tamriel

The one I seem to return to again and again is Picross DS. The puzzles are short and, the interface is clean and I can switch to button controls when the ride gets bumpy.

1. Puzzle Quest Galactrix
2. Phantasy Star Zero
3. The World Ends With You
4. Infinite Space
5. Gauntlet DS

My, don't I like them RPGs.

Mine would be Galactrix. Puzzle Quest almost took root in my DS Lite, I had to remove tendrils with a tweezer.

Don't you mean "Infinite Line"? It's on my radar as well.

I think Lock's Quest nails the controls quite right. Lock is directed using the touchscreen, but while dragging to move is supported, only clicking on the destination works even better for me. Then, assigning him tasks is only a matter of contextual clicking, which works really right in the middle of the action. Using the buttons to pan the overhead camera strains the hand a bit (which may be alleviated by resting the other side of the DS on a surface or one's lap), but I feel it's a good compromise if it would have otherwise made a full-stylus control scheme more complicated.

I think that this mourning of the GBA slot is getting old, now. Backward compatibility, in my opinion, is a sort of insurance policy for a good system launch or in face of slow growth of the system's own game library. The DS has come of age now, and you can ask all these people I meet on the train that can't get enough of Brain Age how much they care about the gaping hole at the bottom of their system.

I am really excited about the DS online store. I expect great things to come out of this: I would really enjoy a Virtual Console of sorts for the DS, offering Gameboy/GBC favorites, but maybe also Game Gear and NeoGeo Pocket classics.

Also, I know that this has not been mentioned among all the DSi features, but I would think that the Nintendo engineers would take advantage of this hardware revision to implement WPA wireless encryption, as they have done on the Wii. This now is a feature that is worth a price hike to me.

Well, I do own a GBA SP and, maybe it's just me, but I feel more comfortable playing my GBA games on it. Therefore, I think that replacing the GBA slot with a SD card slot is a pretty good move from Nintendo.

The only little beef that I might have with this regards the add-on controllers, like the Taito Paddle or the GH Guitar Grip. However, I own neither of them and I've been made aware that they tear through your battery juice like ravenous raptors. So okay, goodbye; I am much more excited by the music, storage and browser features.

I was one of the few who enjoyed Phantasy Star Universe on the PS2. I played offline, by myself, for the sheer meditation of pointless grinding, trying out classes and weapons. I stopped playing only because TV time in my home had to be invested in child shows. Having it portable, on my console of choice no less, is having some stranger pour delicious jam on already pretty sweet ice cream.

Excellent! I had been hankering for a Phantasy Star game on the DS.

I would even go with a remake of a past 2D Metroid title, by the way.