i bring it to work everyday to get one hour of sanity during my 10-12 hour days. Im currently playing thru ff6 and i just noticed one thing i never really noticed over 13 years (aside from the new translations)....

terra is a lovechild from a one night stand with maduin...

and apparently mog is no longer a slam-dancing moogle... how sad...

I'm having something of revival with mine...Now that online Wifi wants to work for a change (it NEVER worked before, I swear), I've developed the new hobby of listening to music while killing/getting killed in Planet Puzzle League and Tetris DS (the other modes are nice, but online VS is the only thing that matters...Puzzle League would be totally worthless without it, as it lacks the good 1p VS mode from its' Pokemon Puzzle GBC incarnation and a lot of the charm of it). I must've killed my battery at least 5 times in the past week and a half alone.

I'm also in the process of getting some 8bit emulation/multimedia goodness up and running on it, as soon as my CycloDS cart arrives (yay for no internal modding!). I like how all the NES ROM's I want to have available will only eat about 10-15 percent of my 2GB memory card (and really, I'd be happy just to have the Megamans on the DS, but I'll take the whole slew of NES classics to boot). I'm not sure how well the movie-playing software works or how much I'll use it, but the DS definitely has the look for it...It's crossed my mind to just prop the screen up at work while I'm working on papers or something.

*waits for DS TV tuner*

I have to admit, with the exception of Planet Puzzle League, this year has been pretty bad for the DS so far.  Let's hope Zelda and a few other good titles can turn this year around.

I thought the new Castlevania for DS was supposed to be excellent....I am still playing the first one and haven't picked up the second.  Actually been having a bit of a DS revival, after owning the DS lite since it was released, it's pretty much sat on my shelves.  I'm playing for some reason now...Pretty damn cool I have to say.

Did someone mention DS mods?!?  Is that kinda talk allowed here...JK

To get technical, Portrait of Ruin was released last year.  And yes, it is very, very excellent - my favorite Castlevania soundtrack since Symphony of the Night, too.

My friends have told me on and on to get a DS, and while Phoenix Wright and Hotel Dusk look really fun!, I still don't have any motivation to do so thanks to my Game Boy micro.  Surely, it is a better choice then a PSP, but it says something when amount of handheld games I want to check out, there is three times as many GBA ones as DS ones.  I'm more interested in picking up a Neo*Geo Pocket to be honest

I'd hardly call it a mod...More like "put shit on a cartridge and GO!". I don't trust myself enough for something like Flashme or the hula-hoops needed for PSP modding.

I loved the first GBA Metrovania probably because it felt fresh, but I played maybe the first 15% or so of Aria and Harmony and got bored of the formula extremely quickly. I have no doubt Dawn and Portrait are solid games, but they really look like more of the same to me. Figures the PSP gets the one Castlevania game I'm interested in though...

Csk: Neo Geo Pocket Color wouldn't be a bad choice at all, especially if you like fighters. Match of the Millenium is such a fiendishly packed cart, it's worth owning the system alone for it and the NGPC version of Cardfighters is a lot more fun than the DS version (or at least far more accessible...The DS one is too much M:TG crap and overcomplicated). Back in the day, it was the only handheld with Puyo Pop, but I think that's changed (did the DS version(s) come stateside?) and the Sonic game is quite excellent. The Metal Slug games are also quite different, but well-made (reminds me of Bionic Commando than the arcadey Slugs) Also: The D-stick is the best digital controller ever made. Period. I'd graft that style pad onto all of my controllers if I knew how.

If you can get it cheap, I'd recommend it.

Yeah, sorry to be so picky; I worked in a game store until recently so I got everything the first day and, I think, had finished that before the break of 2007.  It is a most excellent game, btw.

I don't know about anyone else, but that scene on the boat to Thamasa, where Terra is talking to General Leo, and says, "I want to know what love is NOW!", and then General Leo walks off, and in walks Shadow, who says, "Thought I'd sleep under the stars tonight" felt like a scene from a bad porno. I always imagine the bow-chika-wow-wow music playing there.

And on the topic of Mog and his slam-dancing, I MISSED GETTING THE f---ing WATER RONDO! So pissed!!!

And I will never be able to look at that scene the same way again.

FFVI Advance does give you one more opportunity to gain Water Rondo (now Water Harmony) in the World of Ruin.  You can earn it during the new boss battle against Leviathan.  Take a ferry ride from South Figaro to Nikeah or vice-versa to enter the fight.

... Unless you botched that opportunity as well? ;)

Awesome. I don't have to restart. Thanks, Angela!

One word for you: Picross.  Best $17 I've ever spent.

I've never played a Picross game, and I can't make any sense of Wikipedia's explanation of how to play it.

Of course, I can't make sense of Mancala on XBLA either, and it offers an in-game explanation that is baffling.

Wordy tutorial

Thanks, Datschge!  The flash game is quite addictive.  I may just pick up the DS version now.