The BIG DS Voting Thread, Coming to You Weekly: Thanks For Voting!

Ninjatown - 9 points



You say: "Challenging but well worth the low price it went for and those Ninjas are adorable little blighters."

"Both adorable and bloody hard if getting top scores on each mission is your cup of tea. This took a licence I'd never heard of and turned it into one of my favourite DS games. Not as well-rounded as Plants VS. Zombies, but notable for blowing low expectations completely out of the water. Shame nobody's ever heard of it.  "

"You build huts that house Ninjas and you make them kill monsters, what is there not to like? The best Tower Defense game out there."

I say: Apologies middle commenter, it's one I'd never heard of! The art style is pretty unique though, and all your praise for it might warrant a look from me.

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings - 10 points (1st places - 1)



You say: "Despite not knowing who the heck any of these people I was supposed to know were, and thus not enjoying or understanding much of the plot, I had great fun setting up my squads and playing rock-paper-scissors gameplay on multiple levels (water beats fire, but flying loses to ranged... argh!), before forgetting it all and wading in with the Tonberry squad.  Sadly, it jacked up the levels of the enemies a good thirty numbers near the end, so I never finished the game; but I had great fun until then."

I say: One that I avoided on the basis that "I have not played FFXII, therefore I shall not enjoy this" and I'm wondering if I should take a gander now anyway. It sounds great and right up my alley, and very strategic. Plus, a squad of Tonberries? Amazing.

Advance Wars: Dark Conflict - 18 points (1st places - 2)



You say: "Not as fun with all the dark business and the apocalypse nonsense, but it got rid of the stupid pipes."

"I'd never played an Advance Wars game before, so when I saw this in a French supermarket last year (true!) I got it. Surprisingly fast-paced for a strategy game and a decent story."

"A grittier, darker and more serious take on war (as it should be I suppose) but it stuck to what makes Advance Wars great."

I say: Confession time - I've never played an Advance Wars game, and I really ought to have. It's always been dayglo colours and exuberant commanders in my head however, so the prospect of a gritter AW game to sink my teeth into is tantalising.  

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift - 22 points (1st places - 3)



You say: "Top notch stuff, what more can i say? While the GBA FFTA bored me silly, this made me bored silly with life as it completely and utterly ate my time for weeks upon end. Solid, good gameplay, interesting little plot and cast with an absolute utter sodtone of content."

"Rubbish, generic story aside, very good strategy not unlike Fire Emblem at all and it features a strategic snowball fight!!!"

"This game had me totally hooked, I loved the world, the quests and side quests and the job system. This was one of my first adventures into the world of grid based strategy games and I fell in love. Wonderful stuff!"

I say: Very chuffed this placed as highly as it did - it was my first choice this week. It just ate up so much of my time, and I gave up my time with glee. It's a very solid strategy game, with plenty of classes to use in combat. Even if the story's a bit pants, you won't really care as there's easily a 100+ hours of content here, and very good content it is.

Advance Wars: Dual Strike - 24 points (1st places - 3)



You say: "One of my most played DS games. I much preferred the way it mixed bright, colourful pre school visuals with the horrors of war. I can't remember, did this one have online play and multiplayer where you could pass one DS around? If yes, that was all great."

"Started playing this.  It got hard very quickly.  Gave up.  But I can imagine that if you're the sort of person who loves out-thinking the computer, it's a hoot.  Cute aesthetic too."

"Another case of "fuck, do i go with this or do i go with the sequel?" abounds here. Dual Strike has the more content though, so...i'm rolling with it. Advance Wars has always been a good blast and this wasn't any different."

"As good as it gets with strategy games, challenging but ultimately rewarding in the end and the quirky characters help lighten the mood a little."

"This was really great though I never finished it due to a rock hard mission where I had to beat a team before they'd join me."

I say: Yep, still haven't played them. This is the one I always think of in my head however, and judging by your unanimous praise, it's the one I should play first. Looks great, and a deserving winner!

The GNamer Comment of the Week this week goes to someone who voted for a game that didn't place:

"By-the-numbers colourful strategy with witches, knights, and sexist clothing..."

Hmm, okay, doesn't sound too great, why did you vote fo-

"Also, you get a manatee in your squad."

WHAT?!

"I never knew I wanted to fight as a manatee so much until I was given the option. (: 3)"



AMAZING. So, thanks for introducing that to me, and you get comment of the week!

Square-Enix: "For preventing me from understanding the plot of FFXII:RW by not bringing out FFXII, or indeed any FF game since VI, on a Nintendo console.  What with Theatrhythm now also expecting us to know how all of these bishounen boys and anorexic girls are, we're well overdue a VII-XII compilation for the Wii U."

Advance Wars: I'm completely, utterly and woefully crap at these games, therefore they're all rubbish. A franchise I so dearly want to love but cannot.

Pokemon Conquest: "I thought when I first heard about this it'd be the game to get me into Pokemon but as far as strategy games go it is just too basic in terms of how you can attack & becomes boring really quickly."

"Pokemon and Strategy, the ultimate combination surely. No, the leveling system was either broken or didn't make any sense, no matter what I did my Pokemon eventually became too weak to take on any of the other castles and I was unable to continue."

Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon: "They tried to update it but compared to the excellent GBA, Cube and Wii games this one fell flat."