Animal Crossing rainbow

It’s the simple pleasures in life, like the appearance of a rainbow in the Nintendo DS game Animal Crossing: Wild World. I was so excited about my first rainbow sighting that I snapped a picture of it. You don’t “get” anything when a rainbow shows up on Animal Crossing. It’s just for fun.

Animal Crossing is a fun game that can be played five minutes at a time or an hour (or more) at a time. If you already have Animal Crossing for DS or Wii, you only have a couple of weeks left of snow! Make as many “perfect” snowmen as you can to get the exclusive snowman furniture and catch those rare fish.

Lego Indiana Jones

Part of the Lego games’ appeal is that, while the games are fun and challenging, there are tongue-in-cheek touches every step of the way. For example, when Lego Indiana Jones or Lego Batman loses a life, the Legos that make up his body fall apart with the noise of collapsing bricks. Also, characters collect single Lego bricks and build with Legos. As an even quirkier touch, other characters can be unlocked that don’t even “belong” in the game. Imagine C3PO tooling around the Temple of Doom!

While they are among the most popular game available for DS (as well as Wii), Lego games have also been criticized for being what some say is essentially the same game with different characters and weapons.

In late 2008, rumors ran rampant that a Harry Potter Lego game was in the works, but it has not been confirmed. However, this week the appearance of a listing for Lego: Battle on GameFly and Amazon seemed to confirm speculation that title will be the next release in the Lego franchise. Amazon says LEGO: Battles will be released April 30, 2009 and retail for $34.99. It can already be preordered.

Currently, all of the Lego games for Nintendo DS are on sale at Amazon. Lego Indiana Jones is $23.99 (regularly $29.99). Lego Batman is $27.99 (regularly $29.99). Lego Star Wars is its usual price of $19.99. There are Lego accessories for DS as well.

My Coach

Four of the games focus on learning a language. There’s My French Coach, My Spanish Coach, My Japanese Coach and My Chinese Coach. All of the interactive language games are rated quite well by Amazon.com buyers, although some have pointed out errors in the lessons. The software allows users to compare their pronunciation with that of native speakers, and in the case of the Japanese and Chinese versions, you can practice writing characters using the stylus. Mini-games reinforce the lessons. Each cartridge comes with a built-in dictionary and phrase book.

Then there’s My Word Coach, a vocabulary-boosting game that rewards players as they learn about more than 17,000 words through drills and fun mini games. (You can actually get a better deal on My Word Coach right now. Amazon has it on sale for $15.99.)

My Fun Facts Coach is another offering, with 1,000 questions in five categories. The questions are asked in quiz format.

If fitness is your goal, there’s My Weight Loss Coach, which comes with a pedometer that interfaces with the game software. Track your exercise and eating habits (in a general way; not by calories) and get “coached” based on the personal profile you input. A reward system is also built in, along with mini games and trivia about health.

For smokers hoping to quit, there’s My Stop Smoking Coach, which is based on the Allen Carr method. There’s coaching, mini games and a reward system, but reviews have been mixed. Apparently, if you like Allen Carr you’ll like this “game.”

Studying for the SAT is made easier with My SAT Coach. Developed in collaboration with The Princeton Review, players build knowledge and skills to prepare for the test. There are mini-game drills and progress is tracked automatically.
Most of the games are regularly priced at $29.99, except for My Word Coach, which is regularly $19.99, and My Weight Loss Coach, which is regularly $39.99.

Interestingly, a game’s official site doesn’t always show up early in Google search results, but you can see the entire list on the Nintendo site. Just go to the Master Game List and then click to filter results for “official Website.” You can see sites for DS, or for Game Boy Advance (or any other Nintendo console.) But some of the links are dead or mistakenly redirect to the Wii sites, so feel free to just check out the DSDiva list below. (And please consider bookmarking DSDiva or putting the site on your RSS feed.)

Advance Wars, a strategy game.
Animal Crossing: Wild World
Big Brain Academy
Brain Age
Chibi-Robo! Park Patrole, an action game featuring an environmentally savvy robot
Children of Mana, an action role-playing game
Donkey Kong Jungle Climber
Flash Focus
Hotel Dusk Room 215
Kirby Squeak Squad
Kirby Super Star Ultra
Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass
Mario Kart DS
Mario Party DS
Master of Illusion, a magic tips and tricks game
Metroid Prime Hunters
Metroid Prime Pinball
Nintendogs
Personal Trainer: Cooking
Pokemon games
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Super Mario 64 DS
Trace Memory

Soul Bubbles

Tomorrow, Dec. 18, Toys R Us has a coupon deal for the Nintendo DS game Soul Bubbles. Presumably (since the fine print states the coupon can’t be combined with other offers), you can’t also take advantage of the $10 gift card with purchase of Soul Bubbles going on through Dec 21. But that’s what I thought about the Sunday-Monday Soul Bubbles sale, and then I saw on Twitter someone had been able to combine them and get the game essentially free. The moral: It never hurts to try.

Soul Bubbles is a game that has been praised by reviewers as an undiscovered jewel, yet sales and consumer recognition haven’t been as strong. Part of this apparently has to do with the fact that much of the distribution of the game has been focused on Toys R Us stores. (Soul Bubbles is also available via sellers on Amazon.)

I haven’t played the game myself, so I can’t offer first-person-experience input, but essentially it’s a puzzle game in which you (the player) are a young shaman, assigned with the responsibility of caring for “lost souls,” which are protected in bubbles that you guide with the stylus. Yeah, trippy. But apparently people love it and find it a relaxing game. With the price so decent, it’s definitely worth considering strongly.

If you have a Nintendo Wii, you can use the DS Download service to sample the game on your DS. You can also visit the official Soul Bubbles homepage.

Iron Chef America

In honor of Thanksgiving, I’ve compiled a list of cooking-related games for the Nintendo DS. Personal Trainer: Cooking is a hot item, but there’s also some buzz about the new Iron Chef America game as well as Jamie Oliver’s recent game. Read on to learn more about the features of each, and whether they have real, usable recipes.

Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine
In Iron Chef America/Supreme Cuisine, currently $10 off at Amazon, making it $19.99, “the DS stylus is your cooking tool.” Players race to complete dishes based on 15 theme ingredients. There are hundreds of dish variations, with three to six dishes prepared per battle. Face off in Kitchen Stadium against Mario Batali, Cat Cora and Masaharu Morimoto and hope to advance to the final showdown. Visit the official site at http://www.ironchefamericagame.com to learn more and download free desktop wallpaper of Cat Cora, Alton Brown, Masaharu Morimoto, Mario Batali or the Chairman.

Personal Trainer: Cooking
Personal Trainer: Cooking, currently marked down to $16.99 on Amazon, is on a lot of wish lists this holiday season. You’re actually talked through more than 245 recipes, and hands-free voice control means you won’t get food all over your DS console. The recipes hail from 30-plus countries. There’s an ingredient-tracking feature so you can take your shopping list to the store via DS. You can also search for recipes by ingredient, calorie count, cooking time and other parameters. It usually retails for $19.99.

What’s Cooking? With Jamie Oliver
What’s Cooking? With Jamie Oliver also includes real-life cooking experiences, with the Food Network chef walking home cooks through the shopping, prep and cooking process. There are than 100 Jamie Oliver recipes, with photographs, and they’re designed for the home kitchen or barbecue. You can also use the “Creative Cooking Mode” to create your own recipes and share them with friends via wifi or challenge them to a cookoff. Retails for $29.99.

Happy Cooking
Happy Cooking is set to be released Dec. 2, and includes over 50 “real dishes” from a variety of nations. Use the stylus to virtually knead, fry chop and so on. Happy Cooking is more game-like, and in story mode is appropriate for children. The kitchen can be virtually “decorated.” Mini games are included as well. Retails for $19.99.

Gourmet Chef: Cook Your Way to Fame
Gourmet Chef: Cook Your Way To Fame was released in June 2008. The game focuses on French cuisine and allows players to earn the rank of “master chef.” Virtually move through “work stations” and aim to please various customers, including a disguised food critic. All the 70-plus dishes can be recreated in real life and accessed via a recipe section. Retails for $29.99.

Hell’s Kitchen
Hell’s Kitchen for Nintendo DS features abrasive chef/TV host Gordon Ramsay, who will actually praise or yell at you as you attempt to virtually prep, cook and serve meals. As you get better, the game “unlocks” Ramsay recipes you can really cook. Move up to five-star and tackle more difficult recipes. Retails for $29.99.

Older Nintendo DS cooking-related games include the original Cooking Mama and Cooking Mama 2: Dinner With Friends. Cake Mania 2 and the original Cake Mania. For the kids, there’s Imagine: Master Chef.