DS games that made great use of the touch screen.

[Makar | 1,946]

From what I remember, both geometry wars galaxies and tingles rosy rupeeland used the touchscreen well. I would add Pokémon trozei but that one just ended up scratching your screen real badly. 

[CMR | 520]

I thought Zelda Phantom Hourglass was fantastic.  I had a really good time with it, but Spirit Tracks just felt like a chore.

[Red | 437]

The World Ends With You has one of my Favorite RPG battle systems, which wouldn't be possible without a touch screen.  The Switch version tried to make it work with motion controls, but it just didn't feel right to me.  A few more that I think worked well:

Electroplankton
Elite Beat Agents/Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 1 & 2
Picross 3D
WarioWare Touched! & DIY
Star Fox Command (I was skeptical of the stylus controls in this one, but really got into it once I gave it a chance)

[Floating Platforms | 716]

First thing that comes to mind was what was said in the OP: Trauma Center - although I really did like the Wii implementation of motion controls and using the nunchuck analog stick to select tools...

[Makar | 1,946]

20 hours ago, CMR said:

I thought Zelda Phantom Hourglass was fantastic.  I had a really good time with it, but Spirit Tracks just felt like a chore.

Good call with phantom hourglass. I forgot about that one

[Tanooki | 4,933]

Phantom Hourglass was so bad I didn't even bother with the other after seeing the comments on that being somewhat similar.  The combination of the borderline broken touch controls that turned Link into sonic going all spinball on accident more than just being able to natural was a big issue.  But couple that with the re-run, repeat dungeon from grating hell to keep backtracking too along wiht it was the eventual kiss of death and sell off of the game for me.  Visuals and audio great, atmosphere fun, control and that hell space was too much to tolerate.

[themisfit138 | 523]

I liked being able to select the different powers in Super Princess Peach. 

[Makar | 1,946]

4 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Phantom Hourglass was so bad I didn't even bother with the other after seeing the comments on that being somewhat similar.  The combination of the borderline broken touch controls that turned Link into sonic going all spinball on accident more than just being able to natural was a big issue.  But couple that with the re-run, repeat dungeon from grating hell to keep backtracking too along wiht it was the eventual kiss of death and sell off of the game for me.  Visuals and audio great, atmosphere fun, control and that hell space was too much to tolerate.

Huh we had a very different experience. I don’t remember the game being bad or the controls being bad at all. If you want bad controls for a more recent game look at kid Icarus uprising. 

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

On 9/1/2022 at 10:57 PM, CMR said:

I thought Zelda Phantom Hourglass was fantastic.  I had a really good time with it, but Spirit Tracks just felt like a chore.

100% agree. I loved PH, but abhor Spirit Tracks.

[Gloves | 11,779]

Both Dementium games, and Moon. 

Also the Call of Duty games were actually pretty good on DS. 

[Tanooki | 4,933]

1 hour ago, Makar said:

Huh we had a very different experience. I don’t remember the game being bad or the controls being bad at all. If you want bad controls for a more recent game look at kid Icarus uprising. 

That game would wear my hand out every so many stages so I'd put it down, then come back to it a lot lot later, finished it over a course of a year or so.  But in the DS game half the time I wanted to move then turn or change direction the little twerp would roll and it was usual concluding with damage or death and that grew old.

 

 

Dementium 1 is fantastic on the DS, other than the wonky save setup, but Moon as beautiful as it was got really boring.   The first person style game that really nailed it was actually third person, Brothers in Arms.  That game looked amazing even had breaking structures, great control, solid gameplay over various modes, good challenge too.

[Makar | 1,946]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

That game would wear my hand out every so many stages so I'd put it down, then come back to it a lot lot later, finished it over a course of a year or so.  But in the DS game half the time I wanted to move then turn or change direction the little twerp would roll and it was usual concluding with damage or death and that grew old.

 

 

Dementium 1 is fantastic on the DS, other than the wonky save setup, but Moon as beautiful as it was got really boring.   The first person style game that really nailed it was actually third person, Brothers in Arms.  That game looked amazing even had breaking structures, great control, solid gameplay over various modes, good challenge too.

Hmm maybe I found a different way to play it? It’s been a long time since I played it but I don’t remember the movement being a pain. The only DS game I can distinctly remember where controls were bad to the point the game was basically unplayable was ivy the kiwi which is a shame because it’s excellent on the Wii. 

[CMR | 520]

4 hours ago, Makar said:

Huh we had a very different experience. I don’t remember the game being bad or the controls being bad at all. If you want bad controls for a more recent game look at kid Icarus uprising. 

I thought the flying stages were awesome in KIU, but the ground level stages gave me hand cramps.  That was a game that should have come out for the wii or wii-u.

[G-type | 2,482]

On 9/3/2022 at 1:54 PM, Tanooki said:

Phantom Hourglass was so bad I didn't even bother with the other after seeing the comments on that being somewhat similar.  The combination of the borderline broken touch controls that turned Link into sonic going all spinball on accident more than just being able to natural was a big issue.  But couple that with the re-run, repeat dungeon from grating hell to keep backtracking too along wiht it was the eventual kiss of death and sell off of the game for me.  Visuals and audio great, atmosphere fun, control and that hell space was too much to tolerate.

The most common complaint I hear about Phantom Hourglass is having to return to that Temple of the Ocean King.. hallways that continuously drain your life are a nuisance for sure! But like a Metroidvania, when you return, you have new abilities which let you bypass certain areas so you never play through it exactly the same way twice.

[Tanooki | 4,933]

Well the temple wasn't all that fun or fun to re-watch the levels (around the warps ever so deep) unlike the super metroid style stuff that at least stays interesting.  It's an experimental game, and the experiment just wasn't a big success as they did tweak that annoyance out of it with the sequel, problem is by that point and having read the control wasn't largely fixed I was just done so I didn't even waste the $40 on it.  Between that and other stuff, I kind of was just done with Zelda largely too, the handheld stuff didn't work well and the console stuff turned into a painfully boring rerun of the decades.  It's why I wasn't going to buy the Switch release until after I saw it was dramatically changed to actually be fresh and fun and how much so it really is.  I care again.

[Sumez | 2,951]

Honestly the temple you'd return to in Phantom Hourglass was one of my favourite parts of the game, for the reasons @G-type mentions. Spirit Tracks instead has those tracks that you need to travel by every time you need to go anywhere. I like the idea on paper, train as a method for transport in a video game could be a ton of fun, but it isn't in this game. What really killed it for me though was the frustrating controls. I'd have to replay both games back to back to figure out how exactly they differ from PH though - but I really don't feel like ever touching ST again.

Edited September 5, 2022 by Sumez

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,013]

On 9/3/2022 at 11:27 PM, CMR said:

I thought the flying stages were awesome in KIU, but the ground level stages gave me hand cramps.  That was a game that should have come out for the wii or wii-u.

Or it should've been properly compatible with the circle pad pro and subsequently the *new* 3DS. All it needed was a second joystick to control the aiming like every other shooter in the world.