man ZX games, so if you like those this is well worth a look. You play as a half-genie by the name of Shantae whose task it is to protect the town she lives in, whilst contending with an ignorant mayor who thinks he knows best (but actually doesn't), when Shantae's nemesis, the pirate Risky Boots, returns. Your primary attack is whipping enemies with your hair - which can, of course, be improved by buying shampoo - and later on you can gain transformations that allow you turn into various types of animals, too, which will allow you to reach places that you couldn't, before. This game's (ridiculous) European age-rating of 12+ comes from that feature alone - Shantae does a comical belly-dance in order to change form. Moreover, if you own other DSiWare games from the same company, there is a place you can visit in Shantae: Risky's Revenge where you can get in-game bonuses as a result of this. The game plays great, and is very polished and full of personality (the game's universe is very well fleshed-out, and the characters are all very likeable), to the point that I would have expected it to be a full retail title (indeed, it's much more polished than some full retail titles I've seen). It is one of the more expensive games on the DSiWare service at 1200 Nintendo Points/£10.80, though given the fact that I would have happily paid £25 to £30 for it had it been at retail, I personally found this to be well worth the asking price.
Solatorobo: Red the Hunter (DSi-enhanced) - An action game with some light RPG elements, this is CyberConnect2's long-awaited follow-up to their PSX title, Tail Concerto, set in the same world (one of floating islands in the sky which are travelled between by airships, and where humans are long-extinct), some years later. You play the part of a Caninu (dog-person) by the name of Red Savarin, who works as a "hunter", doing various missions and tasks in order to earn money. He ends up sucked into a much bigger story when a mission goes wrong one day, and he rescues a mysterious Felineko (cat-person) girl from a doomed airship that he had been contracted to retrieve something from. The story then builds up from there, and as with Ghost Trick I don't want to end up giving too much away, suffice to say that eventually the world as the characters know it is thrown into disarray and potential destruction, as the mysteries about the past all come to the surface. You play much of the game riding around in a mecha, which you can customise with extra parts (laid out inside a dedicated space within the robot in a Tetromino-like fashion), and you can also take part in fighting tournaments which will put your customisations to the test. There are also a bunch of extra downloadable quests, although for the North American release these are already present and don't need unlocking in this fashion (the same lucky souls also get a soundtrack CD with first-run copies of the game). If you're after a game with a highly-imaginative world (where the developers even took the time to detail the peoples and cultures and everything else in it), and some fun combat, which isn't all doom, gloom, and coloured with slightly-varying shades of brown, look here.
That's all of my recommendations for now - honourable mentions also go to myNotebook Carbon, myDiary, the Animal Crossing Calculator, and the Animal Crossing Clock, all on DSiWare, for helping to keep me organised, but they are not games, just utility applications suited to folks who don't need a full PDA or organiser.
What do you guys recommend?
EDIT: Whoops, forgot Solatorobo!
With so many games out there, I figured that it might be fun to see if there are any more overlooked gems out there. DSiWare games count, too (these also apply to Nintendo 3DS owners, too, but since their roots are in the predecessor's line, they belong in here).Please specify whether a game is DS, DSiWare, or (in rare cases) DSi-enhanced (especially the latter, because that can put a damper on importing). And don't worry about repeating games that have already been mentioned - part of the fun of threads like this is getting a wide range of views on why people like particular games!
(Note for Nintendo 3DS owners: The "DSiWare Highlights" shelf in the eShop does not show the entire DSiWare library, and as far as I can tell there is no current way to browse the entirety of it, even though it is all present. However, if you know the name of a DSiWare title, you can type it into the eShop's search box in order to be taken directly to its store entry.)
I'll start off with a bunch of my own recommendations, though I will be leaving some out for the time being, because I'd rather put a focus on some that are likely to be less obvious to most people here.
42 All-Time Classics (or, Clubhouse Games, in North America) (DS) - A collection of traditional card, board, and miscellaneous games, which supports up to four players (both locally and online) and has an in-game chat feature similar to PictoChat (which is of course there primarily for doodling nonsense and taunting other players
). The name says it all, really. Whilst I'm not a big fan of the card games (which are the sole reason for this game having a 12+ age-rating in Europe), there is plenty of fun stuff here, such as a stacking game where you must try not to topple the pile of blocks, or a game where you must shake up a bottle of lemonade and not have it explode while you're holding it. I never go anywhere without this one, as it's great for passing time whilst waiting for things, and it's downright hilarious with multiple players (for which you only need one cartridge).Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS) - The most refined installment in the Animal Crossing series to date. This game is not for anybody who wants fast action, explosions, or anything like that - it's aimed at being a relaxing experience, and it does this very well. You create a character by answering a set of questions that determine how your face looks (guides for getting the face you want exist out there, of course), and then arrive by taxi in a little village filled with animal-people. You're then told that a new house is ready for you, at which point you suddenly find yourself forced to work for a raccoon tycoon, who will continually force you into mortgages that you don't want! You can pay them off (or not, if you prefer living in a tiny shack) by catching fish and insects (for which there are some quite interesting descriptions both in your inventory, and if you give them to the museum instead), digging up things, shaking trees (for either fruit, or items hidden in non-fruit-bearing trees), and selling what you find, or you could donate some of the things you find to the local museum, instead. Furniture and clothing items you find are added to an overall catalogue, so that you can buy them via mail-order if you ever want another one (or if you're playing the game with someone who doesn't have them yet). You can also buy coffee at a bar, the (random) flavour of which seems to impact what fossils you will dig up on that day. It's very much an acquired taste, but there's years' worth of stuff to do here if it is your sort of thing.
Art Academy (DSi-enhanced) - Not a game, but a set of art-lessons on a cartridge, along with a free-painting mode. The pencils, paints, and brushes behave quite realistically, and it's actually quite useful (not to mention space-saving) for those who wish to improve their abilities but who don't have the free time to attend classes. My only gripe is that when used with the DSi, DSi XL, or Nintendo 3DS, you cannot transfer your paintings to the SD Card, although in these three machines you are able to take reference photographs to use whilst painting in free-mode.
Aura-Aura Climber (DSiWare) - A somewhat overlooked new IP, in this game you play as a little star called Aura-Aura, who has fallen out of the sky. He has one move, and that is to grab onto little hand-holds that are floating in the air using the "A" button. He can also be moved around using the d-pad whilst he is in motion or to aim him whilst he's clinging to a stone. This game is primarily aimed at score-attacking, and for its 200 Nintendo Points (or £1.80 on the 3DS' eShop) price, it has quite a lot of game to it.
Bird & Bombs (or, Spotto!, outside of Europe) (DSiWare) - Another overlooked new IP, this one comes from Intelligent Systems. In a world populated by anthropomorphised birds, you play as the Spotto Trooper, who is a cute little army guy who specialises in throwing bombs. He's sent in to deal with the delightfully implausible event of the president's daughter being kidnapped by ghosts - and the course of action deemed best by the president is to blow the ghosts up by throwing bombs into their mouths. The Spotto Trooper is located in the lower-left corner of the bottom screen, and on the right is a dial with which to adjust the trajectory of his throws. Ghosts are located on both the top and bottom screens, along with obstacles that your bombs can bounce off of, or which block you from hitting ghosts in a conventional way. If you manage to kill all of the ghosts on one stage without missing and wasting any bombs, you can earn power-ups that will, on killing one ghost, send extra bombs ricocheting around the screen - if you do this right, it is sometimes possible to kill all of the ghosts in a level with one shot. As with Aura-Aura Climber, this is really a score-attacking type of game, and it, too, is 200 Nintendo Points/£1.80.
Chronos Twin: One Hero in Two Times (DS) / Chronos Twins (DSiWare) - A rock-hard twin-screen platform game which originally began life as a GBA title that was later (logically) replaced by the DS version prior to release (this is why the game's title screen proclaims it to be "Chronos Twin DS"), and which at one point gained some notoriety for some allegedly plagiarised artwork (not all of it is covered in this link - I'm pretty sure that Mega Man Zero is affected, too, looking at some of the game's sprites), as well as for aping Akira Toriyama's art-style a lot in its cutscenes. Chronos Twin was only released in Europe for its retail run (where it fared undeservedly poorly, due to being produced in a small run and then not being promoted AT ALL), but was later released to the WiiWare and DSiWare services globally, under the slightly different name of "Chronos Twins". You play as a fellow called Nec, whose world is being destroyed by a villain called Twime, who has managed to take over by being in both the past and present at the same time - thus, an invention is created to allow our hero to do the same. The game is played on both screens at once, with the lower one representing the past, and the upper one representing the present, with an alert appearing if danger appears in one of them but not the other. This is actually less confusing than it sounds, as it's been handled quite well - if there is a hole in one time but a platform in another, the platform takes precedence and keeps you safe, for example. This is not a game for those who don't like challenges, though - this is even more difficult than the first Mega Man Zero game (which is itself famed for being quite tricky), and needs a player who doesn't shy away from difficult games. If you do like that sort of thing and want something different, though, this is a game for you. The DSiWare version is an *absolute steal* at 500 Nintendo Points/£4.50, considering that the original retail version was sold for £30 (which I was more than happy to pay for it at the time, so all of you lucky folks buying the download version get a much better deal
).Elite Beat Agents (DS) - A rhythm game starring a band of secret agents who solve the world's problems with the power of song and dance! This game doesn't take itself seriously at all, and that's a good thing. It has a host of well-known songs (though they are performed by good soundalikes, and not the original artists - however, some of these soundalike songs are superior to the originals, if you ask me, such as Without A Fight), and several difficulty modes. You use the touch-screen to tap rhythm-markers in time with the music (these are represented by circles that close in on dots on the screen - the ideal time to hit for a "Perfect" tap is when the circle is right over the dot's outline), over a series of bizarre scenarios ranging from helping a babysitter with some kids, to helping a Texan oil mogul make back his millions, to saving the world. It also has at least a couple of scenarios exclusive to the multi-player mode, and these can be hilarious (especially the Y.M.C.A. one).
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS) - A Capcom game which, as with so many of Capcom's franchises, has suffered from not being promoted much, if at all (indeed, the only one time I saw it promoted, it was on Capcom USA's own website), Ghost Trick places you in the now-dead shoes of a man who must solve his own murder, and the mysterious events surrounding it and connected to it, which eventually come to involve the whole town. It's a witty, well-made puzzle game that involves possessing inanimate objects and turning back time in order to save innocent people from meeting their demise across a series of different scenarios that you must travel between by using telephone lines (which, the game tells us, is the only way ghosts can travel from place to place). The world the game takes place in has a lot of personality, and it really does feel "alive". If you liked the Ace Attorney games, you're quite likely to enjoy this, too - it's by some of the same people, and the localisation really shines. It's a struggle to avoid spoilers with this game, as every moment of it really is that good, so the best thing I can suggest is to check to see if the demo is still downloadable via the Nintendo Channel for the Wii - this would describe it better than I possibly could.
Mega Man Zero Collection (DS) - You knew there'd be a Mega Man game or three on this list, and here's the first of them. This is a collection of the entire Mega Man Zero series from the Game Boy Advance, plus a small amount of extras, and a mode where you can play through all four games from start to finish as one big game (albeit with a reduced level of difficulty). You play as Zero (already well-known from the Mega Man X series) after he has been awakened by a resistance force in the year 23XX to find the world in the grip of a war, and his own kind (Reploids - ultra-advanced robots from the far future) being persecuted. The player then must take on missions and fight big bosses, using a varied selection of weapons (which in some of the games can be levelled up, which gains you new moves for them). These games are known for being challenging, though I never found any past the first one to be too bad, myself. If you're after a meaty challenge, you can't really go wrong with four games in one, here.
Mega Man ZX (DS) - Taking place three centuries after the Mega Man Zero series, Mega Man ZX is set in 26XX, in a time where the wars of the past are long-forgotten (and where Reploids and humans are almost indistinct, apart from a triangular mark that Reploids bear on their forehead), but the souls of the ancient heroes are preserved in mysterious relics called Biometals. "Chosen Ones" (of which you choose from a male, Vent, or a female, Aile, at the beginning of the game) can use these Biometals in order to transform into armoured forms that grant them the armours and powers of the heroes of the past. If you liked the Mega Man Zero series (which laid the groundwork for some of ZX's features) as well as Metroid, you'll probably enjoy this too, as, along with fighting big, animaloid robotic bosses (Pseudoroids) which have been created to harness the Biometals' powers without being Chosen Ones, exploration is involved, which is enhanced as you gain new powers and armours from new Biometals. The ultimate objective is to stop the head of a powerful company from sacrificing the lives of millions in order to feed his ambition to rule the world.
Mega Man ZX Advent (DS) - This is the sequel to Mega Man ZX, taking place four to six years later when the world is considerably more stable. Once again there are two Chosen Ones as protagonists (Grey, an amnesiac Reploid kid, and Ashe, a young woman who was orphaned and knows little about her past), and an even bigger villain to face, as a prominent member of the centuries-old global government has been plotting to destroy everything in an attempt to "reset" and purify the world. This game answers a lot of questions raised by the first (such as how Chosen Ones came to be so, and some more about the origins of the Biometals), and also sets the stage for a third game which has yet to be made in spite of sales ultimately being roughly the same as the preceding game (this is done by covering the backstories of antagonists Prometheus and Pandora). Of course, being a sequel, it provides more of what made the first game good. There is more Metroid-style exploration, too, but ZX Advent improves over ZX in that fewer of the game's areas feel like they exist only to make it take longer to get from Point A to Point B - they all feel like they have a purpose in this game. The main Biometal you use in this game, Model A, allows you to transform into the bosses you defeat, instead of just copying their powers and weapons - this changes the experience considerably, and can be used both for offence and defence (one of the bosses is an *enormous* powerhouse that you can use to shield yourself with in a pinch, for example). If you liked Mega Man Zero Collection and Mega Man ZX, this is a definite must-buy.
Mighty Flip Champs! (DSiWare) - A puzzle-platformer that features levels with multiple "pages". This is less confusing than it sounds. The main gameplay takes place on the top screen, whilst the lower screen will reflect the next page that you can flip to, and will show where you will land if you flip to it (which is done by pressing any face button on the console). The early levels only have two pages each, but this quickly increases, leading to even more devious puzzles. To score highly, the objective is to flip through the pages as few times as possible. It's devious and addictive, and features many moments where you'll shout either "Eureka!" or "You bastards!" - it's a great start to the now-ongoing "Mighty" series on DSiWare and 3DSWare. It costs 800 Nintendo Points/£7.20.
Monster Tale (DS) - A brilliant game that is already being tragically overlooked, Monster Tale is a platformer/virtual-pet hybrid that is perhaps what Pokemon might be like if it were a part of this genre. It's from the same team that made the reportedly-excellent Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure. You play as a blue-haired girl, Ellie, who somehow finds her way to the world of monsters, and soon finds herself chosen to be the bearer of a magical bracelet that allows her to shoot orbs, much like in a Mega Man game. She also finds a monster egg that hatches to reveal a creature that takes a liking to her, who she names Chomp. As the game progresses, you need to explore the world to gain new abilities (very much in the vein of Metroid, Mega Man ZX, and Mega Man ZX Advent), find items for Chomp, and try to overthrow a group of tyrannical children who got to the monster realm first and selfishly took it over. Whilst it's mostly a platform game, the lower screen serves as a home for Chomp, where he will use, eat, or play with items you find or buy for him, as well as read books in order to gain more intelligence. All of these things will influence how Chomp will evolve and grow, and what moves he will learn in order to fight for you with - there are a ton of different forms in the game, and each will influence how you play in different ways. Chomp's time on the upper screen is limited by a decreasing vitality bar that appears while he is up there fighting with you, but you can call Chomp between the screens with a button-press - while he's on the lower screen he's able to rest and learn, and sometimes you'll need to send him there to activate switches that jut out from under the floor of the top screen. It's a brilliantly crafted game which really deserved a worldwide release - thankfully, even though it's a US-only release, it's not a DSi-enhanced title, so it's safe to import regardless of where you are. It's a must-have if you like Metroid or the two Mega Man ZX games.
Over The Hedge (DS) - Yes, a movie-based game, in a list of hidden DS gems. This title is based on the Dreamworks film, which in turn is based on the comic strip of the same name. Whilst it has some issues with polish (for example, it has some noticeable graphical bugs that really shouldn't have made it through testing, and some of its menus could be a bit better thought-out), the game itself is actually quite solid, and if you can find it for a cheap price, it's well worth a look. Essentially, it's a stealth game in the vein of Metal Gear Solid, but with less cutscenes, more game, and a cast of cute-and-cuddly animals. You have to steal food and consumer goods as part of an effort to entice endangered species to move to the woods, so that the local authorities will declare it to be protected land. You can find, buy, and use various gadgets to help out in the levels, and you must avoid being spotted by both humans and household pets in the homes that you're raiding, whilst also avoiding getting distracted by televisions and stereo systems (which affects some characters more than others, since they don't all have the same attention-span - you need to hammer one of the buttons to snap them out of it, and then quickly move out of range). Both screens are used in a simple but very effective way - the top screen shows the game as a third-person 3D platformer, whilst the bottom screen shows a top-down view of everything that's going on around you, along with markers to show the range of TVs and radios, and the field of vision of humans and pets. It will also help you to see things that the perspective of the characters on the top screen sometimes won't, since the characters are small forest animals with a limited viewpoint. Effectively using both screens to get around is quite important. Not only is it quite solid gameplay-wise, it's also quite challenging; I wouldn't be too surprised if many of the audience that this was originally aimed at didn't actually finish it - even I'm finding some bits to be quite meaty, and I'm much more used to difficult games. That's why I'm recommending Over The Hedge, at any rate - it's got more to it than one would expect from a movie tie-in game, and if you can pick it up for a handful of coins (as I did about a year ago), it's definitely worth your while.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS) - A point-and-click game where you play as a rookie lawyer who has to defend clients and get to the bottom of mysteries surrounding cases, in a semi-contemporary version of our own world, set about ten years or so ahead of real life. The legal system in the games is, of course, fictional, but the representation of it is somewhat based on the real-life Japanese system, even down to ruthless prosecutors who will do anything to get a conviction (knowing this fact will make you look at the consequences of failure in this game in an entirely different, and much more frightening, light). Accordingly, the lack of a jury presented a minor issue for the localisation team! Anyway, gameplay is split into two distinct phases in each case: At first, you see an overview of the crime, and then you must investigate crime scenes using either the touch-screen, the d-pad and buttons, or both (whatever you prefer), to search for evidence. After that, you must talk to witnesses in court, press them for more detail, and present evidence when you spot contradictions. The witnesses mostly have punny names (all these years later, I still chortle at "Cody Hackins", myself), and you deal with some pretty hilarious ones as time goes on. Since the first three games in this series were actually up-ports from a series of Japan-only Game Boy Advance games, this particular title served as a revival for the series there, and thus it has a final case at the end which makes better use of the DS' features (this only came into play again in the fourth game, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, which was built for the system from the ground up). If you like point-and-click titles, or just want something that's a breath of fresh air from most other titles, I would highly recommend this. It also helps a lot that, being entirely dialogue-based, you can save and put it down at any time, and be brought back to exactly where you were when you re-load your save. I will note that I cannot in good conscience recommend the second and third games in this trilogy (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations) unless you really like the first one. Not only do they not stand on their own as well, but the two follow-ups were localised by a different team - these two games are barely literate, and are full of bad spelling (a young child would be rightfully embarrassed to turn in work like that), and grammatical and structural errors that sometimes make it difficult to know what you're supposed to do. There are also some gigantic glaring typographical errors that REALLY spoil some very key moments. Being text-based games, this should never have been allowed to happen, so I would only recommend those if you love the first game.
Shantae: Risky's Revenge (DSiWare) - This game is a gem. It's the long-awaited sequel to the criminally-little-known Game Boy Colour game, Shantae (which the developers hope to release on the 3DS' Virtual Console service at some point, where it should finally get the attention it always deserved), and it's one of the most polished, well-made platformers I've ever played. As with Monster Tale, it's got quite a lot in common with the two Mega Man ZX games, so if you like those this is well worth a look. You play as a half-genie by the name of Shantae whose task it is to protect the town she lives in, whilst contending with an ignorant mayor who thinks he knows best (but actually doesn't), when Shantae's nemesis, the pirate Risky Boots, returns. Your primary attack is whipping enemies with your hair - which can, of course, be improved by buying shampoo - and later on you can gain transformations that allow you turn into various types of animals, too, which will allow you to reach places that you couldn't, before. This game's (ridiculous) European age-rating of 12+ comes from that feature alone - Shantae does a comical belly-dance in order to change form. Moreover, if you own other DSiWare games from the same company, there is a place you can visit in Shantae: Risky's Revenge where you can get in-game bonuses as a result of this. The game plays great, and is very polished and full of personality (the game's universe is very well fleshed-out, and the characters are all very likeable), to the point that I would have expected it to be a full retail title (indeed, it's much more polished than some full retail titles I've seen). It is one of the more expensive games on the DSiWare service at 1200 Nintendo Points/£10.80, though given the fact that I would have happily paid £25 to £30 for it had it been at retail, I personally found this to be well worth the asking price.
Solatorobo: Red the Hunter (DSi-enhanced) - An action game with some light RPG elements, this is CyberConnect2's long-awaited follow-up to their PSX title, Tail Concerto, set in the same world (one of floating islands in the sky which are travelled between by airships, and where humans are long-extinct), some years later. You play the part of a Caninu (dog-person) by the name of Red Savarin, who works as a "hunter", doing various missions and tasks in order to earn money. He ends up sucked into a much bigger story when a mission goes wrong one day, and he rescues a mysterious Felineko (cat-person) girl from a doomed airship that he had been contracted to retrieve something from. The story then builds up from there, and as with Ghost Trick I don't want to end up giving too much away, suffice to say that eventually the world as the characters know it is thrown into disarray and potential destruction, as the mysteries about the past all come to the surface. You play much of the game riding around in a mecha, which you can customise with extra parts (laid out inside a dedicated space within the robot in a Tetromino-like fashion), and you can also take part in fighting tournaments which will put your customisations to the test. There are also a bunch of extra downloadable quests, although for the North American release these are already present and don't need unlocking in this fashion (the same lucky souls also get a soundtrack CD with first-run copies of the game). If you're after a game with a highly-imaginative world (where the developers even took the time to detail the peoples and cultures and everything else in it), and some fun combat, which isn't all doom, gloom, and coloured with slightly-varying shades of brown, look here.
That's all of my recommendations for now - honourable mentions also go to myNotebook Carbon, myDiary, the Animal Crossing Calculator, and the Animal Crossing Clock, all on DSiWare, for helping to keep me organised, but they are not games, just utility applications suited to folks who don't need a full PDA or organiser.
What do you guys recommend?
EDIT: Whoops, forgot Solatorobo!
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