21. Dinosaur King – Sean
Take breaks every hour or your eyes might feel Dinosaur
Dinosaur King was very much part of the ‘anime to promote the cool new toy’ club, along with the likes of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Beyblade, Bakugan and the rest. The toy in question was an arcade machine that would provide a random card bearing a dinosaur with its own stats and abilities, which could then be scanned back into the machine and used in the game. The gameplay was basically just rock, paper, scissors, with certain dinosaurs having strengths and weaknesses against others. I actually still have some of my original cards!
The DS game took the rock, paper, scissors format for the battles and plonked it into a Pokémon-esque world to explore, villains to fight and lots and lots of dinosaurs to collect. The story wasn’t particularly engrossing, and there wasn’t a whole lot of depth to the battles when compared to the Pocket Monsters it was clearly inspired by. Still, there’s some childlike wonder to simply exploring the game world and collecting dinosaurs. I had never heard of a saurophaganax before I’d played this game, but now I fear them.
22. Pokémon Black and White/Black 2 and White 2 – Riley
Make your wonderful dream a reality, and it will become your truth!
Pokémon is inevitable when it comes to handheld Nintendo systems; they bolster the install base and sell well. In this instance, the DS had two generations of the series across 9 separate titles, but not all of these were made equally.
The fifth generation saw a soft reboot of the franchise, with the first entries, Black and White, seeing a whole new Pokédex with none of the legacy creatures in sight. At the time, this was divisive as older fans were less than keen on the new designs and the inability to use their favourites. Over time, this has changed; a lot of fans find the unique set of creatures here more refreshing, and its more serious tone helps shift this away from the series’ past.
This is also the only generation to have a sequel, taking place in the same world but two years later, with characters ageing and evolving. Now you can mix up old and new Pokémon and tackle a new threat that pushes the more serious tone of the original into a more traditional, comically evil plot. These games demonstrate a great balance between excellent creature design, difficulty, playable modes and plot that hasn’t been seen before or since.
In my humble opinion, this is where Pokémon peaked and why the 3D era has felt a little lacklustre since. These aren’t just great Pokémon games, but great JRPGs in their own right. If you’re going to play any Pokémon games, let it be these masterpieces of the monster tamer genre.
23. Hi Hamtaro! Ham-Ham Training (Challenge) – Melty
Become a little hamster on your own big adventure
A game made for children, Hi Hamtaro! Ham-Ham Training is an adorable skill-developing game. With minigames such as fashion designing (colouring), hide and seek, and memory games, Ham-Ham Training is perfect for little ones to learn whilst having fun.
If you’re a parent or guardian of a child playing this game, you are able to check their gameplay stats. This includes how long they’ve played a certain minigame, how often, and how they’ve managed to complete it. If your child gains enough points, you can then gift them a reward. This reward is usually a special trading card to add to their collection. They feature all the Ham-Ham friends in different situations, which are incredibly cute to look through. Your child can also earn these cards by playing the minigames at different difficulty levels… which you can also lower if they’re struggling at a higher skill level.
All in all, this game is perfect if you have a child bugging you that they want to play a video game when they’re feigning illness to get a day off school. You can let them play, all whilst knowing that they’re learning in the meantime.
24. Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop – Melty
Really sexy! It’s a little too advanced for you, Memetchi.
This is the greatest game in the Tamagotchi Connection series. In this instalment, you choose a Tamagotchi to be your partner. In doing this, you get to be a dentist, a beautician, and even a Takoyaki cook by helping them run their stores. A mixture of minigames (yes, minigames again), your goal is to upgrade each shop, earning “royal” status, by having Princess Tamako visit.
By working at each shop, you can earn Gotchi points. You use these points to purchase clothing, accessories, and furniture to decorate your partner Tama’s living space. This game is truly so lovely to play. So much so that when the newest addition to the series was announced, my family’s group chat went wild. If you’ve played the Switch’s Tamagotchi game, I suggest you go back and play this one. It is much better, even if the new one is still super fun.
25. Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise – Riley
My seeds say I shouldn’t talk to you.
Viva Piñata on the Xbox 360 is a timeless classic with its garden simulation gameplay and colourful creatures. Its sequel doubled down and made an even better experience, but the lesser-known title Pocket Paradise has its strengths, too. Being a near-complete recreation of the original title, but downgraded for DS hardware, it has a lot to boast about for its small size. Naturally, there is a significant visual fidelity downgrade, as well as a few shortcuts taken to streamline it for touch controls.
I find the DS models of the piñatas to have this rustic charm, especially if you’re nostalgic for that period of gaming. While I would recommend just playing the Xbox version, the DS is a worthy substitute for a handheld experience, and if you do not have a 360 to play on either. Port the original to Switch 2 or Steam, Microsoft, you cowards!
26. Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days – Riley
No! Xion, who will I have ice cream with?!
Whilst you can buy collections of every Kingdom Hearts title on all modern systems (or stream it if you’re on Switch for some god forsaken reason), there are two titles that are not playable. One of these is the emotional rollercoaster of 358/2 Days. Whilst you can watch the cutscenes on the HD collections, you don’t quite feel the impact of the scenes without the extra context. You play as all of the Organisation XIII members, completing missions, hanging out and getting to know each other.
Whilst the gameplay is nothing special, stripped-down Kingdom Hearts combat at best, the time you spend with your colleagues makes the cutscenes hit that much harder. You really feel the relationship between Roxas, Axel and Xion, and if you decide to play through Kingdom Hearts III, you’ll thank us for dropping by here first.
27. Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver – Riley
Flying-type Pokémon don’t just fly because they have wings; they fly because that’s what they want to do with their whole heart
It’s hard to talk about the DS without also discussing Heart Gold and Soul Silver. They are the definitive remakes and set a standard for what Pokémon games could be, feature-wise. Whilst the Johto story is a little uninspired, there’s so much to do in these games that it’s hard to complain. They reintroduced “following” Pokémon, fleshed out the Kanto region, made a robust gym leader rematch system, and that’s barely scratching the surface.
There are Easter eggs alluding to previous games, full interconnectivity with the Sinnoh games and inserting the GBA games into the DS slot changes gameplay. It’s hard to quantify what works so well about these games in a listicle like this, but if you enjoy Pokémon and have somehow never played this, do it. The Pokewalker was so good, too! There’s so much to love here, maybe we’ll write more about it in the future!
28. Nintendogs: Labrador and Friends – Melty
A dog is for life, not just for Christmas… Except these ones.
A puppy in your pocket—the best idea since… Well, since ever. In this game, you can adopt your very own puppy without the physical and real responsibilities that come with a pup made of flesh, blood, and allergens. Sure, you still need to feed and water your digital pets, but this comes at a one-time cost: the cost of the cartridge.
A great way to give children pets and a sense of responsibility, Nintendogs comes in a variety of editions. My favourite was the Labrador. Growing up, I had a Lab x Alsatian who was more Lab than anything. Seeing a tiny version of my real-life baby on the cover as well as in the game was all I could ask for as a child, especially since I could take the virtual puppy on a walk all by myself. That, and the virtual version would actually learn tricks. Though the pixelated pooches could never replace my Comet, the days when I went to stay in my dad’s house would be much easier with the DS doggies by my side.
If you, too, got the chance to own Nintendogs as a child, and you still have your copy, maybe it’s time to feed, water, and take your dogs for a poop… I’m sure they’d appreciate it.
29. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 – Dave
SMT X Neon Genesis Evangelion
The DESU games are perhaps some of the more interesting SMT titles out there. The social aspect that put the Persona games on the map is leveraged differently; rather than dungeon crawling between going to school, you have individual missions on grid-based TRPG maps. What makes DESU2 so special is that your performance will often determine whether a playable character will live or die. This has knock-on effects later on, changing available missions and endings.
Both games are self-contained, feature character designs by Suzuhito Yasuda (of Durarara and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth fame), and re-releases on the 3DS with bonus content. DESU 2 makes this list because I enjoy the Fate system. The Fate system lets you level up your relationship with certain characters, allowing you to get to know them better, receive additional demons and abilities, and makes it sting that much harder if/when they die. DESU2 also features more interesting antagonists: instead of demons that don’t seem too far removed from what you can catch in any SMT game, the major bosses of each day tend to be something you’d see in NGE. It’s pretty gnarly.
30. Scribblenauts – Kane
“Basic reading ability is needed to fully enjoy this game” – The Back of the Box
If there’s any genre that fits particularly well on the DS, it’s puzzle games and the Scribblenauts series is no exception. The gameplay of the DS releases by 5thCell made excellent use of the touch screen. Drawn To Life (their first title) had you drawing with it, creating your character, platforms and items. Scribblenauts took a rather more ambitious direction.
Instead of drawing to interact with the levels, in Scribblenauts, you write the name of an object, creature or even person. What you write in your magic notebook will appear before you, and you use this power to solve the game’s 220 puzzles. It’s challenging to convey exactly how impressive this gameplay is from a technical standpoint.
You never feel like you’re limited in what you can summon. Nearly everything you type in will have something appear, and on the odd occasion it doesn’t, you’ll get a choice of things that are similar to summon instead. They put in the effort to make sure you feel like you could summon anything. On top of that, you can combine items to produce different effects. With hundreds of items and limitless combinations, the solutions are myriad.
If you enjoy puzzle games and like emergent gameplay, this will be an absolute treat.
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