Try Anno 1701.
I had some friends staying over last night, and we were playing some casual Wii Sports as usual. The problem was that we were 5 people with 4 remotes. So one of the guys decided to play some Anno 1701 on my DS and he actually liked it quite a bit. He kept playing it until 4 or 5 in the morning. I wouldn't know exactly how long because we were all long gone to bed and sleeping by the time.
Hardcore gaming is a bubble economy blown up by Microsoft's $7 $6 billion losses.