Nintendo has had some successful consoles, but the DS holds the top spot among handheld-only consoles. Yes, the Nintendo Switch has since outsold by about a million copies, but you can hook that bad boy up to your TV, so it doesn’t count. Plus, the DS is an inventive console, giving players and developers two screens to work with. That combination of popularity and innovation meant developers were dreaming all kinds of fun, new games. With so many games on the system, a fair few have fallen through the cracks for most. Here are five great, underrated Nintendo DS games.
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5) Contact
The team at Grasshopper Manufacture is well-known for ridiculous games, and the team had a few solid Nintendo DS hits. That said, Contact might be its weirdest game, at least compared to the rest of Grasshopper and founder Goichi Suda’s usual gameplay style. That’s because Contact is an RPG. Suda and his crew are much better known for action-heavy games like No More Heroes and Lollipop Chainsaw, so Contact is already a neat artifact from the developer’s history.
It’s more than just that, though. Contact is a deeply strange RPG. For example, you can attack any NPC you want, which could eventually lead to all of the town attacking your character while exploring on the street. Also, most of the combat is totally out of your hands. Terry, the character you’re sort of controlling, will attack on his own, so you need to time your abilities to influence what he does. That’s really just the tip of the iceberg for how weird Contact gets. You’ll want to check it out for yourself if you’re looking for a strange, new DS RPG.
4) Infinite Space
I promise I’ll get to a non-RPG at some point on this list. That said, developer PlatinumGames, which, like Grasshopper, is better known for action games, knocked it out of the park with this on-the-go sci-fi RPG. However, it’s important to note that it’s not your typical anime RPG. Yes, it uses similar visuals to what you’d expect from the genre, but Infinite Space puts you in charge of an entire fleet of ships as they fight their way across the galaxy.
It’s a neat gimmick that lets you fully customize your fleet’s layout. That makes careful planning and picture-perfect strategy incredibly important. Infinite Space also brings a great story that pays homage to Sci-Fi stories from 1970s Japan. It’s a phenomenal mix that elevates the genre on the handheld console. Sure, some of the visuals are a little lacking, but if you can get past that, you have an exceptional RPG waiting for you.
3) Lost in Blue
Lost in Blue is the third game in the Survival Kids series. It started with the original Game Boy game, but Lost in Blue takes it to the next level. This is a classic survival game, which means you shouldn’t expect the developers at Konami to hold your hand. You need to use the natural resources found all over the deserted island you’re stuck on to find a way to get home.
Gameplay is totally nonlinear, which means you can pretty much do whatever you want. Plus, Lost in Blue uses the touch screen and microphone controls to add even more immersion to the mix. For example, starting a fire requires you to press the correct buttons to build friction, but then you have to blow into the microphone to start a fire. It’s a nifty use of the console’s features to make a survival game that’s equal parts immersive and difficult. It’s not exactly the same, but a remake of Survival Kids was recently released on Nintendo Switch 2, making it easy to check out the foundations ofย Lost in Blue.
2) Meteos
When you’re talking about handheld consoles, you need to have a puzzle game. For the Nintendo DS, there were plenty of options, including my personal favorite: Picross 3D. However, it’s important to have games for players of all stripes, so seeing Q Entertainment drop Meteos was a huge win for DS players.
This tile-matching game was instantly a hit with critics and players. And that’s not too surprising, as Q Entertainment is also the studio behind Lumines on the PlayStation Portable. Not only did Meteos take advantage of the dual screens, but it also had exceptional multiplayer options, giving fans plenty of replayability. Toss in a best-in-class soundtrack and phenomenal visuals, and you have a must-play puzzle game. I’ll grant that Meteos picked up several awards when it launched, so it’s not as under the radar as most of the other games on this list, but it’s been largely lost to time as DS fans focus on more popular puzzlers. Do yourself a favor, and dive into this one.
1) Hotel Dusk: Room 215
If you haven’t played Hotel Dusk, you’ve probably never heard of developer Cing. That’s a shame, as the team shut its doors in 2010, despite having one of the best adventure games on the Nintendo DS. Making it even worse, you can’t get a legitimate copy of the sequel in North America because the studio shut down before it could launch in this region. That said, if you’re looking for a classic point-and-click adventure game with a captivating story, you can’t go wrong with Hotel Dusk.
Cing put together one of the finest puzzles of the console, constantly taking players’ assumptions and twisting them in interesting ways. Predicting what’s going to happen is nearly impossible, but that doesn’t mean you won’t love the journey. After all, Hotel Dusk features some of the best noir visuals on the console and delivers just enough humor and brevity to keep you hooked. It’s the perfect mix for a murder mystery, and is a must-play for any adventure game fan on the DS.
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