Here are my top 10 DS games, based on how much I enjoyed them. I have not played every great game on the system, so there will be some notable absences, namely Mario Kart, GTA, and Pokemon Black/White. Only one entry per series.
10. Peggle Dual Shot
Peggle is a great game regardless of platform. It combines strategy, skill, and luck to turn shotting a ball at pegs and blocks into an obsession. Dual Shot has a couple of things going for it on the DS. First, there’s the fact that its two full games, with enough content to last for hours even if you don’t play for high scores. The variety of characters makes replaying levels feel new again. The style and sounds fit the tone of the game nicely, and Ode to Joy is one of the best victory tunes possible.
9. Scribblenauts
Occasionally, there comes a game that, though by no means the greatest game ever, can get by from the concept alone. One of these games is Scribblenauts. In practice, Scribblenauts is a better toy than it is a game, but that doesn’t reduce the awesome factor involved. Being able to summon Cthulu, use a mind control beam to pacify it, and saddling it to ride through hordes of zombies is almost worth the price of admission. The sheer scope of the game, like Spore before it, challenges other games to go beyond the conventional.
8. Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure
Possibly the most criminally overlooked games on the DS, Henry Hatsworth is one of those games that can only exist on the DS. The top screen is a fusion between Mega Man and Casltevania and the bottom screen is Tetris Attack. Players need to switch between the two screens in order to power up Hatsworth and dispose of enemies. And it works beautifully. The presentation is also stunning, with colorful worlds, silly humor and style, and maniacally gleeful music. The only downside is the extreme difficulty in the latter half of the game.
7. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
I don’t like point and click adventures. Sorry. I just never got into the swing of trying to make objects bump into eachother in hopes of discoveriung what the game wants me to do. But although Layton has the structure and style of a typical point and click adventure, its gameplay is pure puzzles. And I love it for that. By making self-contained puzzles the focus of gameplay, Layton manages to reduce the annoyances of adventure games while retaining the story, presentation, and exploration elements that made the genre popular in the first place.
6. New Super Mario Bros
Holy Shit. Five entries into a list about a Nintendo system and this is the first Nintendo game. This alone speaks well of the DS’s 3rd party support. On topic, NSMB is probably my favorite non-Yoshi’s Island 2D platformer. Like Yoshi’s Island, it makes full use of the technology available, allowing new kinds of gameplay. Giant sized Mario, wall jumping, platforms that constantly change size, and collapsing platforms could not have been done on the Super Nintendo. The level design and controls are just as good as ever. Throw in a fun multiplayer mode and the minigames from SM64DS, and you have the the best platformer on the system.
5. Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story
Bowser’s Inside Story is just plain fun. The story and characters are hilarious, there are countless references to other Mario games for fans to find, Bowser’s special attacks are fun to execute, the minigames peppered throughout the story mix things up while using the same core skills as the RPG portions, and above all, it never takes itself too seriously.
In many ways, Bowser’s Inside Story is the opposite of most JRPGs. Instead of gloom, angst, and slow paced combat, we have joy, humor, and one of my favorite battle systems in an RPG. Playing Bowser’s Inside Story has actually made it hard for me to play many slow, tired, angsty JRPGs. When your standards are actually changed by a game, that’s saying something.
The only thing holding back Bowser’s Inside Story is the lack of content outside the main quest, even compared to other M&L games.
4. Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
Speaking of gloom and angst. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days was the fourth entry in the series, and was an interquel between the first two games. It starred a group of characters that literally had no real personalities, was largely composed of recycled content, and starred a character that everybody forgot about by the end of the game. So why is it on this list?
For one thing, this entry makes better use of series specific characters and concepts than any prior entry, much like how the original Kingdom Hearts made the best use of Disney characters and concepts. For another, the gameplay is the best in series history, finally establishing a balance between attacking, blocking, dodging, jumping, magic, and items, thanks to the new Panel system. The game’s mission-based structure is a wonderful fit for a handheld. The unexpectedly large amount of content in Days, including a total of 19 playable characters, Challenges, Mission mode, and the Expert difficulty, is another welcome surprise. And although the story requires prior knowledge of the Kingdom Hearts series and patience, it honestly has some touching moments.
3. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
I’m going to hell for saying this: Phantom Hourglass is my favorite Zelda game. Before you crucify me, please remember that I don’t necessarily think that it’s the best Zelda, it’s just the one closest to my heart.
First of all, I found Phantom Hourglass to have a charming story. It’s not one of gaming’s best, but it introduces some cool characters and locations. I for one am sad that Linebeck will probably never appear again. For another, it makes great use of the DS’s hardware. After using stylus controls, I never wanted to go back to using the D-Pad. The emphasis on exploration and puzzle solving at the expense of combat annoys many Zelda fans, but it makes total sense on the DS, where the top screen provides a convenient map, it is easy to draw paths and take notes, and a smaller number of items can be used in more creative ways. The Cel shaded style, ridiculed on the GameCube, is stunning on the DS, and the game remains one of the most graphically impressive on the system in 2011. Dungeons and bosses, though brief, are well designed, and are once again a good fit for the DS.
As for the Temple of the Ocean King… I liked it. Backtracking, using new items in old areras, avoiding lumbering behemoths, fighting against the clock, rationing precious seconds… it’s like a fusion of Metroid and a stealth game in a Zelda format. I only wish that there was more of it.
IGN said it best. “Great games are made up of a series of truly captivating moments. Phantom Hourglass has those moments, and while it may be more casual than we'd like, it's captivating, entertaining, and a true adventure worthy of the Zelda name. It's different, but it's still the real deal.”
2. Pokemon HeartGold
Some gamers are part of the Mario generation. Some are part of the Sonic, or Halo, or Wii generation. I’m part of the Pokemon generation. My love of gaming is derived from battling monochrome sprites on a few square inches of screen. That said, I never really got into Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. The lack of new families of mons, the lack of a real leap from the GBA games, the boring new cities and region… it just felt like they were going through the paces.
HeartGold, on the other hand felt fresh, which is ironic considering the fact that it’s a remake of a GBC game. First of all, after a decade, the Johto region almost felt fresh again. Ten years of refinement and the DS’s capabilities have modernized the game,automatically changing the time of day, offering menus in the touch screen, and presenting large amounts of info at any one time. And the Pokeathlon is, dare I say it, actually fun.
The Pokewalker also added a new element. It became possible to work on my adventure at any part of the day, by simply pacing. New Pokemon became available earlier on, and rather than breaking the game, it added variety to something familiar.
It may not be the step forward that Black and White looks to be, but I played HeartGold for three months straight. I found it to be the best incarnation of the series yet, based on a combination of old ideas and environments and new refinement. This makes it my favorite Nintendo game on the DS.
1. The World Ends With You
One recurring theme you might have noticed on this list is that many of these games could only work on the Nintendo DS. The World Ends With You is one of these games.
Generally speaking, I’m tired of the angsty Square Enix style JRPG. No offense to Final Fantasy fans, but I’m exhausted of asocial spiky haired amnesiac effeminate teenage boys angsting about their existence. So when it turns out that there’s a JRPG starring an asocial spiky haired amnesiac effeminate teenage boys angsting about their existence that I actually like, that means something.
First of all, TWEWY takes place in modern Shibuya. The characters are teenage kids that you’d see hanging around a mall. The setting alone makes the whole angst thing a lot more believable than a supersoldier with a sword the size of a chevy does. TWEWY makes full use of the environment too, replacing the standard RPG conventions like inns and armor with fast food shops and the latest fashions. Though I’ve never been to Shibuya, this implementation of realism helps the player feel a lot closer to the characters.
As for the characters themselves, they tend to start off using the standard cliches and become slowly deconstructed. The cheerful girl is using the personality to compensate for her lack of self-confidence, the hyperactive skater punk is trying to live because his sister can’t, and the wacky miniboss artist is mocking the concept of beauty altogether. This is very cathartic for somebody tired of JRPG clichés, but more importantly, their growth throughout the game mirrors how the TWEWY outgrows the standard tropes to become something better.
The theme of the game’s story is friendship, and that perfectly matches the game’s battle system. Players control two characters at once, each fighting on a different screen. The bottom screen character is moved and attacks based on stylus movements, and the top character uses long combos to attack foes. This is hard at first, but as time goes on, it becomes possible to rapidly switch between the two screens in order to maximize damage. And if it’s too hard, the AI can control the top screen for you.
Speaking of the difficulty, that’s one area where the game shines. Anytime outside of battle, you can switch between four difficulties and lower your level. At some points, the game might be too hard for you, and you will want to switch to Easy. On the other hand, harder difficulties yield more rewards. At the end of the game, you can go back and replay any part, so there is no shame in taking the easy way out now and coming back later on Ultimate mode at Level 1.
Shibuya is small by the standards of JRPG worlds, but is absolutely overflowing with content. Dozens of shops offer items and food, steadily becoming friendlier over time, granting acess to lower prices amd new items. NPCs have their own stories that progress throughout the course of the game.
There are literally hundreds of items in the game, and hundreds of “pins” which grant the bottom screen character unique attacks.
There is a full album of high quality J-Pop music, including some of the best fight music this generation.
Since equipment is based on fashion, certain items will be more or less powerful based ont local fashion trends. However, repeated use of certain fashions can raise its popularity, affecting the local geography.
The game rewards players for taking breaks and coming back later, granting XP for taking a few days break and requiring the player to wait for characters to digest food.
Although the main quest is a decent length, the real game comes after the ending, where there are dozens upon dozens of hours of secrets to find and items to get.
I’m just babbling at this point, so I’ll put it simply: if you’re a gamer, buy TWEWY and play it.
Honorary Mention: Elite Beat Agents
Honestly, I would probably have put this near the top if it weren’t for the fact that I haven’t finished playing it.
Honorable Mention: Chrono Trigger
It would be on the top of the list, but I refuse to put a 1995 game on a list about a system made in 2004.
