The Nintendo DS!

[danskmacabre]

I have recently got a Nintendo DS (Lite) for my 40th Birthday.
I have to say this litle handheld is really very good.

I initially bought nintendo Mario Kart, mostly for my 6 year old son, but I DO like it really.

For me, I love playing RPGs, and even though I don't really like the Japanese RPGs that much, I have bought a game called "Lost MAgic", which is more like a european style RPG (with the Japanese cute graphics, but I can live with that.)
What makes it good is tha way spells are cast, you draw runes using the pointer and the touchscreen.
This really adds a level of realism to the game that other RPGs had to resort to various buttons and stuff.
It really adds to the immersion factor.

I've read that Bioware (the makers of Neverwinter nights) are working on their own version of an RPg for the DS, which I hope will also make good use of the pointer and touchscreen.

Another great game is "age of Empires", the classic resource management and wargame, which is really amazing for such a little conosole and again takes advantage of the touch screen.

The other great thing about the DS is you can play many off the games online and you can connect to your home Wifi, so "Lost magic" and Mario Kart have even greater depth to them.

All in all, it's a cheap handheld (about £100) and has a great battery life.

I just hope there will be more RPGs for my tastes out soon, it is great to play it while taking the train to work, although I have invested in headphones to save the other commuters from the repetitive music that plays and the sounds of combat etc etc.

Anyone else got a DS?

[Dreamweaver]

I can't wait to get my hands on one as well.

[Shazane Koronova]

I love my DS! Nintendo is brilliant when coming up with things like this. I only have the DS not the lite, and I have Mariokart also.

My favorite games on it are the Castlevania games, Dawn of Sorrow and the new release Portrait of Ruin, they make use of the touch screen when you have to finish off bosses by drawing magic seals.

I've wanted to play Lost Magic for its use of the touch screen.

If you ever get a chance to play Warioware, that game's just mindless addictive fun and you wont be able to put it down.

[danskmacabre]

Not played the castlevania games yet.
However we DO have MarioKart, which is great fun, my 6 year old son loves it.
(Yeah ok, I love it too).

I have Lost magic, but after the initial fun of drawing runes, the game gets irritating, mostly because there's a time limit on the missions and it's a pretty strict time limit as well, which restricts tactical play a lot.

I was looking for warioware the other day, but noone had it in stock, so I might have to get it on ebay.

I also have Sonic rush, which is great and in the usual style of sonic games.

I recently bought the latest mario game (the one where he can grow to giant size and mash everything on the screen).
It's also good fun and it has some fun minigames as well.

I hear Bioware (makers of Neverwinter nights) is working on an RPG for the DS, which is sure to be a great game.

However, the game I play the most is the 42 parlourr games, it's stuff like chess, cards and all sorts of stuff, and as is usual with most DS games, you can play online and this is where this game excels.