GD DS Technology

It's too bad there's not a two letter abbreviation for technology because that would've made the title so much hipper.

Well anyway here's what's going down plebs. I've been a bit dishonest in my use of Nintendo's little wonder-machine, and my dishonesty caught up to me. When I initially received the DS back in December 2008 I did what any normal (uninformed) person would do. I bought my games. Then I was introduced to the "flash card" concept by several people. This caused me to lose my mind due to the sheer awesomeness. I'm not going to elaborate, if you know then good for you. If you don't, then ignore it. Anyway I ordered one (which took like 3 weeks to ship from Hong Kong) and picked up a microSD card. Using a website, yes an actual website, that hosted DS roms I was able to start playing every game the day of the release. I didn't even have to resort to torrents, I found an actual website that had legit roms released almost immediately.

I started out with a few good games, picked up a couple more used ones and a couple new ones. All told I own about 10 games for the DS. Now thanks to that magical device I've boosted the amount of games I've played to something like 100 probably.

Anyway I used this system up until recently. My usage of this card was halted rather suddenly when my flash card died. Totally out of nowhere it just stopped working. Permanently. I looked it up and found out that if you downgraded the firmware that it would brick the card and make it stop working forever. Whatever all that means. I was played, basically, by somebody disguising a game as a firmware downgrade. Anti-pirates? Pirate-busters? Something. They got me, and now I can't play DS games on my wunderkard. Which is very disappointing due to the high volume of great games on the system.

Here's a few of the games I've played that have really stood out. I was wary of the value of the system at first, but took the leap and discovered some real gems. Discounting the relative crappiness of the Wii and it's library of "games", Nintendo is doing very well this generation on the DS. It targets real gamers, old school gamers and hardcore gamers.

• Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown - This is a cross between new games in the GTA series and the original game. It's so fucking fantastic that if you haven't tried it, then screw you! The mini-game for stealing cars is so cool.
• Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor - Strategy RPG from Atlus. Set in modern Japan, it's a cross between Persona and FFT. Fusing monsters to try and get some powerful deities is fun.
• Suikoden Tierkreis - The first Suikoden side game that I've actually played. It's a cross between Chrono Cross and Suikoden, and does in fact feature 108 playable characters. The story is crazy, with worlds fusing in and out of existence.
• The World Ends With You - Best game on the system by a Portuguese mile. Combat system completely unseen before. Story that really draws you in. A very stylish art style for the environment and characters. Obnoxiously catchy music. It's brilliant chummos and definitely worth a look.

There are plenty of games that are great fun as well. A couple Castlevania games, some Harvest Moon time killers, a LEGO RTS, Final Fantasy's up the wazoo, and any Mario game. There are some newer games that I really wanted to try before my card got fried. Zelda the Spirit Tracks and Ragnarok DS in particular.

Gonna have to play it legit for now, I guess. Bust out those games that I actually own. Like Chrono Trigger and Advance Wars. The Mario 64 remake is pretty good too. I'll have to fix my little wunderkard before the end of summer, though, since the DS will be my only gaming tool for an entire year! Yup, I'm not bringing my 360 overseas. No gaming. For a year. Time to get online and order a new card.