Luigi3 DS

Today brings the fourth anniversary of the Nintendo 3DS being released in North America, which is certainly a landmark to celebrate following equivalent dates for Europe and Japan. After a sketchy start the system has become an integral part of the current-day gaming landscape, leading the way as a dedicated portable surviving against the onslaught of smart device options. Nintendo may now be planning moves into smartphones and tablets, but it's also proven that it can make a handheld gaming system work in this most diverse of eras.

As Nintendo keeps saying, a system's strength lies in its games, and that's something we want to celebrate. There's a diverse library of titles on the system that stand up as some of the best we've experienced on Nintendo systems, covering a broad range of genres, ranging from exclusives to unique ports, first party to third party.

It's a good time to take stock of which games stand out above the rest, then, and we want your votes for the list that'll be posted this weekend. We're looking for 10 'must-play' retail games - that doesn't have to mean the 'best', it doesn't even have to mean 3DS exclusives. It can be interpreted as you please, but we feel this list should have a variety of games that we'd recommend to 3DS newcomers, or those yet to really flesh out their portable's game collections. Which games do they simply have to play in order to appreciate the charms of the 3DS?

Below we have a poll with 50 key choices and you can select up to 10 for your vote. Alternatively you can also vote for any we've missed or excluded in the comments, we'll be sure to add these into the final count. Retail only though, as explained below.

This list is only for retail games, but we certainly haven't forgotten the eShop. Don't forget that the download store actually launched in June in 2011, not with the system itself, so we'll tackle that separately when that anniversary rolls around.

You have 24 hours - until 7am Pacific / 10am Eastern / 2pm UK / 3pm CET on Saturday 28th March - to get your votes in; we'll post a full feature detailing the ten winners this weekend.

So, get voting!

Which Are Your 10 Must-Play Games on the 3DS?

(You can select up to 10 answers)