Hello and welcome to the Pocket Cast. I'm Fletcher and I'm joined with Ed. Hey there. Is it joined with Ed or joined by Ed? Um, by. Probably by. God damn it. I guess that makes me the host and you the co-host. I'll take it. We wanted to do, I wanted to do a podcast about the DS library, which I think is absolutely brilliant and creative. It was called, what was the original name of it is, not the dual screen, the DS, but the DS also stands for director, director system, something like that.
Do you know what it is? Developer system, something like that. Okay. Okay. Developer system. I could see, make sense. Maybe something, I think maybe developer system. And so it's because it was so, it was supposed to be so accessible and like just so easy to make games for.
And I think that's why it has like such a weird fun library, especially like when it comes to, you see a lot of indie ish titles, things that you would call indie, like in the way that they play developed by Nintendo, things along that line. And so go ahead. I was going to say, I would definitely agree with that.
It was one of my first impressions just browsing through the library and noticing big brands reinventing IPs for the platform and, you know, in the form of new mechanics to accommodate the DS. And some of them are good and some of them are, well, all of them are weird, but it's weird to see those indie like qualities coming from larger IPs spread evenly across the board. Because you clearly, you have to kind of adapt certain things to facilitate a game that would actually work on the DS.
Yeah. Absolutely. Did you know that the touchscreen came out, the DS's touchscreen abilities come out before the iPhone? No. What? No. It sets the groundwork for introducing everyone to this well of a functioning touch system. And if you ask me, I think it works better than some of those earlier phones that came out with those touch systems. Mind you, it comes with a stylus. I don't know if you've had to use it without the stylus garbage. Just as the worst. I remember it being better.
Maybe I had smaller hands when I was younger, but I didn't even get into the system until I was in high school. And so I had to be, God, I don't know. I don't remember if I was a sophomore or what, but either way that puts it at like, you know, 2007, 2006 ish era. And this came out, I believe 2003. I written down, let me, let me reference my notes here real quick. Oh yeah. Please do. Please do. Came out 2004. Well, that's when it was revealed. Damn, that's crazy.
I didn't really ever play the DS as a kid. Not that I can remember, but I do remember years ago. I think you were the one that put me onto it initially. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. I believe so. Yeah. Because I had the extra DS on top of the three DS because I was so excited when the three DS was coming out. I was so stoked. I remember that. I held off on buying it. I, I, I held off on buying it because I had, I, yeah, I just, I known to pay attention a little bit and watch what games were coming out.
And I wasn't interested in a lot of what had been announced. And honestly throughout its entire, throughout its catalog, there isn't a game that really, there's a few that feel like the DS light title or DS, sorry, title. But it's, that's that, I know you played it, the Friday, the Friday, the Friday monsters, attack of the Friday monsters. Do you know what I'm talking about? It does, it does ring a bell. It has kind of a, almost like a studio Ghibli feel to it.
Studio Ghibli means fully coolie is what I would almost call it. And it's like an adventure game as where you collect things and you progress forward. Yeah. I, you know, I'm looking at artwork for it and it definitely reminiscent of Ghibli art for sure. It does ring a vague bell. I don't, I, if I did play it, I definitely didn't get very far, but it looks familiar.
I believe I somewhat skipped of the introductions of, I also, I, as in order to bribe Ed into doing this podcast, I like, I got him a DS. What would you, what would you normally be playing if it wasn't a DS being forced upon? Like what am I just currently playing now aside from the DS? Yeah, sure. Yeah, let's start there. Oh, okay. Yeah, right. So a mild plethora of PC titles. Obviously Hogwarts just came out not too long ago. But like last week. Yeah. So trying to be a good wizard boy for sure.
CSGO occasionally, Valorant occasionally. I'm trying to think of what else I was really sinking time into a couple of play tests that are going on and off on Steam here and there. What would you say your, give me like a top, top five to 10 favorite game? All time or current? All time. Oh, that's a fun, I mean, let's go all time. Just throw out like 10 of your favorites. Yeah. All right. Okay. All right. Well, Majora's Mask obviously also going to be in that list for sure all day.
Spattering of Final Fantasy titles. Big fan of one and two for sure. Seven, obviously a classic. Honestly not one of my favorites to play through, but I do enjoy it. It is a fun game. And I didn't play a lot of the other titles. Tactics, big fan of Tactics. Great one. That's so funny that you mentioned that. That is, yeah. I have trouble getting it. I've always wanted to get into Tactics. I just always have an issue getting into Tactics. Now see, I couldn't get back into it now.
And that's mostly just because I just feel like I don't have the attention span. Like when I have time to play, like I'm in full blown immersion or it's pick up and put away. And so the DS is kind of hitting that pick up and put away time slot. But my sit down full blown, like Jess is working overnight shift. I can actually put some serious time into something. I want to sit down and bust into something super immersive, like a Hogwarts title on PC.
You know, something that I can really grab by the balls. So I kind of struggle with like RTS strategy games for the, well, I guess it's not RTS at all. Turn based strategy games for that reason. Cause I was always a big fan of Fire Emblem 2. Well, I was going to say, I would think Age of Empires probably makes your top 10 list. You kind of, you enjoy that. Age of Empires specifically, Age of Empires 2 for sure.
Yeah. I still, I still get down on that on occasion with my brothers and even sometimes Justin, who's Michael's college roommate. Right. And we'll go pretty hard at that. I played, I played, I had a lot of RTS games growing up on the PC. I don't even know if my dad played many RTS games, but we had like five of them at least. Sure. I played a lot of some of them Armageddon, Armageddon 2. So no, Total Annihilation 2. Oh, okay. That's what I played a lot of. I gotcha.
I don't think I ever played Total Annihilation games. Just too much, too much pressure, man. Yeah. No, I, I, I definitely get that. And you know, I even only ever really play AOE 2 for the nostalgia and mostly because I just, I have, we have really high tier strategy gameplay, just muscle memory at this point. So the only thing you're really trying to do is make sure you don't forget to click us, you know, hit a click or something like that.
Coming into a newer RTS like that, I struggle because I have to relearn how the mechanics work and what the, what it is that I'm trying to macro. Yeah. I don't have the patience for it. You're trying to figure out the strategy instead of actually playing the game. Yeah. Right. So, and I, so I struggle with something like that anymore, but AOE 2 would still be on that list for sure. Put you on the spot. Yeah. Yeah, you really did. Now I've got to actually like branch out.
I was in, I was in total DS mode in terms of my headspace. I'll give you some of mine. I'll dig into some of mine to help you think about. So I have to put Half-Life 1 is definitely near the top of that list. Oh. Like that's just that game. Immediately embarrassed. I should not have left that out. Almost like an album. You know, it has to be something to me that I can play again and again. At the same time, I would put up Judge Dredd versus Death. Is that what that game is called?
You're talking about the GameCube title? Yeah, the GameCube. I think it's on other consoles too, but yes, the GameCube title. Yeah, you're probably right. Yeah. Not a great game, but absolutely one that once again, I have played it through so many times and I can play it through again and again. Excellent game. Counter-Strike has to go on that list. But I mean, that's one that's like, do I enjoy that or is that an addiction? I think that's more on the edge. And I don't even do.
It's not even a game that I like to play. It's not even the crates that I like to play. Sometimes you're like, I just want a toxic experience. The social aspect of it is equally addictive, I would say. Yeah, because sometimes you get addicted to a game and that's rewarding too. Yeah. Yeah. And there's quite a shitload of nostalgia packed into that as well. I also would put King's Quest, specifically King's Quest 6 on there. Okay. If you ever played any of the King's Quest games.
That's another series I've never played. I've heard good things though. It's Sierra. I don't know what the other... But they did, they put out Half-Life actually as well. What? But it's totally different from Sierra Entertainment. Is that what it is maybe? They put out Monkey's Island. Oh, okay. Well, there's point and click adventure type games where if you miss one thing way down the line, it's going to totally just fuck your day up. Yeah. Yeah, that's King's Quest, absolutely.
Cool. But that's one of those games that just... The lore and the storytelling is just incredible. I played that game at a young age, so it just sucked me in. And then you have to think of Pokemon Silver and before that. Yellow, the yellow I don't have it for. Yellow is fine. I would play yellow, I guess. But blue, red, silver, gold, diamond. Those games, just the...
We were discussing the other day, the ability to when you're playing a game that doesn't have the best graphics, your imagination that immediately comes out and then makes you feel like a kid again. Absolutely. That is Pokemon, 100%. Man, hearing you talk about some of these games really has my brain working overtime. And I've got two titles in the same veins of your last two here. I'm going to probably chuck Myst in there. Okay, yes, absolutely. Myst put me on...
It's one of those that I picked up and dropped fairly early on, once or twice that I tried to pick it up and play it. And the first time it wasn't something I had access to. I think maybe somebody had it loaded on their system, a friend's house or something. And I got to try it out for a couple minutes. I was like, well, this looks kind of cool. And then never got to touch it again until I was older. And then at some point, I picked it up and I got to the suspended forest fort place.
And that is notoriously one of the most dog shit fucking puzzles you have to do in a video game. And I remember not making it past that. And then I picked it up at some point with a year or two ago and just sat down. I played through almost the entire thing in a single state. And it was...I just went ham and I could not get enough of it. I remember having such a fear of that game. I had a nightmare as a kid that was...in my brain, I remember thinking that I had had the nightmare.
And then this is back when you'd be walking through Shopko or wherever and they would have the PC titles and the big boxes in an aisle. I remember seeing that cover and being like, Dad, that was the dream. That was the dream that had me crying the other night. And that was it right there. And they don't make any sense. But that was where it happened at. And obviously I'd seen some kind of ad or something before it to put it in my head.
But then I had that on the DS because there's mist on the DS. And because I wanted to get into that. And that game, yeah, the puzzles. I think I got to the exact same spot that you were talking about. I was just like, no, I'm done here. I can't I cannot figure this out. I didn't even think to put up a snacks or anything. Yeah, that's definitely an option. And no lie, I did not make it fully through mist unassisted. Yeah, I wish I could claim that, but I will never ever claim to be good at games.
I if I can make it through a game without looking something up, that is it's a pretty easy game. You know, Titanfall, too, like the last game I can think of that I made it through without a walkthrough. Any FPS I can probably make it through a walkthrough. Dude, I use I use rune light for runescape. So I'm using the shit out of the blue solver overlays to do my slide puzzles and shit. Oh, yeah, I don't have time for that.
I guess runescape has to go up there and favorites, you know, what was the addiction or favorite? I don't know. I don't know. She's did. I don't. I think that's more of a favorite than it is an addiction to me. I think so. I've been listening to a lot of nostalgia. Well, and that's something that you and I've talked a lot about lately is is the power of nostalgia when it comes to being a gamer.
Yeah, but and we don't have to we don't have to totally delve into that now, but like it is it is just a recurring theme that just keeps coming up over and over again. I mean, what are we doing right now? And that is the DS came out in 2003. That's we're coming up on 20 years. Oh, yeah, we're nearly at 20 years. So at least it was a now. I don't know when exactly we'll leave, but either way, we're coming up on I could backtrack it 20 years.
Right. Sure. And that's I mean, I think that's about the point where you could say nostalgia. It's so funny because that's not very true, but that's kind of retro. That's that's playing that's playing Atari and instead of your Super Nintendo. Yeah, and yeah, and I think the bridge between what's retro and what's not is that gap. Right. It is ever getting smaller just with how frequently newer and newer systems are coming out.
I mean, at some point, obviously, like the PS5 and the newest Xbox will be, quote unquote, retro. Yeah, absolutely. But I almost feel like to really for those to be retro, they either have to be made obsolete through the on allowance of backward compatibility by current consoles or will have made some kind of exponential leap in gaming. But there's an Atari collection on the absolutely on the switch. So then in that sense, that is a retro.
That's a really good point, too, because I also I now that I've said all that and made a big to do, I'm starting to break it down in my own head and realize, well, you know, because they you can buy a pixel game that was made yesterday. Like, yeah, absolutely. So I believe we've covered our grounds of what some favorites are. So I'm taking that segue into the DS. So pixel games are being made for everything right now. Like, I mean, just modern consoles.
You've got homebrew coming out for Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Color, the original Gameboy, Nintendo. They're they're they're modding the games or making new games. There's nothing coming out for the DS, which is blowing my mind, because, like we said earlier, it's the developer system. Right. So if I'm wanting to learn how to write for anything, I would think that this would be like a go to. I have heard that the Gameboy is the easiest thing to learn to write for.
I believe I believe because what happens is you can you count Gameboy and Gameboy Color as a single library. And I do believe that triumphs the DS. Eighteen hundred games on the DS, I think, is what I saw around roughly. I'm sure that that's a it's so funny and so interesting to me that that is argumentive, like that you can argue how many titles and like every console has. I did run into this before I even had the idea for the DS podcast. I was playing I was getting into the Garfield catalog.
Interesting. Oh, OK. Not not a great catalog. I recently saw the triple jump on YouTube does a lot of interesting video game lists and they'll rank all of from best to worst, all of their games are from worst to best, whatever. And they did the Garfield video game and near the top five was in the top five was the game. I first played Garfield's Nightmare, which is if you're looking for something to play to go to bed. And I mean that in the nicest, best way possible. This is the best game for it.
It is the most basic platformer. The controls are the controls are all right. Everything about the game is so just above mediocre. Like if it was mediocre, you know, like when something's mediocre, you just kind of hate it more. You wish it would have been bad. This one must be just above mediocre because you enjoy it just enough for you to be like, I'm going to I'm passing out. It's like playing Bejeweled or Puzzle Quest or something like that. OK, all right. I'm picking up what you went down.
Where I was going with this, though, is there is a Tale of Two Kitties and Garfield Two, I think. Two titles. One, I believe, is Europe. One one is PAL and one is US. And they are the same game, the exact same game, two different games. So I guess that's where that argument comes up of how many games. Gotcha. Are you counting titles or titles with unique titles? Yeah. Yeah. And I'm sure there's many other ways.
So I basically with the with the catalog that we had access to, I didn't go through and do a count. But we played a similar catalog and. I'm just we had two weeks kind of go through. First of all, I was surprised by I don't know if it would just happen to be a tiring two weeks. We did a bit of projects around the house, but I did not get nearly as much time into the DS as I thought I would, which is funny because that is the convenience of it, is how much time you can just sneak into it.
Don't even talk to me about that. I too suffer from the same issue and I have this little digital notebook with buttons on it in my pocket. That takes all of my pocket. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I've been getting dirty looks every time I open up. We were at breakfast. We were at breakfast and I didn't have mine with me. That's the only reason you were upset. Let's be honest, is because you didn't think to bring yours to the restaurant.
Because I thought about it, I have a child, so I can't I can't be a hero. I hate to blame him. I hate to blame him, but the LB isn't working on my on my DS. This thing I said I've had since I was like 15. So it's just. That is upsetting to hear. It could be just from wear and tear. So what have you been what have you been playing on? So no lie, I've tried to kind of just dabble, put a couple of minutes into a handful of different titles.
But the one I definitely keep coming back to that I absolutely having so much fun with is the Dawn of Sorrow Castlevania game. I think you and I talked a little bit about this beforehand, but I never really ever played a Castlevania game ever. I always thought they were so cool. And I remember growing up seeing the artwork and in various magazines and whatnot thinking, Damn, that looks so cool. No way in hell I was ever allowed to ever play one.
And I just I just never had really any focus in that IP. You know, after I got older and could do kind of whatever I wanted. So I just never really got into it. Kind of the same unfortunate reality for me with Pokemon, but solid platformer, cool mechanics, insanely amazing and beautiful artwork. I was going to say a slight underutilization of the touch screen.
But I think if it I think if the touch screen played a more core role in the mechanics that might piss me off and I'd probably want to play a lot less. Yeah. At present, you just unlock these symbols essentially that allow you to unlock doors. And, you know, when prompted, input the pattern through the screen. Although I've noticed that it seems if you just don't, the game will immediately or just eventually draw it for you so you don't have to unsheath your stylus. So yeah.
That's one way you could just use your finger. You don't even need the stylus for that. Absolutely. Because I've taken I played Portrait of Rune was I think my first Castlevania title also on the DS. And that same way sucked me in. And I think it has the same mechanic. I think you barely, barely use it. And it's you can, you know, is the menu down there? Maybe maybe you can use the menu, but I don't even think that's it. I think stats are displayed down there.
Yeah. So the the game place or excuse me, the game play actually takes place on the bottom screen. And then up top, you have like a menu. Right. Okay. But you know, now that I've said that that's the only use of the stylus, I had forgotten that I progressed a little bit further somewhat recently. And get to the point where essentially I have now have the ability to destroy certain blocks using the stylus. So I forgot. Again, it's still such a very simple mechanic.
You basically get on a floating platform and it carries you over this pit. And then there are blocks that would otherwise push you off of the moving pedestal. And you have to quickly scratch back and forth on the stylus to delete the blocks. Because it tries to trick you. There's only one stream of blocks and then it's and then it's, you know, then it's three, three deep. And if you're not constantly drawn, you get pushed off. And then at the last minute, you have to duck.
That adds in a bit there. It does. It definitely. Yeah, it's kind of a cute little mechanic. Yeah, I'm sure they'll introduce additional little pieces like that. Maybe we'll see. So if you didn't play and I don't think it was in our catalog, the any of the Zelda games on the DS, I think when you borrowed it, because this is now this is referencing back Ed and I moved here together 10 years ago. No, no, not 2014. Almost, almost 2014.
It's like July 2014. OK, so been a while since you had played through it back then. Did you play? Do you remember playing Zelda on the DS? I do remember. Is it the Phantom Hourglass? Phantom Hourglass. Yeah, I do. I remember not beating it. What a fun game. And I disagree. So what? Really? I beat that game. I remember just because you don't control him whatsoever with the D pad or any control. Sticks, you use the stylus to move link around. You use the stylus to swing your your sword.
I don't like that control at all. It's the same to me as having the forward button being accelerate in a recent game. It was. I don't mind the stylus controls. What I really prefer is when you can play the game without or with the stylus. When that's the option present. And once again, I don't mind when it's filtered in there. There are a few exceptions to the rule, of course. But no, I'm really surprised to hear that because I did not.
So I would definitely have to go back and play it again to make sure that my assessment of what I recall. I do wonder if you're thinking of a link between worlds. A link between worlds with 3DS. That was really good. Yeah, I do remember that one as well. Very much amazing. The specific gameplay that I recall playing through definitely Phantom Hourglass. Yeah, and you have that. There's the dungeon that you have to continue to go back to and go further and further down.
But you have to go back to your old steps. And I know that I'm not alone in these thoughts. I believe that. I hate that. I want to say that what I remember is that it felt very cumbersome and clunky and difficult to be precise in your inputs. But I feel like I remember coming to the conclusion or realization to treat it more like Wii controls. At which point getting the input strokes on the stylus felt less cumbersome just because I was a little bit more fluid with it.
And it kind of removed the need for what I thought was specificity in how I'm writing these inputs. And it just kind of almost like the cursive version of a stylus input. For me that seemed to work. Now I could be complete bullshit and made it all just up on the spot. But that's how I feel like I remember it. And I feel like I enjoyed the game. But I also can't think of what the reason was I never finished it. But I'm also notorious for not finishing games.
Like I never finished Breath of the Wild. I literally just hate to beat games. I think that once again I'm at the exact same spot. Just got to beat games. But I think a lot of people have. I think that that's a common thing. I hate finishing games dude. Sucks. There are a few others that really focus on stylus controls that just bother me terribly. IvyBikimi is one of them. You see a lot of these platformers that rely on you like drawing a path. You see this in Kirby's Canvas Curse.
Something along those lines is the name. Kirby's a ball and you have to draw the road for him and the ramps and all this. And you can touch him to get him boost. And it's just I don't know. There's just something about really heavy touch controls I don't like until you get to a title like The World Ends With You. And that goes also in my top 10 all time favorite games. Not DS titles but just all time favorites. And I remember we discussed it a little bit.
And if you have not played this game the way to describe these controls is that you have almost like really simple-ized directional only commands that are like a fighting game like left left down right right up certain different combos that you're using to control in a battle on the top screen. But at the same time you have a battle going on on your bottom screen and you have different signatures or symbols to draw that will attack the enemies on the bottom screen.
And you move that person by moving your stylus around. First it's extremely chaotic and it feels impossible to stay caught up with. The game is a bit forgiving. It will let you continue to retry these battles and I do believe it will make them easier for you after a while. And then you can progress on. The problem with that of course is that then when you get to a harder boss it's going to be harder for you. So it's highly recommended that you actually beat them and get used to that.
But once you get used to those inputs and that's to be said with a lot of these games is it just becomes so fluid. And I feel the immersion and I get immersed in the DS. Hotel Dusk I know that you kind of touched on that. Yeah I was just you know while you were talking and explaining the world ends with you I was just kind of scrolling back through the library that we're working with. And I scrolled back by Hotel Dusk room 215.
I've not gotten very far but I mean since the opening sequence of it just booting the game. The second you launch the title and everything like you know it splashes the icon or imagery for the developer or whatever it is. And it's all sideways you're like what the hell. And then yeah and then it's like holding a book and then the game's just going and like the artwork is so unique. And it's such that it's this cool hand drawn stylization. You get all this pencil scratchy sounds.
It's a comfortable it's a comfortable feel. The soundtrack is fantastic. Yeah it's I think the struggle that I have. You hear me say throughout this podcast that I dislike touch controls or the unique the. What's the word I'm looking for here. They were they're playing on all these unique things you know it's kind of like a catchy oh look at my touch controls or look you can use the microphone. Oh the gimmicky things. I'll say that's a gimmicky thing that's a gimmicky thing.
But nine times out of ten I'll end up saying in a game that we're doing I love that gimmicky thing. So I'm sure I'm going to eat my own words on that plenty of times because I do say it's the one thing that held the style the DS back with so many people relying on the gimmick rather than just kind of leaning into it here and there. Yeah I feel that.
I know it's the basic the Chinatown Wars is a great example of you know I mean it's the it's I think I'm metacritic it's the number one DS game and it's got the perfect. Just it doesn't rely on it it just throws it in there here and there for fun little tiny mini games that make the game a little more immersion actually because when you go to steal a car you have to hotwire some of them. Right.
So you use the stylus the hotwire the car and that's a fun little quick mini game boom boom you're in your car you're out. I still think it has the best way of getting rid of your stars. Did you play it at all. I haven't on the DS but I have played Chinatown Wars before. Right. Yeah it did end up coming out on a lot of different. It's on the phone it's on the. PSP I believe even but it was initially a DS only title.
So and then that kind of brings me to the explaining kind of my idea further about this podcast being that I want to play every US release on the DS. And a huge you know 1800 games or so right and that maybe that's all games maybe that's not just the US games I haven't looked at the actual number. There's a lot of good games there's a lot of really bad games like if you go scroll through this list of all the DS game I bet there's.
10 Disney titles and 10 Barbie titles there's just a slew of shovelware like I said gimmicky games there are games that I believe we're going to be able to get through. In a way less than two weeks so I am thinking for some of these and I believe that will be kind of the standard is that every two weeks the podcast will come out. Ideally being that we have somewhat of a community that will want to play the game at the same time that we are or something along those lines right.
Yeah. Stay more current with it every two weeks there's going to be some games that are probably like my life first horses or something like. Yeah. Well while I am just making this up I do know there is something along the lines of my life and there's plenty of force game there's a baby we'll have a two weeks that are all the horse game. Oh dear god. I'll just play through a bunch of different horse games. Okay that'll be the hell podcast.
So yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah there's going to be some two weeks that and then there's going to be some two weeks that we're like this wasn't even enough time to get into the game. Yeah. I am there's a lot of remakes and like almost like remasters there is. See if I wrote down on the list there is an insane amount of final fantasy and square enix titles. Oh I believe I wrote down on a games to play I kind of made a list here to reference as games to play games I'm curious about and old favorites.
And just in this title alone there's one two titles that are Final Fantasy there's children's mana which I believe is just like an offshoot of Final Fantasy blood of I'm going to say this wrong Bahamut Bahamut Bahamut. Okay Bahamut is unacceptable. Well you'll get shot in the streets for that. Bahamut yeah. Just just cripple over. The blood of Bahamut. All right whatever. I gotta cut that one. Nope. So blood of Bahamut Bahamut Bahamut is also Square Enix. I don't think I know that one.
Kingdom Hearts recoded I think I wrote King Hearts recoded I'm assuming I meant Kingdom Hearts recoded. Yeah I remember I played that title for a short bit I didn't get very far but I do remember that one. Final Fantasy 3 I believe is the first remaster of the game. You know I'm a big fan of the early Final Fantasies. Yeah and that's something I found interesting is I've never gotten into Final Fantasy I have Final Fantasy 9 and I've never really gotten very far into it.
Quite ironic because I love the Dragon Quest series. Yeah. I've got a decent list of favorites and I've got a decent list of curious games as well as games to play. I think we almost might want to do a randomizer. Not a bad idea we could each select a number of games to load into a short list of 20 30 whatever at a time and then hit the randomizer. Or. Uh oh. We do all of the games. Put them all in there oh Christ. Put them all in. We could we could definitely do that.
And then if we have if we have a terrible luck streak we'll dig into our list. I'm going to go over some old favorites on this list if you don't mind. Not at all. Meteos is a Tetris like puzzle game I believe it was one of the first releases for the DS. I could be totally talking out of my ass there. It's a blast. I don't I don't know what makes it so much fun. They shoot off like rockets.
I think sometimes you could be playing against someone else or you're trying to like stack their stuff full you know kind of like Tetris attack. Okay. Along that puzzle vein we've got puzzle quest slash uh Galactrix. Yeah Galactrix I believe is what it's called. Probably saying that wrong as well. Connect 3 RPG puzzle game. Okay. Uh so much fun. Difficult. Really difficult. Like it's not like as I recall Galactrix is a bit more approachable.
It's the learning curve that it goes with you a lot better. Puzzle quest is a hard to play game. Interesting. Do you remember playing flash Sonic games? That were actually kind of good. Yeah yeah man Sonic is one of those titles I've really never gotten into. Yeah I say that hesitantly. The Sonic Rush is just too straight classic. It's in a fun art style I think you would actually enjoy it. It's I say once again kind of on the easier side. The world ends with you obviously is in this list.
For sure. What I was going to ask you about before we started playing or playing recording was Space Invaders Extreme. I've been playing Space Invaders Extreme 2 I believe it is. Really. That was the music we were dancing to while we were setting things up. Oh yeah gotcha. Okay I was wondering what you were playing. But what is up with this system having the one like just the best soundtrack. It's fucking phenomenal. The world ends with you. We didn't touch on that. Great great soundtrack.
Absolutely. We might have to well we'll consider how we want to play this. See if we can get some licensed audio in here next time. Yes absolutely just a little snippets of it. You know if we're short enough it's okay right. Right yeah sure we'll have to brush up on the legalities. Tokyo Beatdown is this like weird 80s Japanese top drama but it's like I said to beat them up. Really funny really fun. Like a side scroller. Yeah. Nice. I feel I'm leaving out on this list.
The games I'm curious about now. Stoke-Upon Journey is an RPG slash board game. I've never heard of that before. I haven't. That's the first I've heard of it. Never heard of it. Never heard that combo so I'm really interested. Yeah that sounds cool as shit. I Hamtaro. Really. I played just an ee-tee-bee-tee bit of the game and it seems cute and just something about it just seemed like it could just suck me and I was also well I was into Hamtaro for way too long.
Like to not admit for how long I liked Hamtaro. I don't I mean I know I know of Hamtaro and I know Hamtaro well enough to say that I think at some point in the sounds that are affiliated with the show the hamster says Hamtaro. It's about how it's like. Like Ham Ham Ham or something like that. Sure. Yeah far off.
I think it was on like I'm trying to I'm trying to remember recently I used to watch cartoons on and it was one of those shows that I would watch it was a cartoon I'd watch before school while eating waffles. I have a very vivid memory. Interesting. It was on like Fox cartoons or something like that. So it was weird why did that Japanese show make it over but it was cute very cute. So I think it'd be fun one. Okay all right interesting. Rune Factory could be a fun one.
Two weeks seems like it's gonna be one of those games where it's like oh that wasn't enough time. Yeah. Rune Factory is the first real evolution of Harvest Moon. That's right I knew it sounded familiar. But you're also still farming as well too. So it combines action role playing with the farm sim. Seems comfy and fun. Big fan of those titles. Valkyrie Profile is one that it's plants on my curious list because earlier I said I really don't like tactics games that's totally what this is.
But I want to get into it. You know there's something like my friend used to my friend was so into Final Fantasy tactics or Final Fantasy advanced what it was. And I just wanted to be into it as much as he was. I was not. Absolutely relatable. I there was something about coveting the games of your friends. Because now I feel like games are widely accessible to anybody on almost any platform. Right you have modern games that are releasing on all platforms simultaneously for the most part anymore.
You can stream games. Yeah you can you don't ever have to even have the console or the platform or the ability to play the games to experience the game itself if you really wanted to. But I remember growing up with handhelds and you know PlayStations are starting to come out. You've got the PSP you've got Xbox you still have some PC gaming absolutely.
And just seeing the games that your buddies or friends are playing and that's where everybody falls into these niches or these niche clicks of oh I'm a Nintendo gamer I'm an Xbox gamer I'm a PS5 gamer anymore it really just breaks down to semantics like do you like the social platform on one over the other more or not.
Yeah but like if you grow if you grew up with a certain system then you were playing specific games and then that was what kind of molded your introduction into video games for the most part. Well I'll say it is PC and then we got a PlayStation. Yeah. And then from the PlayStation I went to GameCube. And then for my GameCube is really really was like fuck man I need something to actually play some shooters and stuff that's why I got into my PC more.
And I was like PC master until I got the fucking DS and I was like I'm kind of a Nintendo fanboy like I love these titles like even though they there's a certain time where it was lame to be in these cutesy wutsy ones but now it's it's not you know and it's like the cartoony games.
When you're talking about the GameCube and PlayStation 2 Xbox now you're looking back a lot and people are like that was that gritty time you know it was the the toned down color everything's in sepia or dark greenish tones and then you look over at the GameCube and it's just like fucking Mario Sunshine how bright can we make it. Man that's our next podcast right there is is all about the GameCube probably my personal favorite
console. I didn't appreciate it when I had it and I didn't get the really good games for it when I had growing up with the GameCube. That's fair. I got Animal Crossing just like oh days before maybe like on the day of moving from Sioux City out to Sydney and that is the middle of summer so I have no friends you can't make friends you know like it's like it's impossible to so I just spent my summer just fucking Animal Crossing on the GameCube. That was you know that's why I love Animal Crossing
to this day is I'm sure because of that core feeling right there. Hell yeah. I had fucking Billy Hatcher and uh you know PN03. I don't know if you ever played PN03. Oh PN03 is awesome. Such a weird game. Good if you have like a whole catalog. Not good if it's one of your like. Yeah that's that's fair yeah if you're just exploring the archives it's a fun play but yeah if that's one of your only sources of entertainment you might be better clawing your eyes out I guess.
Yeah I mean it's that game would have done great on the DS. I'd like to see a remake I'd like to see a a demake of that on the DS. A demake. I like that. They have a few demakes out for the DS. I believe that there was a there's a Halo demake. Really like an actual like a Halo shooter game? If we had listeners and if we got comments they would be controversial comments.
Being like oh I mean I mean it was actually a it was an alpha you know or pre-alpha game blah blah but there's also the people be like no they've said that that was not it was not actually it was not made by Bungie and it was just a fan made game and you'd have all these different arguments about it but yeah there is you you can get a Halo. That's wild. I'd like to take a quick step back. Is that your Karen voice? I don't know what voice that was. That was awesome. It was my it was my
like high-pitched nerdy like whiny voice. Love it you should that's definitely needs to be a thing. That's okay yeah I'll see if I can ever do it again. My throat's pretty roached right now. Well we can keep you there I think. Yeah I'll be too. No I think it'll be all right. When do you think the last game came out for the DS? Oh I mean my gut tells me a while ago but you never know. Like not not not talking about like homebrew like an official release.
No an official release. Geez I'd have to say it's been a while so 2016. Oh you gave it more credit than it deserves. 2014. Wow really. So now next year it'll be it'll be an interesting statistic right. If we would have started it next year it'd be better because 2004 it's announced. 2014 the final game comes out. I know. 2024 Pocket Cast is released. Pocket Cast is yes simulcasting every week. United all of the portable handheld retro enthusiasts
across the world. Damn there's a tag. That's you know the funny thing is that there's no new handheld. Like if you want if you look up there's one new handheld. I can't think of the name of it right now. It's got the little Frank on the side of it. It's like it plays one bit games. Crank? Yeah you haven't seen this huh? What are you talking about? Frank handheld game. Yeah this sounds made the f**k up. Play date. Play date is what it's called. Okay. And
and it's like it's interesting. I would definitely enjoy playing it. I believe the asking price is a little high for it for my economic level. What is the function of the mechanical crank? Is it? It's basically just to play with. It's an analog controller. Interesting. I used it in a lot of different ways and so it's huh this is the only new handheld console to come out besides all these retro you know emulating things that you see. Well but I feel like there's a case to be made
that the switch is a handheld. I don't. No not at all. I don't. That's I it's I now it would I feel like I feel like your your requirement is that it needs to be pocketable. It needs to be pocketable. All right I respect that. Yeah I think it's a fair state. That definitely takes the p well well not not that there's a newer PSP but I would assume for you the PSP still like where does that fall in there for you? Like the original PSP slim? Not just the PSP I think if you looked at it right
now you'd be like oh yeah that's smaller than the iPhone. All right that's fair that's a fair point. I don't know if we could look at measurements on that. Decide that. Man and I only really ever held a PSP a couple of different times. Yeah I'm with you there. The Steam Deck also does not count. Yeah of course it's far too large. I don't think the Switch Lite really fits in your pocket and if it does you're gonna fuck that screen up. I would even say part of my lack of love for the 3DS
may be on my end because I got the XL. Ah so it's lack of portability. Yeah. That's that's fair. Okay back stepping real quick so the PSP was 6.7 by 2.9 by 9 and 2.23. That's an above average penis. That can fit just fine in your pocket. Yeah so not Jesus not really that big at all. All right so let's look at the Switch Lite here 3.6 by 8.2 so obviously definitely much larger than the PSP but not by a whole lot. You've got about an extra inch in height and inch and a half two inches on
the length. I mean that's definitely about probably a little bit bigger than the iPhone Max's right now. iPhone Max 6.7. Is this 6.7? iPhone 14 plus. Yeah let's see if I can get a diagonal read on this. Riveting content here. Yeah good stuff. Either way I would I would reasonably. I'm not I'm gonna say that 3DS is the death of it marks the end of handheld gaming. That's fair. That's fair.
I you know and I haven't been keeping up with Nintendo news. Obviously if there was a large gaming company that I would expect to put a handheld out like a true handheld it would be Nintendo. Well you know what's also interesting is that the DS was supposed to come out as a companion to the Game Boy Advance. Ironic being that it has a Game Boy Advance slot in it but it wasn't put out it wasn't originally made to replace the Game Boy Advance. It was supposed to be its own
catalog. DS would go on Game Boy would go on. I would like to see a new Game Boy. I wouldn't mind a new Game Boy either. I don't know necessarily what specifications I want. The Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Advance is like I think I don't know the exact you know time frame but I'm thinking fifth to sixth grade probably maybe a little bit longer than that. Obviously it would have been longer than that but that's like sixth grade is about when I stop playing
games. That's when you're like middle school you don't want to be seen playing video games or Pokemon in public. You know you want to be you're you're trying to be a teen and not play handheld game a Game Boy. That's for boys. I'm not a boy. I'm a teen. You know some shit like that and so Game Boy Advance is where I kind of fall off. I don't have a lot of nostalgia there.
I have a lot I mean there's somewhere I'm like I remember seeing this game and wanting it but Game Boy Color is where a lot of my nostalgia sits and so it's fun to go back and I know we've discussed not limiting ourselves to the DS and considering throwing in Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, PSP that's got to be like 5,000 games probably. I'm gonna say it's probably 5,000. It would have yeah it would have to be a massive number and and maybe we could do that periodically
you know do it. Yeah I think that's a fun idea. I think it's I'm definitely excited to dig into some of these titles. Is there anyone in particular that you want to focus on this next couple of weeks? These next couple of weeks I would not mind digging into the old favorite Hotel Dusk. Ooh. Or an RPG I wouldn't mind. I would also not mind something that I haven't played before. Blood of Bahamut. Still don't know if I'm saying it right. Bahamut. Bahamut. Bahamut. Bahamut.
Okay see that in there you lost it. You don't want to add it. If you feel like doing something if you feel like doing something experimental two of the best shooters on the DS are Dementium the Ward Dementium the Ward 2 I think is what it's called and then also Moon. That is uh those are some decent FPS games. I would like to see a decent FPS game. I played a couple just toying around. Yeah I played a little bit of Call of Duty. Yeah I didn't. I was not impressed either.
Surprising to see that this is a team that I think is no longer no longer together. Renegade Kid that was founded in 2007 defunct in 2016 sorry to say. Excellent. Excellent. They put out yeah Dementium the Ward, Moon, Dementium 2, ATV Wild Ride. I don't know anything about that one. Interesting. Mutant Muds. I'm sure you've heard of that game. Nope. Oh it's a it's like uh I believe it was a platformer like a pretty pod. Okay okay. We're lucky where we are in the same city the same town.
We hang out weekly. We still have the local wireless communication abilities for their DS's. True. So we can play games and review them kind of if that's what we're doing. They can be multiplayer games so we can actually experience the multiplayer aspect to it. Phantasy Star Zero was a game that I quite enjoyed. I believe it's a bit repetitive. I think one of the main reasons I liked it was to put on a podcast, hop online, play with some people, find a squad,
and then just go run through these dungeons. There are also a few games that are there's a real lean into the old school RPG. Is it Heroes of Might and Magic? I believe that's like the old school first person going just dungeon crawling you know and it's a hard unforgiving game. Oh brutal. Uh you also then have the Dark Spire. Same idea. They even have a setting where you can get this the the graphics to be like I don't know if it's a vector style or like a mega style but something
along those lines. There's a classic one called Solar I can't pronounce the name of it. Red the Hunter is the sub name like Solar Chirobo. I'm looking for it. It's kind of a furry game. No offense to any furries listening out there. Okay. Just a heads up to anybody. That's an interesting unsuspected thing. But the story is supposed to be really good. I've played it a little bit. The art's really good.
I'm not stoked on the controls but like I said I've barely played. Barely got it. I gotcha. Yeah I see that title. We want to lock that in. Let's just do it. You've sold me the furry title. The furries. All right. Yeah start strong. So this is one of the newer releases. Oh really? Oldest release. How do you say that? It's the newer yeah it's a newer release. One of the old last releasing titles. Holy shit you made that so complicated. I did. I truly did. So this in terms of the history of the
lifetime of DS titles being released this title came later in that time frame. So it is the newest of the games or one of them. Good okay gotcha. Released in America in 2011. North America. Okay yeah by Namco. Okay so Sola 2 Robo or Solada Robo. I have no idea. Red the Hunter. All right got it. Yeah also one of the most expensive games I believe for collectors. Really? Yeah. Huh not a lot of titles floating around or what do you know? Well being made
2011 you're near the end of I believe 3DS has come out by that point. Yeah that's a good that's a good point. Not a lot of DS loyalists out there. Don't make me feel bad. 2011 is when the 3DS comes out. Okay yeah. And that pretty well wrap us up then. Next time names to tweet at us with. Perfect. We'll have potentially a discord server for you to comment in. Yeah until the next time. Game on gamers.