Topic: Best DS Games in Your Opinion?

There are some great DS games out there, like Plants vs. Zombies, Diddy Kong Racing DS, Super Mario 64, or even hidden gems like Penguins of Madagascar! Which ones are YOUR favorite? I am curious about what other people think about different DS games! This is all opinions!!

My Top NDS choice:
1. Cooking Mama games (including Crafting Mama, Camping Mama and Gardening Mama)
2. Final Fantasy III Remake
3. Super Princess Peach
4. Animal Boxing
5. Hamtaro Ham Ham Challenge

Photo Dojo
There's definitely better ones, but that's the only one I owned on my 3DS. Watching yourself beat up hordes of your friends on a Charlie Brown poster is... surreal

I think top three would be
1. Final Fantasy Tactics A2
2. Mario Kart DS
3. Animal Crossing: Wild World

They're all on equal footing in many ways. Mario Kart DS is probably the best MK of them all for me; track designs are phenomenal, the skill ceiling is so high, and it's just tremendously fun. Everyone having their own screen for the first time as well was a literal game changer.

I think my favourites are the Professor Layton games, Bowser's Inside Story, New Super Mario Bros, Dragon Quest IX, the mainline Pokemon games, and Rhythm Paradise. The Ace Attorney games and Ghost Trick are fantastic as well but I've only played the 3DS and Switch versions respectively.

DS may have my favorite library of games. Here's what I'd consider some of the best games on the system:

• 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
• Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2
• Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
• The World Ends With You
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky

The Castlevania DS trilogy is the BEST for me. I have spent SO many hours in those 3

The only DS games I've ever played are my dad's copy of Pokémon Diamond on his old DS back in 2019 and New Super Mario Bros. on a phone emulator, so... Pokémon Diamond I guess? I have more experience with 3DS, since I had a used one for a year even though it eventually broke on me.

Either Castlevania Order of Ecclesia or Ace Attorney

Mario Kart DS and New Super Mario Bros. are my two favorite DS games. I played the heck out of them when I was a young teenager during school trips, and they're both very good games in general. I still have my original copies, too. MKDS is a very solid Mario Kart game that brought us online for the first time, and the mission mode was fun, as well. I also like its new tracks, and the retro tracks were a great addition to the game. As for the latter, I'd say that is the best NSMB game, as well... it feels like it doesn't blend together with the later games and it even has its own original boss fights (whereas the Koopalings were the bosses in every other NSMB game). I also like the touch screen minigames.

Mario Kart DS, Rhythm Heaven, Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, Radiant Historia, Pokemon HG/SS

Tetris DS is a fantastic version of the game, with loads of loving nostalgic nods towards Nintendo’s classic ips.

I'll try to narrow it down to 10 in no particular order.

Mario Kart DS
Tetris DS
Jump Super Stars
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (yes, I'm serious about this one)
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies
Pokémon Black/White and Black 2/White 2 (as a continuous story, I'm probably cheating here)
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
Kirby Super Star Ultra
Picross 3D

For me it's hard to select my absolute favorites for the DS.
There are a lot of runner-ups: Planet Puzzle League, Sonic Rush Adventure, Hotel Dusk: Room 215, WarioWare: D.I.Y., Custom Robo Arena, New Super Mario Bros., Mario Hoops 3-on-3, The Legendary Starfy, Magical Starsign, Metroid Prime Hunters (yes, if you can get past the controls, I'm willing to die on that hill).

I'm sure I'll miss some, but:

• Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey - A sort of gaiden game to the main SMT series, taking place on an expedition to Antarctica rather than the normal Tokyo setting of others, this first-person dungeon crawling JRPG has all the great demon negotiation, collecting, and fusing the series is known for with a unique and gripping story. Had a solid remaster on 3DS as well.
• Rhythm Heaven - Great happy rhythm tap tap swipe
• Elite Beat Agents - Fun boppy rhythm dance dance pow
• Zelda: Phantom Hourglass - For a game that controversially controls so different from every other Zelda game, it ends up doing some of the most interesting things with series staples like items, dungeons, and puzzles.
• 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - It's been ported to modern systems but the presentation is best on DS imo.
• Pokemon Black - I stopped playing Pokemon after the 4th generation, so I never touched Black or White until this very year, and it sorta blew me away. Where Diamond and Pearl felt like a solid evolution of the GBA games, Pokemon Black and White felt like a true generational leap (funny enough on the same generation hardware). After moving onto XY and later gens, BW truly feels like a series peak to me.
• Final Fantasy IV - I'd probably recommend the pixel remaster over this 3D version to anyone playing today, but it was this remake that got me into the franchise and I enjoyed my time with it so much that I had to throw it on here.

Honorable mention goes to:

• All Phoenix Wright games (you just gotta play them if you haven't)
• SMT: Devil Survivor (tactical RPG that gets rave reviews, but I never played the DS original)
• Time Hollow