DS News

December2019

November2019

  • Music Pokémon Diamond And Pearl Are Getting A Fanmade Orchestral Makeover

    A Gen 4 remake at last!

    For years now, Pokémon fans have been desperately hoping for a remake of the series' fourth generation games, Diamond and Pearl. While we can't offer you that, we do have news of the next best thing. Pokémon fan and musical marvel Braxton Burks is back with another orchestral take on the beloved franchise, this time with a...

October2019

August2019

June2019

May2019

April2019

February2019

October2018

September2018

July2018

June2018

May2018

April2018

May2017

March2017

  • News Atlus Launches a Teaser Site Hinting at a New Radiant Historia

    Yes, please

    Relatively late in the life of the Nintendo DS, Atlus released a fascinating RPG called Radiant Historia which was quite well received. Borrowing heavily from Chrono Trigger, Radiant Historia similarly revolved around time travel, with the main draw being that you could travel along the timeline and cause different effects which resulted...

December2016

  • Retro Check Out These Early Prototype Pictures of the Nintendo DS

    The start of a new era

    The Nintendo DS represented a bold new direction for Nintendo, kicking off an extremely lucrative period for the company's handheld line; this "third pillar" to Nintendo's strategy wasn't originally supposed to replace the Game Boy line, but it ended up doing so anyway. The original "Phat" model was rather hideous in...

September2016

  • News EA Had Plans To Create Its Own Pokémon Competitor

    PokEAmon?

    Even long before Pokémon GO, rival games companies looked on enviously at the Pokémon franchise and wanted to get a slice of the action for themselves. Who can forget Invizimals on the Sony PSP? OK, bad example! Australian indie developer Nic Watt, from Nnooo which has published multiple Nintendo eShop titles, recently revealed on the...

August2016

July2016

  • Review Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs (Wii U eShop / DS)

    New features and more circle-capture adventures

    The Oblivia region has tidy beaches, clear seas and lots of sunshine; it's a pleasant place to be whether a human or one of the many free-roaming Pokémon. Things have changed recently, however, with many Pokémon abducted by a villainous gang known as the Pokémon Pinchers (no, really) and it's up to...

June2016

May2016

  • News The CEO of Level-5 Had a Hand in Dragon Quest IX Appearing on the DS

    Who would've thought?

    The Professor Layton series made its grand entrance on the Nintendo DS and quickly made a name for itself as one of the great franchises on the portable. Of course, the widespread sales success of the DS likely had a hand in propelling the series to popularity, so there was something of a mutually beneficial relationship...

  • Anniversary New Super Mario Bros. is Now a Decade Old

    Forever 'New' thanks to clever (or not) branding

    When you put 'New' in the name of something, it's inevitable that around a decade later someone will smarmily say "it's not new any more", and you just have to accept that putting an adjective like that in a name isn't a long term solution. Yet, when New Super Mario Bros. was released on DS it was...

April2016

March2016

  • News Natsume May Bring Some of its DS Games to Virtual Console Soon

    Keep your eyes peeled

    Though it maybe doesn't get updated nearly as often as many would like, the DS library on the Virtual Console continues to grow at a fairly steady pace. Naturally, there are plenty of holes in the lineup thus far, but the process for making games available on the service is supposedly much more difficult than it seems on the...

  • News Akira Tago Passes Away at Age 90

    The Professor Layton series' "Puzzle Master"

    The Professor Layton games form a popular portable series that's spanned across the DS and 3DS, famous for their puzzle-based gameplay. Though fans still await the coming of the mysterious 'Layton 7', the series recently lost a great contributor on its development side. It was recently reported that...

February2016

January2016

December2015

November2015

October2015

September2015

  • News Metroid Prime: Hunters Arrives on Wii U Virtual Console in Japan

    Yes please, NoA and NoE

    When Nintendo announced DS games for the Wii U Virtual Console quite some time ago, many reacted with variations of "huh", "erm" and "that's weird". Yet it has worked reasonably well in many cases, with the GamePad screen and TV having various configurations to get the most out of these previously portable titles. It also...

  • Review Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (Wii U eShop / DS)

    Emerging from the shadows

    Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a Nintendo DS remake of the first Fire Emblem game (originally released in 1990 for Famicom in Japan) that's now available to download in Virtual Console form for Wii U. The series staple of strategic turn-based gameplay along with the perma-death possibility for characters would form the...

  • Video Allow This Gentle Electroplankton Opus To Soothe Your Ears

    Symphony of the plankton

    We must admit we'd forgotten all about Electroplankton for the Nintendo DS, that was until Nintendo Life reader Marco Menzler from Germany dropped us a line to bring back those musical memories. Marco shared with us a 3 part symphony which he created using 5 Nintendo DS systems playing Electroplankton. In op.2, Marco uses a...

  • Mario History New Super Mario Bros. - 2006

    The 'New' new

    In this series of articles we'll write about one or more Mario games per day, each representing a different year as part of our Super Mario 30th Anniversary celebrations. Assessing 2D Mario games in the 'New' series in 2015 naturally features arguments of repetition, frequency of releases and some calls for fresh ideas. Those...

  • Mario History Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart Arcade GP - 2005

    When snaking shook the world

    In this series of articles we'll write about one or more Mario game per day, each representing a different year as part of our Super Mario 30th Anniversary celebrations. 2005 was a busy year in terms of Mario releases, with a whole host of options across portable and home console systems, all in the form of spin-offs...

  • Mario History Super Mario 64 DS - 2004

    3D Mario on the go

    In this series of articles we'll write about one or more Mario game per day, each representing a different year as part of our Super Mario 30th Anniversary celebrations. If you'd have said that one day it would be possible to play Super Mario 64 on a handheld console back in 1996, you'd likely have been laughed out of the room...

  • Review Wario: Master of Disguise (Wii U eShop / DS)

    Master of Mediocrity

    After WarioWare took off, it seemed like that was all everybody's favourite antihero was up to, save for a Wii instalment of the Wario Land series. In truth, there was also an attempt at a Wario platformer on the DS, though it is quite easy to see why not many seem to remember this outing. Developed by Suzak, the company...

August2015

July2015

June2015

  • News There Are Now Over 600 DSiWare Games And Apps

    Not dead yet

    The 3DS may be entering its twilight years but that doesn't mean that DSiWare - the downloadable software service which launched with the 3DS console's forerunner, the DSi - is completely dead. In fact, thanks to the large helping of DSiWare games in this week's Download Update, there are now 604 games and apps available for DSiWare...

  • Review Big Brain Academy (Wii U eShop / DS)

    So keep on playing those mind games

    The advent of the Nintendo DS into the handheld arena back in 2004 ushered in a fresh experience for many gamers, made possible by the system's many new features and abilities. This brand of entertainment was often referred to as "Touch! Generations" by Nintendo, and ran throughout the Nintendo DS and Wii era...

May2015

April2015

February2015

January2015

December2014

November2014

September2014

  • Video Here Are Some Cool Facts Around the DS

    Thank goodness it wasn't called City Boy

    The DS family of systems is a fundamental part of Nintendo's history for multiple — and obvious — reasons: it is the company's most successful hardware and the second highest-selling in the industry's history, it introduced a new brand that lives on with the 3DS family, and it sidelined the iconic Game...

August2014

  • Art Controller Evolution Photo Series Hammers Home The Nintendo Factor

    A visual record of how Nintendo has pushed the industry forward

    Nintendo has been responsible for some major innovations when it comes to controllers — the NES D-pad, the N64 analogue stick, the Wii Remote — and Spanish artist Javier Laspiur has put together a photographic whistle-stop tour of the evolution of the game pad which shows just how...

July2014

June2014

May2014