The Nintendo DS is a legendary system that cemented the company’s place as the master of the handheld gaming market, selling over 150 million units in its lifetime and helping its franchises regain popularity lost during the PlayStation 2 generation.
The success of the Nintendo DS meant companies lined up to support it, resulting in a killer’s row of incredible titles throughout its run. These included a selection of 10/10 titles that defined their generation and are still beloved by players worldwide, leaving fans counting the days until DS games are added to the Nintendo Switch Online service.
Chrono Trigger DS Added the Final Pieces to the Puzzle
Chrono Trigger is one of the greatest video games of all time, but it was cruelly overlooked in its era. Not only was it never released in Europe, but it also launched a few years before Final Fantasy 7 popularized the JRPG genre, meaning it never got its due in its day.
Chrono Trigger DS was a remaster that finally gave the game a worldwide release. Not only did Chrono Trigger DS have a more accurate translation, but it added a ton of new content, including restoring the lost “Singing Mountain” song that had been cut from the original game. Crucially, Chrono Trigger DS added a brand-new ending that better connected the story to Chrono Cross, helping to tie the events of both games together.
Elite Beat Agents Made Players Break Their DS (In a Good Way)
The Nintendo DS touchscreen wasn’t used for many interesting things, with many games relegating it to being a glorified map/inventory screen. Thankfully, several developers did an amazing job with rhythm games on the system, utilizing the touchscreen to force players to tap to the music.
Elite Beat Agents is easily the best music game on the Nintendo DS, thanks to an amazing selection of licensed songs, like “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Believe,” and some genuinely funny mini-stories, where the titular agents are dispatched to help people in need. The actual rhythm gameplay is also stellar, though the “Wheel Spin” sections of the stage tend to break screens because players get too into the music and carve the plastic using their stylus.
Dragon Quest 9: Sentinels of the Starry Skies Needs a Remaster
Square Enix loves remaking and remastering the Dragon Quest series, but there’s one entry that has been left behind and is still locked on the Nintendo DS. Dragon Quest 9: Sentinels of the Starry Skies is a handheld-exclusive title that may suffer from antiquated visuals, but the gameplay is still incredible, as is the epic story, making it one of the best Dragon Quest games of all time.
Dragon Quest 9: Sentinels of the Starry Skies stars a Celestrian, the game’s equivalent of an angel, who witnesses as the heavens are destroyed by a malevolent entity and is cast down to the lands below. Stripped of their powers, the player must gather a party of adventurers and find a way to return home, leading them on an unforgettable journey to free the land of evil, all while bashing enemies with powers learned through the game’s amazing character class and equipment system.
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Is a Brutally Difficult JRPG Classic
The Nintendo DS launched in an era when Atlus had begun to find an audience outside Japan, thanks to Persona 4 and Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne. This meant Atlus released its brutally difficult RPGs on the Nintendo DS, with Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey ranked among the most challenging, but never at the cost of the gameplay experience.
Strange Journey follows a special forces team that is sent to investigate a strange phenomenon in Antarctica. Upon entering, they discover a realm of madness, monsters, and rampaging gods. Fortunately, the team quickly learns to wield the powers of the supernatural, and the protagonist’s actions decide humanity’s fate. As the name suggests, Strange Journey is a bizarre and wonderful game, one that is often unfairly ignored on lists of the best RPGs.
Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver Are the Pinnacles of the Franchise
The Pokémon franchise has had some underwhelming titles during the Nintendo Switch era, especially with the cutting of the National Pokédex. This has led many fans to return to the good old days of the franchise, and no duo of Pokémon games is more beloved than Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver, the remakes of the Generation 2 games on the Nintendo DS.
Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver are remakes of Pokémon Gold & Silver that not only improve the visuals, audio, and Pokémon count, but also add a ton of content, especially in the post-game. No Pokémon game before or since has maintained such a high level of quality and kept the player engaged throughout the single-player experience. In fact, Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver are so good that no one wants to sell their copy, making them ridiculously expensive to purchase online.
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift Is a Worthy Successor
The loose Final Fantasy Tactics trilogy ended on the Nintendo DS, with Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift being far more lighthearted than the political machinations of the first game, and the tale of sad kids in the second. In Final Fantasy Tactics A2, the protagonist is a happy young boy who loves going on adventures, and they get plenty of chances to do so in Ivalice.
The story in Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift might not be as in-depth as its predecessors, but it makes up for it with a glut of amazing content, amping up the quests, abilities, and job numbers, giving players countless hours of gameplay. Anyone who loved the original Final Fantasy Tactics but found the gameplay too unbalanced should check out its Nintendo DS successor, as it remains challenging all the way to the end.
Picross 3D Is the DS’s Most Addictive Puzzle Game
One of the most tragic aspects of Nintendo leaving the dual-screen format behind is that it has led to the untimely demise of the Picross 3D series, which is one of the greatest puzzle franchises of all time. As with regular Picross, the aim is to break away unused blocks using basic math equations, but in Picross 3D, the player needs to crack cubes, carving them away piece by piece to reveal the artwork within.
Few puzzle games are as addictive or as challenging as Picross 3D, where the player uses the touchscreen to manipulate the camera as they track numbers around the cube and slowly work them out, gaining clues from the image as it develops. Hopefully, HAL Laboratory revives the franchise at some point, or at least someone steals the idea, as it needs to be revived in the modern era.
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin Proved Two Protagonists Are Better Than One
The Nintendo DS might have had the top run of Castlevania titles of all time, with Dawn of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia being amazing games in their own right. Still, they stand just behind Portrait of Ruin, which might be the greatest entry in its franchise, if not the best Metroidvania ever made.
Portrait of Ruin gives the player control of two characters: Jonathon Morris, the whip-wielding Belmont-style warrior, and Charlotte Aulin, a spellcaster who specializes in ranged attacks and transformation magic. The player has to switch between them with the press of a button to overcome enemies and solve puzzles, with a fresh take on the Metroidvania genre that results in some of the best boss fights of all time, as the two vampire hunters must pool their talents to defeat the servants of evil.
The World Ends With You Is the Nintendo DS’s Best JRPG.
Square Enix returned to the remake/remaster playbook on the Nintendo DS, with titles like Chrono Trigger DS and the first international release of Final Fantasy 3. Still, the company’s best game on the platform was one that was wholly new: The World Ends With You. This game eschewed the fantasy trappings of most Square Enix titles, replacing them with modern-day Shibuya, where recently deceased teens fight to reclaim their lives.
The World Ends With You has the single best implementation of the Nintendo DS touchscreen, with the player controlling one character on the bottom screen by tapping and drawing patterns to strike enemies, while managing the other character on the top screen with button combos, resulting in a wholly unique ambidextrous combat system. This isn’t to say the story is a slouch either, with some of the most beautiful and heartrending scenes on the Nintendo DS.
Mario Kart DS Proved It Was Nintendo’s Most Valuable Franchise
When people think of the top-tier Nintendo franchises, the first names that come to mind are usually Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Pokémon. The truth is that they all stand in the shadow of the Mario Kart series, which has been the best-selling game on Nintendo consoles since the Wii/DS era, beginning with Mario Kart DS, which sold 23.60 million copies.
Mario Kart DS had the amazing gameplay of its predecessors, but this time around, people could challenge opponents worldwide, thanks to the online connectivity. More importantly, Mario Kart DS introduced Waluigi Pinball, the greatest stage in the franchise’s history, and made R.O.B. a playable character, opening the door to other Nintendo franchises that were later used in Animal Crossing, Splatoon, and The Legend of Zelda.
Mario Kart DS
- Released
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November 14, 2005
- ESRB
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E
- Developer(s)
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Nintendo EAD
- Publisher(s)
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Nintendo
- Multiplayer
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Local Multiplayer