Experience has taught me that it’s much easier for me to buy video games than it is for me to actually play them. I played the heck out of my NES and SNES games, but the N64 and later consoles frequently made me motion sick. Consequently, I was slow to adopt the Playstation and PS2—and thereby entered into a cycle that I’m still in today, where I have a massive backlog of games yet continue to buy new ones that sound interesting.

Every once in a while I do get around to playing a game, though, and every once in those whiles (compounding!) I find one that blows me away. Tales of Vesperia was one, and Valkyria Chronicles was another. (OK, I have a fondness for Japanese RPGs, and story-based games in general.)

The ones dearest to my heart, though, have all been quirky DS games. The Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series lets you play lawyer and call people out on their lies. 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is a visual novel/locked room puzzle where you have been abducted, locked away in a sinking ship, and forced to find a way to survive. Both are shoo-ins for a list of my favorite games of all time.

The latter is still (and only) available on the DS, but the former is out of print—save for an iOS port. I paid $90 for all three Ace Attorney games, and would do it again in a heartbeat; this iOS version is $17.

…

The game I just finished playing yesterday—and the one that inspired me to post at all—is called Ghost Trick. You’ve died under mysterious circumstances, and have returned as a ghost that can possess inanimate objects; your main goal is to figure out who you were, and why you died. I’d be lying if I claimed I wasn’t misty-eyed at the end of it all.

Unlike Phoenix Wright, you can still find reasonably-priced (~$20) DS copies of Ghost Trick; like Phoenix, though, it has also been ported to iOS, for $10.

These are amazing games! If there’s any way you can find a way to play any of them, you should!