Star Fox Command

Yet another in the list of "franchises I never played before playing them on the DS and now I love them!"

Have not played through this completely yet, but this is a really fun little game. It's in two parts - the "strategy" mode where you draw the paths of your ships on the touchscreen. Most missions have 4 or 5 teammates, all with differently powered ships and abilities. Then the "battles" where you are actually flying your ship around and shooting at the target enemies, flying through rings, and so on.
I was stupidly stuck here for a while when trying to shoot the missiles after flying through a set of fast moving rings. Stuck because I didn't realize you could be shooting the missile before you even get that close to it. But the spell was broken a little bit - the rest of the functional mechanics are such a joy in this game, and were challenging without being annoying.
But overall I did really like it.

Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand

This was just too tempting - a built-in solar sensor in a GBA cartridge that allows you to charge up your weapon while playing in the sunshine and drag vampires out into the light to kill them, and more!
I ordered it online as it's not around in stores anymore.

I do plan to eventually finish this, and it was fun sitting outside playing the game, but stacked up against other games/books/work etc the pull was not as strong...

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Phoenix Wright really harkens back to the old-school graphic adventures (and even back to text adventures also).

The game has several cases, where you travel around to different sites to click around and investigate information and clues, before going to court and using that information you've found to find holes in the prosecution's case.
It's also just very wacky in the storyline, and they did a great job of incorporating characters throughout each case as you play through. The last case was designed specifically for the DS and so has much more use of the touch screen (for example, you "dust" for prints by dabbing dust all over the touchscreen with your stylus and then blowing it off through the DS's mic).
There's a sequel coming out in early 2007 I think.

At a party recently I met someone who is in law school to become a defense attorney, and wound up trying to explain this game - where you play as a defense attorney, Phoenix Wright.

It sounded like she was pretty entertained by it!

Played back in Sept.

Trauma Center: Under the Knife

Another of the now "classic" games on the Nintendo DS, I finally got a chance to play Trauma Center (and need to return it to another co-worker).

As Dr. Derek Stiles, you play through several medical emergencies, using various tools such as a scalpel, suturing needle, etc.

As I had heard, this is pretty challenging, and maddening, however, I did get sucked into it for a little bit. I got stuck on one of the cases where you need to excise an unholy number of tumors and keep the patient alive in a very short timeframe.

Biggest interface frustration was the magnification - trying to draw a little circle where I wanted it to magnify never seemed to work.
Online faqs advised to draw it like a backwards "C" - that worked a lot better, but still it seems like it could have been a button on the screen.