The first DS was released on November 21, 2004. (so 10 years and one day as I write this). Surely one of the greatest (the greatest?) handheld system there was, what is everyones favorite DS game?

also, want to feel really old? the Game Boy Pocket was only 8 years old when the DS came out.

Yeah, I think I would agree with calling it the greatest handheld. The whole Gameboy/GBA era was obviously incredible and it's impact undeniable, but the popularity of the DS was just kinda on a whole different level.

Also, my favorite (and the best) DS game was Advance Wars Dual Strike.

Picross 3D was without a doubt the best DS game. Phantom Hourglass was pretty cool too.

Radiant Historia is the best DS game.

@supermike6 said:

Picross 3D is not only the best DS game, but also the best game of all time.

Ouendan (incl. Elite Beat Agents, Ouendan 2) is probably the DS series I spent the most time on.

Phoenix Wright is also among my all-time favorites (though it is technically a GBA game, I only discovered it with the DS version).

What about the Atari Lynx?!

But, yeah, DS was rad. Didn't get one of my own until a couple of years ago and haven't catched up with the games on there yet, but certainly seems like there was no shortage of great games on there.

It's not my favorite handheld but I agree it's probably the best overall. I think if I were younger when it came out I would've really loved it.

Jump Ultimate Stars!

Picross 3D! Phoenix Wright! Ghost Trick! Bowser's Inside Story! Final Fantasy IV DS! 999!

The World ends with you? Why has no one said this yet.

@nux: oh man, that is a good game. i always forget about that one because it's one of the few for the DS that i borrowed and didn't purchase myself.

As someone with a mostly broken original DS that has been kicking around for as long as I can remember this strangely doesn't surprise me as much as most of these kind of dates do.

Good on them, great machine trumped only (in my eyes) by it's predecessor the GBA. It may just end up being the last truly great handheld.

This.

I still play DS games to this day. That system has staying power. Also, I have a launch DS I got for Christmas and it still works as good as the day I got it. Of course it's gigantic but the thing is a tank.

I'd have to vouch for Ace Attorney, NSMB, Animal Crossing: Wild World, and GTA Chinatown Wars. Seriously, Chinatown Wars was way more fun than GTA IV.

Never owned a DS, always obsessed more over the psp because the younger me was awe struck by the idea of having a portable ps2 in your hands. This video from that era always cracked me up.

It's good that the 3DS has backwards compatibility, because there were SO MANY good DS games.

Best DS game is a tough call between Ghost Trick and Radiant Historia.

I think I'd say Ghost Trick for the singular vision of utter madness that it is.

A good question is whether there are any 3DS games that are thought of as highly as these two. Hopefully the glory days of the 3DS haven't passed by and the best is yet to come.

Oh and I might have mentioned the World Ends With You among the other two if only I had completed the final week. For some reason I stopped playing that far into the game.

This may get kind of ramble-ish, but I'd have to agree that, alongside or maybe slightly under the original Game Boy, the DS is easily the best (with the most far-reaching implications) handheld ever created. Apart from the PC, the DS is the platform I've bought the most games for out of any gaming machine I've ever owned going back to the NES, and that's saying something. There was just a huge variety of unique experiences that you couldn't get anywhere else and a whole slew of niche, hidden gems (that take advantage of the system's capabilities in really weird or rarefied ways like Bangai-O Spirits' method of transferring player created maps, high scores, and replay data in the form of sound files received through the mic, pretty much future-proofing the online community aspects from the eventual Nintendo WFC shutdown) to discover and/or import (thanks to being region-free).

Then there's the massive home-brew scene, increasing the novelty factor ten-fold, by enabling me to do things like play freaking Quake using my own .PAK files on a hand-held, on-the-go, with a near 1-to-1 control scheme and the ability to actually play/communicate over TCP/IP or LAN with other PC users! Words could not express how neat that was (especially on a system starved of a decent FPS not involving a particular inter-galactic bounty hunter) and still kinda is.

My black DS Lite is a semi-permanent fixture in my bathroom, which is fine because I have another two and a DS phat placed in other strategic locations around the house. Whenever I know I'm going to be in there for more than a few minutes, it's either trying to top my high score in Metroid Prime Pinball (a severely underrated pinball tie-in that actually makes logical/contextual sense of its source material and utilizes that quite cleverly and is infinitely re-playable) or Picross 3D all the way.

It's also great to know that if my power goes out for a week or more I'll have plenty of combined battery life to weather the storm, gaming-wise. Overall, just a stellar system that initially looked and felt like a massive dud to many in the industry, but eventually played an integral role in ushering in the widespread adoption/normalization of touch-screen interfaces that we enjoy and take for granted today (along with having a shit-ton of memorable and important games).

Suffice to say, I think Nintendo really knocked it out of the park with that one.

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box was the best DS game.

The fact that the DS has backwards compatibility with Gameboy Advance titles is enough for me to call it the greatest handheld. Hell, it might even be my favorite console ever.

Both amazing games. I didn't like the touch centric controls of TWEWY though, so that is far from my favorite. And the main girl has pubes showing. Cmon Japan.

Ghost Trick and Radient Historia sold poorly tho. Both were released very late into the DS's cycle. If you haven't played em, you should.

I remember playing Pokemon and Mario on the DS. Good times.

*Runs off to play Pokemon again*

While the DS had a rocky first two years I think it severely outperformed the 3DS in terms of quality games.

That makes me feel simultaneously young and old. Young because I was only 18 when the DS came out, old because fuuuuuck, ten years?

(and I don't mean "old" in the "#90skid lolz get off my lawn" way, just in the "wow, time flies" way)

High: Phantom Hourglass was the first Zelda game I actually owned and it was fantastic and felt original.

Low: The Golden Sun Threequel wasn't a bad game but seeing as how the original two on the GBA are on my all-time favourite list it was a pretty big letdown.

So considering my low point the DS was an awesome system.

10 years? Damn, time moves fast.

Best handheld ever, seriously - so many classic games, plus GBA compatibility. Plus, its impact on gaming on a whole cannot be understated.

Meteos, 4 Life, jack.

10 years may sound like some illusory trick, but when glancing over at the original form factor causes the harrowing and vertiginous sense of time catching up.