As I start to remember the games I've sold back for store credit or eBay monies, I'll start jotting them down in der blogenheimer. Of course, I can't remember everything I've sold back but again -- it'll be a growing list. Here's part three of who-the-hell knows. Clicky the linky if you want to see parts one and two.
Dedicated to the swath of launch-year garbage that polluted the DS's inaugural year!
Spiderman 2 DS - Shortly after the Nintendo DS was unveiled at E3 of 2004, Reggie Fils-Aime said that Spiderman 2 DS was his favorite game so far. Uh. Great. Truth be told, Spiderman 2 DS had a decent fighting engine and smooth graphics. Here's the thing -- the gameplay was primarily 2D, based on a pseudo-3D world. That is, you could "turn corners" in the levels -- the camera would automatically pan around the corner -- but the gameplay continued to remain in 2D. Some of the levels were designed around 3D, meaning that you might have to know how rooms and spaces fit together in order to navigate the level. Then, there were objectives scattered about timed levels that lent an unnecessarily mundane scavenger hunt feel. Add those two things together, and the smooth graphics and decent fighting engine are all for naught. Had Spiderman 2 DS been my only DS game at the time, it would have been my favorite game so far, sure. But it wasn't my only game at the time. In fact, I also had...
...Ridge Racer DS - What a disaster this was, especially in light of the relatively magnificent Ridge Racer for PSP. This was a port of the Nintendo 64 Ridge Racer (called, surprisingly, Ridge Racer 64 -- who'da thunk it). Now, that game was pretty decent. This game for the DS substituted the analog stick -- like so many games back then did -- with the touch screen. There was never, at any point, a happy medium with the steering. It was either too jittery and loose or not nearly sensitive enough. (Cue evil memories of the abysmal Excite Truck or the wonky Motorstorm... except three times worse than those two combined to the zillionth power.) Sure, you had D-pad control -- but again it never met a happy medium, and it was eclipsed by the awesome arcade d-pad controls of Asphalt: Urban GT (hint: it's one of two launch-period DS games I still own). But that's not all. The kludgy physics from the Nintendo 64 version made it over, and without the smooth control, so what do you get? Something that's less playable than Phoenix Wright in a language you don't understand.
Super Mario 64 DS - The minigames ruled, and the d-pad control was actually adequate, but I own the N64 version, and I'd still rather play it with the analog stick. When I learned that similar minigames would carry over to New Super Mario Bros., that pretty much eliminated my need for Super Mario 64 DS. Yeah, there was Yoshi and Wario to play as... but I'd still rather play it with the analog stick.
Rayman DS - Yeah.
Sprung - Why did I buy this? I don't know, and I don't care, because it's gone now. Well, ok, I bought it because a ma n' pa shop was selling it used for $12. Of course, that's $12 I could be putting towards the $15 Braid instead. But that's neither here nor there. This sad sack of an adventure dating game was only very slightly funny, with one standout line being one that called a group of preppy dweebs "The Circle Jerks". Ok, and the character art was well-drawn. But that's about it. For something that was supposedly written by a Fox sitcom writer, this was utterly disappointing, and some of the dating activities boiled down to a virtual game of Simon/Memory. Yeah, thanks, I'll take Phoenix Wright.
More as I come across 'em.