Download Naraka: Bladepoint for free on all platforms gsght.com/c/sijj41 and celebrate the game’s 2nd anniversary! Join the discord group: discord.gg/narakabladepoint We've done just about every other Nintendo platform, why not give the DS a try? What's a strange or forgotten Nintendo DS game you've played? Lemme know! Also HELLO, AVENGERS WILL BE OUT IN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS. MY FINGERS ARE TURNING TO DUST.
OnTaMaRaMa. Almost every "forgotten DS games" video neglects it despite the fact that it had a great soundtrack of original music (and also the memetic "Let's Go! Onmyouji")
Favorite hidden gem on the DS has got to be "Big Bang Mini." A shmump where you fling fireworks into enemies who drastically change art style doesn't seem like it'd work, but it really does.
I have been trying to remember the name of this game for like a decade. I literally came to this video after searching through lists and not being able to find it. Thank you so much!
My best friend passed away over a year ago and his mother gave me all of his games. One of them was Mario Hoops 3 on 3 and I have never heard of that one before. So seeing it brought up in this video reminded me of him
One of the cool things about Solo to Robo is when it feels like you "beat" the game basically the game starts up again with a new intro movie and you essentially get to play a sequel right there and then. It honestly felt like two games in one.
Glad to see at least a few seconds of Radiant Historia here. Easily one of my favorite DS games. Funnily enough, it feels like every DS game I adore got a remaster for 3DS/home console or is likely to get one (Pokemon says hello).
Dragon Quest IX, the forgotten entry in the series. Honestly one of my top games of all time. Great story, 4 way multiplayer, and so much content! Also that Little Red Riding Hood zombie game might be connected to that Wiiware title Zombie Panic in Wonderland. Had that Momotaro, Snow White and Dorothy shooting the undead and bosses in fairytale areas.
DQIX really is a fantastic game. Maybe they don't want to deal with the multiplayer components to rerelase it again, but you can take all of it out (I never used it once) and it's still one of the best DQ games. I even bought a second copy to replay it from the beginning 😂 and would do it again if released on Switch, hear me Square-Enix?!
Yes, Zombie Panic in Wonderland is from the same devs as Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ. And yeah, DQ9 is my second favorite RPG of all time and my favorite Dragon Quest...basically the ONLY mainline Dragon Quest I like other than 3.
Shoutout to Lost Magic, an RTS game with monster catching where you draw combinations of runes on the bottom screen to cast spells. The spell system was weirdly in-depth, but you would be often restricted by how much mana you have. Good game.
Three DS games I'd never even heard of before a few years ago have turned out to be my favourite ones of the whole lineup. Radiant Historia, Contact DS, Infinite Space Last Window (the sequel to Hotel Dusk) is another one because it didn't get a UK release, so it was only ever sold via US imports. Along with the sister series; Code R. It's kinda weird just how many hidden gems get less spotlight than their GBA counterparts.
Contact will always be at the top of my list. An RPG made by Grasshopper Manufacture, it really took advantage of the system's two screens with each one in their own style as two characters interact. Just so unique and I just don't hear it talked about like at the time I expected it would be. I guess it's something rather different from Grasshopper so that also plays into it I am sure.
For me, that one obscure DS game I fell in love with was Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times (aka "Tongari Boushi to Mahou no 365 Nichi" in Japan, or "Enchanted Folk and the School of Wizardry" in Europe). It's pretty much an Animal Crossing type game made by Aquria and Konami, but with a heavy fantasy theme, with unique mechanics like learning magic spells and investigating supernatural events. It's kinda like if Animal Crossing: Wild World was set in Halloween Town, and I *love* the art style that comes with it. It's definitely got some jank (and the localization wasn't the best), but I adore it so, so much. It's a big comfort game for me, and I could play it any day at the drop of a hat. It was even popular enough in Japan to get a handful of sequels on the DS and even the 3DS, but the similarities to Animal Crossing probably doomed it overseas. Didn't help that it was released months after Animal Crossing: City Folk in both North America and Europe, either. But it still means a lot to me, and I'm glad I found it.
Phantasy Star Zero is hands down one of my favorite games on the DS. Definitely a must play for classic PSO fans. Not as much content as PSOBB, obviously, but it's a stellar expansion of some of PSO's ideas without going overboard like PSU or doing a 180 like in PSU. I just wish playing online on a DS/3DS wasn't such a pain due to the DS's encryption limitations :/
I don’t know if this really counts as a ‘Forgotten’ gem of the DS/3DS but Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is a surprisingly harrowing game and I really love it. I love the Schwarzweld and think it’s tied with Nocturne for my favorite setting in the series. We got Deep Strange Journey/Strange Journey Redux on the 3DS, but that original is just so *chef kiss*.
I missed the entire DS generation since I was busy working at the time. It's just unbelievable how many good games are on this system. I will definitely have to check some of these out!
I know it's Jp exclusive, but my main nom for a forgotten DS title would be Sigma Harmonics from SQEX/Think Garage. A turn-based RPG you hold like a book, written and directed by Hiroki Chiba inspired by Showa-era mystery novels, with character art by Yusaku Nakaaki, and music by Masashi Hamauzu. It just looks and sounds phenominal!
Stoppp im still waiting for some brave soul to try and fan translated it but i hear the way the game was made its almost impossible smh i would play it with a english guide but not one exist yet
i just homebrewed my 3ds and was trying to find good strange ds recommendations a week ago, and checked if you had made vid cause i knew you’d know the good stuff. thank you for responding to my google search so quick!
My personal favorite weird DS game is Daigasso: Band Bros, and the sequel - DX. They were fully featured MIDI music makers. They got me into music production, and were great rhythm games to boot. DX even let you connect to the internet and download other people's creations or upload your own.
I was hoping you would mention Hotel Desk. Beautiful visuals. Stellar story telling. Clever puzzles. It's what I wish Visual Novels still were. Creative and really outside the box.
don't forget the amazing soundtrack. Cing gave us 4 incredible games with equally amazing music and only 2 got released in the US....if you liked Hotel Dusk and haven't played it yet, you'll love Last Window. I imported it early in the 3DS's life and loved every second of it
On the DS, there are so many games that are ok at best, but there’s such a level of charm from them! I definitely didn’t know about some of these, and I think it’d be fun to check them out sometime!
Fossil Fighters Champions is one of the most weirdly good looking games on the DS, it's also really fun if a tiny bit shallow all things considered. It's a shame they never improved on the system with future games, instead deciding to completely upend what was already working in the last sequal they got to make.
I'm so glad you mentioned Solatorobo and Phantasy Star 0. Both are games I picked up on a whim and still love to this day, and yes playing 0 online with friends back then was amazing.
solatorobo is an excellent inclusion, but i can't be a little disappointed that lost magic wasn't on this list anywhere. it really is a shame, it's one of the better forgotten titles. banger video on one of my favorite consoles of all time, though. thanks for that.
I don't know if Trauma Center's considered forgotten nowadays. That said, you want to go under the radar with surgical sims, there's Life Signs. It had the surgery stuff but also a lot of other minigames involved. Plus the story could be affected depending on how quickly you did certain surgeries. Pity the translation was janky, honestly. That and the one we got was a sequel to one that was a fair bit more crazy anime hospital.
I played a lot of this game called Dinosaur King on the DS. It's basically a Pokemon-like RPG where you collect and battle with dinosaurs. Apparently it has an anime and manga too, but I was unaware of that until I just looked it up to remember the title.
I remember having the anime in the background one day (I think I'd just left the channel on while playing games on my DS or laptop), all I remember about it is that I'm PRETTY SURE the antagonists were voiced by the same people as Jessie and James from the Pokémon anime, and the 3D CG dinosaurs did not look good
27:06 Fun fact: The DS version of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing got a downgraded port for iOS and Android. You can see that through the polygon count and the fact that it had the unique DS versions of some tracks like Shibuya Downtown, which are way different than the console/PC versions. The iOS version was the only version of the game that got released in Japan.
I love The Sims 2 for DS. Running a hotel in Strangetown, fighting mafia goons and robots as the Ratticator. Using a water gun to defeat aliens. Meeting Bigfoot in the basement and playing the casino card game for hours on end. Getting all the arcade machines to play a variety of mini games. Dissecting aliens for money. There's so much to it and it plays in real time akin to Animal Crossing.
I'd say my most obscure ds games that I own is probably Avalon Code, the worlds ending and you get some magic book to document the things in the world before its destroyed. people, plants etc. smack everything with the book. I was pretty adventurous during the ds era, game prices were just so low and I got so many good games for $20-30.
Always happy to see an Eyeshield 21 shout-out in your videos. It's one of my favorite Mangas, too, and I take time and reread it every couple of years. Honestly, if you did a video on the series, I would gladly watch that.
One forgotten Nintendo DS game I'm surprised you didn't talk about is Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword. Whenever people talk about the modern Ninja Gaiden games, they're always referring to the trilogy on consoles. But there was also one made exclusively for the Nintendo DS, and it's surprisingly fun, if a bit easy compared to the home console entries. It's also the only modern Ninja Gaiden game to use the classic Act Intro jingle from the original 8 bit trilogy, and I really wish that was mainstay for the rest of the series.
I remember downloading a demo for that game off the Nintendo Channel on Wii back in the day. It stuck out to me as the one really fun demo available for a game I didn't already own! I really ought to track down the full version one of these days...
Another point about solatrobo (that luckily didn't get entirely lost to time) are the free downloadable quests. They are all just neat mini-stories, but thanks to the old nintendo ds online system being 100% dead, the only version that has them without any workarounds is the US release, which had all of them installed from the get-go since it released a bit after the european and japanese versions. Still, despite the limited (and a bit repetitive) combat, the story, setting and characters still make me love it to death. If you want to help make the combat even faster, invest in the hydraulics and attack stats for the robot.
Did anyone ever play Lost Magic? I thought the concept was super cool with the spell fusion and drawing out each of the symbols. I never finished it but want to revisit it one day. Fantastic work as usual Austin! 👏👏
I ds game that I adore but never hear anyone talk about is the Touch Detective series. It follows a young girl detective who takes over her father's agency and solves cases to be renowned. It is like a point and click game where you solve puzzles (which was kind of criticized in the first game for having some moon logic ones). But I loved it as it had wacky and fun characters, her friends Chloe and Penelope are just fun characters who are always by her side (whether she wants them to or not) and she has a butler who looks like a robot but could be a vampire (I think). It's first two games is something I replay every year as how much I adore them. It makes me feel nostalgic.
The Nintendo DS was my first console I bought with my own money after saving for one year from my salary, and for all those that have not played and beat the Hotel Dusk and Last Window games, do it, is one of the most unique and awesome stories and experience I have ever had the pleasure of having I think about those games a lot, Great video Austin and thank you for your work, great SMT4 joke tho
My personal favorite hidden DS gem will always be Fossil Fighters. It's dead, but it has a "Saturday morning anime" vibe that I just adore and I mean using dinosaurs to fight is really cool. I'm so glad you talked about it, but you really should check out the sequel which is really good.
My little brother and I absolutely LOVED Mario Hoops on the DS🤩 I can't believe it's been over a decade since the system launched: where has the time gone?
Another great video, I love the Nintendo DS and PSP, the DS really does have a plethora of unique and overlooked games. Thanks for making this Austin 🤙
Pokemon Conquest is probably one of the most underrated Pokemon games. Fun strategy, endless campaigns and ways to play, and so addicting! Plus you get to fight Nobunaga! Stupidly overpriced but no one played it back in the day!
Oh man, I remember when Pokemon Conquest came out! I loved it so much, that I tried to imagine a sequel with the cast from Dynasty Warriors instead of Samurai Warriors. Cao Cao being the main villain, of course.
The game did really badly in sales and it didn't help that it came out 3 months before B2W2 dropped in Japan and most fans over there were probably holding out for that plus it's part of a long running franchise of strategy games that alienated potential audiences. I know it didn't fare much better here even with the name recognition of Samurai Warriors behind it as Nobunaga's Ambition isn't that popular here in the States.
When I played Retro Game Challenge I originally thought that all of the games in it were Famicom games that didn't make it to the US, kind of a sneaky way of importing them. I was wrong and its awesome how much effort went into making each of the games.
In a way the DS was kind of a precursor to smartphones. A lot of the wacky things they added like a music creator or a web browser are things you would see as apps in the modern day
Also, Attack of the Saiyans is a Phenomenal game. Like legitimately one of the best DBZ games, aswell as one of the best RPG's on the ds IMO. Would love to see you cover it. Much Love Homie
When it comes to the DS, I've got plenty of obscure games I don't think I've ever seen or heard brought up anywhere else. "Hoshigami"? "A Witch's Tale"? "Jigsaw World"? "Legend of Kage 2"? A ton of stuff. I was thinking of "Glory of Hercules" as well but that actually got a mention. But both "Windy X Windam" and "Izuna" got brought up so I now feel obligated to talk about the one other game "Izuna" was somehow involved with, "Rondo of Swords". There isn't much about it out there, at least there isn't a complete walkthrough or LP of it on TH-cam. The only reason I even know about this game was that it was gifted to me by a now ex-friend who had a copy since one of their friends was a localizer who worked on it. Yeah. It's an SRPG...best comparison I can think of would actually be "Fire Emblem". A medieval fantasy setting with similar stage structure and can be surprisingly difficult if you don't know what you're doing. Also like "Fire Emblem", it has some rather obscure secrets that are easy to miss. Though that said, it is also pretty unique. Has this interesting combat mechanic in that you move through enemies to attack them, at least with melee units, and moving through allies gets you various buffs. So positioning ends up being very important, even more than usual in SRPGs. There are even stuff like skills meant to intercept or counterattack melee units to stop them in their tracks. So as mentioned earlier, the reason I'm bringing this up is cause of "Izuna". Izuna, as well as Shino, are both secret characters in the game you can recruit. But they can be a pain to actually get. Also, another secret character you can get is Cotton from, well, "Cotton". You know, the side-scroller shooter series? Cause why not? Funnily, "Rondo of Swords" was actually what introduced me to both "Izuna" and "Cotton".
@12:37 Fun fact. When Square was creating Final Fantasy, they knew they wanted the title to be 'FF'. They wanted to try Fighting Fantasy but found the trademark for the name already being used by the books mentioned her, leading to them using Final Fantasy instead.
I love you and your content Austin, and the more frequent uploads are rad.. but.. holy crap, almost five minutes to begin the actual video is kind of crazy @_@
Austin bro, you are going IN with these releases Make sure you take time to take a rest, you deserve it. Not sure if you posted videos already on PSP and Vita stuff, but I'd love to see those too!
Bangai-O Spirits is another hidden gem. A Treasure action game where you fly around 2D stages as a mech and shoot hundreds of missiles at once. Gameplay focuses around dodging bullet hells and making your own. It actually had a level editor and sharing function that encoded your level into a sound clip that others could pick up with their DS mic. No story, just a collection of stages and a chaotic good time.
I’ve been searching for Sideswiped for years now! I had no idea what it was called or even how to find it online, so thank you for having it in the video! I had an older friend who would always bring his gameboy and DS games over so that I could play them and Sideswiped was one that I had a ton of fun with. It’s been like, 10 years or something since then, so it’s been on my mind for a while. I gotta play it sometime
23:00 Commando on miniclip!!! I've only played it in passing so I never actually finished it but that game was awesome! I wonder if it exists somewhere still
I remember really liking the "Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure" remake on DS, changing it from a tactical RPG to a more streamlined turn-based one. Another month or so and I can finally play the 2 sequels that have been sitting in Japan for like two decades. 👴
6:38 Someone NOT dunking on Golden Sun Dark Dawn? Unexpected, but not unwelcome. 9:28 Mario Hoops 3 on 3 is an extremely forgotten Title for me. Mostly because I know the game as Mario Slam Basketball. It still super-weird how Square defined "Characters" for this game though. Three jobs and two species?!?
The fact the video at 5:37 exist because of Elite beat agents, really shows the impact the game had. Thank you Elite beat agents for all the memes you have given us
NO JOKE- When Austin asked what kinds of forgotten and obscure DS Games we've played the first one that came to my mind was Trace Memory, and HE BROUGHT IT UPPP! Such a good one, I have such nostalgia for that game
i actually started playing Trace Memory about 4 days before i saw this video because i resurrected my 3DS and have a buttload of DS games i never finished, and some i've never even played
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 is one of my all time favorite games. Last year someone gave me a DS Lite and I immediately went and bought a complete in box copy. So good. Edit: 7 minutes into the video and three games show up that I completely forgot about....
I really hope FF tactics advance series gets a remake or gets ported to the switch. The designs of the races like the Nu Mou looked way better than they do in FF 12.
Devil Survivor and Devil Survivor 2 were some helluva fun games. Devil Survivor is still my favourite Megami Tensei game of all time, including Persona.
Not sure how “forgotten” it is, but The World Ends With You is a classic DS title for me. It’s a hectic action JRPG set in modern Tokyo where you’re trying to control two characters at once, one on the bottom and one on the top, with completely different control schemes for both. Also has really fun characters and story.
I love the Nintendo DS. This video has inspired me to start collecting a few more games for the system. Thanks for highlighting some really cool titles, Austin. 😊
Sideswiped is really fun. It's a clone to Burnout that adds features that makes it stand on its own. You can buy cars but majority of the quests can be done with the two default cars. The game is packed with a bunch of addicting modes including using your car for bowling, jumping between trampolines to pop balloons and crashing into everyone in a demolition derby mode. Watching others got flipped in the air and then explode after enough damage is really exhilarating.
Elite Beat Agents, Trace Memory, Contact, and Away Shuffle Dungeon are some pretty banging games. I still have my original carts for them too ^^ I wish Away got more press cuz its a really cute dungeon crawling game and you build up your village the more you go in. I guess a sorta recent example would be Mononoke Forest for the 3ds.
What I liked about this episode was that you talked about so many good DS games and not just the typical Mario Kart and Pokemon. I still my DS and Im very still much in love with it. I collect for the system and I find new and fresh games all the time throughout creative creators :) good job dude
You can't imagine the smile that rolled across my face when you decided to end the video talking about my favorite DS game of all time I still play it today on a 3DS with a widescreen hack!
If you like 1st person ds games check these out: - Dementium 1&2 - Nanashi no Game - Nanashi no Game: Me - Moon - The Dark Spire - Theresia - Touch of the Dead - Metroid Prime Hunters - C.O.R.E - Etrian Odyssey 1-3 - Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain - GoldenEye 007 - 999 (9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors) - Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - Last Window: The Secret of Cape West (Hotel Dusk 2) - Again - Another Code: Two Memories (Trace Memories) (okay it's a mix of 3rd person and 1st person point & click, but my love for all Cing games dictates it's inclusion).
It's funny you made and scrapped a joke about SMT IV when Strange Journey and Devil Survivor were right there. Anyway, I think my favorite "Definitely nobody played this" DS game was Touch Detective. Pretty fun point n click with a gothy art style similar to like, Okage Shadow King on the PS2.
My ONE gripe with Jump Ultimate Stars is that we didn't get a 6-Koma Panel for Gohan that made him his grown up self (Also that one mission to unlock Anna from Shaman King but we're not talking about that ). Gohan's me favorite DBZ Character, but I like him more as an adult.
10:40 I definitely wouldn't consider Sideswiped anywhere near shovelware. It's extremely well made by the standards of DS racing games (which admittedly is a low bar). If you want some real trash then look no further than Burnout Legends or NFS Most Wanted on DS. Sideswiped in comparison is worlds apart in quality yeesh!
Dementia the Ward, 999, The World Ends With You, Ghost Trick, and Elite Beat Agents are my picks. Also why does the "You're the Inspiration" level in EBA gotta be so sad?
I love both Glory of Heracles and Phantasy Star Zero. I'm actually a Phantasy Star lore nerd and this game is a blessing, I affectionally call it Phantasy Star meets Wild Arms aesthetic.
I've got a couple weird games like GTA: Chinatown Wars, OkamiDen, 999, The World Ends with You, Ghost Trick, the first 4 Professor Layton games, all the Kirby games, & Dragon Quest 5&9. Don't know if he's talked about Radiant Historia, but THAT is the proudest piece of my DS library.
Dragon Ball origins 2 is probably one of my favorite Dragon Ball games of all time. It's a shame to see how underrated it is. One of the few DB games where you can be Arale, Bulma, kid yamcha, and kid krillin.
1:52 whenever the DS comes up in conversation I always bring up Knights in the Nightmare. It’s a SRPG with RTS elements that’s also a bullet hell shooter, all at the same time. It was made by Atlus developer Sting, who specialized in weird high-concept RPGs. (They also did Riviera the Promised Land for GBA, a favorite of mine growing up.) Knights sticks out in my mind for being a rare example of a game that requires a pretty high level of “game literacy” just to understand the gameplay, let alone master it. I should give it another try.
My favorite hidden gem I'm sure not too many people played was Retro Gaming Challenge. You get sent back in time to the 80s as a kid, to play video games, conquer challenges, read Magazines(!) you can read the manual for the games. It's very fun to play, but to fully interact with the game world tickles the nostalgia bone perfectly.
Avalon Code, the adventure RPG where you hit things with a magic book in order to modify their magical genetics. My World, My Way, a turn-based RPG starring a bratty princess who can bend reality by pouting about it loud enough. Rondo of Swords, a Tactics game featuring both Izuna the Ninja and Cotton the Witch in which you attacked by passing through enemies rather than stopping adjacent to them. Henry Hatsworth, half-platform game, half-puzzle game starring an elderly explorer. And the list of niche games I've owned goes on...
Download Naraka: Bladepoint for free on all platforms gsght.com/c/sijj41 and celebrate the game’s 2nd anniversary! Join the discord group: discord.gg/narakabladepoint
We've done just about every other Nintendo platform, why not give the DS a try? What's a strange or forgotten Nintendo DS game you've played? Lemme know!
Also HELLO, AVENGERS WILL BE OUT IN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS. MY FINGERS ARE TURNING TO DUST.
OnTaMaRaMa. Almost every "forgotten DS games" video neglects it despite the fact that it had a great soundtrack of original music (and also the memetic "Let's Go! Onmyouji")
Nanostray 1&2. Two really underrated shooters
Big Bang Mini.
Nicely done 14:37
Eco-Creatures! Highly recommend.
I love how Mario Hoops 3-on-3 is still listed on Soken's bio when promoting FF16.
Dude's rightfully proud of it
A new sports title from Square Enix would be great.
That's wild and amazing at the same time. I'm glad for him and it's a pretty solid game
I love that game
I genuinely do not understand why people didn't enjoy it.
I gave my copy a proper burial when it broke.
I thought it was super fun. Especially unlocking the FF team and playing as them.
Favorite hidden gem on the DS has got to be "Big Bang Mini." A shmump where you fling fireworks into enemies who drastically change art style doesn't seem like it'd work, but it really does.
I remember that!
Oh yeah that game was awesome ! I never managed to finish it though, the abyss world was way too hard.
I have been trying to remember the name of this game for like a decade. I literally came to this video after searching through lists and not being able to find it. Thank you so much!
You're spoiling us with the constant stream of uploads, Austin. This is amazing.
Without a doubt one of the best gaming TH-camrs going.
Yeah I have to admit I've been on a bender of this and Mind pulp lately.
My best friend passed away over a year ago and his mother gave me all of his games. One of them was Mario Hoops 3 on 3 and I have never heard of that one before. So seeing it brought up in this video reminded me of him
I’m very sorry for your’e loss!
One of the cool things about Solo to Robo is when it feels like you "beat" the game basically the game starts up again with a new intro movie and you essentially get to play a sequel right there and then. It honestly felt like two games in one.
I LOVED THAT!
IT WAS AMAZING THE 2ND STORY.
HOLYSHEEEEEET
i would kill for a remaster version on switch.
I beat it twice. TWICE
Glad to see at least a few seconds of Radiant Historia here. Easily one of my favorite DS games. Funnily enough, it feels like every DS game I adore got a remaster for 3DS/home console or is likely to get one (Pokemon says hello).
It’s not really forgotten but the best DS game imo is 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors
At least it got a remastered release with VLR on Steam. Still waiting for it to come to the Switch…
The World Ends With You for me but 999 is also great
Glad someone else was hoping he’d talk about 999 especially since he specifically called out that mature rated Ds games were rare
Radiant historia, twewy, 999 and devil survivor
it got q collection and a sequel on the vita!!!
Dragon Quest IX, the forgotten entry in the series. Honestly one of my top games of all time. Great story, 4 way multiplayer, and so much content!
Also that Little Red Riding Hood zombie game might be connected to that Wiiware title Zombie Panic in Wonderland. Had that Momotaro, Snow White and Dorothy shooting the undead and bosses in fairytale areas.
DQIX really is a fantastic game. Maybe they don't want to deal with the multiplayer components to rerelase it again, but you can take all of it out (I never used it once) and it's still one of the best DQ games. I even bought a second copy to replay it from the beginning 😂 and would do it again if released on Switch, hear me Square-Enix?!
Yes, Zombie Panic in Wonderland is from the same devs as Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ. And yeah, DQ9 is my second favorite RPG of all time and my favorite Dragon Quest...basically the ONLY mainline Dragon Quest I like other than 3.
Shoutout to Lost Magic, an RTS game with monster catching where you draw combinations of runes on the bottom screen to cast spells. The spell system was weirdly in-depth, but you would be often restricted by how much mana you have. Good game.
Three DS games I'd never even heard of before a few years ago have turned out to be my favourite ones of the whole lineup.
Radiant Historia, Contact DS, Infinite Space
Last Window (the sequel to Hotel Dusk) is another one because it didn't get a UK release, so it was only ever sold via US imports.
Along with the sister series; Code R.
It's kinda weird just how many hidden gems get less spotlight than their GBA counterparts.
I need to sink some more time into Infinite Space but it's so cool!
wait what? Last Window wasn't an actual UK release? Can you elaborate? Cause I did import it here for the US. But I thought it was a UK release
Huh? Last Window DID get a UK release, US didn't get it at all as Cing closed down BEFORE they could release it there after the UK got it.
Infinite space was so goood
you're a bit mixed up there....Last Window and Another Code R ( Trace Memory's sequel ) got released in the UK but never came to the US.
Contact will always be at the top of my list. An RPG made by Grasshopper Manufacture, it really took advantage of the system's two screens with each one in their own style as two characters interact. Just so unique and I just don't hear it talked about like at the time I expected it would be. I guess it's something rather different from Grasshopper so that also plays into it I am sure.
Yeah, it's a great one. The fourth wall breaking really tripped me out as a kid too.
For me, that one obscure DS game I fell in love with was Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times (aka "Tongari Boushi to Mahou no 365 Nichi" in Japan, or "Enchanted Folk and the School of Wizardry" in Europe). It's pretty much an Animal Crossing type game made by Aquria and Konami, but with a heavy fantasy theme, with unique mechanics like learning magic spells and investigating supernatural events. It's kinda like if Animal Crossing: Wild World was set in Halloween Town, and I *love* the art style that comes with it. It's definitely got some jank (and the localization wasn't the best), but I adore it so, so much. It's a big comfort game for me, and I could play it any day at the drop of a hat.
It was even popular enough in Japan to get a handful of sequels on the DS and even the 3DS, but the similarities to Animal Crossing probably doomed it overseas. Didn't help that it was released months after Animal Crossing: City Folk in both North America and Europe, either. But it still means a lot to me, and I'm glad I found it.
Phantasy Star Zero is hands down one of my favorite games on the DS. Definitely a must play for classic PSO fans. Not as much content as PSOBB, obviously, but it's a stellar expansion of some of PSO's ideas without going overboard like PSU or doing a 180 like in PSU. I just wish playing online on a DS/3DS wasn't such a pain due to the DS's encryption limitations :/
I don’t know if this really counts as a ‘Forgotten’ gem of the DS/3DS but Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is a surprisingly harrowing game and I really love it. I love the Schwarzweld and think it’s tied with Nocturne for my favorite setting in the series. We got Deep Strange Journey/Strange Journey Redux on the 3DS, but that original is just so *chef kiss*.
I played the remake, so damn worth it, it was my first SMT game.
Strange Journey was my first SMT game. Now I'm waiting for SMT V: Vengeance. I'm hooked like a fish.
Definitely not a forgotten gem. It's one of the best and almost always appears in top 10 jrpgs
10:52 full respect for someone who just straight up puts a screenshot of Vimms Lair in your video lol
I missed the entire DS generation since I was busy working at the time. It's just unbelievable how many good games are on this system. I will definitely have to check some of these out!
I know it's Jp exclusive, but my main nom for a forgotten DS title would be Sigma Harmonics from SQEX/Think Garage. A turn-based RPG you hold like a book, written and directed by Hiroki Chiba inspired by Showa-era mystery novels, with character art by Yusaku Nakaaki, and music by Masashi Hamauzu. It just looks and sounds phenominal!
Stoppp im still waiting for some brave soul to try and fan translated it but i hear the way the game was made its almost impossible smh i would play it with a english guide but not one exist yet
i just homebrewed my 3ds and was trying to find good strange ds recommendations a week ago, and checked if you had made vid cause i knew you’d know the good stuff. thank you for responding to my google search so quick!
7:53 such a shame because it's such a fun Mario sports game that we haven't really seen replicated
My personal favorite weird DS game is Daigasso: Band Bros, and the sequel - DX. They were fully featured MIDI music makers. They got me into music production, and were great rhythm games to boot. DX even let you connect to the internet and download other people's creations or upload your own.
I was hoping you would mention Hotel Desk. Beautiful visuals. Stellar story telling. Clever puzzles. It's what I wish Visual Novels still were. Creative and really outside the box.
don't forget the amazing soundtrack. Cing gave us 4 incredible games with equally amazing music and only 2 got released in the US....if you liked Hotel Dusk and haven't played it yet, you'll love Last Window. I imported it early in the 3DS's life and loved every second of it
Its such a beautiful series, i know we'll likely never see it ported but damn if it isn't a beautiful duo of games.
@@newageBoundhippie Hotel Dusk has ny favorite OST on DS. Incredibly memorable.
Not a weird game.
He did talk about it and it's sequel.
On the DS, there are so many games that are ok at best, but there’s such a level of charm from them! I definitely didn’t know about some of these, and I think it’d be fun to check them out sometime!
Fossil Fighters Champions is one of the most weirdly good looking games on the DS, it's also really fun if a tiny bit shallow all things considered. It's a shame they never improved on the system with future games, instead deciding to completely upend what was already working in the last sequal they got to make.
I'm so glad you mentioned Solatorobo and Phantasy Star 0. Both are games I picked up on a whim and still love to this day, and yes playing 0 online with friends back then was amazing.
I really loved Lost Magic for the DS. It was unnecessarily hard but still fun
I was hoping lost magic would get a mention. Was really fun
Also here for the Lost Magic mention. Cute game, fun use of the stylus.
this game right here is severely underrated
solatorobo is an excellent inclusion, but i can't be a little disappointed that lost magic wasn't on this list anywhere. it really is a shame, it's one of the better forgotten titles. banger video on one of my favorite consoles of all time, though. thanks for that.
I don't know if Trauma Center's considered forgotten nowadays. That said, you want to go under the radar with surgical sims, there's Life Signs. It had the surgery stuff but also a lot of other minigames involved. Plus the story could be affected depending on how quickly you did certain surgeries. Pity the translation was janky, honestly. That and the one we got was a sequel to one that was a fair bit more crazy anime hospital.
I played a lot of this game called Dinosaur King on the DS. It's basically a Pokemon-like RPG where you collect and battle with dinosaurs. Apparently it has an anime and manga too, but I was unaware of that until I just looked it up to remember the title.
The anime was epic back in the day.
I remember having the anime in the background one day (I think I'd just left the channel on while playing games on my DS or laptop), all I remember about it is that I'm PRETTY SURE the antagonists were voiced by the same people as Jessie and James from the Pokémon anime, and the 3D CG dinosaurs did not look good
the anime is dope as fuck, i loved ti as a kid
27:06 Fun fact: The DS version of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing got a downgraded port for iOS and Android. You can see that through the polygon count and the fact that it had the unique DS versions of some tracks like Shibuya Downtown, which are way different than the console/PC versions. The iOS version was the only version of the game that got released in Japan.
I love The Sims 2 for DS. Running a hotel in Strangetown, fighting mafia goons and robots as the Ratticator. Using a water gun to defeat aliens. Meeting Bigfoot in the basement and playing the casino card game for hours on end. Getting all the arcade machines to play a variety of mini games. Dissecting aliens for money. There's so much to it and it plays in real time akin to Animal Crossing.
I'd say my most obscure ds games that I own is probably Avalon Code, the worlds ending and you get some magic book to document the things in the world before its destroyed. people, plants etc. smack everything with the book. I was pretty adventurous during the ds era, game prices were just so low and I got so many good games for $20-30.
Always happy to see an Eyeshield 21 shout-out in your videos. It's one of my favorite Mangas, too, and I take time and reread it every couple of years. Honestly, if you did a video on the series, I would gladly watch that.
When you said “think about a game no one else has played”, i instantly thought of Glory of Heracles. Man, what a beautiful under appreciated gem!!!!!
One forgotten Nintendo DS game I'm surprised you didn't talk about is Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword. Whenever people talk about the modern Ninja Gaiden games, they're always referring to the trilogy on consoles. But there was also one made exclusively for the Nintendo DS, and it's surprisingly fun, if a bit easy compared to the home console entries. It's also the only modern Ninja Gaiden game to use the classic Act Intro jingle from the original 8 bit trilogy, and I really wish that was mainstay for the rest of the series.
I remember downloading a demo for that game off the Nintendo Channel on Wii back in the day. It stuck out to me as the one really fun demo available for a game I didn't already own! I really ought to track down the full version one of these days...
Another point about solatrobo (that luckily didn't get entirely lost to time) are the free downloadable quests. They are all just neat mini-stories, but thanks to the old nintendo ds online system being 100% dead, the only version that has them without any workarounds is the US release, which had all of them installed from the get-go since it released a bit after the european and japanese versions.
Still, despite the limited (and a bit repetitive) combat, the story, setting and characters still make me love it to death. If you want to help make the combat even faster, invest in the hydraulics and attack stats for the robot.
Did anyone ever play Lost Magic? I thought the concept was super cool with the spell fusion and drawing out each of the symbols. I never finished it but want to revisit it one day. Fantastic work as usual Austin! 👏👏
I ds game that I adore but never hear anyone talk about is the Touch Detective series. It follows a young girl detective who takes over her father's agency and solves cases to be renowned. It is like a point and click game where you solve puzzles (which was kind of criticized in the first game for having some moon logic ones). But I loved it as it had wacky and fun characters, her friends Chloe and Penelope are just fun characters who are always by her side (whether she wants them to or not) and she has a butler who looks like a robot but could be a vampire (I think).
It's first two games is something I replay every year as how much I adore them. It makes me feel nostalgic.
The Nintendo DS was my first console I bought with my own money after saving for one year from my salary, and for all those that have not played and beat the Hotel Dusk and Last Window games, do it, is one of the most unique and awesome stories and experience I have ever had the pleasure of having I think about those games a lot, Great video Austin and thank you for your work, great SMT4 joke tho
My personal favorite hidden DS gem will always be Fossil Fighters. It's dead, but it has a "Saturday morning anime" vibe that I just adore and I mean using dinosaurs to fight is really cool. I'm so glad you talked about it, but you really should check out the sequel which is really good.
Honestly, I much prefer Dinosaur King.
I liked fossil fighters as well. Spent so much time trying to get the T-Rex or even the Vinosuar that transformed into one.
I own Fossil Fighters. I enjoyed playing it and would recommend it.
My little brother and I absolutely LOVED Mario Hoops on the DS🤩
I can't believe it's been over a decade since the system launched: where has the time gone?
Bruh next year it’s gonna be two decades💀
Another great video, I love the Nintendo DS and PSP, the DS really does have a plethora of unique and overlooked games. Thanks for making this Austin 🤙
There was an official Demake of Xenosaga 1+2 made exclusively for the DS that makes it look like a SNES or ps1 JRPG
Alright thanks to you I found the name of "Orcs and Elves". I remember that game only because the rats scared me as a kid
I modded my 3ds and found it on the ghost eshop a few months ago so i decided to download it. the rats still freaked me out LOL
Pokemon Conquest is probably one of the most underrated Pokemon games. Fun strategy, endless campaigns and ways to play, and so addicting! Plus you get to fight Nobunaga! Stupidly overpriced but no one played it back in the day!
I HAVE IT
But my DSphat died...
Oh man, I remember when Pokemon Conquest came out! I loved it so much, that I tried to imagine a sequel with the cast from Dynasty Warriors instead of Samurai Warriors. Cao Cao being the main villain, of course.
The game did really badly in sales and it didn't help that it came out 3 months before B2W2 dropped in Japan and most fans over there were probably holding out for that plus it's part of a long running franchise of strategy games that alienated potential audiences. I know it didn't fare much better here even with the name recognition of Samurai Warriors behind it as Nobunaga's Ambition isn't that popular here in the States.
When I played Retro Game Challenge I originally thought that all of the games in it were Famicom games that didn't make it to the US, kind of a sneaky way of importing them. I was wrong and its awesome how much effort went into making each of the games.
In a way the DS was kind of a precursor to smartphones. A lot of the wacky things they added like a music creator or a web browser are things you would see as apps in the modern day
Soken made the FRIGGIN MARIO BASKETBALL GAME OST!? Lmao, that's my favorite funfact of the day. Thanks Austin!
Finally, a mention of Solatorobo on one of these lists that isn't just a cursory glance with "oh it's an expensive DS game" and nothing further.
Also, Attack of the Saiyans is a Phenomenal game. Like legitimately one of the best DBZ games, aswell as one of the best RPG's on the ds IMO. Would love to see you cover it. Much Love Homie
When it comes to the DS, I've got plenty of obscure games I don't think I've ever seen or heard brought up anywhere else. "Hoshigami"? "A Witch's Tale"? "Jigsaw World"? "Legend of Kage 2"? A ton of stuff. I was thinking of "Glory of Hercules" as well but that actually got a mention.
But both "Windy X Windam" and "Izuna" got brought up so I now feel obligated to talk about the one other game "Izuna" was somehow involved with, "Rondo of Swords". There isn't much about it out there, at least there isn't a complete walkthrough or LP of it on TH-cam. The only reason I even know about this game was that it was gifted to me by a now ex-friend who had a copy since one of their friends was a localizer who worked on it. Yeah.
It's an SRPG...best comparison I can think of would actually be "Fire Emblem". A medieval fantasy setting with similar stage structure and can be surprisingly difficult if you don't know what you're doing. Also like "Fire Emblem", it has some rather obscure secrets that are easy to miss. Though that said, it is also pretty unique. Has this interesting combat mechanic in that you move through enemies to attack them, at least with melee units, and moving through allies gets you various buffs. So positioning ends up being very important, even more than usual in SRPGs. There are even stuff like skills meant to intercept or counterattack melee units to stop them in their tracks.
So as mentioned earlier, the reason I'm bringing this up is cause of "Izuna". Izuna, as well as Shino, are both secret characters in the game you can recruit. But they can be a pain to actually get.
Also, another secret character you can get is Cotton from, well, "Cotton". You know, the side-scroller shooter series? Cause why not? Funnily, "Rondo of Swords" was actually what introduced me to both "Izuna" and "Cotton".
I own both Izuna 1 & 2 and now I have to search down this game just because they're in it thank you lol
@12:37 Fun fact. When Square was creating Final Fantasy, they knew they wanted the title to be 'FF'. They wanted to try Fighting Fantasy but found the trademark for the name already being used by the books mentioned her, leading to them using Final Fantasy instead.
You are rolling with these constant uploads man, don't push yourself though! We love the content no matter how long it takes!
I love you and your content Austin, and the more frequent uploads are rad.. but..
holy crap, almost five minutes to begin the actual video is kind of crazy @_@
Austin bro, you are going IN with these releases
Make sure you take time to take a rest, you deserve it.
Not sure if you posted videos already on PSP and Vita stuff, but I'd love to see those too!
Bangai-O Spirits is another hidden gem. A Treasure action game where you fly around 2D stages as a mech and shoot hundreds of missiles at once. Gameplay focuses around dodging bullet hells and making your own. It actually had a level editor and sharing function that encoded your level into a sound clip that others could pick up with their DS mic. No story, just a collection of stages and a chaotic good time.
A few of my favorite lesser talked about DS games were the legendary starfy and the Drawn to Life games
I’ve been searching for Sideswiped for years now! I had no idea what it was called or even how to find it online, so thank you for having it in the video!
I had an older friend who would always bring his gameboy and DS games over so that I could play them and Sideswiped was one that I had a ton of fun with. It’s been like, 10 years or something since then, so it’s been on my mind for a while. I gotta play it sometime
I gave my 10 year old an R9 card with a full US library and DS Lite for his birthday. He was in awe.
Love this video, the DS/Wii era was the last time Nintendo really blew me away. I've owned far too many DS consoles in my day, each one worth it.
So glad to see Nostalgia get a shoutout - I played it for the first time last year and it became one of my surprise favorite RPGs on the system!
23:00 Commando on miniclip!!! I've only played it in passing so I never actually finished it but that game was awesome! I wonder if it exists somewhere still
I remember really liking the "Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure" remake on DS, changing it from a tactical RPG to a more streamlined turn-based one. Another month or so and I can finally play the 2 sequels that have been sitting in Japan for like two decades. 👴
6:38 Someone NOT dunking on Golden Sun Dark Dawn? Unexpected, but not unwelcome.
9:28 Mario Hoops 3 on 3 is an extremely forgotten Title for me. Mostly because I know the game as Mario Slam Basketball. It still super-weird how Square defined "Characters" for this game though. Three jobs and two species?!?
The fact the video at 5:37 exist because of Elite beat agents, really shows the impact the game had. Thank you Elite beat agents for all the memes you have given us
NO JOKE- When Austin asked what kinds of forgotten and obscure DS Games we've played the first one that came to my mind was Trace Memory, and HE BROUGHT IT UPPP! Such a good one, I have such nostalgia for that game
AND I HAD FOSSIL FIGHTERS TOOOO!!!!!
i actually started playing Trace Memory about 4 days before i saw this video because i resurrected my 3DS and have a buttload of DS games i never finished, and some i've never even played
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 is one of my all time favorite games. Last year someone gave me a DS Lite and I immediately went and bought a complete in box copy. So good.
Edit: 7 minutes into the video and three games show up that I completely forgot about....
I really hope FF tactics advance series gets a remake or gets ported to the switch. The designs of the races like the Nu Mou looked way better than they do in FF 12.
The Mario Basketball game was a lot of fun. I played it on my Wii U and works well enough for me to think that a sequel on Wii U would have worked!
Solatorobo is probably one of my favorites ever if not my favorite at all. Two stories, awesome gameplay, great graphics, MUSIC! I love it!
Austin, you get mucho bonus points for mentioning Soken's involvement in Mario Hoops 3-on-3. That soundtrack is a BANGER.
Devil Survivor and Devil Survivor 2 were some helluva fun games. Devil Survivor is still my favourite Megami Tensei game of all time, including Persona.
I think one of the most obscure and “stuck on DS” games is Sailor Moon La Luna Splende. Loved this video! :)
Not sure how “forgotten” it is, but The World Ends With You is a classic DS title for me. It’s a hectic action JRPG set in modern Tokyo where you’re trying to control two characters at once, one on the bottom and one on the top, with completely different control schemes for both. Also has really fun characters and story.
Away Shuffle Dungeon is a near unheard of hidden gem and I think it deserves a spotlight
I love the Nintendo DS. This video has inspired me to start collecting a few more games for the system. Thanks for highlighting some really cool titles, Austin. 😊
The sheer fact that Lil Red Riding Hood: Zombie BBQ was mentioned just made my night.
Sideswiped is really fun. It's a clone to Burnout that adds features that makes it stand on its own. You can buy cars but majority of the quests can be done with the two default cars. The game is packed with a bunch of addicting modes including using your car for bowling, jumping between trampolines to pop balloons and crashing into everyone in a demolition derby mode. Watching others got flipped in the air and then explode after enough damage is really exhilarating.
Elite Beat Agents, Trace Memory, Contact, and Away Shuffle Dungeon are some pretty banging games. I still have my original carts for them too ^^
I wish Away got more press cuz its a really cute dungeon crawling game and you build up your village the more you go in. I guess a sorta recent example would be Mononoke Forest for the 3ds.
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. I played the first game, but Capcom is being a dingus with not localizating the second game.
28:40 nice on the Out Cold clip, loved that movie as a kid and watched it again recently
I can't believe there was a game made with the Doom RPG engine! And there's an Aliens Metroidvania made by WayForward! Good recs
What I liked about this episode was that you talked about so many good DS games and not just the typical Mario Kart and Pokemon. I still my DS and Im very still much in love with it. I collect for the system and I find new and fresh games all the time throughout creative creators :) good job dude
You can't imagine the smile that rolled across my face when you decided to end the video talking about my favorite DS game of all time
I still play it today on a 3DS with a widescreen hack!
If you like 1st person ds games check these out:
- Dementium 1&2
- Nanashi no Game
- Nanashi no Game: Me
- Moon
- The Dark Spire
- Theresia
- Touch of the Dead
- Metroid Prime Hunters
- C.O.R.E
- Etrian Odyssey 1-3
- Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
- GoldenEye 007
- 999 (9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors)
- Hotel Dusk: Room 215
- Last Window: The Secret of Cape West (Hotel Dusk 2)
- Again
- Another Code: Two Memories (Trace Memories) (okay it's a mix of 3rd person and 1st person point & click, but my love for all Cing games dictates it's inclusion).
It's funny you made and scrapped a joke about SMT IV when Strange Journey and Devil Survivor were right there.
Anyway, I think my favorite "Definitely nobody played this" DS game was Touch Detective. Pretty fun point n click with a gothy art style similar to like, Okage Shadow King on the PS2.
My ONE gripe with Jump Ultimate Stars is that we didn't get a 6-Koma Panel for Gohan that made him his grown up self (Also that one mission to unlock Anna from Shaman King but we're not talking about that ). Gohan's me favorite DBZ Character, but I like him more as an adult.
I absolutely love Nostalgia! Was just telling a friend about that game yesterday.
10:40 I definitely wouldn't consider Sideswiped anywhere near shovelware. It's extremely well made by the standards of DS racing games (which admittedly is a low bar).
If you want some real trash then look no further than Burnout Legends or NFS Most Wanted on DS. Sideswiped in comparison is worlds apart in quality yeesh!
My first DS game wasn't even a DS game, it was a GB (GBA?) compilation of Spongebob episodes that I binged back-to-back
Dementia the Ward, 999, The World Ends With You, Ghost Trick, and Elite Beat Agents are my picks. Also why does the "You're the Inspiration" level in EBA gotta be so sad?
You're the Inspiration, over the distance and believe having a multiman battle to see who can destroy my heart faster.
( Believe wins)
@@LakituAl I said it wrong it, it's "You're the inspiration". And yeah they game is like tehehe funny secret agents to emotional obliteration
Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey is severely underrated.
Anyone I’ve ever asked about Spectrobes looked at me like I was crazy, I don’t know how well it aged but playing it as a kid was great
I love both Glory of Heracles and Phantasy Star Zero. I'm actually a Phantasy Star lore nerd and this game is a blessing, I affectionally call it Phantasy Star meets Wild Arms aesthetic.
I've got a couple weird games like GTA: Chinatown Wars, OkamiDen, 999, The World Ends with You, Ghost Trick, the first 4 Professor Layton games, all the Kirby games, & Dragon Quest 5&9. Don't know if he's talked about Radiant Historia, but THAT is the proudest piece of my DS library.
Radiant Historia got a 3DS version, so it wasn't forgotten at all, nor was it weird lol
Dragon Ball origins 2 is probably one of my favorite Dragon Ball games of all time. It's a shame to see how underrated it is. One of the few DB games where you can be Arale, Bulma, kid yamcha, and kid krillin.
1:52 whenever the DS comes up in conversation I always bring up Knights in the Nightmare. It’s a SRPG with RTS elements that’s also a bullet hell shooter, all at the same time. It was made by Atlus developer Sting, who specialized in weird high-concept RPGs. (They also did Riviera the Promised Land for GBA, a favorite of mine growing up.)
Knights sticks out in my mind for being a rare example of a game that requires a pretty high level of “game literacy” just to understand the gameplay, let alone master it. I should give it another try.
As someone who loved both Riviera and knights, i say you should definitely try out Yggdra Union made by the same team.
I was literally gonna say fossil fighters i thought it was a solid idea and then you brought it up what a legend. You sir get a subscription.
There's a shit ton of licensed games that haven't seen much coverage here on TH-cam such as the American Girl and Build-a-Bear ones to name a few.
My favorite hidden gem I'm sure not too many people played was Retro Gaming Challenge. You get sent back in time to the 80s as a kid, to play video games, conquer challenges, read Magazines(!) you can read the manual for the games. It's very fun to play, but to fully interact with the game world tickles the nostalgia bone perfectly.
Avalon Code, the adventure RPG where you hit things with a magic book in order to modify their magical genetics. My World, My Way, a turn-based RPG starring a bratty princess who can bend reality by pouting about it loud enough. Rondo of Swords, a Tactics game featuring both Izuna the Ninja and Cotton the Witch in which you attacked by passing through enemies rather than stopping adjacent to them. Henry Hatsworth, half-platform game, half-puzzle game starring an elderly explorer. And the list of niche games I've owned goes on...