When the PC’s away, the DS I will play!

There’s a saying: You can’t take your PC with you.

Okay, I made that up, and if you have a laptop, I guess you can. If you’re also a multimillionaire with contacts around the world who can afford WiFi roaming and an internet connection wherever you go, then yey for you. A lot of us aren’t as lucky.

This is why you should never take your handheld for granted, especially if that handheld is a Nintendo DS. I’ve been neglecting mine ever since the first quarter 2007 MMO boom started, but, summer’s here and I definitely won’t be staying home!

Plus, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl will be coming to the DS on the 22nd of April, albeit in the U.S. but that’s still close enough, so yey!

Besides the Pika-leading pack of critters, other DS titles coming soon include a kitty version of Nintendogs, Vs. TCG on a handheld, another FF spinoff, adaptations of animated and not-so-animated movies, and a variety of “arcade-games-mishmashed-into-one-cartridge”.

For people who like felines more than canines, but can’t have one because of allergies? Crave Entertainment offers you Purr Pals, a Nintendogs-like game with cats in the title role. There are about 40 breeds to choose from, and you can supposedly customize some of their individual characteristics, like the color of their ears. There will also be mini-games you can play with your new pet.

TCG players will probably find this strange: The Marvel Trading Card Game for the DS by UDE, creators of the Vs. TCG. I personally don’t know what to say about it except that it can go both ways: it can be good for the TCG by attracting new players who want to learn but are too shy to ask; or it can be bad. I mean, if I have this, then why buy the cards, right? Well, let’s wait until the release.

ANOTHER FF game? This time, the lead character is a REAL cutie! Final Fantasy: Chocobo Tales has you playing a Chocobo whose farm got stuck in the pages of a picture book. You’ll travel to stop another FF meanie and play mini-games along the way. Enemy encounters will be resolved with card battles. Uh huh.

And speaking of cards, popular arcade title SNK vs. CAPCOM will also have their own DS cards via the SNK vs. CAPCOM Card Fighting Game. What is it with cards all of a sudden…

Titles that definitely won’t be involved with cards are these movies. Set to make their DS debuts, in line with their theater premieres no doubt, are Disney’s Meet the Robinsons, Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Transformers: The Game, Decepticons. But those will most likely have second quarter release dates.

Big fans of casual PC games Cake Mania and Diner Dash will be excited to know that they will also have their own DS versions soon.

For a list of other DS releases, clicky here.