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I bought a DS Lite (polar white) a few days ago for my 10-year-old brother. I got one game for it (Super Mario 64), and I've been planning to get another. However, I am not sure what to get. Some I have strongly considered are Final Fantasy III and Sonic Rush. He is into adventure, action, and RPG. Some of his favorite games on other consoles have included Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X, an old Sonic title the name of which escapes me, Super Mario (all those SNES Mario games), Zelda (A Link To The Past and Ocarina of Time) and Metal Gear Solid 3. Maybe that selection can give you idea where his interests lie and therefore what DS game would be a good compliment alongside Super Mario 64, if you're familiar with the DS titles currently out.

Since he's into RPGs, I recommend Contact. It's got nice 8-bit RPG nostalgia action, but innovative enough that it's not tedious. I'm not very far in it, but the only drawback I've heard is that it gets a little difficult at times.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Since he's into RPGs, I recommend Contact. It's got nice 8-bit RPG nostalgia action, but innovative enough that it's not tedious. I'm not very far in it, but the only drawback I've heard is that it gets a little difficult at times.

It's not too hard, just requires the standard grind here and there but not too much of that either. The game doesn't come with sudden spikes in difficulty at least.

He might like Castlevania, that's an action rpg - there's Dawn of Sorrow and the lastest Portrait of Ruin which a lot of people are saying is very good.

I didn't play FFIII but I heard it's challenging. I have FFV (GBA) which I thought is pretty good.

For other genres of games, Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Brothers and Advance Wars DS are fine games as well.

Magical Starsign is supposed to be a reasonable DS RPG, as is LostMagic (though that's an RTS/RPG hybrid). If you want RPGs, those would be good places to start.

New Super Mario Bros, Advanced Wars: DS, Mario Kart, and Meteos are all excellent.

Remember that the DS can play GBA games, so FF 1&2, 4, and 5, along with Zelda Minnish Cap and the Super Mario Advanced games are all options.

Club House Games is well worth the money (40 card and board games).

I personally wasn't impressed with Sonic Rush, but to each his own.

Just to toss it up, I'd recommend Metroid Prime Hunters for something along the vein of Metal Gear Solid.

Elite Beat Agents. Get that game. It rocks.

Meteos, because you need a good puzzler.

Mario Kart, because you want to play multiplayer.

Brain Training, because its good and fun.

If you're getting an RPG, then why not go with Final Fantasy III?

Just to toss it up, I'd recommend Metroid Prime Hunters for something along the vein of Metal Gear Solid.

I had no idea that MGS was a FPS!

DPDarkPrimus wrote:If you're getting an RPG, then why not go with Final Fantasy III?

Because it sucks. I bought it last week. I managed to play it for an hour before I gave up and started wishing I could return it. I haven't touched it since.

DPDarkPrimus wrote:I had no idea that MGS was a FPS!

It's all that sneaking and long monologues in MPH.

What's the go with FF3? A friend of mine loves that shit and wants to get it. Is it bad?

Stark wrote:

DPDarkPrimus wrote:I had no idea that MGS was a FPS!

It's all that sneaking and long monologues in MPH.

What's the go with FF3? A friend of mine loves that shit and wants to get it. Is it bad?

FF# is basically an updated graphics and story to an old NES RPG. If that's your fare, or your friend's, it is a fun DS game. Nothing more or less.

The Castlevania games are pretty good.

Stark wrote:

DPDarkPrimus wrote:I had no idea that MGS was a FPS!

It's all that sneaking and long monologues in MPH.

What's the go with FF3? A friend of mine loves that shit and wants to get it. Is it bad?

When I gave up, it was when the game wanted to send me to the second dungeon. Mind you, the only dungeon you got to play before this was with one character, so all your others are still basically newbies. When I stepped into the new dungeon, my party was decimated by the first random encounter (I fucking hate random encounters).

So I started to walk around the overworld trying to level up. Of course, then I found out that to reach the new level for my characters was something like 150 exp. And I was making 3 exp per battle.

Needless to say, FFIII went back in it's case.

Games I've played that I think someone his age might enjoy:

Mario Kart DS (racing, duh)
Elite Beat Agents (rhythm game)
Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (adventure game)
Tetris DS

And don't forget that the DS can play GBA games, too.

He might enjoy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3. Yes, I've played it; it was free

Stark wrote:What's the go with FF3? A friend of mine loves that shit and wants to get it. Is it bad?

From the reviews I've read, it doesn't even attempt to take advantage of the dual screens. Battle is entirely on one screen, with the second screen apparently showing the game logo.

Temjin wrote:

Stark wrote:

DPDarkPrimus wrote:I had no idea that MGS was a FPS!

It's all that sneaking and long monologues in MPH.

What's the go with FF3? A friend of mine loves that shit and wants to get it. Is it bad?

When I gave up, it was when the game wanted to send me to the second dungeon. Mind you, the only dungeon you got to play before this was with one character, so all your others are still basically newbies. When I stepped into the new dungeon, my party was decimated by the first random encounter (I fucking hate random encounters).

So I started to walk around the overworld trying to level up. Of course, then I found out that to reach the new level for my characters was something like 150 exp. And I was making 3 exp per battle.

Needless to say, FFIII went back in it's case.

Yeeesh... I didn't find it that hard. The leveling up has been pretty quick for me as well... so I am slighlty confused by your experience.

I personally like FFIII...but I don't know how much an 8 year old would get out of it. It can have spikes of difficulty, and you can only save when your character is on the map of the main land. Plus it really doesn't use the top screen much, as someone pointed out. However, I found it to be pretty addicting once I got all 4 characters and figured out what I need to do.

What about Trauma Center? I have it for the Wii, and it's pretty addicting. I can imagine it would be addicting on the DS. Plus it's not overly difficult.

Elite Beat Agents.

I would say Ouendan, but since he's only 10 I'll avoid imports. EBA is almost as good, but not quite.

Mad wrote:

Stark wrote:What's the go with FF3? A friend of mine loves that shit and wants to get it. Is it bad?

From the reviews I've read, it doesn't even attempt to take advantage of the dual screens. Battle is entirely on one screen, with the second screen apparently showing the game logo.

Not entirely accurate; the top screen usually shows a world map while outside, but otherwise I think it's usually blank.

Max wrote:What about Trauma Center? I have it for the Wii, and it's pretty addicting. I can imagine it would be addicting on the DS. Plus it's not overly difficult.

Trauma Center for an eight-year-old isn't really a good idea, because on the DS, it's HARD.

That and it's a Teen-rated game and the visuals could be kind of gross for a kid that young.

You said he likes some of the older side-scrollers, right? Have you considered Kirby Canvas Curse?

Ah, Kirby. I'm unfamiliar with any of the games featuring that character, and I believe my brother is also. I'll look it up at Amazon.com, though, and maybe I'll end up getting it.

I decided not to even have FFIII for consideration anymore, after I read a thorough review at Amazon by an FF fan who played it and said it's more of the type of FF that puts a lot of emphasis on leveling up, and it gets very hard, especially with the bosses, who will ass rape you if you haven't spent hours upon hours preparing.

I'm not sure about Elite Beat Agents. I've never seen him into a game of that type.

Right now I'm seriously consider that new Super Mario game where Mario can become gigantic and other such things. My only reservation against getting that has been because of the fact that we already own old Mario titles on the SNES (and they still work great), and I just got him Super Mario 64, so I felt like getting him a title not related to Mario but still very fun.

My reservation against getting Tetris DS is that he got a new game from mail order a few months ago for the PS1/2 that featured the old sonic games and includes some unique but familiar Tetris game that's a lot of fun.

I saw a Crash Bandicoot game titled "Crash Boom Bang", and I was interested in that because he liked the Crash Bandicoot games, and I really liked those games, too. But apparently only one review at Amazon.com, so I can't get a feel for if it's worth the purchase/if it's true to the original and at least nearly as fun. I also saw a Spyro title, and though I never got into the games featuring that character, it does seem to me something my kid brother would like. However, that title hasn't received any reviews at Amazon.com. I'll try looking elsewhere for reviews.

edit: I just found out Crash Boom Bang is a party type game like Mario Party. The title should have been all the hint I needed, stupid me.

Anyways, I'm currently looking at Castlevania and Dragon Quest Heroes. I've already looked at other titles suggested here as well and will be pondering which one to get very soon.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. By all means, if anyone else happens to know a good title I may have missed despite my searches at Amazon.com, please chime in.

NomAnor15 wrote:You said he likes some of the older side-scrollers, right? Have you considered Kirby Canvas Curse?

Yeah, he does. Which is why I think he'd really like this, but a reviewer also made the following interesting point on that: "There's no doubt that the touch controls give Kirby a whole new level of interactivity, but make no mistake, this is your standard collect stars-destroy enemies-find hidden items-defeat boss-repeat, type game. If you're a long-time gamer from the 80's like me then you may find the control mechanics aren't enough to hold your interest in this type of game. I've simply played too many of them. Kirby is a stong, polished title but not nearly as innovative with its gameplay as it is with it's control." But I'm seriously considering it, nonetheless.

If you want a traditional 2D game, grab Kirby Squeek Squad (just came out). If you want a unique touch-controlled one that doesn't feel like a platformer at all, grab Kirby's Canvas Curse.

I really want to try out Squeek Squad, looks like classic Kirby games