DS Daily: Publisher of the year

by JC Fletcher { Dec 29th 2008 at 9:00AM }

The DS was host to a large selection of extremely awesome games in 2008. Who brought you the most, either in terms of what you bought, or just what you liked? Was it one of the big guys (Nintendo, EA, Activision)? A company with a more specialized catalog, like Square Enix or Atlus? An even more specialized company, like Atlus's distribution partner NIS, or Square Enix's subsidiary Taito?

Of all the companies putting DS games into stores, who impressed you the most? And just to get that much more thought out of you, no Ubisoft jokes. That topic was a couple of days ago.

Tags: activision, atlus, ea, nis, publishers, square-enix, taito, thq

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

aj @ Dec 29th 2008 9:11AM

Atlus had a good year. But I think they got a little bit too excited and just started releasing too much crap. Honestly, who bought Draglade?

I want to say Square-Enix. They showed the DS a lot of love, and even though I didn't care for some of their games, there was a lot of variety there and damn it, Dragon Quest IV was just fun to play. And Kage 2, despite basically being an NES game, was just a fantastic thing to bring to the DS.

JC Fletcher @ Dec 29th 2008 9:53AM

I bought Draglade!

Mert @ Dec 29th 2008 12:34PM

I bought Draglade!

igorponweed @ Dec 29th 2008 10:03AM

Tough choice. Square Enix created what is now possibly my favorite game (TWEWY). Period. But EA finally isn't just publishing "Madden 2008 All-Play Special Edition". I guess Square Enix took ONE chance with TWEWY... and that Ace Attorney-esque game, so...... Square is my publisher of the year.

Back to my tireless effort to actually beat the final boss. )-P

wat @ Dec 29th 2008 12:35PM

"and that Ace Attorney-esque game" where? where?

igorponweed @ Dec 29th 2008 3:20PM

It was in Japan only. You hold the DS like a book. I think it had orcestra in the name.

greg @ Dec 31st 2008 1:51AM

I think your thinking of Sigma Harmonics.

Crazylink @ Dec 29th 2008 10:30AM

I'd have to say Square. They released a new FF Tactics, a new FFCC, and as the previous guy said, a completely new IP that was fairly successful.

soundpaint @ Dec 29th 2008 5:41PM

Sigma Harmonics?

Ashe @ Dec 29th 2008 10:31AM

Square Enix. They gave us a lot of great games this year. Especially TWEWY.

BlackDS @ Dec 29th 2008 10:31AM

Nintendo gets my vote, because they finally brought Club Nintendo to North America. Plus we got another Kirby game and Clubhouse Games was reprinted (although I'm taking off points for reprinting the horrible Hotel Dusk).

Tecmo release the game I enjoyed the most, Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (it's a real challenge to get all the wooden tiles and beat Master Ninja and win the fight to unlock Kunoichi mode).

Taito would have got my vote if they had release the paddle controller in North America (importing a black paddle controller is now nearly impossible).

I have TWEWY, but being a lefty, I don't like being forced to use the stylus in my right hand for battles, so I haven't started yet. Points off for the lefty unfriendly gameplay control system.

Peace.

shadowray7 @ Dec 29th 2008 11:23AM

I'm a lefty too. And I love TWEWY.
BTW, you do realize you could use ABXY instead of the d-pad.

faralar @ Dec 29th 2008 11:32AM

Horrible hotel dusk? You mean there's more than one? because the one I played was brilliant!

BlackDS @ Dec 29th 2008 9:41PM

Shadowray7,

Yes there is always ABXY but it NEVER plays as well as the D-pad.

The ABXY keys used in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic games wildly oversteered. I've never played a game where ABXY was implemented to my satisfaction. I always ended up playing right-handed, which I hate.

Thanks for the comment though.

Faralar,

You must be thinking about Trace Memory, which was a fantastic game. But sadly, Hotel Suck was mind-numbingly bad. And you had to pour through the mind-numbing, predictable, endless dialog to discover the ending (lack of a satisfying ending) sucked.

Peace.

Squatch181 @ Dec 29th 2008 10:58AM

For me it's a toss up. SquareEnix brought us a nice run of games, though many of them are remakes/ports. Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest IV, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Final Fantasy Tactics A2, and TWEWY are all worth playing.

But on the other hand you have Nintendo. A new Kirby, Advance Wars: Day of Ruin, some Pokemon games, and my choice for game of the year Prof. Layton.

Either choice is a winner in my book.

stevan @ Dec 29th 2008 1:06PM

Squenix ftw.
I've just recently started playing TWEWY and oh my god, I love it.

Symytry @ Dec 29th 2008 1:32PM

1. Atlus
2. Square
3. Sega (for the balls to bring over Shiren)

Tim @ Dec 29th 2008 7:17PM

Ironically, Sega didn't use the same huevos to dish out Sakura Taisen here in the states. That reminds me of the time I went to Gameworks --a Sega-owned arcade chain-- last year, asking them whether they had Virtua Fighter 5 (a Sega fighting game), since it was already out for Japanese arcades; they just responded, "No."

Going back on topic, my top 3 goes to:

Atlus -- for localizing Rondo of Swords and Luminous Arc 2
Square Enix/Taito -- TWETY and Space Invaders Extreme
NIS -- DS ports of Disgaea and Rhapsody

a.a. @ Dec 29th 2008 2:35PM

Like many people here, I must give my vote to Square-Enix. TWEWY, FFTA2, FF4 DS, CTDS, DQ4 DS, among others, simply cannot be ignored.

After that it'd be a toss-up between Nintendo (Professor Layton, AW:DoR), Atlus (EO II, Trauma Center 2), NIS America (Disgaea DS), and Konami (Castlevania: OoE)