The time limit in MM isn't much of a "limit" at all. Certain events only occur at certain times, but that's about as far as it goes. You can speed up or slow down or restart time as you like. Really, there's no excuse for running out of time at any point unless you've seriously mismanaged it. If the "limit" is what turned you away from MM in the first place, I would suggest you try it out if you get the chance; it's even better than OoT in many respects. I still think that MM has the best temples of any Zelda game. Only problem is there's so few of them. In any event, the game is too often overlooked by gamers, even Zelda fans.

This is completely off the original topic, but I'm a huge advocate of MM (and Zelda II) and I got a chance to rant a bit. I feel better.

This shouldn't get Nintendo mad because Nintendo makes the Wii games that DON'T look like crap (Metroid Prime 3, Mario Galaxy and SSBB come to mind). That guy is 100% right, though. Developers have been scrambling to cash in on the Wii's success and the results are poor, ugly, and even unfinished games. Thankfully it looks like we're starting to pull out of that.

I haven't played that game in a while, but from what I remember matching up the types of your monsters with the enemies makes a huge difference. Make sure you've got monsters of the opposite alignment of those you are fighting. Sure, your party will take more damage, but you are there to heal them. If you can keep the enemies focused on your monsters instead of you, the game becomes much more managable. I can't remember what monsters I used to beat the game, but make sure you have a good selection available to you; don't get tied to the same group for every mission. If you do that you'll have more time to play around with your spells and learn which ones work in different situations.

Once you figure out how to deal with the bizarre learning curve, the game is a lot of fun.

Here's hoping there's more people out there willing to take the time and read this monster. It explains a lot for someone like me who has absolutely no experience with business models and things of that sort. If you ever noticed that Nintendo was onto something bigger when your girlfriend got addicted to Nintendogs and Wii Sports and eventually moved on to games like NSMB and Paper Mario and Pikmin, then this article will be one hell of an experience for you.

(Okay, so that example was a bit autobiographical, but you get the idea)

The DS is a great RPG system. Here are the ones I own and recommend:

Puzzle Quest (my favorite)

Final Fantasy III

Contact

Etrian Odyssey

DQM: Joker

FFCC: Ring of Fates

Pokemon Pearl

If you're looking for a little more action then Zelda, Lunar Knights, and Castlevania are great, too. Never played Mario and Luigi, though I love the GBA version. Orcs and Elves also looks good, but I haven't played that either.

Also, LostMagic is hugely underrated. I'd call it more strategy than RPG, but it deserves mentioning.

This is driving me insane. Workers "strike;" consumers "boycott." What you are talking about here is, in fact, a boycott. Blessings to the one other poster who knows the difference.

Just because you've never heard of it doesn't mean it sucks. There are plenty of great games available right now. I currently own Castlevania II, Gunstar Heroes, Ninja Gaiden, Sonic, Toejam and Earl 2, Mario 64 and Super Metroid (even though I already own the last two outside of the VC). If it weren't for the fact that I still own and play my SNES this list would be quite a bit longer. My point is that a "boycott" of the VC would be depriving gamers of many classic games that they're not even aware of. The solution is not "better" games, it is getting those people that don't know how great some of these games are to play them and spread the word. I understand that there are a lot of crappy games too, but review sites (especially IGN; they've been great with the VC) can usually point you in the right direction if you're unsure about what to buy. Before you abandon the godsend that is the Virtual Console, perhaps you should actually try it. You will be surprised.

Since I mentioned the SNES, here are some games you might consider trying if you haven't already:

SimCity; Super Castlevania IV; Street Fighter II; Zelda: Link to the Past; F-Zero; Contra III; Super Mario World; Donkey Kong Country; R-Type III; Super Ghouls and Ghosts; Super Metroid; Breath of Fire II; Harvest Moon.

There are plenty of others out there, and I suggest that anyone else with more ideas speak up so we can put an end to this nonsense.

EDIT: I finally found this amazing thread. Anyone with an interest in the Virtual Console should check it out:

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=26158513

If you've never played a DQ/DW game before, Joker is still a good choice. The decision between this and Pokemon has to do with your taste in games. If you're more interested in an old-school, level grinding RPG (minus random battles, which is nice) then you'll want to take Joker over Pokemon. Joker also has much more room for customization, in that you choose which skills you want your monsters to have. If youprefer collecting monsters over fighting then stick with Pokemon. As for my own opinion of each game (and yes, I've played them all) it basically boils down to this:

Pokemon Red/Blue > DWM

DQMJ > Pokemon Diamond/Pearl

If you grew up on SNES RPGs, like I did, then you'll most likely have a blast with DQMJ. It's a great game. Now if you'll excuse me, my Alabast Dragon is calling...

Why waste the time and money to improve the graphics? If you want to call it a 'cheap port' that's fine with me, but why get upset when it was very clear that the port was meant solely to show the difference in gameplay between the Wii and the GC? Given the choice, I would never play TP the traditional way when I could play it on Wii. The controls work better than on GC, which is again the whole reason the game was ported to Wii in the first place, not to showcase the graphics. Plus, why release a high-profile game on a dead system? Whether GC fanboys like it or not, putting TP on the Wii was a brilliant move by Nintendo. And I can't believe some people are still upset about this a year later.