Recommend a DS game!

[Cloral]

I've got a new DS and a gift card to Amazon for $100. I've got Phantom Hourglass already, and I plan to add-on Contra 4, and probably Picross and SMB via the gift card. This still leaves about $20 that I can use towards a 4th game in my online order. So since I just got my DS and haven't been following the previously-released games too closely, I was hoping I could get some recomendations as to what other game I should grab.

[Kairyu]

Any genre in particular you're looking for?
Anyway, I'd recommend Advance Wars: Dual Strike, or any of the Castlevania series. If you enjoyed Pokemon Gold/Silver, Pearl/Diamond feel fairly close in spirit compared to Ruby/Sapphire.

[Dechipher]

New Super Mario Brothers is fun the first time through, and the minigames are fun in my opinion, but it might be more of a 'borrow it from a friend' kind of game.

Metroid....stay away from it.

I got pokemon diamond, I think, and it's pretty cool. I also bought fire red which is also fun. I actually play that more, I think.

[Brasel]

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is the best Metroidvania game since Symphony I thought. Its pretty damn good and my favorite DS game that I've played. Final Fantasy III wasn't too bad, though I haven't finished it yet.

[MottZilla]

StarFox Command for DS is fun. So's Castlevania. Pokemon is solid. Mega Man ZX is good. There's Seiken Densetsu DS Children of Mana too, though I haven't heard anything about it.

[Cloral]

I'm not a huge strategy game fan, so Advance Wars and Front Mission are 2 games I probably won't be getting. I was kinda looking at the Castlevania and Megaman games. I really liked Megaman games in the past, but after some of the more recent Megaman games I don't really trust that they can make a good one anymore. Especially since MMX8 got pretty good review scores and turned out to be a piece of crap.

As for the Castlevania games, Dawn of Sorrow is definitely better than Portrait of Ruin then?

[Mak-X]

Portrait of Ruin has very boring level designs that I wouldn't want to play through again. Dawn of Sorrow is an excellent follow up to Symphony of the Night and I'd play that first. The level design is more interesting because the levels connect, and the soul and weapon upgrade system is very simple, so you don't have to worry about collecting tons of ingredients. This was the game that I started using my DS for after getting it at launch.

Dawn of Sorrow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S2obmC4VyY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AERzC3hbQ6A

Mega Man ZX was fun until I got held up and couldn't find out where to go next, so you need to look up a faq or map eventually. It plays like a Mega man X style Metroidvania game, with interconnecting levels, but you still have to request a mission for a specific area like the Zero games. I might pick up ZX Advent if I finish the final area.

Mega Man ZX http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qex-bvLTi2w

[vegeta1215]

So, is Phantom Hourglass the only DS game you have?

A few that I own that I would highly recommend are Mario Kart: DS, Tetris DS, and Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time.

[The_Amaster]

Mario Kart is a must-have. It's the kinda game where you play through the whole thing for a few hours, and then after that you just pick it up for a few races every now and then for a few minuites. (This is a virtue. What I'm saying is it never gets old. You just play a bit here play a bit there)

If your a standard RPG fan, Final Fantasy III is a lot of fun, and I've heard great stuff about Drawn to Life for the platformer in you.

(Quick aside. I just picked up Phantom Hourglass today also, and it's a blast so far. I'm as far as the second dungeon.)

[Vagla]

My most recommended games are:

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Clubhouse Games - I can't even imagine the hours I've sunk into this one, and I've not even gone online with it yet. It's better than you'd expect.
Hotel Dusk
Kirby: Canvas Curse
Mario Kart DS
Mega Man ZX
Meteos
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan
Phoenix Wright (All of them)
Picross DS
Planet Puzzle League
Polarium - This is assuming you find it for less than $10. I wouldn't spend more than that on this, as there are only 100 puzzles in it.
Tetris DS
Trauma Center: Under the Knife
True Swing Golf - Don't like golf? Doesn't matter. This game is awesome, anyway. Trust me.

I bolded the two that I think are especially awesome and likely to be overlooked. Meteos is a fantastic puzzle game and deserves your money, and Kirby: Canvas Curse makes some of the best use of the touchscreen that I've yet seen. Give 'em a look.

[DarkDragoonX]

I'm not a huge strategy game fan, so Advance Wars and Front Mission are 2 games I probably won't be getting. I was kinda looking at the Castlevania and Megaman games. I really liked Megaman games in the past, but after some of the more recent Megaman games I don't really trust that they can make a good one anymore. Especially since MMX8 got pretty good review scores and turned out to be a piece of crap.

As for the Castlevania games, Dawn of Sorrow is definitely better than Portrait of Ruin then?

Dawn of Sorrow is definitely better, but Portrait of Ruin is still a fine piece of work. It's worth grabbing both if you can. The Megaman ZX games are pretty good, but aren't great by any means. Also, I heartily reccomend Etrian Odyssey if you have any fondness at all for old-school first-person dungeon crawls. Even if you don't, it's worth a look anyway.

Also, you didn't like Megaman X8? I personally thought it was okay myself, certainly better than X5, X6, and the giant turd that was X7.

[Archibaldo]

Hotel Dusk and the Phoenix Wright games are pretty fun the first time through. But I find it's hard to play through them again cause you know exactly what to do and the story. Pokemon is a good choice, you can't go wrong with it.

EDIT: Almost forgot Elite Beat Agents is the essence of awesome. I regret trading it in at EB.

[Grasshopper]

I didn't like Meteos as a puzzle game. But Kirby: CC was superb. What sold me on that game was when I played the flash game, Scribble. That was a weird mix of Lemmings and drawing on the screen like CC. That made me want to check out the Kirby game which was quite better and much harder.

[Cloral]

Thanks for all the input. I had decided to pick up Picross, Contra, Castlevania DoS, and Megaman. But they didn't have Picross or Castlevania DoS in stock. So I put Mario back on the list, as well as FF3, though only because it was only $20. Hopefully once I have a bit of time I'll be able to get into them.

I forgot about the Kirby game and had placed my order before I saw it in this thread, so I'll have to keep an eye out for it next time I go to a used game store, as well as watching for C-DoS and Picross. They all sound like games I'd like to have.

[Matteo]

Stop everything your doing and get Picross DS

Its far and away the game I play the most of all my games...I have played it almost everyday since it came out (August)