Since we don't have a polls section anymore, I figured I'd just post this in here.  Easy poll.. just list your top three DS games, in order.  Mine:

1) Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan
2) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
3) Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

1 and 2 are pretty much interchangeable depending on time of day, position of the sun, etc.  Like right now I'm in a Ouendan mood cause I just cleared RSG Normal last night.  But if you asked me this a few months back when I just finished Phoenix, things would be different.

So let's see it.  And yes.. only three!

-Mike

1. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (technically mine is Gyakuten Saiban, as I wanted the LE version)
2. Animal Crossing Wild World
3. Mario Kart DS

The only reason Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten (the new Japanese<->English dictionary) isn't my number one is because you said "games" and not software.  That thing gives my DS more on time than any game does.  I use it all the time at school/work and whenever I need to look up a kanji at home.

Edit: Before anyone crucifies me, I do have and love Ouendan, but I am SO BAD AT RHYTHM GAMES... you guys always talk about all these game modes that I have no hope of ever actually seeing for myself considering normal mode destroys me. 

TAKE THAT!!

1) Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney
2) New Super Mario Bros
3) Castlevania DOS

1) Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan
2) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
3) New Super Mario Bros.

These three always travel with me.  Dawn of Sorrow comes in at a very close fourth, though, and Mario Kart, Super Princess Peach and Sonic Rush are all in the top tier.

Joe, I do hope you'll be able to progress further in Ouendan, since you're really only experiencing half the game with Normal Mode.  I believe even the least proficient of folks with rhythm games have the capability to become extremely good.  It just takes practice.

1. Tetris DS
2. New SMB
3. Peach

Heh, first vouch for Tetris DS. The new modes in that one really made a difference (since the 'standard' mode is pretty weak and demands too much of moving the blocks after they've landed...).

New SMB is self-explanatory, but it's worth noting I've probably spent far more time on the Shy Guy game and the Trampoline game than the actual main mode. I stand behind this one as the catalyst behind my DS purchase.

And Peach...You'll never hear me complain about getting quality 2D platformers and I had a ball with this one.

As for the 'other two' here, both are probably purchases in the next couple of weeks (along with Brain Age and the Yahtzee/Monopoly/Boggle compilatioon...Something appealing about playing good old Yahtzee on a touch screen). PW is something I need to see for myself and I read that Ouendan was made by the Parappa guys...That's a nice little pedigree (especially since that was the last rhythm game I've played, aside from the one in Capcom vs SNK: MOTM). Plus I have the song selection downloaded and despite my general lesser opinion of male JPOP/JROCK vocalists, it's extremely enjoyable and quirky. Does the game use the 'full' versions of these songs or is it stripped down versions (1-2 minutes, like the DDR songs compared to their originals)? Most range from 3-5 minutes as originals.

Actually, I had heard it was by the Gitaroo-Man people...? Oh well.

For my part, it currently goes like so:

1. Phoenix Wright
2. New Super Mario
3. Super Peach

Peach is sort of in there by default, because Brain Age is OK but not great, and I have yet to plug in my copy of Dawn of Sorrow (still working on Aria, you see). As for Ouendan, I share Qui-Gon's malady, i.e. stinking at rhythm games. An UmJammer-Lammy-took-me-a-week level of stink. Still, I may pick up a copy for my sister, who's a great deal better than me at 'em. She'll need a DS first though, and there's an awful lot of others that have my eye in the meantime (VJ, Kirby, Lost in Blue, Wario, Tetris, Mario Kart...it goes on and on).

Bear in mind though...My source was someone who commented on the game over at Play-Asia.

Well, I haven't played a tremendous amount of DS games, but from what I've played, my favorite (in no particular order) are:

Trauma Center -it's like your childhood dream of being a doctor without the blood

Lost in Blue -very unique game.  It's like Robinson Crusoe without death at every corner.

Phoenix Wright -it's like your childhood dream of being a lawyer without being a scum (no offense to the 2% of you honest lawyers out there

I also really enjoy Rub Rabbits! & Feel the Magic.  I've yet to play Princess Peach, SMB, and Tetris -all of which I believe are high quality games.

cheers,

-avatar!

Yeah dude, great game. But REALLY hard. Some of those missions are near-impossible the first few times through.

1) Advance Wars: Dual Strike
2) New Super Mario Bros
3) Tetris DS

(and my fourth and only other DS game I own is Mario & Luigi Partners in Time)

Yep, by the G-Man dudes, not the PaRappa fellas.

With the exception of 175R's "Melody," the fourteen other songs are cover versions of the originals.  Most of them clock in at just a little over three minutes, yet despite that, there were still some abridges made here and there - usually a shortened down intro or middle bridge section.  "Melody," however, did away with both bridge and second stanza all together.

They're not all male-vocalized songs, by the way.  Of the fifteeen tracks, three are performed by female artists.  Some of the covers even prove to be better than the originals - subjectively speaking, of course.  But I think the Ouendan versions of Yaida Hitomi's Over The Distance and Linda Yamamoto's Neraiuchi are worlds better.

Peach is something neat.  I've been playing it again since exhausting NSMB into something funny, and somewhat surprisingly, I think Peach has a lot more lasting power than said game.  There's oodles more to unlock, and there a wonderful feeling of constant progression, what with coin collecting, Toad rescuing, and ability-upgrading.

I have to rank NSMB a bit higher, though, for its magnetic pick up and play factor.  I mean, it's just so much fun to tear through an entire world in a ten or fifteen minute run.

On that note, does anyone else think that NSMB would've totally benefited from a time trial mode?  I mean, I'm not much of a time trial gamer, but this game sure feels apt for it.

You mean like in Kirby's Magic Paintbrush/Canvas Curse? I'm surprised that game didn't make it into anyone's top three here.

Quite like Kirby, yes.  Well now, inquiring minds would like to know; what's in your top three, Dats?

Hmmm... my top 3 DS games?  I'm going to have to go with:

1. Brain Age
2. Mario Kart DS
3. Metroivania: Dawn of Sorrow

New SMB, Peach, Phoenix Wright, and Ouendan are all great too, but those three would be my favs so far.

I hate to admit that my sample set of played DS games is currently too small to form a decent top three, so it's like 1. Kirby DS, 2. Mario Kart DS, 3. Nintendogs atm. I expect only Kirby DS to stay in there once (next break) I get my fill of more decent DS games through importing I still can't get here and are far cheaper elsewhere anyway...

I'm kind of disappointed there are no more Kirby DS alikes tho (unless I didn't look hard enough). I'm considering importing Kaitou Rousseau for being able to play another fun drawing based game, but impressions so far point to it being a rather short fun.

1. Advance Wars: Dual Strike.  Anyone who likes strategy RPGs and has played it has not been able to put it down, I guarantee it.  140 hours clocked and I'm still not done yet.

2. New Super Mario Bros.  Nothing can be said.

3.  Kirby: Canvas Curse.  Best use of the stylus so far.

Picking up a year and a half later, I'm wondering: what does your DS favorites list look like nowadays? 

Here be mine, although there's just too much good stuff for me to relegate it to a top three..... so after three, I'm sub-dividing it into a continuous top ten:

1) Contra 4
2) Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Tamashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2
3) Phoenix Wright: Trials And Tribulations
---
4) New Super Mario Bros.
5) DK: Jungle Climber
6) Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan
7) Elite Beat Agents
8) Nanostray
9) Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales
10) Picross DS

Contra 4, Ouendan 2, and PW: TAT are my current, interchangeable go-everywhere companions, and to me, show off what makes the DS so damned good.  Contra 4 proves that old-school sensibilities can work on current generation hardware, nailing a game that uses conventional d-pad/buttons down pat, while Ouendan 2 is still the picture-perfect poster child of touch-screen functionality.  Trials And Tribulations, unquestionably my favorite of the three current Ace Attorney titles, makes for a great chill-out game, allowing me to cool my hand-eye coordination jets for a while. (And I still see the series' leap to the DS as a great boon; the cleaned up interface, menu-driven touch screen, and the remedying of the GBA's sound glitch programming are head and shoulders above their previous incarnations.)   

I still hold New Super Mario Bros. in very high regard, and I continue to dig Jungle Climber's simple yet engaging gameplay.   Elite Beat Agents and the first Ouendan hold a steady sway in my top ten, and are, to me, part of iNiS's current masterpiece package.  Nanostray might be knocked down a notch once the sequel hits, but currently remains a gorgeous shooter.  Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales still wins me on pure charm and its bevy of things to do in the game -- and though I've exhausted Picross DS into something funny, it's enjoyable partaking in the occasional puzzle every now and again.

God, if my list were to be 100% accurate, I'd list my three favorite games as being all the Phoenix Wright. For the sake of fairness, though, I'd go as far as listing it as a single entry. Not only one of the best DS series, but one of the best series ever.

1: Phoenix Wright (series)
2: Elite Beat Agents (Never tried . . . Ouendan? Quendan? Oujicaldenon?)
3: Pokemon Diamond/Pearl

I think Elite Beat Agents succeeds for me as well as it did for making songs I usually don't like (of which EBA had many) into songs that I not only enjoy in the context of the game, but making me like them outside of it, too. Before it, I'd never have imagined I'd be able to tolerate playing a rhythm game set to the likes of Village People or Avril Lavigne songs, let alone enjoy myself doing it, too (and this is coming from a veteran of DDR). Oh, EBA. You so crazy.

As for Diamond and Pearl? What can I say?

Etrian Odyssey = awesome awesome RPG

Haven't really played many other DS games, but I do think the DS is pretty rockin'!

cheers,

-avatar!

1: Puyo Puyo 15th Anniversary Edition

2: Phoenix Wright (series)

3: Trauma Center: Under the Knife

The first one is with me at all times. But I'm a die-hard Puyo fan, so that's to be expected.

If I had to redo my above Top 3 DS games as of now, I would go with:

1. Mario Kart DS
2. Picross DS
3. Brain Age

1. Advance Wars DS
2. Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow
3. FFXII Revenant Wings

Really, as interesting an idea Brain Training is, this where the DS gaming is.

Currently, it looks like this:

1)  Taiko no Tatsujin DS
2)  Dragon Quest:  Rocket Slime
3)  Advance Wars (can't wait for the new one!)

Taiko no Tatsujin was a really nice surprise (what's even nicer, is that they announced a sequel!).

Eh, I have more games, but my list hasn't changed.

Cool, you picked up Taiko no Tatsujin too?  It's pretty neat, isn't it?  I did up a thread when it was released last summer; shame the game went largely unnoticed.

I only wish they gave a greater variety of percussion sets to choose from -- or, at least made the ones they did include good-sounding.  I don't even bother with the "joke" sets.   Oh, and have you passed Oni mode yet? :)

The song "Touch" rocks my taiko socks off:
http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/angie_liu … ic&.view=l

I've always liked the Taiko drum series, even though the Americanized version was largely dissappointing.  Who wants Britney Spears?  Give me more weird Japanese stuff!

Is "Oni" mode the last one?  If so, then you must be joking!  If I'm playing a real drum kit, then I can groove/blast with the best of them, but that mode just makes me depressed!  Here's a question:  do you use the two styluses (stylii?) or the buttons?  I'm doing okay with the buttons.

Actually, the two funnest tracks to play are the classic "Mario" and "Namco" medleys that they've thrown together.  Dancing Mappy?  Hell yes!

I'm no good at Japanese characters or anything like that, but the one that ends with "2000" is pretty good.  Where'd you get the mp3s?  I'm assuming you ripped them yourself (being as technologically savy such as you are...

Tell me more about this.  I saw a post about it briefly on Siliconera, but I didn't think it was anymore then a novelty, but after reading reviews about people saying that it as as good as the $400+ special electronic dictionaries, I'm really interested!  Does it only have a directory of single kanji or does is it a proper dictionary with kanji and kana compounds/phrases?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2McMUatkYM
There are also plenty more videos at Youtube. Besides looking up Kanjis and Japanese descriptions (the focus of the app) it also has limited English translations/descriptions which makes it useful for non-Japanese people as well (I occasionally even use it for Chinese as the meanings of the related Kanjis often are close enough).

It's a proper dictionary, though it doesn't have anywhere near the number of entries that my Canon does.  I used that and the DS as complements to each other, though honestly if I had to choose only one, I'd probably go for the DS (while I was in Japan, anyway).  The video that Datschge posted is a pretty good representation of what you'd get with it.

Yep, Oni is the last mode, though I've not passed it yet myself.  I use the dual-stylus more over the buttons, but the touch sensitivity does get slightly wonky at times.  If you're not careful, your one tap can sometimes register more than one hit, which can definitely sever your combo.  Buttons are more accurate, but more difficult for nailing those quick, successive 1/16th triple notes. 

Not nearly as tech-savvy as all that; I still prefer the tried and true method of direct line-in recording.  Taiko just makes it easy, since the whole song practically plays in the track selection preview.  :)

Please tell me, then, that you don't have to get a gold crown on all the tracks to pass it!  I'll try it with the dual-stylus method, just because I don't think I"ll be able to hit those triplets with just my thumbs and the buttons.  Like I said:  real drum kit = "eyyyyy".   Namco Oni mode =

I suppose I should update my list a tad, as well. It's been ages.

1. Phoenix Wright 2
2. Megaman ZX Advent
3. Picross DS

Picross has been an obsession pretty much since I bought it.
The ZX games are both brilliant, but improvement to the map, the Medal Challenges, and the COOLEST BONUS GAME EVER give Advent the nod for me. Also, Vulturon is beyond awesome.
I love all the Phoenixes (Phoenii?), but as I rambled elsewhere, I believe Justice to be the thematic juggernaut of the bunch and lynchpin of of the overarching interpersonal narrative.

All told, DS has pretty much won the system wars for me. More than half of all my 2007 game purchases were for the handheld.

Oh damn, I just realized what song "Touch" reminds me of.  I knew I heard this melody from somewhere before. 

Cher - Dark Lady:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_lJGfjjsbo

Tough call...mm...

The World Ends with You
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Bleach DS 2nd