Help me come up with some recommendations for a new DS owner who prefers retro games

My friend Simon, who runs the lovely retro-focused game blog called Red Parsley, recently reached out to me to share the joyful news that he's now the proud owner of a Nintendo DS.

Unsurprisingly, he also asked if I could offer up a few DS game recommendations.

I did just that late last night. Specifically, I said he should consider picking up some or all of the following for various reasons I won't go into here:

9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors
Bangai-O Spirits
Big Bang Mini
Contact
Dragon Quest IX
Hotel Dusk
Kirby Canvas Curse
Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits
My World, My Way
Pac-Pix
Puzzle Bobble DS
Retro Game Challenge
Rhythm Heaven
Soul Bubbles
Taiko no Tatsujin DS
Tetris DS 
The World Ends with You
Yoshi Touch & Go

Although I have a feeling all (or at least some) of the games mentioned above could keep Simon and his new DS busy for a long time to come, I also think it couldn't hurt to send him a few more suggestions.

So, I'm asking all of you: which DS titles would you recommend to someone who is new to Nintendo's first dual-screened system and who tends to prefer games of the "old school" variety? 

You've ogled The Legend of Legacy's lovely Japanese packaging, now ogle that 3DS game's North American packaging

Don't remember the fabulousness of The Legend of Legacy's Japanese packaging? Check out my blog post about it, which features photos of that release's case (interior and exterior), cartridge and folded-up "manual," as well as its soundtrack sleeve and CD.

As for the North American version's packaging, continue reading (or scrolling) to see how it compares to that of the Japanese original.

Admittedly, beyond its size, the North American iteration's outer box--above and below--isn't all that amazing.

That said, I quite like the illustration of the little cat-like character (do any of you know if he or she has a name?) that can be seen in the lower-right corner.

I'm also pretty fond of the random pieces of art that can be spotted on this box's sides and flaps, such the following example.



If you ask me, though, all of the above pales in comparison to the beauty that's showcased on the front and back sides of The Legend of Legacy's North American soundtrack sleeve.





Can anything top that bit of design work? I'd personally suggest--perhaps only meekly, though--that the game's main cover art achieves that goal, although I'd also understand anyone who opposes that line of thinking.



Some of those folks surely prefer the illustrations that grace the front and back covers of the art book that's packaged along with launch-window copies of the North American iteration of The Legend of Legacy.

That book's front cover can be ogled in the photo above, while the back cover can be ogled in the photo below.

Did any of you pick up the North American release of this SaGa-esque 3DS RPG? If so, what do you think about it so far--assuming you've played at least a smidge of it?

I've put about 18 hours into my copy of The Legend of Legacy so far, and I have to imagine I'll put in at least 18 more before I'm done with it.

Don't worry, I'll share some additional impressions of the game long before I reach that point, but in the meantime, I hope these snapshots will serve as a suitable stand-in.

We're nearly legal (aka The Nichiest Podcast Ever #17 is now available for your aural pleasure)

Are you the sort who likes to listen to silly people chat about video games during your free time? If so, you'll probably get a kick out of the latest installment of The Nichiest Podcast Ever.

What do Anne, Mollie and I blather on about this time around? A bunch of recently released and soon-to-be-released North American games, for starters, Also, a small handful of just-announced Japanese games.

Oh, and all of the above are niche-y as hell, of course.



We also spend a couple of minutes discussing our ever-embarrassing backlogs, with SaGa Frontier 2, We Love Katamari and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D being a few of the games I singled out.

Finally, we pull out our favorite pom-poms and cheer on a trio of titles we think deserve a bit more attention. (Actually, my pick--the fabulously EarthBound-esque Undertale--has gotten a whole lot of love on line as of late, but I bring it up here anyway because I'm enjoying it so much.)

Sound scintillating? Point your Internet browser of choice to radio.morningproject.com--or search for "The Nichiest Podcast Ever" on iTunes, I guess--and have a blast.

The 'Tumbleweed Portable Club' (of lonely WonderSwan owners) has another member

Remember this recent post, the focal point of which was a snapshot of a tiny, cube-shaped box that was topped by a copy of Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits?

Well, the photos that follow detail the contents of that surprisingly small package.



No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. I finally got off my lazy butt and bought a WonderSwan. Specifically, a translucent black WonderSwan Color.

That may have elicited a groan from some of you. After all, anyone who knows anything about the WonderSwan knows that the SwanCrystal is by far the best of the three WonderSwan systems that were sold in Japan in the late 1990s and early 2000s.



The thing is, I didn't go out of my way to buy this WonderSwan Color. You see, it was just one part of a nicely appointed eBay auction that also included a number of WonderSwan games.

In fact, one of those games--the one seen below--was responsible for bringing my attention to the eBay auction in question.

That would be the WonderSwan port of Human Entertainment's Clock Tower--or Clock Tower for WonderSwan, as I believe it's officially known.

For whatever reason, I got a bug up my butt about this horrific point-and-click game a month or so ago, and while searching eBay for a copy of it I came across a tantalizingly cheap auction that included a black WonderSwan Color, Clock Tower, a visual novel called Terrors (not pictured here) and three other WonderSwan games.

Which ones, you ask? Well, here's one of them:

Although this WonderSwan Color "remake" of Final Fantasy IV isn't all that different from Final Fantasy IV Advance for the GBA--the latter was released in 2005, while the former was released in 2002--I've long wanted to own a copy of it because I'm such a huge fan of this particular Squaresoft game.

The other two games included in the eBay auction I ended up winning are Final Fantasy titles, too. Specifically, the WonderSwan Color re-imaginings of the first and second Final Fantasy adventures. (These remakes later served as the backbones of 2002's Final Fantasy Origins for PlayStation and 2004's Final Fantasy 1 & II: Dawn of Souls for GBA.)

The photo above showcases the back of the first Final Fantasy remake's box. That illustration covering its top half is pretty slick, don't you think?

I didn't snap any shots of the front of that game's box because, well, it's not all that exciting. The same is true of the box that houses the WonderSwan Color version of Final Fantasy II.

Still, you can ogle both covers in the image above--especially if you click and zoom in on it. 

Last, but far from least, is this photo of the translucent black WonderSwan Color I first described in the opening lines of this post. 

Something you probably can't tell from this snapshot: how small this system is. Seriously, it's about the size of my wallet--which came as quite a shock to me. 

Also a pretty big shock was the dimness of the system's screen. I had been warned about this, of course, but it's been so long since I spent time with a handheld that doesn't have a backlit screen that I almost forgot how annoying that kind of thing can be.

Oh, well, I got used to it back when I spent a ton of time with an actual GameBoy (these days I mostly play that system's titles through emulation--even though I have a couple of OG GameBoy systems and a ton of games), I'm sure I'll get used to it again.

See also: 'I now own 10 WonderSwan games but I still don't own a system that will allow me to play any of them'

A trio of spooky games I'm hoping to play between now and All Hallows' Eve

For those of us in North America--and any other locale where folks celebrate the holiday--it's that time of year again. And when I say "that time of year," I of course mean Halloween.

While my compatriots spend the next couple of weeks prepping costumes, planning parties and popping orange and black candies into their mouths, I'm going to spend them playing spooky games. Specifically, I'm going to play--or maybe I should say I'm going to do my best to play--the following trio of Halloween-appropriate titles.

Undertale (Mac)--The good news here is that I've already started playing this just-released, EarthBound-esque RPG. The bad news: I've only played about an hour and a half of it so far. I have no doubt that will change appreciably by the end of this coming weekend thanks to all of the grins and chuckles it's already produced.

My favorite aspects of Undertale at the moment, by the way, are its colorfully creepy "overworld" graphics, its wonderfully witty text and its unexpectedly unique gameplay. A highlight of that last component: if you want, you can dance, flirt or simply chat with baddies rather than beat them up during this title's battle scenes.

Corpse Party (PSP)--I put a small handful of hours into this game a couple of years ago while traveling for one reason or another. That playthrough came to a screeching halt, though, when I got stuck and couldn't figure out what to do next. Why didn't I turn to GameFAQs or some other online resource? I have no idea, I'm sorry to say.

Thankfully, I'm feeling decidedly less stubborn these days--especially after listening to my podcast pal, Mollie, rave about this original entry in the oddly titled Corpse Party series while we recorded the 17th installment of The Nichiest Podcast Ever a few nights ago. So, look for me to give the game a second chance (and write about it in one or more future blog posts) between now and the end of this month.

Clock Tower (Super Famicom or WonderSwan)--Can you believe I've never played any of the many versions of Clock Tower that have been released over the years? I can't. OK, so that's not completely true. I spent about 30 minutes with the Super Famicom release earlier this year, but I quickly gave up on that campaign when the game's scissor-wielding antagonist popped up and scared the living daylights out of me.

I can't guarantee the same thing won't happen again when and if I return to this pixelated horror title, but I can guarantee I'll do my best avoid it. Who knows, maybe playing it in black and white will help?

Any you playing any spooky, scary or otherwise Halloween-esque games this month? If so, which ones--and what do you think of them thus far?