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Fun Club What was the most unnecessary (and necessary) use of the second screen of the DS/3DS?

Irene

Irene

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The big things about the DS when it launched, were the secondary screen and the touch screen.

The latter, especially, became crucial to many games, and to the console's success. However, some games seemed like they didn't have much use of the second screen, relegating it to maps, inventory, maps, selection screens, maps, UI elements, maps, and last but not least, a topographical recreation of your immediate surroundings. Things that might as well be relegated to button presses, or UI on the first screen, or omitted entirely. Other games, however, mastered the concept effortlessly, showing how the dual screen concept could be tailored to fit an excellent gameplay experience.

What, in your opinion, is a good example of a game that 1. Used the dual screen setup as an integral part of its design, and 2. A game that wasted it completely?
 
I didn't care for most two-screen gimmicks. Gimme something practical like the game map/inventory on the bottom screen, and I'm golden.
 
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the games that used the bottom screen for additional (or alternate) controls seemed like they figured out the best way to utilize the touch screen / second screen feature. Games like mainline Pokémon, Mario Tennis Open, or Samus Returns. But really, those games just turn the screen into “more controller” so perhaps they aren’t the “best” uses of the features.
 
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Without spoilers, 999 on DS was amazing with 2 screens. I prefer the new version for its flowchart + upgrades, but 999 DS is special.

Also Etrian Odyssey for best use.
 
Inazuma Eleven for me is a great example, delivering a football strategy RPG that I simply didn't think would be possible through buttons.
 
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I really missed games that would use both screens for gameplay during the 3DS era, where they basically had no choice as the top screen was no longer symmetric with the bottom.

Stuff like Sonic rush, TWEWY, hotel dusk, Bowser's inside story, to name a few.
 
Wasted: Ocarina 3D. Ocarina 3D had the maps on the touch screen... but also on the bottom left corner of the top screen. The former shows every room on the current dungeon floor, the latter the player's position. Why?

oot-3ds-new1.png


Majora 3D makes the sensible decision to show everything on the touch screen.

Essential: 999. For reasons which cannot be said without spoiling the game.
 
The DS Zelda games made great use of the two screens. Yeah, I didn't find the fact you were controlling through touch bad at all. That discomfort is on the DS's form factor and how small that stylus was. You could have the games controlled with a finger, and I'd say that'd still be good.

I loved having to rely on drawing my own maps and my own markers on said map. It's a feature I wish had been carried over to the 3DS remake games. It makes the compass unecessary and gives the player so much more freedom to take in the dungeon as a whole.
 
For me I liked it in Etrian Odyssey as it was paired with the stylus for annotating and drawing maps. Same for annotating them in the Zelda games. That usage with the stylus was also there in Professor Layton, it was precise and worked really well.

Drawing the seals in Dawn of Sorrow felt pointless though.

I quite liked the second screen in Monster Hunter 4 and 4G, for managing lock-ons for big monsters, maps, item shortcuts etc. Quite useful as you can’t pause to go through menus, but even then it was largely down to not having a second stick, so you mostly used L to centre the camera behind your character and pointed at a monster, and the touch screen to select which monster you were currently hunting. Worked well enough for me for hundreds of hours
 
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