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[Brandon F]

Find myself spending lots of time with handheld gaming these past couple weeks, wondering what any of you are playing?

Demolished this game. Burrowed through every stage, bonus level, and uncovered all 31 (useless?)treasures. Really inventive platformer that is short-lived, yet those unlocked bonus levels are chock full of devious challenges in tune with what YI presented a decade back.

Hard to not gawk at the crisp visual flair and decadent colors, but this "Humans" clone has really begun to grow stale long before I expected. Not a bad puzzler by any means, just that I grow tired of it's 'deliberate' pacing and trial/error approach(particularly dealing with shoddy partner AI that can screw up my solution rhythm). Probably gonna trade-up.

I did not need this. Rebirth mode picqued my curiosity, but the exclusive additions are pretty lackluster and don't merit a revisit. The novelty of playing RE1 on the DS is it's best asset, particularly with the control refinements(knife button, 180 turn, map screen), and lack of loading. It is what it is, but I shoulda listened to my gut and bought AoE DS instead.

Credit goes to Musashi for being kind enough to provide me with a copy of this pretty neat game. Just a couple levels in so far, but the juggling loop you can deliver to grunts is great fun. I am finding the control very rigid, but that is probably my GBASP+ d-pad being stupid.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

X-Men 2. In between loading screens I hit things! It's fun.

I'm tempted to buy another GBA to play SSS and Car Battler Joe, but I don't have the time to play my PSP - so I don't need another damned portable.

 

[thetrin]

Drill Dozer owns my soul

Also, I've been playing

in my spare time.

 

[Osorio]

AoE DS. It's a fun game from what I've played so far (Sixth Tutorial Mission), however it's the first DS game that froze on me (wtf?). Also, I'll occasionally put in Trauma Center for the Challenge Mode.

 

[VALIS]

Waiting for Exit and Age of Empires DS to get here via mail. Gonna pick up Drill Dozer soon. Otherwise my handheld gaming has been sparse and random, last PSP game played was Virtua Tennis and last DS game played was Advance Wars.

chock full of devious challenges in tune with what YI presented a decade back.

Too many acronyms on this forum (I'm guilty, too). What's YI? Yuppie Inquisition? Yamaguchi's Intestines?

 

[Community Forum]

Playing FFIV right now.

I want to get either Drill Dozer or Kingdom Hearts: COM.. what do you think?

 

[Andy787]

Fantastic, fantastic game. Revitalized my love of the PSP single handedly, and now sits alongside Lumines as my favorite PSP game.

Really enjoying this, too. Only put a little into it so far, but I'm impressed.

Been meaning to get started on this for quite some time.

 

[Idioteque]

 

[AdmiralViscen]

AOE DS for me.

AoE DS. It's a fun game from what I've played so far (Sixth Tutorial Mission), however it's the first DS game that froze on me (wtf?). Also, I'll occasionally put in Trauma Center for the Challenge Mode.

The game has a lot of bugs.

 

[stonedwal]

Been getting back into Ouendan lately - took it on my last business trip, and it was a very worthy companion. I've also been trying to beat the original Advance Wars so I can start on Dual Strike, but a few console games dragged my attention away from that. I've got my eye on Metroid Prime Hunters, Maverick Hunter X, Exit and Mega Man Powered Up this month, but I think the GBA is deserving of some quality time too - still need to beat Link the the Past, Metroid Fusion and Pokemon Sapphire.

 

[Archie]

Animal Crossing for 15-20 minutes a day and LCS when I'm over at my friend's house. Kinda bored with my DS right now. Tetris will help fix that though.

 

[thetrin]

Playing FFIV right now.

I want to get either Drill Dozer or Kingdom Hearts: COM.. what do you think?

Drill Dozer by far. KH COM is a huge turd pile, imo. Not only do you have to farm cards to open specific doors (which becomes ridiculous near the end of the game), but the battle system is a weirdly done card game.

I love Baten Kaitos' card battle system, but COM does a really bad job. Not only is it real time, but if you attack with a card of a low value (let's say 3), and an enemy that isn't remotely close to you and could never hit you from that distance, uses a card of a higher value (let's say 5), then you will get blocked. Not only that, but the area you are able to run around in during battle is painfully small.

The only redeeming factor of KH COM is its story, and you can get all of that from www.ansemreport.com

I really wanted to like COM. I really did. I just couldn't.

EDIT: I don't know how I forgot this, but I'm also playing

 

[PhoenixDark]

I'm finishing the new dungeons and stuff now; I already beat the game. Truly a classic game of epic porportions.

 

[Bebpo]

and a little this if I have time

 

[thetrin]

and a little this if I have time

How is Jewel Summoner? I was thinking about importing it, so I have something to fill up my time until Onimusha DoD comes out here.

 

[Bebpo]

How is Jewel Summoner? I was thinking about importing it, so I have something to fill up my time until Onimusha DoD comes out here.

If you don't mind animal based combat (poke-ripoff with some battle depth) or fully-voiced text adventures, the rest of the game is slick as hell and really enjoyable.

 

[GDJustin]

I'm also on the Exit love train, and finally got my copy of DJ Portable Max yesterday. My PSP battery was full friday morning, and is now completely drained. I've never played my PSP more than this last week or so, in fact.

On the DS side I got review copies of Rub Rabbits and Super Princess Peach. Neither is compelling enough for me to pull marathon sessions with them, but they're both pretty fun, and have occupied the rest of my portable gaming time.

 

[RevenantKioku]

Just Final Fantasy IV in the Micro really, as far as taking the portable, you know, out of the house. I've got Breath of Fire 3 in the PSP and Animal Crossing in the DS, but neither system is portable enough for my needs.

 

[Soul4ger]

Age of Empires on DS is fucking awesome. There's no two ways about it.

Exit on PSP is an ownsing good time. I really can't stand the control, but I like the laid back puzzle stage-solving action.

Drill Dozer is excellent.

That about wraps it up for me!

 

[thetrin]

If you don't mind animal based combat (poke-ripoff with some battle depth) or fully-voiced text adventures, the rest of the game is slick as hell and really enjoyable.

If my Japanese sucks, do you think I could still pull off a competent play through of the game?

 

[Walter Matthau]

I'm finally finishing up the last chapter in Phoenix Wright. Band Bros. + expansion is in the mail.

 

[maxmars]

I am still chewing on almost all my ds games: awds, mkds, ouendan, elektroplancton, mlpit, yoshi tng (never gets old). Oh, and the mario 64 minigames.

 

[thetrin]

I am still chewing on almost all my ds games: awds, mkds, ouendan, elektroplancton, mlpit, yoshi tng (never gets old). Oh, and the mario 64 minigames.

I keep forgetting about electroplankton.

I love hooking my DS to the stereo in my house and turning on audience mode.

 

[Bebpo]

If my Japanese sucks, do you think I could still pull off a competent play through of the game?

You could as it's really straight-forward but I mean the game is 80/20 on the cutscene/gameplay front and by cutscenes I mean two 2d portraits talking over a 2d background painting. If you can't enjoy the dialogue, you'll probably be unhappy with the lack of gameplay/dungeons.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

Just AOE DS lately. I finished Drill Dozer which was one of the few small titles on GBA over the last year that lived up to my personal hype.

I bought Fight Night for PSP, but the controls aren't any good. I will probably pick up MLB06 for it next week.

 

[GitarooMan]

I've been playing Exit which I like, but I would agree that it gets a little stale. Still very good for pick up and play just to work through a level or so. Also trying to get through Kingdom Hearts: CoM before KH II arrives. I'd like to pick up Drill Dozer in the next couple of weeks.

 

[thetrin]

You could as it's really straight-forward but I mean the game is 80/20 on the cutscene/gameplay front and by cutscenes I mean two 2d portraits talking over a 2d background painting. If you can't enjoy the dialogue, you'll probably be unhappy with the lack of gameplay/dungeons.

Understandable. I'll look into it a little more. I really do like character design. If only my Japanese wasn't deplorable.

 

[I <3 Katamari]

Resident Evil: Deadly Silence and Maverick Hunter X.

Tried getting into Exit. Don't like it too much.

 

[firebricks3]

Age of Empires DS has taken quite a bit of my gaming time. I love that it retained alot of the difficulty from the PC games, especially so with the bonus rankings.

 

[ghostmind]

Still trying to get used to the dpad...

Seriously underrated - having a blast with this one...

 

[anotheriori]

repost FTW

 

[Y2Kev]

I recently have purchased EXIT, Mega Man X, Smackdown, and RES, but I REALLY want to get AOE DS.

 

[Tsubaki]

+1

Although I probably would be playing my DJMax Portable if I owned a PSP.

 

[VariableTerry]

Spoiler

Maxim's mode

in Harmony of Dissonance

 

[ghibli99]

My gaming time is currently at about a 90% portable to 10% console split. While I'm playing more than I have listed below, these are currently occupying the most of my time:

GBA:
Drill Dozer
Pinball Challenge Deluxe (endless playability)
Final Fantasy IV Advance (good, but losing interest... I've beat this game so many times already)

PSP:
Wipeout Pure (downloadable content is frickin' awesome!)
DJ Max Portable (starting to get back into IIDX, though, for Red)
Lumines

DS:
Feel the Magic XY/XX
Trauma Center: Under the Knife
Meteos

 

[Beowvlf]

PSP

Also still playing some Lumines, Wipeout Pure and Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee. Will be receiving Exit sometime next week as well, and I don't even want to think about all the PSP games I plan to buy from now until May. The PSP is off to an amazing start to '06 already. Still have some games from last Fall to catch up on too.


DS

Haven't played it much since finishing Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time a couple months ago, just some Meteos occasionally. I plan on renting both Rub Rabbits and Age of Kings soon. Unfortunately there's nothing else upcoming that I'm looking forward to before Mario in the summer.

 

[mikeGFG]

 

[ghibli99]

Still have some games from last Fall to catch up on too.

Dude, I'm still catching up from the 16-bit era. :lol

Definitely agreed on how strong the PSP has been lately. I thought I'd feel stupid for buying the PSP solely for DJMP, but all the other games I'm playing on it have already easily justified the system cost.

 

[Tarazet]

Breath of Fire II. Didn't really click with me the first time I tried it about a year ago, but now that I've recognized that it does indeed have the same kind of bad/quirky/funny translation as BoF3, I'm finding the insane encounter rate and weird game balance to be a lot more palatable and even fun.

 

[Aruarian Reflection]

The winner.

 

[Jiggy]

GBA: I beat Drill Dozer back in the middle of the month (brilliant level design in that game, by the way), so I'm really not doing anything with the GBA, SP, or DS GBA slot. Just waiting for Tales of Phantasia in March.

DS: Right now I'm just spinning my wheels with Animal Crossing for 10-15 minutes a day, waiting for Super Princess Peach, Pokemon Trozei, Metroid Prime Hunters, and Tetris DS. AC might have rejuvenated interest for a while too due to a new season of fish.

 

[Beowvlf]

Definitely agreed on how strong the PSP has been lately. I thought I'd feel stupid for buying the PSP solely for DJMP, but all the other games I'm playing on it have already easily justified the system cost.

Tell me about it. If every game I'm looking forward to turns out as good as MHX and Exit have, then PSP's Jan-Apr period this year will be absolutely incredible.

Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X
Mega Man: Powered Up
Exit
Tales of Eternia (EU)
Pursuit Force
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
Daxter
Me & My Katamari
Metal Gear Acid 2
Field Commander

All within just over a 90 day span of time. And let's not even get into how good this Fall might be.

 

[No.1]

Just Final Fantasy IV at the moment. It's an ideal game to play on the long train trips everyday since there isn't always a lot of focus that needs to go into it 100% of the time, much like most handheld RPG titles (Fire Emblem and Golden Sun). But, unfortunately, I'm almost finished and then I've got nothing new to play on the public transport Probably pop in some Golden Sun action again, since there isn't anything new that screams portableness at the moment - and the DS isn't exactly portable, nor attractive when in public.

 

[captainbiotch]

Ninja 5-0
Castlevania DoS/Meteos/Zookeeper
Lumines

I'm slow.

 

[krypt0nian]

PSP:

Virtua Tennis
Megaman Maverick Hunter X
Lumines (again)

DS:

Mario Kart
Phoenix Wright
Metroid Pinball


Great time for portable lovin'

 

[Mr Jared]

Funny how the Portable game of the year came out so early~

 

[Dyne]

DS:

Rub Rabbits
Animal Crossing: Wild World (every day)

PSP:

Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee

 

[Agent X]

I've been playing lots of this game:

 

[Oneself]

My DS eats dust right now, I think I won't play with it until the DS lite arrives anyways


Megaman Maverick Hunter X (did it once with MM, now starting a game with Vile)
EXIT (OMG! Overpriced, but worth the overpricing)
Daxter demo (March can't come..)
Syphon Filter psp demo (.. soon enough)
Pursuit Force US demo (I wonder if it will get too repetitive..)
Tokobot (slow paced yes, but underrated IMO)

 

[Kai Dracon]

I'm still playing MHX just for pure fun after beating normal and hard mode.

I'm also still rocking to SFA3 Max, which rocks, and hey, also, it rocks.

Counting the days until MM: Powered Up...