Today is the portable awards day! As an owner of both the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP, I am going to share with you the top portable games released this year, as well as what cmfl3x and I felt were the winners of each respective category.

Best Nintendo DS Game of 2010

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
Pokemon: HeartGold/SoulSilver
Infinite Space
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
Picross 3D [winner - tie]
Dragon Quest IX [winner - tie]
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
Super Scribblenauts
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

There were several notable DS titles released in 2010. The only unfortunate thing is that nearly all of this year’s top games are from Japan and sequels of some sort or another. But, that doesn’t mean they can’t be good. Let’s see what the games are all about.

The biggest title to start 2010 off on the Nintendo DS was Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. Unlike the traditional Ace Attorney games of investigating and courtroom scenes, this particular title focused on the pure investigations starring the previous antagonist and now friend of Phoenix Wright, Miles Edgeworth. cmfl3x got a chance to take this game for a spin earlier this year and enjoyed it. If you’ve grown attached to the main characters of the first few Phoenix Wright games (before the series moved to Apollo Justice in the 4th game) and don’t mind the lack of courtroom gameplay, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is worth a look. But if you are completely new to the Ace Attorney universe – definitely start with the first one: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

It wouldn’t be a year on Nintendo’s portable system without another Pokemon game being released, and this year we got to see the release of Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver. While the game has traditionally been very popular with children and hasn’t changed drastically since its original release on the Gameboy, there’s a reason why the series is so popular: it actually has good gameplay under all of that “child-friendly” design. The primary element in these games revolve around catching various Pokemon – with different temperaments, personalities, abilities, and rarities. From there, you get to construct your own teams to engage in battles or to trade with other Pokemon trainers – AI based or against other humans (which is why Pokemon is popular with the school kids). There is a very competitive aspect of the game, as everything you do to raise your Pokemon for battles has a strategic element to it. The main difference between HeartGold & Soul Silver is the different type of Pokemon available in each game. If you want to collect them all – you’ll need to acquire both games or trade with another player of the title you don’t have. If you’ve never played the Pokemon games or want to get back into the series, HeartGold/SoulSilver is a great place as any to enjoy the world of Pokemon as it doesn’t really require any knowledge of previous games in the series.

Amidst the major release of the new Pokemon games back in March, a more mature game by the name of Infinite Space was released. Infinite Space is a sci-fi opera RPG and the third of four games in a Platinum Games & Sega deal (the other three were Mad World, Bayonetta, and Vanquish). It’s the only new IP we see among the best Nintendo DS titles this year, but it’s not for everyone. The game has a steep learning curve, and a lot of the game revolves around managing and engaging with your spacecraft. If you can get into this type of game, its epic storyline will definitely immerse you.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is the 4th game in the Shin Megami Tensei series, and has gotten excellent reviews for a Japanese RPG. For those unfamiliar with the Shin Megami Tensei series, the major gameplay element that is present in these games is the ability to encounter and recruit demons to aid in your quest. Strange Journey is primarily a dungeon crawler with random turn-based battles, but navigating through the dungeons is in first-person. You do not need to have played the other games in the series to get into this one.

This may come as a total shock to some of you, but Picross 3D is my Nintendo DS Game of the Year. Compared to all of these other titles on the list, Picross 3D seems like a simple game that not many would even bother checking out. But when I did the math, the game that I logged the most hours on my DS with this entire year was Picross 3D. It makes an amazing jump from the first one, as it goes from 2D puzzles to 3D puzzles. The game consists of hundreds of puzzles, and starts you off with a huge cube of blocks with some numbers on them. Each number represents the number of blocks that need to be kept in that column/row, and by doing math and using logic you can figure out how to chip away at the block until you carve out the hidden 3D item. It’s easy to learn, yet remarkably addicting – the perfect game to play on the go as I would often find myself playing this game whenever I took my wife out shopping. I love this game!

cmfl3x chose Dragon Quest IX as his Nintendo DS Game of the Year, and has this to say about it:
“Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is probably the only reason I’d even consider getting a PSP, but I don’t have one, so my vote went to a NDS game. The DS has long been a hotbed of JRPGs, so much so that Dragon Quest IX was released as a DS exclusive. Dragon Quest has always stuck to old school conventions, and IX is no different. They have also added some DS specific features such as multiplayer and touch-screen controls. Even though it seems crazy to have multiplayer in an RPG (and it is a little), the multiplayer aspect of Dragon Quest IX also allows the player to create his or her own party from scratch, which is pretty cool. There are also infinitely generated treasure maps and dungeons that you can play through if you enjoy that sort of thing. I play my DS on long trips, so a J-RPG totally fits that bill. DQIX is one of the best.”

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future is the third Professor Layton game released in the Nintendo DS in as many years, and just like the first two before it, strongly delivers. If you’ve never played the Professor Layton games, they revolve around Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke traveling around visiting towns to help people solve their various puzzles and mysteries that are often completely unrelated to the plot (but are enjoyable nonetheless). The Professor Layton series has already had five titles released on the Nintendo DS in Japan, and is considered one of the most popular DS titles ever. Now is a good time as any to check out the series, but it’s probably worth playing them in order starting with the first if you are new to Professor Layton.

The only Western-developed Nintendo DS game to make the list of top Nintendo DS games this year is Super Scribblenauts, the follow-up to last year’s Scribblenauts game. Coming out so soon after the release of the first game hurts it a little bit in my opinion, but the major gameplay changes to Super Scribblenauts were for the better. In short, Super Scribblenauts is what Scribblenauts originally should have been. The original Scribblenauts game was a word-based puzzle game that allowed you to write in any noun to solve various puzzles (often requiring you to navigate your character to get to a star on the level that is out of reach through normal means). You could write something like “jetpack”, and it would appear and you could put it on to fly to where you needed to go. The premise to the game was quite innovative, but the control scheme was terrible as you couldn’t control the main character with the d-pad so it became quite an exercise in frustration. Physics were also all over the place. Super Scribblenauts fixes many of these major issues, and even introduces the gameplay mechanic of writing in adjectives now. If you haven’t gotten burnt out by the original Scribblenauts game or have yet to check it out, definitely give Super Scribblenauts a try – go right ahead and skip the original Scribblenauts game as there’s not much of a storyline to begin with.

The final top DS game to be released this year is Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. It ‘s the third game in the Golden Sun Japanese RPG series that had the first two games released on the Gameboy Advance in 2001 and 2003. Since then, fans of the Golden Sun series have had to wait 7 years until finally playing the third game in the series this year. Dark Dawn is a pretty traditional Japanese RPG, and takes place 30 years after the second game. Because the game takes place so long after, the primary characters in the game are the sons and daughters of the first two games’ characters, and therefore Dark Dawn can be played without having played the first two games. Of course, you just won’t get to enjoy all of the references to the parents in the first two games!

Best Playstation Portable Game of 2010

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker [winner]
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable
Valkyria Chronicles II
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
God of War: Ghost of Sparta

I may be slightly biased in choosing Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker as this year’s PSP game of the year, as it was the main reason I bought my PSP. But I was not let down at all with the game. It was fantastic from start to finish, and in my head, really felt like what it was originally titled: Metal Gear Solid 5. The controls were fixed to be far easier to play than the Portable Ops control scheme, the number of missions, base management, and overall storyline and presentation were top-notch efforts, and the game has so much replay value that you could hit the 100 mark if you were so inclined. Gamers even asked for it be re-released on the PS3 just because they did’t want to pick up a PSP to play it. To them all I can say is: you’re really missing out.

PSP owners had to wait until June’s Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker  for the first major title on the PSP worth playing, but since then, there have been a decent monthly release list for Japanese game fans such as myself. After Peace Walker, PSP owners were graced with Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable, a remake of the original Persona 3 game on the PS2. I never got a chance to play the original Persona games on the PS1 and PS2. Personal 3 Portable adds several new features to the original Persona 3 game – including the ability to play as a female protagonist and gameplay combat changes taken from Persona 4. Persona 3 Portable is regarded as the best Persona 3 version to date (even though it has already been released in two different versions on the PS2).

I was among many gamers disappointed when I first heard that the sequel to the PS3 hit, Valkyria Chronicles, would be released exclusively on the PSP. “How the heck am I going to be able to play it then?!” I thought to myself. Well, the combination of Peace Walker and Valkyria Chronicles II led me to acquiring a PSP to solve my problem. Valkyria Chronicles II is a stunning sequel to the first game, and holds up remarkably well on the PSP. Unlike the larger battles in the first one, the sequel has battles of smaller scale to fit with the PSP’s portability. The series is well regarded for its innovative turn-based RPG battle system, and apparently the second one was so successful on the PSP that Valkyria Chronicles III has already been announced for the PSP. Good thing I have a PSP this time around!

Strong PSP game of the year nominees are often those that actually get their own limited edition PSP bundled with the release of the game. Besides Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the new Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep game was also in its own limited edition PSP. The only Kingdom Hearts game I played was the original one on the PS2, and I actually never got into the series since I found all of the Disney references to be a bit too childish. But I’m currently playing Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep now, and it is much better than I ever expected it to be. While it has various elements of Disney characters, the game is still quite traditionally an action-RPG, and the plot and various gameplay mechanics of this game would have made this my top PSP game of the year if Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker had not been released in the same year. Regardless of whether you are a Disney fan or not, definitely check this out if you like action-RPGs. It’s a prequel to the first one, so you can play it on its own. Now I know what all the hoopla was about for this game.

The final top PSP title to be released this year is God of War: Ghost of Sparta (which also had its own limited edition PSP bundle). While God of War III ended the main storyline on the PS3 earlier this year, Ghost of Sparta is the second PSP God of War game after 2008′s Chains of Olympus and takes place between God of War 1 and 2. It has released excellent reviews, with many gamers quite impressed with how good the game looks running on the aging PSP. If you are a fan of the God of War games or want an action game on the PSP, Ghost of Sparta is among this year’s top titles – but consider checking out the previous God of War, Chains of Olumpus, if you haven’t since it’ll be a lot cheaper.

I spent a few years in junior high living in Hong Kong, which were major formative years – in my gaming life. After playing NES, SNES, Famicon, Super Famicon, and Street Fighter in arcades with my cousins, I was a gamer for life. When Mrs. cmfl3x and I decided to take a trip to Asia this summer (Taiwan, Japan, and Hong Kong), I was curious as to what the gaming scene looks like over there these days – to my more adult eyes. Hit the jump from my impressions.

A Different World
espion4ge has written a bit about the difference between Eastern and Western gaming design, but to be honest, I was still shocked at how different the culture of gaming is on the other side of the world. Here in the States, I think there still is a little bit of a stigma about being a gamer, even though the Wii has made things more mainstream, gaming is still considered nerd territory. But over in Asia, and especially in Japan, gaming seems to live more inside the general cultural landscape.

Case in point – Akihabara. There is an entire DISTRICT in Tokyo dedicated to gaming and electronics in general. Hong Kong has Wan Chai 188 (and a few other places I used to visit as a kid) – a building basically dedicated to games: three stories of stores selling video games, computer equipment, and manga. Oh, and some GIGANTIC Starcraft 2 posters. I can’t think of any equivalents here in the US. Those areas are awesome and any gamer visiting Asia (or any fan of electronics, really) should check them out.

Perhaps the most interesting difference to me was the fact that game pricing isn’t as regulated as it is in the States. Funny story perhaps only to me: I was eating with my cousins after not seeing them for about 6 years. About 5 minutes after pleasantries were exchanged, the next most pertinent question was: “Did you pick up Dragon Quest IX yet?” There was absolutely no context, and the three of us haven’t spoken about games for years. I was actually wondering if I was going to find out that they had outgrown video games, and pondered this with my wife before we met up with them. But I guess some things never change! But I digress…

As I was saying, game pricing isn’t as regulated as my cousins told me. Especially in Hong Kong, games sell for different prices, even at release. I think this is kind of awesome, since there are plenty of games I wait to hit the bargain bin before I buy them. But if they started in the bargain bin, maybe I could pick them up earlier!

The culture is just so different over there: many of the games I saw were completely unfamiliar to me. In Japan, there are a bunch of dating sims on the DS, and even a stripping game (or so Mrs. cmfl3x told me, I wasn’t allowed to look at the box). In Hong Kong, my cousin was telling me about Nier for the Xbox. I had never heard of it, but apparently it’s bigger over there.

I thought that with importing and the like we have a lot more access to Japanese games, and in one sense that’s true. Yet part of having access to games is just having the knowledge about them, and the fact of the matter is there are games we don’t even hear about. It’s tough to import games unless you have some kind of prior knowledge. That got me thinking…

Great games like Captain Tsubasa never made it to the US, or flopped when they did

A Different Culture
Being back in Asia made me think about games that I used to play as a kid that I couldn’t find when I moved back to the States. Aside from the Dragonball RPG I used to play (and love), the games that I loved the most were the Captain Tsubasa series. For the unfamiliar (probably everyone), Captain Tsubasa is a soccer game with RPG elements based on a popular Japanese manga series. The games were all in Japanese, but they were amazing. Your players level up, learn special skills (think Shaolin Soccer, which came after Captain Tsubasa), and you use these awesome skills to win soccer games.

Few people in America have even heard of the soccer RPG genre, but it is pretty big in other parts of the world. The fact of the matter is, Eastern and Western gaming cultures are separated by more than just an ocean. Despite the perception of gamers as loners, there has and always will be an element of community in gaming. That’s what causes “sleeper hits” to happen, word of mouth spreads and a game becomes a legend. Over in Asia, the culture has created an atmosphere where Captain Tsubasa became a huge hit, over here, Tecmo Cup Soccer, the Americanized version flopped.

For some reason I find this fascinating. I guess I kind of thought that with the global economy and that little “internet” thing, things that are popular in Asia could still be popular here. We all eat ramen, don’t we? But obviously that’s not true, because Inazuma 11, the latest soccer RPG in Japan on the DS, is selling like gangbusters and I’d never even heard of it here. I picked up a copy of the original (the third game in the series just came out this July) and will share my impressions later.

So how do the Eastern and Western gaming cultures affect us as end users? Well, last week I wondered where the innovation was. I guess I found a little bit of my answer in Asia. Maybe the games they release out there aren’t innovative, since they’ve been releasing them for ages, but for people in the US, there are still innovative gametypes that we haven’t tried out. So if 3D doesn’t work out, at least I can import!

Same Console Wars
My last, brief thought, is that the console wars exist in Asia as well. In Japan, obviously, PS3 is king of the hardcore stuff, while Wii and DS have a huge following. In Japanese stores, the Xbox sections are like one row, while there are three or more rows dedicated to the other consoles. So in Japan, perhaps the console wars are more like the Seven Hour War from Half Life 2.

Hong Kong is a different story. According to my cousins, the console wars were just as fierce over there as they were here: complete with fanboys and everything. There is also the strange fact that Xbox games generally sell for cheaper, leveling out the playing field a bit. Anyway, I just thought it was interesting – you can fly halfway around the world, but you can’t escape the console war!

I just started playing Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker at the end of last week after beating Portable Ops. This past weekend, I took my wife to the mall (as usual) and with the Metal Gear Solid games not working too well for portability in a mall, I decided to bring my DS and Dragon Quest IX instead. After putting about an hour or two into both games now, I’ve started to really enjoy both. I like each so much that I had a very difficult time deciding what to play today on the subway. So…I ended up packing both my DS Lite and my PSP into my bag to bring to work. This can’t keep happening though. Only one will become the victor…who will it be?

Read on for the background behind each of these major portable heavy hitters this summer as well as my very short initial impressions of both.

Background on Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies
In one corner, we have Dragon Quest IX, the 9th title in the Dragon Quest line that was released in Japan over a year ago. Unlike the Final Fantasies series in the West, the Dragon Quest series is the most popular RPG series in Japan. After the stellar job that Level-5 did with Dragon Quest VIII, they’ve again been put behind the helm of Dragon Quest IX. (Great, now guys please go and make Dark Cloud 3!). Dragon Quest IX also has many firsts: it’s the first Dragon Quest to appear on a portable console, it’s the first Dragon Quest game to be designed with multiplayer in mind, and it’s the first Dragon Quest game to not have random encounters.

Suffice to say, Dragon Quest IX is big. It’s so big that it’s already sold more than 4 million copies in Japan alone, and it is on track to become the best DS selling game of all time. I also think it has great potential to sell well in the West too, since the developers of the game were influenced by World of Warcraft and decided to make Dragon Quest IX more Westernized with gameplay features such as World of Warcraft’s sidequests system.

Background on Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is the 5th Metal Gear title for the PSP (Metal Gear Acid 1 & 2, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops & Portable Ops+), but also the 5th title in the Metal Gear Solid universe. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is the first PSP Metal Gear game directed by Hideo Kojima, the creator of Metal Gear Solid, and it was originally titled Metal Gear Solid 5: Peace Walker. Supposedly, the development team that worked on Peace Walker for the PSP was as large as the team that worked on Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PS3!

Unlike Dragon Quest IX, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker’s sales figures suffered terribly outside of Japan, where it has sold at least over half a million. In America, the game only sold about 52,000 copies in its first month, but the big inaccuracy behind America’s sales figures is that the digital purchases of the title were not accounted for in the sales data. In any case, while Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker has received a higher average score than Dragon Quest IX, it has failed to even come close to achieving the level of success that Dragon Quest IX has garnered.

So the question is, how am I enjoying both so far?

My Brief Impressions of Dragon Quest IX
I am not a Dragon Quest fan. I played the very first one on the NES, but after that, never stuck with the series until trying VIII on the PS2. Prior to VIII, it just seemed far too hardcore (and text-based). I played maybe a dozen hours into VIII, but grew tired of all the random encounters all the time and gave that one up too. But so far with Dragon Quest IX, I’m actually loving it. I don’t know if hardcore Dragon Quest fans are finding IX to have “sold out” or something since it seems to be more accessible, but this level of accessibility is exactly what has me loving the game.

The storyline, gameplay, characters, etc. are all simple yet charming. It’s exactly what I want in a JRPG, and especially more so in a portable title. In an age where we have JRPGs like Final Fantasy XIII all moving towards sci-fi, I’m glad that I can still play a fantasy based game such as Dragon Quest IX these days. Being able to travel from one town to another and visit the weapon store for stronger weapons to buy is just such a key JRPG element for me, and fighting enemies to simply level up and collect gold while helping out each town with its problems via the main storyline and simple sidequests also make this aging JRPG fan quite taken in with the game.

My Brief Impressions of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
I’ve only played about an hour of Peace Walker so far, but my impressions of the game are definitely positive, along with a control system that I’m still struggling with a bit to get used to. It looks like Kojima Productions has taken the best of everything they’ve learned from past Metal Gear Solid games and combined them into this one. Peace Walker looks to go back to the epic scope of Metal Gear Solid 3 (my favorite Metal Gear Solid game), with multiple maps and zones that you have to travel through for various missions, while making use of Portable Ops’s recruiting gameplay feature and enhanced interactive comic book style cutscenes.

The biggest hangup I have so far with the game though is the control system. The developers have tried really hard to implement a control system that works around the lack of a right analog stick, and while it’s functional, it’s not the most intuitive. I know that I will learn it with more hours put into the game, but controlling the camera with the face buttons (circle, square, x, and triangle) is a bit jarring. Also, holding the left d-pad and then using the face buttons to navigate the item menu also has me confused as of now. But, it’s slowly starting to sink in.

I like that I don’t have to drag enemy soldiers to a teammate’s crate or the truck anymore, as the new system allows the enemy to be captured almost immediately via the use of a parachute-like balloon that lifts off. Of course, I sometimes found myself in situations where I knocked out enemies under a roof so I couldn’t use a balloon to capture them, and then I couldn’t figure out how to pick up the enemy and drag him outside to capture him. In any case, I think these are niggling issues that are more me still learning the game in the first hour, but for the most part my overall impressions of the game are still quite positive.

Who Wins?
It’s really tough to say which game I want to play more of, but I think the edge may go towards Peace Walker – simply because it’s a shorter game so I want to get through it first. Considering how much of a fan of Metal Gear I am and how much I didn’t originally like the Dragon Quest games, for Dragon Quest IX to make me consider putting aside Peace Walker is no small task. But for those wondering about either game, they both deliver. How much they deliver? We’ll see. Hopefully cmfl3x or I can get reviews out on both games in the future if we can actually find time to make our way through them.

The Wii and DS operate in a completely different stratosphere when compared to the 360 and PS3. Yes, the PS3 price drop has helped a lot, especially in Japan, but Nintendo’s consoles just appeal to such a wide variety of gamers (young and old, casual and hardcore, male and female) that it’s tough to break down what really sells systems. But hey, I’ll give it a shot.

Nintendo Wii

System Seller: Wii anything
I was tempted to put the Wii itself as its own system seller, because that’s pretty much true. The Wii moves so many units because of all they hype generated around it. People gravitate to all the “Wii” games, Wii Fit sells a lot of systems, but many people are just content getting the Wii for Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort. Even Wii Play sells tons of units, although that isn’t really a system seller as much as it is something that people pick up when they get a Wii (for the extra controller or whatever). The Wii, unlike any other gaming system, sells to the average consumer with its accessibility, which is why it is destroying the competition.

Must Haves: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime: Trilogy, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Brothers: Brawl, Wii Sports: Resort (or equivalent)
The sad thing about this list is that two of the games came out around launch (Trilogy is all the Metroid Prime games with the new Wii controls though, so I guess it’s technically new) and Galaxy came out like 2 years ago. For serious gamers, there’s not a lot to offer on the Wii, especially 3rd party content. That being said, Zelda and Mario, like all Nintendo first party games, are excellent, and Metroid Prime is one of my favorite video game series ever. Metroid also uses the controller very effectively and is the best first person experience I’ve had on the Wii. I threw Wii Sports: Resort on there because if you own a Wii it’s almost mandatory that you own a good party game, but really there are a lot of choices out there: Boom Blox is pretty fun - you could even get away with a game like Warioware: Smooth Moves, and of course almost everyone owns Mario Kart (just check the NPDs). Thankfully, Nintendo is releasing a couple of new Mario games this year and next, so hopefully there will be a reason for me to dust off my Wii soon.

Upcoming: New Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Galaxy 2, Wii Fit Plus

Nintendo DS

System Seller: Pokemon (kids), Brain Age (adults)
It’s no surprise that the average owner of a handheld console is much younger than the average owner of a home console. What better way to keep the kids occupied on long car trips than have them “catch them all”? I played Pokemon on the GBA, and it was a surprisingly deep game, and according to reviews the DS versions are still decent. Regardless, Pokemon probably sells the most DSes to kids, whereas older adults, including very old adults (like my parents) like the DS for games like Brain Age, simple brain exercises that people like to play to keep themselves young. If you’re old, you buy the DS, if you’re young, you buy the DS. No wonder it’s sold the most units in the current generation.

Must Haves: Square-Enix RPGs, Professor Layton series, Phoenix Wright series, Elite Beat Agents (Ouendan in Japan)
The crazy thing about the Nintendo DS is that there is something for everyone. For the most part, the “casual” stuff sells systems, and that’s what a lot of people focus on. But if you like old-school RPGs, there are the re-releases of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, for people who like puzzles, there is Professor Layton, Phoenix Wright tickles one’s adventure fancy, and Elite Beat Agents is for rhythm game fanatics. And if none of those genres floats your boat, there are legions of other game types out there (I’m sure I’ve forgotten a bunch of excellent games). As espion4ge has stated elsewhere, the DS really is one of the best values in gaming and a great investment for any gamer, especially if you’re on the go. If you spend time shopping with your wife (check), take public transportation (check), or like to play games before you drop off to sleep (now outlawed in my household), the DS is a great buy. Just do yourself a favor and go with the Lite over the DSi, so you’ll save yourself some money.

Upcoming: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Ace Attorney: Miles Edgeworth

So that’s my take on the best games out there for the current systems. Of course, most of it is based around my preferences, so I’d love to hear what games you all love to play on your systems! Especially if it’s the PSP…haha.

On the DS side of my gaming life, Dragon Quest V was the game that finally succeeded in getting me to put Phoenix Wright away. For those unfamiliar with the series, Dragon Quest is a Japanese RPG series that is equal in popularity to Final Fantasy in Japan. Yet on these shores, Dragon Quest never quite got traction for a variety of reasons, so it is relatively unknown to the common gamer. Thanks to the DS re-releases of Dragon Quest IV and V, Americans can now see what they have missed.

Why is Dragon Quest so popular? It’s kind of weird, really. If you look at Final Fantasy, the game has evolved so much over the years – there are new combat systems, different systems for learning skills/abilities, and even games within the game (Blitzball?). Dragon Quest, on the other hand, has stuck to the same basic formula through nine iterations. In fact, it’s stayed so simple that the latest version, Dragon Quest IX, actually came out as a DS exclusive.

So in Dragon Quest you basically get the same type of game you played on the SNES (or even the NES) 15 years ago. Battles are exclusively turn based, your life is in constant danger even against regular enemies, money is an incredibly valuable commodity, and you can never say “no” to anyone’s request (unless you’re supposed to). Yet Dragon Quest V is such a charming game that once you’re into it, you realize that all the above turn into good things for the most part.

The turn-based battles give you time to plot out a strategy and maximize your fighting efficiency, something I personally prefer to the action-based RPGs that are all the rage now. Yes, you die - and die often. When you do you never lose any progress - just 50% of your gold, so you can throw yourself at the same dungeon multiple times until you finally conquer it. But of course, if you die, money becomes even more scarce, but not having money makes you really think about your buying decisions. And finally, yes, the game is on rails for the most part, but the story is enough to make up for that.

There are two notable mechanics that should be noted. First, the story of Dragon Quest V is broken up into “eras”: you start out as a child, then enter your teenage years, and finally finish the game as an adult. During your teen years you have to choose a wife who will be your companion throughout the rest of the game. I actually found the decision pretty difficult on multiple levels; I wanted to choose the best companion in terms of battle skills, but I also wanted to choose the wife with the most amusing dialogue options, AND I wanted to pick the wife that made sense given the story. In some ways it was more difficult than choosing who to marry in real life!

The second mechanic is you need to recruit monsters to your party if you want to survive. It’s actually pretty fun and even though they barely have personalities, I find myself favoring some over others. It’s basically Pokemon before Pokemon existed. The monsters fight like regular playable characters though.

Overall, I think Dragon Quest V is great, but I also loved Dragon Quests I-IV (which I did play as a kid) so I’m a little biased. You get tons of hours of gameplay for your money like any RPG, and even though it follows the same basic formula, there are enough tweaks and changes to make it interesting. We’ll see how things work out with my “wife” though, maybe after twenty years of marriage I will change my tune! I kid…

Apologies for the short post, but this six and a half minute video should more than make up for it. I don’t think I’m a big enough nerd though, because I couldn’t name all of the songs. Can anyone help me out? Also, they didn’t form a complete Tetris. Come on!

My family is in town so the TV has been relegated to crime drama duty, so it’s been a lot of Dragon Quest V on DS for me. For some reason, in some ways I prefer the Dragon Quest series to Final Fantasy. I think it might be that Dragon Quest is a much simpler game…more on Dragon Quest sometime in the future, I’m 8 hours into it and I don’t even think I’m halfway yet!