Obscure DS Nostalgia games

[NSoph]

Post kino (DS-) Games that flopped and are of an obscure franchise, but you enjoyed them a lot as a kid.
Lost Magic: Draw Magical runes in combos, catch and level your own monsters, not easy, good soundtrack
Lock's Quest: Hard to describe, very innovative combat system, RTS/Tower-defensy, amazing soundtrack
Dinosaur King: Sci-Fi Archeology Yu-gi-oh/Digimon/Bakugan style epic Dinosaur wrestling, exploring map was fun, most engaging user interface

 

[№56]

Age of Empires for the DS was way better than it had any right to be. Instead of trying to port the PC game as an RTS, they changed it into an Advance Wars clone. I got it from an elementary school book fair (it was listed as an educational game because of the in-game encyclopedia explaining the different historical figures and technologies included in the game) and spent hours playing hotseat multiplayer matches with friends during sleepovers and road trips.

 

[ZinRicky]

Age of Empires for the DS was way better than it had any right to be. Instead of trying to port the PC game as an RTS, they changed it into an Advance Wars clone. I got it from an elementary school book fair (it was listed as an educational game because of the in-game encyclopedia explaining the different historical figures and technologies included in the game) and spent hours playing hotseat multiplayer matches with friends during sleepovers and road trips.

That's a good way to avoid screwing up the original game on a console with the power of a pocket calculator

 

[GothMonk]

Drawn to life and it's sequel.

The sequel had such a "car crash ending" that it the ending was changed in different releases for being too dark for kids.

I remember the game being fun, being able to draw up your own different platforms in a 2D platformer seemed exactly like the type of gimmick you'd only try with the DS.

 

[Deleted member 4436]

We had this bargain bin full of loose DS cartridges where I lived. They each had a price tag stickered on top of the title, going for about 3 dollars each. This meant that my family would always buy shovelware instead, since you could get 10+ games for the price of one popular one, and often they would buy repeats of ones I already had. These were the most common:

I'm pretty sure that if I had a friend group when I was young, then they would have made fun of me for playing this one.
Apparently though, a lot of people seem to have fond memories of getting this game instead of more popular ones, judging by some comments I found online.

This is my replacement for not having a cat (we did have cats, but most of them died and the living one hated me).
I've realized that the logo for this kind of looks like that of Little Busters...

This one was confusing, especially when I was a kid. It's like Brain Age, though the controls don't work half of the time, and is overall a poorly coded game.
Also, I found the music that plays whenever you complete a question to be creepy, so I didn't like it.

I never beat this one because you have to use the shoulder buttons, which were broken on my ds. I ended up spending most of my time listening to the title screen music.

Cool
I went back and played through the trilogy a few years ago. Despite praise I've seen for it online among zoomers, I don't think that it's all that good.
This remix of Shooting Star is nice, at least

This one is also really good I think, and I've never really heard anyone talk about it. I never beat it, since I found out that it's possible to softlock yourself during the second to last section of the game.
It's like a top-down metroidvania exploration game. Also cool

I distinctly remember this one for it's visuals and soundtrack. I find it to be very aesthetically pleasing.
It's one of those Brain Age type games that you're supposed to play daily. Most notably, at the end of each day, this plays:

15 years later and this will still often pop into my mind. It's one of those few things nostalgic that I never really get tired of, and always find it relaxing.

This one's a classic. Apparently its 800 dollars (!!!) on Amazon, so I guess I'm a millionaire now.
I had some other Pokémon games, but this is the one I remember most fondly. It entirely deserves the praise that it gets.

This one's my favorite. I was the only person my age who owned a DS, and I spent most of my time on it playing this one. I mastered it fairly quickly, and I think most of my intuitive ability comes from understanding the principles of deck building and consistency which I got from spending so much time on this one. This game was better for mental stimulation than that IQ Challenge one could ever hope to achieve.

 

[NSoph]

Drawn to life and it's sequel.

The sequel had such a "car crash ending" that it the ending was changed in different releases for being too dark for kids.

I remember the game being fun, being able to draw up your own different platforms in a 2D platformer seemed exactly like the type of gimmick you'd only try with the DS.

View attachment 53322

It's also from the same developers as Lock's Quest (5th Cell)

View attachment 53338
I distinctly remember this one for it's visuals and soundtrack. I find it to be very aesthetically pleasing.
It's one of those Brain Age type games that you're supposed to play daily. Most notably, at the end of each day, this plays

15 years later and this will still often pop into my mind. It's one of those few things nostalgic that I never really get tired of, and always find it relaxing

View attachment 53339
This one's a classic. Apparently its 800 dollars (!!!) on Amazon, so I guess I'm a millionaire now

View attachment 53340
This one's my favorite. I was the only person my age who owned a DS, and I spent most of my time on it playing this one. I mastered it fairly quickly, and I think most of my intuitive ability comes from understand the principles of deck building and consistency which I got from spending so much time on this one.

The Yu-Gi-Oh Games and Mystery Dungeon were also huge timesinks for me, the Flash Focus game voice is indeed ultra comfy, but sounds somewhat cultish.

I was also intrigued by the way ninjutsu was implemented here, utilizing the touchscreen quite a lot, despite it being a GBA port, the video is from a later entry but it works basically the same (and is also a semi-obscure ds game)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WujEKurR8-0
Watch the upper right screen

 

[AMC_Squared]

Me and my brother used to play this a lot. I loved the cooking and baking mini games too. Let me know if anyone else has played this game

 

[Yabba]

Never played the original golden sky stories but this was a cozy little game that I liked a lot. Normally I hate grinding but strangely enough I loved to do so in this game, grinding for hours at a time, something that no other game has ever made me do. It's not that niche but, most gamers have never heard of it.

 

[NSoph]

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Never played the original golden sky stories but this was a cozy little game that I liked a lot. Normally I hate grinding but strangely enough I loved to do so in this game, grinding for hours at a time, something that no other game has ever made me do. It's not that niche but, most gamers have never heard of it.

I listened to some Let's play of the originals 10 years ago or so.
Grinding metal slimes and gold golems in Dragon Quest 9 was fun, as well as grinding Tokos in Ni No Kuni on the PS3, both games had monsters visibly roaming the overworld instead rng, so one could target the desired fights.
In ni no kuni it got so bad that i was 20 levels overleveled and had no desire to finish the game because enemies were just butter

 

[Onryō]

One of the best horror FPS I've ever played.

From the Wiki: "Dementium: The Ward is a survival horror first-person shooter game developed by Renegade Kid for the Nintendo DS. The game was released in North America on October 26, 2007, published by Gamecock Media Group. Dementium: The Ward was originally planned as a Silent Hill game for the Nintendo DS, but Konami turned down Renegade Kid's pitch, causing the latter to create an original game instead."

 

[myrriad]

i didn't have that many ds games since you could barely find them in my country but of the few i've had i spent the most time in this one. (save for pokemon titles which don't really belong on this thread)

not exactly obscure as other titles here are, but i haven't really seen many talk about this one around. i received it for my birthday from a classmate which really came out of the blue. he was a really nice kid but we didn't really speak much, you can imagine my surprise when he 1. somehow knew it was my birthday and 2. showed up with a whole ds game (which to me felt like showing up with a brick of gold at the time lol). i should maybe dig it out when i fly back home and try it again. it had a campaign that i never finished, but i played the hell out of the minigame only mode. a lot of nostalgia for this one

there was also this brain age type clone i had whose name i can't remember at all and i cant find it online either. it wasn't brain age, brain training or big brain academy. i remember using a lot of blues in its menus and it had a woman as the mascot/your "trainer". if this rings any bells for anyone please let me know, i'd love to revisit it

Drawn to life and it's sequel.

The sequel had such a "car crash ending" that it the ending was changed in different releases for being too dark for kids.

I remember the game being fun, being able to draw up your own different platforms in a 2D platformer seemed exactly like the type of gimmick you'd only try with the DS.

i played the sequel on the wii lol. truly a great idea to port something you need to draw for on the wii, nothing can match the precision of an 8 year old with a wiimote. i wonder if the ending was changed in that release since i don't remember it having much of an impact on me, though i guess you could chalk that up to me not knowing english that well at the time

 

[Vetusomaru]

View attachment 53356Me and my brother used to play this a lot. I loved the cooking and baking mini games too. Let me know if anyone else has played this game

From my favorite DS games. Also from the few games that made me shed tears. It sucks that it never got localized in Europe and American didn't bothered hyping it (although they made a live action commercial for it). And of course it sucks that Nintendo of America/Europe never localized them previous games for "being too cutesy/Japanese" (their official excuse, not mine). Not even fan-translations. And I've heard that the previous Starfy games are even better than this one.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PY90I_a2sM



View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92GeCGtWHpI


You can tell just from the trailers alone with the great, comfy anime scenes how much soul they've put to this series:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OlfHkosIBU

 

[Vetusomaru]

View attachment 53409View attachment 53410

One of the best horror FPS I've ever played.

From the Wiki: "Dementium: The Ward is a survival horror first-person shooter game developed by Renegade Kid for the Nintendo DS. The game was released in North America on October 26, 2007, published by Gamecock Media Group. Dementium: The Ward was originally planned as a Silent Hill game for the Nintendo DS, but Konami turned down Renegade Kid's pitch, causing the latter to create an original game instead."

Look interesting. It also got a 3DS remaster.

 

[greyetch]

I have a DS emulator on my phone so I can play games at work when I'm not busy. Because it is touch screen, I pretty much only play JRPGs, tactical RPGs, etc.

Currently playing Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. I really didn't think I'd like it, but it is great so far. I'm not into the SMT series and didn't enjoy Persona, so go figure.

The game Infinite Space was *extremely* cool and I'm super bummed that I had to drop it. It is like Mass Effect in JRPG form. The ship customization is awesome, too. But the difficulty is just too brutal. You will end up somewhere and be told you need "item a", which you will look for and fail. Then you'll google it, find a 12 year old forum post of people arguing and being unable to figure out *why/how* they triggered the event. "oh it turns out you had to drop off guy B at planet Z and also have girl D in your party for that event to trigger". Fuck that. But man the game was cool.

Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting! is a weird one. I like the anime, but I can't understand japanese and the controls are janky. Some of y'all might like it.

Lost in Blue is a survival game where you're stranded on a desert island. Kinda hard, but good.

Well known, but I have to say it, Dragon Quest. If you haven't played them, go play 'em. Same with the Advanced Wars games for the DS.

 

[Vetusomaru]

I have a DS emulator on my phone so I can play games at work when I'm not busy. Because it is touch screen, I pretty much only play JRPGs, tactical RPGs, etc.

Currently playing Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. I really didn't think I'd like it, but it is great so far. I'm not into the SMT series and didn't enjoy Persona, so go figure.

The game Infinite Space was *extremely* cool and I'm super bummed that I had to drop it. It is like Mass Effect in JRPG form. The ship customization is awesome, too. But the difficulty is just too brutal. You will end up somewhere and be told you need "item a", which you will look for and fail. Then you'll google it, find a 12 year old forum post of people arguing and being unable to figure out *why/how* they triggered the event. "oh it turns out you had to drop off guy B at planet Z and also have girl D in your party for that event to trigger". Fuck that. But man the game was cool.

Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting! is a weird one. I like the anime, but I can't understand japanese and the controls are janky. Some of y'all might like it.

Lost in Blue is a survival game where you're stranded on a desert island. Kinda hard, but good.

Well known, but I have to say it, Dragon Quest. If you haven't played them, go play 'em. Same with the Advanced Wars games for the DS.

Shin Megami Tensei series have different feeling than Persona. Especially Strange Journeys that have quite different feeling than other Tensei series. I also prefer Tensei series over Persona, especially since it focus more to the gameplay unlike Persona that focus more to the story to the point that it often feels more like a visual novel (I'm not fan of that kind of jrpgs). I recommend the 3DS remaster port. As about Dragon Quest games, for the 4th one check out the romhack that translates the party talk dialogues (SquareEnix removed them from Western localization since they were too lazy translating them).

 

[JihyoParkXX]

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One of the best horror FPS I've ever played.

From the Wiki: "Dementium: The Ward is a survival horror first-person shooter game developed by Renegade Kid for the Nintendo DS. The game was released in North America on October 26, 2007, published by Gamecock Media Group. Dementium: The Ward was originally planned as a Silent Hill game for the Nintendo DS, but Konami turned down Renegade Kid's pitch, causing the latter to create an original game instead."

Dementium was great! The bugs freaked me out when I palyed the 3DS remaster

Other horror classics on the DS I know are Nanashi no Game (it has an English patch) and Theresia. There was also a remake for the first Resident Evil, heard it was pretty solid.

It's also from the same developers as Lock's Quest (5th Cell)

The Yu-Gi-Oh Games and Mystery Dungeon were also huge timesinks for me, the Flash Focus game voice is indeed ultra comfy, but sounds somewhat cultish.
View attachment 53353
I was also intrigued by the way ninjutsu was implemented here, utilizing the touchscreen quite a lot, despite it being a GBA port, the video is from a later entry but it works basically the same (and is also a semi-obscure ds game)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WujEKurR8-0
Watch the upper right screen

Some anime games were surprisingly good for the DS and PSP. I enjoyed the DBZ and Bleach 2D fighting games, although I thought Supersonic Warriors 2 was too hard, meanwhile Extreme Butoden on the 3DS was too easy. Also there was DBZ Kai Ultimate Butoden, which to me had the best 3D graphics on a DS game.

 

[Drifloon]

I feel like a good few DSiWare games would be worth mentioning. The two I have on my (modded) DSi are Mighty Milky Way and Shantae: Risky's Revenge. S:RR is available on other consoles so I won't post a video but I will of the other game.

View: https://youtu.be/gc3RgvEaMyw

 

[Digital Cheese]

Not really "nostalgic", but an actually pretty fun title for the DS that I don't see people talk about really.

Phantasy Star Zero

This game was pretty fun surprisingly. If you're a fan of Phantasy Star Online for the Gamecube, I'd highly recommend it. I've been playing through it currently, also the online works via Wiimmfi too which is nice. Wish it didn't need an old router or a mobile hot-spot to just play the game online but thats not too bad.

On another note, there were some COD games for the DS but I doubt those count as "obscure" and even if they do, they weren't too good especially compared to the home-console/PC versions.

 

[Modulator of Frequencies]

As someone who predominantly grew up on the DS (before I was given a 3DS and my life changed forever), my sister and I had a few Nintendo classics, but we mostly had shovelware. I didn't get to play a lot of those growing up, but I had my own games that are near and dear to my heart.

Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams

I played this game so much as a kid. I'm pretty sure I unlocked every unlockable in the entire game. Plus getting to learn all of the characters in the Sanrio universe for the first time was pretty awesome for 7 year old me!

Namco Museum DS

I know this collection isn't as good as, say the PS1 versions, but I was so engrossed in this game for so long it isn't even funny. I got to learn a lot about Namco's history, and it really got me more into retro/arcade games as I got older. I'm aware of the Pacman multiplayer, but I never actually played it.

Style Savvy

This game I'm listing because I'm aware it's well known, but in my opinion it doesn't get enough love. It's leagues better than its 3DS successors, and it really is a wonderful time capsule into the late 2000s in terms of all the different and diverse fashion trends out there. I could write an essay on why this game is so amazing.

 

[vulonkaaz]

The Sims 2 on nintendo DS now this was a wild game, basically you're like become a hotel manager in Strangetown which is as strange as it's name says you got to do things like gathering the nuclear materials that's laying around everywhere to fuel the hotel's generator, you got to clean up your hotel, you got to fight off the aliens using a squirt gun, you got to calm down the inhabitants who go crazy every now and then, you got to build a superhero cave under your hotel and become ratman and fight off criminals

all of that and much more on the most uncanny OST and the most low polygons graphics (i like low poly)

this game is the very first Sims game I've played it was preinstalled on my R4 and it's how I discovered the whole Sims franchise

man I really miss those weird portable ports of the Sims games they truly where something you don't see anymore