i just don't see this castlevania outselling Zelda, which had little to no pre-order support

I'm thinking about picking up a DS lite & Brain Age for my mom's 50-something birthday. She loves puzzle games, but isn't the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to technology.

Has anyone else tried the same to any degree of success?

i had my dad (50+) check out Brain Age, and he thought it was pretty cool. In terms of "enjoyment", Big Brain Academy is more accessable

Alright, I'm two hours into FFIII and I'm at the point that I can choose Jobs... which ones would you suggest?

If you end up being generous enough to sell them here on dvdtalk, let me know. I didn't think I'd have the money for the pre-order and am a real johnny come lately. Going in tomorrow to see if they have any extras... sure hope so.

Picked up Yoshi's Island DS for $24 at Target today.

They have a handful of DS games for $24 this week, including YI, New Super Mario Bros and Mario Vs. DK: March of the Minis

I picked up Yoshi's Island and Hannah Montana for my daughters stocking. HM actually has some decent reviews.

I don't think the early jobs are that important. You will get to change to new ones everytime you get another crystal. I went with a warrior, black mage, white mage and red mage to start with. When I finished the game I had a knight, dark knight, summoner and devout. I've heard that the ninja and sage are also very good choices.

I have a Monk, Thief, Red Mage, and White Mage now, but I saved a pre-Job save in one of the other slots just in case.

I played Yoshi's Island for a while last night, up to 2-1. I loved what little I played, if the rest of the game is as good or better, then the reviews that scored it higher are the ones to listen to.

Game looks and controls great, and there was already some neat uses of the multiple babies (and that's with only having 2 at the start).

It will be damn tough to get the 100 scores on every level though....just like in the original.

I think the game gets much better as you go along, especially in the later levels. They get longer and more challenging and require you to do much more switching out of the babies.

Well, i just picked up 2 copies of the new Castlevania (giving one to my bro for Christmas)

It's like a return of the old castlevania's, with a new flair. I won't give anything away with someone asking, but it's starting to turn out better than Dawn of Sorrow

Can anyone say "Co-Op MODE!"

So far I have one character that can switch between THF/MNK/RNG. One that has RDM/WHM. One BLM/GEO. One WAR/KNI/VIK.

So far I'm not using DRG, SCH, BRD, EVO, DRK. I might have my THF/MNK/RNG start training DRG soon tho.

I'd try to have each person specialize in a set of jobs that has similar gear so you don't have to store multiple sets of gear besides weapons. I wouldn't worry too much about your job selection early on though because most jobs are upgraded by jobs you get later on and you won't want to use the old jobs anymore.

As I scramble around for a key to this cryptic message...

That's good to hear. The game is on sale at Target for $24 and I'm tempted to pick it up but the mixed reviews held me off. Maybe i'll get it later on this week...

Yes.

Loving Portrait of Ruin so far, but they seem to have listened to the complaints and cranked up the difficulty. Personally I had no issues with them making them easier. Circle of the Moon was a great game, but you had to spend a long, long time simply leveling up because the game was so hard and that killed a lot of the enjoyment. This seems to be the case with Portrait as well. Maybe not CotM hard, but the first boss stomped me at level 5. I went outside and leveled up to 6, 7 and then 8 only to get destroyed easily again by the boss. This one is going to take some effort to beat.

Great, that makes me a little less excited about this game.

Me too, but I got through CoTM.

I hate shit that requires level grinding though.

If anyone was interested, A white DS Lite and Brain Age for my Mom's birthday was a huge success. I was afraid I was pushing off one of my hobbies on her, but she loved it.

She was tickled by the little Doc's head bobbing in the corner of the screen and she loved the training mini-games. She wasn't too happy with her performance on the actual age test, but she's going to work on it. The sodoku puzzles also peaked her interest.

As for the DS, she loved the compact design and the bright screen. She also loved that she can finally knows what her students are talking about when they mention the DS in school.

Now, does anyone have any thoughts on other games that might be appropriate? (aside from more brain games like Big Brain Academy or that seperate sudoku game) What kind of game is easy to pick up, understand, and directed more at a female market? Perhaps Nintendogs or Animal Crossing? Maybe a good mystery game (if there is such a thing)?

Thanks for any help. I've never really been into handhelds, hence my serious lack of knowledge on the subject.

I'll be the contrarian here: I'm thrilled to hear they've made it more difficult. Castlevania's been way too easy for the last decade.

Yeah, Animal Crossing and Nintendogs are both likely winners. Clubhouse Games sounds like it would be a good fit, too. And the DS is loaded with quality puzzle games: Tetris DS, Gunpey, Meteos . . .

I showed my mom Phoenix Wright and she said she liked it.

I know some people like hard games, but I never did get past that fucking asshole on the horse in Ninja Gaiden and I get frustrated and move on to easily.

I disagree with the difficulty comment on Portrait of Ruin, the bosses just take a little strategy, which is made easy by the fact you can have both characters attacking at the same time.

Then again, the first boss beat me down in Dawn of Sorrow, the first guy in PoR wasn't so bad.