A DS story
The Nintendo DS is weird, isn't it? There are so many set expectations today on what a console or handheld release will be. When the PS2 came out, what was different about it? It was more powerful and it played DVDs, which was very cool but made a lot of sense. The PS3? More powerful and it played Blu-Rays. PS4, PS5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Series X? More powerful, maybe they slightly added to the controller if you're lucky.
Even Nintendo, who had experimented with interesting peripherals over the years, had released mostly standard looking consoles and handhelds. They were largely comparable to Sega in terms of design but they had found more success with their pricing, game catalogues and marketing.
The DS came out before the original iPhone. It has a touch screen, a second screen, a stylus and a compact, foldable design. It's weird but it became so synonymous with that era that I think we take for granted just how different and interesting the DS design remains. The drawback to this is the work required to get some of the best DS games working on more modern systems that don't have the second screen.
I was definitely a PSP kid. We never owned an NES, SNES, N64 or Gamecube when I was growing up but I did own a Gameboy colour. A purple one that mostly saw use as a Pokémon machine. What we did have - literally from the day I was born - was a Playstation. That inevitably led to interest in the PSP and PS2 over Nintendo. Genuinely outside of Pokémon, I barely recall anything about Nintendo from my childhood. I don't think I even really knew Nintendo made consoles until I was introduced to Resident Evil 4 on GameCube at a friend's birthday party - Thanks Tim...seriously.
My first DS was a DS Lite. I picked it up for Pokémon Heartgold and eventually, while visiting Orlando, I picked up the beautiful DSi that released with Pokémon White. My DS collection from that era was genuinely just Pokémon games.
This system is utterly gorgeous
My brother, however, dove deep into the world of the Nintendo DS. He's a little bit younger and, particularly when we would buy games while holidaying in the US, he benefitted a lot from the huge library of relatively cheap games on the DS. I remember my mother telling me that he was spending so long in the toilet because he was sitting there playing Super Mario Brothers. He also had to buy multiple copies of Mario Kart as he would misplace them all the time. He really got amazing use out of his white DS lite and, later, his light blue DSi. Those things took a beating over the years. The DS lite had a broken hinge so it would fall forwards half the time you tried to use it...
Last year, I found it a little hard to get the time to play games and I thought it might be good to pick up some games on older, smaller handhelds. They were much easier to bring on my commute or when travelling. I started off playing some GBC games and that evolved into a new interest in the DS. There was something exciting about picking through the bins of loose carts at comic con or browsing CEX for whatever random junk they had in stock.
img_1_1771960254276 Me with the Mario man himself, Charles Martinet
I was able to find a reshelled DS Lite with a really slick colour scheme - Black with red accents. It wasn't overly expensive and now I can play GBA games as well. This opened me up to the world of Rom Hacks. I've already written extensively about how impressed I was by FireRed Team Rocket Edition which is just an incredible expansion of the story of the original Pokémon. Since then I've sunk my teeth into Pokémon Unbound.
I must say, Unbound goes above and beyond what I thought was possible on the Game Boy Advance. It feels like the missing link in the timeline - adding Mega Evolutions, a DS style-sprite set and an incredible amount of detail within its environments - Unbound is the gold standard of what Pokémon should be. It feels like I have only scratched the surface of Rom Hacks. I know there have been some big releases in the last few months alone and there are also some well known releases outside of Pokémon.
Unbound is a triumph
While Rom Hacks largely used Pokémon FireRed as a base - it's Heartgold that has stuck out for me as the greatest classic game. To take the generation that I was most obsessed with as a young kid and upgrade it with modern gameplay (at the time) and beautiful pixel art had me simply obsessed. The mechanic of having your Pokémon follow you around continues to be a feature of the best Pokémon games. I like when my little pals are more than just battle buddies and walking around with them just makes everything feel more alive. The sheer amount of content here is wonderful and, having released just 2 weeks after my 15th birthday, I was in a much better place to fully tackle all the various challenges within. I was probably a little bit young playing the original Silver on GBC.
I did plenty of research around DS games now that I had my DS lite. There was such a wealth of games to play that I had never given the time of day before. One that stood out was fabled RPG Chrono Trigger. I had heard so much about it over the years but I've never had the chance to play it. I'm not sure if it was inaccessibility or just the opportunity never arose but this quickly became my "holy grail" of DS collecting. While not the most expensive game on the system, it is certainly up there in price and cost much more than I would normally be willing to spend. I gathered some old games I had lost interest in, particularly some high value NTSC and JAP releases that I had just bought for display purposes, and was able to trade up for a very fine copy of Chrono Trigger in The Rage.
Chrono Trigger is very impressive. In many ways, it reminds me of modern games like Mass Effect or Baldur's Gate in the way my little actions seem to have an impact on the story. The Toriyama are is really wonderful and, while I'm still working through it, I'm not surprised that this became such a cult classic. The DS version includes these very cool cinematic cutscenes and my understanding is that it runs much better than other releases. Basically, every other version of Chrono Trigger has its positives and negatives but the DS version is considered definitive. It is a fantastic addition to my collection.
The RAGE in Dublin has long been a go-to for my retro gaming needs
Now we go from talking about some of the best games ever released to shovelware and cheap puzzle games. The DS and Wii are simply the kings of Shovelware. There is so much junk on those systems, real bargain bin stuff. Here's my take though - sometimes that junk is exactly what you need. I love playing Sudoku games on the DS. I love some of the terrible movie tie-in games. They're dumb and they don't keep your attention for long but sometimes all I want is a little mindless distraction. The Sudoku challenges of Brain Training are easily in my top 5 most-played games of last year.
I was terribly afraid of flying and hadn't gotten on a plane once in over 5 years. Last year, I popped a Xanax and played Sudoku while I flew over to London. The Xanax made it impossible to complete the Sudoku but the distraction was exactly what I needed. I love that I can rifle through bargain bins and find some random junk to laugh about. The DS has such a wide library and it is simply fun to explore.
My current Nintendo shelf
Especially with the easily jailbroken 3DS and the ever-aging parts, I think that the DS is getting a little bit more expensive to get a hold off. However, if you can find an old DS lite and pick up an Everdrive or an R4 card you will get more than your moneys worth. It is such a wonderful little handheld and I know that my DS story will continue for many more years to come. The future holds the likes of Ace Attorney, Layton and Castlevania for me - will you link up with me?
Our Brain Training Word Associations are silly