Puzzle games for the DS Lite?

December 1, 2008 12:59 AM

Last Xmas I bought my sister a DS Lite. She got it mostly for Brain Training and loves puzzle games, but hates all others (she gave away the platform games I got her her). Any personal recommendations for a nice game I can get her this year that isn't Brain Training 2? Maybe a compilation of good high quality puzzles? If it helps, she's 40 yo, so not a kid.
posted by deeper red to computers & internet (24 comments total)

Professor Layton and the Curious Village was the big DS puzzle title around the house this summer, captivating at least one puzzle gamer adult female.
posted by majick at 1:10 AM on December 1, 2008

if she likes sudoku, try pictocross. if she likes tetris, try planet puzzle league.
posted by bellbellbell at 1:20 AM on December 1, 2008

what kind of puzzles? Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a mystery title that you have to solve a TON of different types of puzzles to get through. Some are easy, some are very difficult.

The Phoenix Wright series of "Courtroom action" games are actually adventure games with a logic puzzle bit thrown in during the actual court scenes. That could be fun as well, I whiled away a long trip through the mountains with that one.

A lot of people swear Meteos is the best puzzle/tetris like thing ever, but I couldn't get into it myself.

Picross is also well regarded, but I haven't tried it myself. It's one of the titles that flash through my head when I hear "puzzle" and "DS" in the same sentence though.
posted by barc0001 at 1:22 AM on December 1, 2008

Big Brain Academy is probably the closest thing I can think of to Brain Training without it actually being it. It's along the same lines, except instead of age you get scored in terms of the weight of your brain. It might be a bit too similar though.

She might enjoy Slither Link. I think it hasn't had a US or EU release, so there's only a Japanese version, but that's okay because you don't need to understand any Japanese to play it. As I remember there were one or two screens with Japanese characters, and you just picked the top option and then you could play. Here's a review of it, and you can play it online here (the DS interface is much better). As I said, there's only the Japanese version, so you'd have to get it through a place like Play-Asia (or ebay/etc).

I really enjoyed Progessor Layton, which has lots of puzzles in it (as the others have said) with a storyline to string them together. Personally I never got into Picross, but have friends who've played it to bits.
posted by bjrn at 1:54 AM on December 1, 2008

Mom's a big fan of Qix. Not sure if it qualifies though.
posted by sunshinesky at 2:32 AM on December 1, 2008

Picross is ok, but not awesome. I came in to recommend Professor Layton, and I'm glad that I'm not the only one!

Pheonix Wright is ok, but I found myself getting stuck by a lot of the story line bits. There are some puzzles, but it's probably not what she's looking for.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 3:18 AM on December 1, 2008

It sounds like your sister has pretty similar tastes to my mom, who's absolutely addicted to Touchmaster.
posted by ferociouskitty at 3:52 AM on December 1, 2008

There's at least one Sudoku game and a Crossword puzzle game for the DS if she's into "traditional" puzzles.
posted by mmoncur at 4:31 AM on December 1, 2008

I came in to recommend Picross, which I'm still playing, months upon months (a year even maybe?) after release. Flash version here if you want to check it out.

Also, Planet Puzzle League is just Tetris Attack, which may be the most amazing thing ever.

Hotel Dusk, Trace Memory, Professor Layton and the Phoenix Wright games are all puzzles-with-a-story, if she's more into that type of a game.

But, having said all that, if she's into the brain-training games, I think Touchmaster might be the way to go. Not stressful-gamey like some of the falling block games tend to be, but not as dry as more traditional puzzles such as Picross and CrossworDS.
posted by bookwo3107 at 5:08 AM on December 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

Master Mechanic. Fairly new release, and very reminiscent of The Incredible Machine from way back in the day.
posted by deezil at 5:28 AM on December 1, 2008

I've been considering getting Pic Pic based on this glowing review it got from the curmudgeons (only four games out of 202 got a 10/10 ranking) in eurogamer.net
posted by ersatz at 5:37 AM on December 1, 2008

Big Brain Academy, Professor Layton, Hotel Dusk, Picross, Polarium, Meteos, Puzzle Quest, one or the other of the two crossword games (probably the NYT one, come to think of it), Guitar Hero, Korg DS-10... the DS is a pretty strong system for these kinds of games, come to think of it.
posted by box at 5:56 AM on December 1, 2008

My brother turned me on to Professor Layton last summer, and I've been very pleased with it.

One nice feature of Layton that I haven't seen mentioned yet is that you can make use of the DS's built-in WiFi to download additional puzzles that are released every week. So even if you've solved the main storyline (which took a while), the game still holds some value.
posted by Wild_Eep at 6:52 AM on December 1, 2008

Picross, Pic Pic and Slitherlink. All these should take her out of action for a few weeks. They're all great.
posted by Frasermoo at 6:53 AM on December 1, 2008

...and just to be clear, there's no additional charge for the bonus content.
posted by Wild_Eep at 6:54 AM on December 1, 2008

My mom accidentally bought a certain DS game for herself thinking it was a PC game, and gave it to me. It's called My Weight Loss Coach. It comes with a pedometer to count your steps. It's not a game more as a way to keep track of how much you walk around, exercise, and eat, and it also features neat challenges to keep you motivated. I would never have bought it for myself based on the box art, but it's actually a pretty cool tool, and the science is rock-solid (eat nutritiously and exercise more to be healthy, do small changes until they are habits, etc).
posted by Meagan at 7:11 AM on December 1, 2008

Oh, it's not a puzzle game that's for sure, but it is another interesting DS game/tool that might appeal to her or other people with a DS.
posted by Meagan at 7:12 AM on December 1, 2008

Ok, only one person mentioned Puzzle Quest? That is not okay, because it's the closest to a perfect puzzle game I've ever played. They took Bejewelled, probably the simplest, shallowest puzzler there is, and added a whole world of RPG style depth. Fighting monsters, matching skulls for damage and coloured gems for magic power to cast spells, different minigames to capture monsters, train mounts, forge items and learn spells. I gave it to my mom for Mother's Day and she's still playing.

Also, Picross is amazing as others have noted. Meteos is a good Tetris-y puzzle, although the Disney branded sequel has better controls.
posted by yellowbinder at 7:57 AM on December 1, 2008

I played Clubhouse Games on my mother in law's DS a couple weeks ago and was hooked. It's got about 30 classic board and card games, and you can play against the computer or against other DS players. They aren't really puzzles, but some of the board games can get close. There's battleship, mahjongg, and a stratego knockoff off the top of my head.
posted by mbd1mbd1 at 7:59 AM on December 1, 2008

I'll put in a good word for ChessMaster - The Art of Learning. There's plenty of ways to play chess on the cartridge, but a number of the mini-games are problem-solvers with chess elements. Also, any of the Wario 'micro-games' games are fast and furious - definitely working the brain every time I play.
posted by chrisinseoul at 8:10 AM on December 1, 2008

Nthing PuzzleQuest! I wrote out a whole loving review, but upon refresh, what yellowbinder said. And it's highly addicting. Both my roomie and I (fems both) adore it.
posted by eralclare at 9:36 AM on December 1, 2008

Advance Wars; Days of Ruin is addictive - a brilliant little turn-based strategy game that relies on brain power rather than thumb-twitches. Once she gets the hang of it, she can go online and start clobbering players from around the world.
posted by Slap*Happy at 10:14 AM on December 1, 2008

Oh yeah! Advance wars! I didn't really think of those as puzzles, but some of the levels could almost be considered that. I very much enjoyed both Advance Wars DS games (Dual Strike and Days of Ruin), however they are more strategy games than puzzle games. Both games have dozens of hours of play in them if that type of thing appeals.
posted by barc0001 at 11:35 AM on December 1, 2008

If she likes logic puzzles: Professor Layton. The sequel comes out in a month or so.

If she likes adventure game-y puzzles and story: Phoenix Wright, and sequels.

I LOVE Picross, and it's soon-to-be-released sequel Picross 3D. To find out if she'd like Picross, get her a GAMES magazine. They have pen and paper Picrosses every issue, I think. Used to, at least. Easily the best straight puzzle game I've played on the DS.
posted by graventy at 10:08 PM on August 3