Topic: Getting back into some of the DS catalog, the touch screen games really haven't aged well

Games like Feel the Magic and Elite Beat Agents, they were neat ideas at the time but today they just really don't hold up well. They kinda come off as really early versions of the type of games that have become common on modern mobile devices only not nearly as good to play. Same deal with a lot of the games that felt some need to force touch screen segments, it is something you saw a lot especially in the early days of the DS and it makes the games just feel really dated in a bad way.

I guess it's the DS version of the Wii motion controls that got forced into a lot of games just because. I am really glad they got away from that in the later days of the DS, the 3DS rarely bothered with it and it's all the better for it IMO. Same with the Switch, it is very rare to find something that even makes good use of touch controls despite the fact that it does it a lot better than the DS and 3DS. I guess mobile devices really own that market.

@JayJ I'd say Elite Beat Agents aged pretty well, I played it the other day. But yeah, I'd agree that a lot of them didn't. I tried playing Sonic Rush Adventure again recently and that... yeah. Bad idea. There were ones that did it really well though, like Trauma Center and TWEWY, but on the other hand you have games like Spirit Tracks that would have been so much better with traditional controls.

Touch aged a lot better than motion/pointer controls.

During the first years of the ds, devs just were experimenting, so they ended up implementing it in rough ways. But in general it’s better than, say, wii games with forced motion controls.

Touch on the switch works considerably worse than on the ds though. It’s rather unreliable, even just typing a few words on the on screen keyboard is a chore on the switch, when it should be fast and easy.

@link3710 Yeah Spirit Tracks and Phantom Hour glass stand out as sort of the black sheep in the portable Zelda library to me for that reason. Great games in most rights that are ultimately brought down by a control scheme that is too gimmicky and too tiring after a while. It is why I like to relate this era of DS games to the Wii, since the Zelda games on the Wii also had a similar issue for a lot of people, that being the forced motion controls.

@JayJ Going back to the DS style of touch screen after being used to modern phones can be a bit jarring, I agree.

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse/Paintbrush knows your pain.

Oh man, I'd kill for a new Elite Beat Agents on Switch, or even DS. Jumpin Jack Flash on Elite was...horrifying.
I'd say even some larger games forced touch screen without reason. Why do I have to touch the screen in LM: Dark Moon when the professor calls? That is the only time you are required to touch the screen in the entire game, I believe. Weird.

In that case the touch screen is basically another button. Just making you tap it once in a while isn't forcing it. Specially if you don't need to take out the stylus to answer.

For example, that is what they did in Ocarina of Time, there's not enough buttons to map all the actions the original had, so they moved some of them to the touch screen.

It's a input that is there the be used. Ignoring it for the sake of ignoring it is no different from ignoring the A button or the Circle Pad.

On the switch there's a few games that make good use of the touch screen (some like Minecraft let you use the touch screen to manage inventory and select options, Resident Evil uses it as an alternate method to swap weapons, Harvest Moon and Piczle Lines can be played entirely using the touch screen, etc), but many devs kinda decide to ignore it because it's entirely optional (some people don't even play handheld at all).

Just revved up Ouendan 2 and played the final song with the cheerleaders and got a perfect on it, so for those games i'd say they age really really swell.

Also @HobbitGamer another Elite Beat Agents = YEE! Would be worth it even if it were the game which scratched up my Switch screen, but thankfully screen protectors exist.

I'm not sure it would work as well on a capacitive screen or with pointer controls (docked).

A finger doesn't glide as well on a screen as a stylus, so they'd probably need to simplify the gameplay. At that point they'd be better just creating something new based on a similar concept.

Spoiler alert, Yosh is actually a touch screen.

No I'm a dinosaur.

And I guess part fish...?

I would beg to differ about the touch pad. It certainly aged better than the likes of the Wii motion controls where it was forced upon you for every game and ended up becoming annoying to do every 10 seconds. The touch pad didn't really force you to use for most games. It acted as another method of control aka another button as stated above.

A favorite game of mine on the ds is the Fossil Fighters Franchise. With the touch screen you used it to clean fossils, a process you had to do before reviving a vivosaur.
Another favorite of mine would be kid icarus, the touchscreen is optional iirc, but using the touch screen just felt better, it was like the splatoon on the ds.

The reason you don't see many games take advantage of the touchscreen on the Switch is because they probably don't need to. Why take the time to make something out of the touchscreen controls when the Switch already has the proper amount of buttons as the Xbox and Playstation unlike the ds where it was probably the only option considering its lack of analog sticks and buttons compared to consoles (which is understandable considering it's a handheld).

New concept for Elite Beat Agents on Switch: Swing joy-cons around to the beat and pretend you're holding a microphone, wave hands to ignite the flame within your soul, and get ready to have FEELS when yesterday with The Beatles is used for dat one part in the game!

For classic gameplay i'd just play Osu!

Make it a collaboration with Sega and add Amigo as a secret character.

I actually really like Phantom Hourglass. Wasn't as fond of Spirit Tracks though.

@SheldonRandoms @Yosheel I like this Samba De Beat Agents idea you guys got

While I haven't played a lot of DS games recently, uh, I have zero memory of anything but a small number of DS games having touch controls where I wished they weren't touch controls. Like as soon as Kirby Canvas Curse came out, DS started to become a good gaming system and never looked back.

Like I'm sure it isn't the most advanced touch screen tech by modern standards but as someone who likes motion controls, they had a worse likelihood of being good compared to touch controls. And yeah, 2005 had Warioware Touched, Canvas Curse, Meteos, Advance Wars. Even Yoshi's Touch and Go was good if you ignored that it was basically a slow runner game (a walker?) being sold for 30 bucks.

Also, I thought the Zelda games controlled better than they arguably had any right to. Like the map was a bit awkwardly off, but controlling Link for the most part was enjoyable enough.

Bought Phantom Hourglass literally just last week - I'm really looking forward to playing it for the first time, and some of you guys are putting me off!

As someone who will happily play games using touchscreen controls on a mobile phone or tablet, let alone the Switch, I'm now finding that the DS is leaps and bounds ahead. The precision and sensitivity of a stylus puts fingers to shame. Less greasy screen too.

@Krull PH is one of my favorite DS games, if that helps.