Kanji Games for the Nintendo DS

sheetz Member

Registered: 2007-05-29 Posts: 213

For people who have been using Bunshou Yomi Training how difficult would you say the reading passages are? From the few screenshots I've seen the material looks pretty basic, but it could be that the material gets much harder later on in the game. Does anyone know how Bunshou Yomi compares to DS: Kanji no Shou?

Basically I'm looking for something to help my reading. Not just vocabulary and kanji, but also grammar and expressions. Is there anything like that available? Nihongo Kenti DS sounds more like what I'm looking for, but the reviews at Amazon.co.jp are mixed.

Last edited by sheetz (2009 September 27, 10:44 pm)

rswarsaw Member

From: was Tokyo, now Hong Kong Registered: 2009-03-04 Posts: 31

This thread (and the number of DS games) is just way too complicated. Can we rank these games somehow, or create some sort of voting system? I too am overwhelmed.

mattimus Member

From: San Diego CA Registered: 2009-08-17 Posts: 63

My first day with a DS:

I went to visit my younger sister today and convinced her to loan me her old DS which she doesn't use any more. She agrees, all right, I'm in business! So she pulls it out of her closet and I notice it's in a bright pink case: Strike 1. I open said case, and the DS itself is pink and covered in Japanese Mickey Mouse stickers: Strike 2. Whatever, I just won't play it in public, no big deal. Turns out she only has one game she picked up in Japan: "Girl's Side 1st Love," a dating sim by Konami. I figure "Oh, Konami, they make Metal Gear, this should be quality stuff." About 10 minutes into playing I'm wondering when I'm going to start working my dating mojo on the anime girls, until I realize that wait-a-minute... this is a dating sim for girls! Those aren't my wingmen I've been talking to; they're the boys you're supposed to date! Strike 3.

I thought you might get a laugh from that; realizing that I was accidentally hitting on anime dudes made me start cracking up.

So depending on your gender and/or persuasion you might have fun with this game. The visuals are nicely drawn, and there was plenty of kanji in the text, though it was sometimes difficult to read, given the low resolution of the DS.

Last edited by mattimus (2009 October 16, 6:54 pm)

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WeTsTICK Member

From: UK Registered: 2009-03-18 Posts: 55

lol good times.

jpkuelho Member

From: Brazil Registered: 2009-04-07 Posts: 54

What you guys would recommend for training joyo kanjis? I'm good at reading kanjis, but I can't write from my head the majority of them.

ファブリス Administrator

From: Belgium Registered: 2006-06-14 Posts: 4021 Website

rswarsaw wrote:
This thread (and the number of DS games) is just way too complicated. Can we rank these games somehow, or create some sort of voting system? I too am overwhelmed.

Now here's a good idea, just what a Wiki is designed for. ;-)

Edit wiki page: Kanji Games on the Nintendo DS (requires registration).

I'd suggest to sort page sections by type of game: Kanji learning, Games targetted at children but useful for learning purposes, Vocabulary-only games, Miscellaneous games that can test your vocab/kanji power (Typing of the dead, Kungfu game etc), or mark each entry with these.

KoiNoDensetsu New member

From: USA Registered: 2009-07-19 Posts: 6

Are the games at the top of the wiki page supposed to indicate the quality? If I could only buy two kanji games for the DS, what would you recommend? (Minna no DS Seminar Kanpeki Kanji Ryoku seems to be OOP anyway...)

Burritolingus Member

From: United States of America Inc. Registered: 2008-10-09 Posts: 216 Website

KoiNoDensetsu wrote:
Are the games at the top of the wiki page supposed to indicate the quality? If I could only buy two kanji games for the DS, what would you recommend? (Minna no DS Seminar Kanpeki Kanji Ryoku seems to be OOP anyway...)

Kanken DS 3 Deluxe gets my vote, for sure. Refer to this thread for plenty of juicy info.

heromode Member

From: 豪州 Registered: 2009-04-11 Posts: 33

Nintendo Dabbling in Romance Novels
Digital love, from the makers of all those Pokemon games.
by Anoop Gantayat

US, January 21, 2010 - Nintendo's latest is as far removed from Mario and Zelda as you can get! In Japan yesterday, the publisher announced plans to bring a set of romance novels to the DS in a collection titled "Love Stories for Adults: Harlequin Selection."

If you know your romance, you'll recognize the Harlequin name. Nintendo and developer Genius Sonority (yes, the studio behind many of the console Pokemon games) have selected 33 novels from the Harlequin Series. They'll be presented using an interface that includes a glossary of terms, adjustable font size, a constantly updated character relationship chart, and even background music.

The official site offers a video showing the interface in action.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/bhqj/index.html

Look closely at the official site and you'll see the familiar Wi-Fi Connect logo. Nintendo hasn't said what kind of online support the title will have, but we're going to speculate that users will be able to download additional novels.

Japan will get Love Stories for Adults on February 25 at 3,800 yen. There's no word yet on Nintendo's plans for the romance genre outside of Japan.

http://au.ds.ign.com/articles/106/1062588p1.html

spleenlol Member

From: Michigan Registered: 2009-07-07 Posts: 154

ファブリス wrote:
rswarsaw wrote:
This thread (and the number of DS games) is just way too complicated. Can we rank these games somehow, or create some sort of voting system? I too am overwhelmed.
Now here's a good idea, just what a Wiki is designed for. ;-)

Edit wiki page: Kanji Games on the Nintendo DS (requires registration).

I'd suggest to sort page sections by type of game: Kanji learning, Games targetted at children but useful for learning purposes, Vocabulary-only games, Miscellaneous games that can test your vocab/kanji power (Typing of the dead, Kungfu game etc), or mark each entry with these.

Are these listed in any sort of particular order? Most popular --> least popular. Most Effective --> least effective?
Or did you just throw them up there?

atylmo Member

From: USA Registered: 2008-08-05 Posts: 124

Hellooooooooo bump.

There's a new version of なぞって覚える大人の漢字練習 (subtitled as 改訂版) out now and I was wondering if anybody had any experience with it yet. I saw it for preorder a while ago but never ordered it for fear it would be worse than the others in the series.

I was just randomly browsing today, and lo and behold, it's on sale now. The only real difference I can see is that it according to the front cover it now includes the New Jouyou kanji.

I'd really like to jump on it if it's worth the price because I have a Play-Asia coupon that I found that runs out in two days.

Admin: added link.

Dankoochoo Member

Registered: 2010-02-12 Posts: 38 Website

[Edited out of embarrassment]

Last edited by Dankoochoo (2010 March 18, 11:43 am)

Rekkusu Member

From: Kyoto Registered: 2009-07-12 Posts: 172

Dankoochoo wrote:
I would like to add Blood of Bahamut (You can even put in your character's names in Kanji!), Rhythm Heaven Gold, and the Doki Doki Majo Shinpan (Yes; I am talking about the witch-touching game.) series.

(are any of those kanji learning games? )

ファブリス Administrator

From: Belgium Registered: 2006-06-14 Posts: 4021 Website

atylmo wrote:
There's a new version of なぞって覚える大人の漢字練習 (subtitled as 改訂版) out now

Oooh very very cool, it was one of my preferred titles in terms of the friendly interface and simple clean presentation.

Dankoochoo Member

Registered: 2010-02-12 Posts: 38 Website

[Edited out of embarrassment]

Last edited by Dankoochoo (2010 March 18, 11:44 am)

sikieiki Member

From: No Registered: 2009-11-05 Posts: 124

Someone needs to add to the list indicating the difficulty level of each game.

I am done with RTK but working through sentences and would like alternative sources to play with. Looking for elementary school and below stuff...

ファブリス Administrator

From: Belgium Registered: 2006-06-14 Posts: 4021 Website

Nintendo 3DS spoof on YouTube.

juniperpansy Member

Registered: 2009-08-03 Posts: 164

In case it was not mentioned before...

"love plus" is awesome for learning Japanese. You are a junior high school(?) student. And you are trying to find a girlfriend. What makes this game awesome is all the dialogue in the game (except for your main character) is spoken. The dialogue is written out with kanji as well.

Besides feeling like a pervert for dating a junior high school girl (especially when one of them tells you she likes 'elementary school girl books' *facepalm*) and when you have a dream about marrying the video game girl... and other face palm moments... But just play it for 10min or so a day and you should be fine.

it really is good. The dialogue is all normal everyday conversation so it's very practical. I think I would probably recommend it for people who are onwards of half way completeing core2000.

So far... it is by far the best japanese learning video game i have played probably played 10+ games. Stuff like kanken 2 seemed really cool at the time... but most of the vocabulary used is not common everyday stuff, so you just end up learning things that you are never really going to use.

Last edited by juniperpansy (2010 April 19, 11:02 pm)

sikieiki Member

From: No Registered: 2009-11-05 Posts: 124

I wonder how a 3d kanji game would work

Zarxrax Member

From: North Carolina Registered: 2008-03-24 Posts: 949

A new game is out that looks like it might be great for beginners:
Little Charo Travels in English
Trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d9V_U8Epkc

It's designed for teaching English to Japanese kids, but it seems like it would be effective the other way around too. You watch a story play out with simple English, and Japanese subtitles are displayed for it.

spleenlol Member

From: Michigan Registered: 2009-07-07 Posts: 154

Hey I was just wondering if there was a game for the DS that helps teach you some of the sound effects such as キラキラ、フワフワ、　ブルブル　等?
Any help would be greatly appreciated

violagirl23 New member

From: USA Registered: 2011-02-10 Posts: 4

Hm. These all look good. My main problem is remembering a kanji in a word, but not the position in the word, like 報 in 情報, seeing it in another word and not remembering if the pronunciation is ほう or じょう. I think radical study would help with that, to remember how kanji are pronounced (not what they mean). What might be the best of the kanji games for that? Or is 漢検3 just the best overall? I've passed JLPT2, to give an idea of my level. I've failed １級 twice though. -_-

ファブリス Administrator

From: Belgium Registered: 2006-06-14 Posts: 4021 Website

This thread is gathering dust. Unstickied.

nohika M.O.D.

From: America Registered: 2010-06-13 Posts: 384

ファブリス wrote:
This thread is gathering dust. Unstickied.

But it's such a good thread...I pulled all the games I have now from this thread based on the reviews.

Does anyone know of new ones? I know there's a new Nazotte game coming out.

Hashiriya Member

From: Georgia Registered: 2008-04-14 Posts: 1072

なぞって覚える大人の漢字練習 (subtitled as 改訂版) is one of the greatest Kanji learning games I have ever played. I haven't tried the other verisons but this lets you study 2,411 kanji's readings and practice production with them. It tests all of it in small example sentences with furigana over the words you aren't testing on. Fricking awesome! I know what I'm doing all summer

Index » Learning resources

rswarsaw wrote:

KoiNoDensetsu wrote:

ファブリス wrote:

rswarsaw wrote:

Dankoochoo wrote:

atylmo wrote:

ファブリス wrote: