My Picks for the Nintendo DS

I'm sure many of you are wondering: "Hey, i just bought a DS, not what the hell do i do with it?" Well, heres my take on what games you should buy.

Now, lets say you have enough for 1 DS game. What do you get? That depends on what you like.

Lets say you like racing. This is an obvious choice. Mario Kart DS. With good racing and plenty of variety, Mario Kart DS will have you racing your butt off for a while. And with the addition of Wi-Fi play, you wont be alone. I give Mario Kart DS 8.5 out of 10. And, quite frankly, there are no other good racing games for the DS. Then again, i haven't played the Burnout game for the DS...

Well, what if you hate racing, but you LOOOVE strategy. First of all, your really, really weird. Second, you should get Advance Wars: Dual Strike. It is a great game. Solid fighting, great use of the touch screen, and its REALLY addicting, in a good way. The only problem is that you're fighting the same war as the other Advance Wars games. But, if you actually played the other games, you will love Advance Wars: Dual Strike. A hearty 9 out of 10.

How about you Mario lovers out there? There are two Mario games out there that i really like (besides Mario Kart DS). Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time and New Super Mario Bros.

If you were a fan of the original Mario and Luigi, like me, Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time is the game for you. Its got the good parts of Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga (such as bros. moves) and a few of the bad. But it expands on some of the best parts of the original game. Take Bros. Moves. Although they have changed the Bros. Moves to Bros. Items, they have some great ones, like Bros. Flowers and Green Shells. The zany story to Superstar Saga is adapted into a new, even crazier story, with more Peach-nabbing, funny cutscenes, and wacky quests that never, ever end... One of the best parts of Partners in Time is the addition of Baby Mario and Baby Luigi, who are always getting into trouble. There are a few bad parts to the game, though. All of them are brought over from the original Mario and Luigi game. First and foremost, IMPOSSIBLE BOSS BATTLES. It takes a lot of time to defeat a boss. You need to work on leveling up the bros A LOT before you can defeat a boss. Which is the second problem. Its even hard just to level up, especially if your the kind of guy who avoids all the monsters nd heads straight for the boss. Then, after your killed, you have to turn your lazy ass around and battle the monsters before the boss battle. Which can be really boring. The final problem is the worst of all: incredibly repetitive gameplay. Jump, Hammer, Bros. Item. It gets pretty boring after a while. It tries to compensate by a variety of Bros. Items, but it just doesn't cut it. I give Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time a decent 7 out of 10. But if you liked the first Mario and Luigi game, this is a definate buy.

The other good Mario game is New Super Mario Bros. Its a great game, especially if you liked the other Super Mario games. Its got a lot of good things and really only 1 major flaw. Lets start with the pros. Its got great gameplay and it flows like water. Its mostly about timing, but it is not hard to get used to. It introduces a new variety or monsters, like Flying Goombas, Giant Piranha Plants, and monsters disguised as boxes. There are also bosses in each castle. Instead of the 8 worlds and 4 levels in each world from the original Super Mario Bros, there are 8 worlds with 6-8 levels in each. There is always one tower level (a puzzle level ending in a quick battle with Koopa Kid) and one final castle level (ending with a boss battle). Every castle does not have Bowser, only the first (as far as i know; im only on world 3). Then there are bosses usually relating to the theme of the world. Its a great game all around, but it has one major flaw. ITS HARD. ITS REALLY, REALLY HARD. It takes a looong time to beat, and will having your fingers sweating in notime. There is also no tutorial whatsoever, so make sure you READ THE MANUAL. New Super Mario Bros gets a 9 out of 10

Now, if you are looking for a good RPG, then keep looking. I have yet to find a good RPG worthy of buying. Well, there is Harvest Moon DS, but you should probably not waste 30$ on it unless your one of the 4 or 5 hardcore Harvest Moon fans out there.

What about a good shooter/fighter? 3 words: METRIOD PRIME HUNTERS. It is awesome, with good controls that you can customize to fit your handed-ness. It is the game to have for Wi-Fi. It has a pretty good campaign mode, multi-card and download play, and Wi-Fi, and it really is the only good fighting game on the DS.

If your looking for an out-of-the-box game, try Brain Age. Its fun. Its new. It uses the touch screen better than any other game on the market. And it can prove your not as smart as you think. It has this "Brain Age Test" that puts you through three tests that determine your "Brain Age". The best score you can get is 20. Most of the time, your Brain Age will be a lot more than your real age. Stupid. For example: i've had the game for about a week, and the best i've gotten is 39. I'm 13 years old. Wow. Anyway, the game features a ton of unique minigames that are designed to
"activate your prefrontal cortex". Some fancy words, huh? Basically it means that it gets your brain pumping. There is a bit of boring multiplayer (Calculations Battle), but you can also download a demo to another DS, which features a quick Brain Age Test, quick Training (the minigames, and quick Sudoku. Oh yeah, Sudoku. It is probably the best part of the game. Now, I suck at Sudoku. My first puzzle took me about, say, an hour. 10 puzzles later, I was down to about 10 minutes a puzzle. Kudos to myself! The game also features the talking head of Ryuta Kawashima, the creator of Brain Age. He's a "prominent Japanese nueroscientist", which basically means he studies brains, and is pretty good at it. His talking head will guide you through the game and provide tips. The only problem with the game is it gets boring after a short while, and you have to play it EVERY DAY to unlock new minigames. Thankfully, this is the kind of game you can get your mom to buy for you. Yay! Brain Age gets a 7.5 out of 10.

Now lets say your broke. Lets look at some GAMES FOR CHEAP BASTARDS*. First up is Battles of Prince of Persia. It's a halfway decent game, for $9.99. You probably will like it more if you like the other Prince of Persia games. I give it a 6.5 out of 10. Next is..well... theres nothing else cheaper than $19.99 for the DS, so.... Prince of Persia it is!

*Prices from BestBuy.com