Ever since I got my Nintendo 3DS a few months ago, I’ve been thinking a lot about the original Nintendo DS, its legacy and what it’s meant to me personally. After realizing that’s it’s pretty easily among my favorite systems I’ve ever owned, I decided to write this article as a tribute to a great system that’s on its way out. So here’s to you, Nintendo DS. It’s been fun.

When the Nintendo DS came out in late 2004 I was among the early skeptics who weren’t quite sold on the dual and touch screen ideas. My Game Boy Advance worked fine with just one screen and buttons after all, and with titles like The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap and Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones coming out in 2005 (after the DS was already out) there still seemed to be plenty of life left in the old guard. My curiosity got the better of me later that year, however, and a strong Fall 2005 push from the DS led to me picking the system up.

My initial skepticism was quickly proven to be completely unfounded. Looking back, the Nintendo DS had a highly impressive lineup of games during its first full year on the market. Games released for the DS in 2005 include (though are certainly not limited to) Kirby: Canvas Curse, Meteos, Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Trauma Center: Under the Knife, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Mario Kart DS. I played and really liked each of these games, and even better was that they offered a wide variety of experiences that were all perfectly suited for the DS’ portable nature and unique characteristics. Games like Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow and Mario Kart DS showed that classic franchises could work just as well on the DS as they ever have on any other platform. In fact, it could be argued that these three games in particular were among the best in their respective franchises. They certainly played just as well as ever, and looked and sounded as good too. They also made simple but welcome uses of the system’s second screen; I don’t think anyone would complain about having a second screen dedicated to your map in Castlevania for example.

Perhaps more intriguing were the less traditional games among this group, such as Kirby: Canvas Curse, Meteos and Trauma Center: Under the Knife. All of these games relied heavily on the Nintendo DS’ other big introduction, the touch screen, and the results were fantastic. All three games played surprisingly well, showing how precise the touch screen could be as well as how it could allow for drastically different play experiences. The touch screen could clearly allow for more freeform, precision based gameplay than traditional controls could ever offer, and this turned out to be a big part of the DS’ success. Finally, games like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney gave us a glimpse as how varied the DS library would ultimately become. It kicked off the great adventure game rebirth that only widened the DS’ appeal, and the genre hasn’t been done nearly as well anywhere else in quite some time. Plenty of other niche genres found similarly cozy homes on the DS, and the variety of the system’s library is easily one of its best traits.

That was all a whopping seven to eight years ago, but that initial batch of games turned out to be a surprisingly strong indicator of just what kind of a system the Nintendo DS would become. Since then the DS has seen dozens of fantastic games that run the gamut: New Super Mario Bros., Elite Beat Agents, a pair of Picross games, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, numerous Professor Layton games, The World Ends With You, Rhythm Heaven, Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, and two full generations of Pokemon. These are only among the many highlights (and also exclude important games like Nintendogs and Brain Age, which don’t interest me personally), showcasing the absolute best that the system has to offer in terms of both pure quality and sheer variety. Every system has their stalwarts though, and what’s equally impressive to me is how the DS has a large, deep library of “mid-tier” games that are entirely worth playing on their own merits. Games like Lunar Knights, Radiant Historia and Aliens: Infestation probably wouldn’t be given the time of day on most platforms, but they shine bright on the DS. I even had a lot of fun playing Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime; that’s a guilty pleasure game if there ever was one.

What makes a great video game system is something that’s always up for debate, but I’d be willing to bet that almost everyone includes “great games” among their criteria. That in itself can be a subjective process, but I don’t think anyone would argue that the Nintendo DS hasn’t had a fantastic library of games, one that serves just about every corner of the market too. By this measure alone the DS is a great system; among the roughly 15 systems I’ve owned to date I place the DS right near the top. But there’s another trait that’s recently become apparent about the DS, one that might be the purest indicator of a system’s greatness: a refusal to go away. The Nintendo 3DS has been out for over a year, and the DS keeps on going strong in spite of this fact. Games like Okamiden, Pokemon Conquest, and the aforementioned Radiant Historia and Aliens: Infestation all came out around or after the 3DS’ release, and Pokemon Black and White 2 are still on the way. And where Pokemon goes says a lot about a Nintendo handheld’s current status.

Many other great systems have produced the same phenomenon, with the Playstation 2 (notable as the only system in video game history to outsell the Nintendo DS) being perhaps the best example. God of War II and Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, a pair of highly successful and wildly popular games, came out after the Playstation 3 was already on shelves. What’s impressive is that these late comers can often be extremely good, and can rival the best from other, newer systems. A small but telling example: The other week I was playing a pair of games simultaneously, Darksiders II and Aliens: Infestation. The former represents a hot new release on current, dominant platforms, and is one of the summer’s biggest titles. The latter is a year old game on a nearly eight year old handheld, but it’s the one I enjoyed substantially more between the two. Since then I’ve picked up and started playing Pokemon Conquest, and have been enjoying that more than I reasonably should as well. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there remains a certain charm to the DS that’s comforting. It’s kind of like catching up with an old friend, one that you’ve had countless good times with over the years.

The Nintendo 3DS may be out and gathering steam, and popular consoles like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are building up for another big Fall push, but for the time being I still find myself attracted to the original Nintendo DS just as strongly as ever. Whether I’m booting up an old favorite or digging into a gem I missed along the way, the DS is taking its sweet time leaving the spotlight. I’m totally okay with that too; sometimes it can be hard to say goodbye, especially to the great ones.

Ever since I got my Nintendo 3DS a few months ago, I’ve been thinking a lot about the original Nintendo DS, its legacy and what it’s meant to me personally. After realizing that’s it’s pretty easily among my favorite systems I’ve ever owned, I decided to write this article as a tribute to a great system that’s on its way out. So here’s to you, Nintendo DS. It’s been fun.

When the Nintendo DS came out in late 2004 I was among the early skeptics who weren’t quite sold on the dual and touch screen ideas. My Game Boy Advance worked fine with just one screen and buttons after all, and with titles like The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap and Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones coming out in 2005 (after the DS was already out) there still seemed to be plenty of life left in the old guard. My curiosity got the better of me later that year, however, and a strong Fall 2005 push from the DS led to me picking the system up.

My initial skepticism was quickly proven to be completely unfounded. Looking back, the Nintendo DS had a highly impressive lineup of games during its first full year on the market. Games released for the DS in 2005 include (though are certainly not limited to) Kirby: Canvas Curse, Meteos, Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Trauma Center: Under the Knife, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Mario Kart DS. I played and really liked each of these games, and even better was that they offered a wide variety of experiences that were all perfectly suited for the DS’ portable nature and unique characteristics. Games like Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow and Mario Kart DS showed that classic franchises could work just as well on the DS as they ever have on any other platform. In fact, it could be argued that these three games in particular were among the best in their respective franchises. They certainly played just as well as ever, and looked and sounded as good too. They also made simple but welcome uses of the system’s second screen; I don’t think anyone would complain about having a second screen dedicated to your map in Castlevania for example.

Perhaps more intriguing were the less traditional games among this group, such as Kirby: Canvas Curse, Meteos and Trauma Center: Under the Knife. All of these games relied heavily on the Nintendo DS’ other big introduction, the touch screen, and the results were fantastic. All three games played surprisingly well, showing how precise the touch screen could be as well as how it could allow for drastically different play experiences. The touch screen could clearly allow for more freeform, precision based gameplay than traditional controls could ever offer, and this turned out to be a big part of the DS’ success. Finally, games like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney gave us a glimpse as how varied the DS library would ultimately become. It kicked off the great adventure game rebirth that only widened the DS’ appeal, and the genre hasn’t been done nearly as well anywhere else in quite some time. Plenty of other niche genres found similarly cozy homes on the DS, and the variety of the system’s library is easily one of its best traits.

That was all a whopping seven to eight years ago, but that initial batch of games turned out to be a surprisingly strong indicator of just what kind of a system the Nintendo DS would become. Since then the DS has seen dozens of fantastic games that run the gamut: New Super Mario Bros., Elite Beat Agents, a pair of Picross games, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, numerous Professor Layton games, The World Ends With You, Rhythm Heaven, Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, and two full generations of Pokemon. These are only among the many highlights (and also exclude important games like Nintendogs and Brain Age, which don’t interest me personally), showcasing the absolute best that the system has to offer in terms of both pure quality and sheer variety. Every system has their stalwarts though, and what’s equally impressive to me is how the DS has a large, deep library of “mid-tier” games that are entirely worth playing on their own merits. Games like Lunar Knights, Radiant Historia and Aliens: Infestation probably wouldn’t be given the time of day on most platforms, but they shine bright on the DS. I even had a lot of fun playing Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime; that’s a guilty pleasure game if there ever was one.

What makes a great video game system is something that’s always up for debate, but I’d be willing to bet that almost everyone includes “great games” among their criteria. That in itself can be a subjective process, but I don’t think anyone would argue that the Nintendo DS hasn’t had a fantastic library of games, one that serves just about every corner of the market too. By this measure alone the DS is a great system; among the roughly 15 systems I’ve owned to date I place the DS right near the top. But there’s another trait that’s recently become apparent about the DS, one that might be the purest indicator of a system’s greatness: a refusal to go away. The Nintendo 3DS has been out for over a year, and the DS keeps on going strong in spite of this fact. Games like Okamiden, Pokemon Conquest, and the aforementioned Radiant Historia and Aliens: Infestation all came out around or after the 3DS’ release, and Pokemon Black and White 2 are still on the way. And where Pokemon goes says a lot about a Nintendo handheld’s current status.

Many other great systems have produced the same phenomenon, with the Playstation 2 (notable as the only system in video game history to outsell the Nintendo DS) being perhaps the best example. God of War II and Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, a pair of highly successful and wildly popular games, came out after the Playstation 3 was already on shelves. What’s impressive is that these late comers can often be extremely good, and can rival the best from other, newer systems. A small but telling example: The other week I was playing a pair of games simultaneously, Darksiders II and Aliens: Infestation. The former represents a hot new release on current, dominant platforms, and is one of the summer’s biggest titles. The latter is a year old game on a nearly eight year old handheld, but it’s the one I enjoyed substantially more between the two. Since then I’ve picked up and started playing Pokemon Conquest, and have been enjoying that more than I reasonably should as well. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there remains a certain charm to the DS that’s comforting. It’s kind of like catching up with an old friend, one that you’ve had countless good times with over the years.

The Nintendo 3DS may be out and gathering steam, and popular consoles like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are building up for another big Fall push, but for the time being I still find myself attracted to the original Nintendo DS just as strongly as ever. Whether I’m booting up an old favorite or digging into a gem I missed along the way, the DS is taking its sweet time leaving the spotlight. I’m totally okay with that too; sometimes it can be hard to say goodbye, especially to the great ones.

That's a fantastic write-up! I owned a DS for years, and recently traded it in for a 3DS. I'm pleased with the decision mostly because my back catalogue of DS games are able to play on it without trouble. Other than the Mario games, I haven't played any of the games you've mentioned, but I keep adding to my DS collection all the time.

As much as I'd love to see a return of traditional RPG's to consoles, I'm glad they've found a good home on the handhelds. That's easily my favorite part about the DS - it seems to have embraced with open arms the niche games this generation forgot about, and did so very well.

@Sparky_Buzzsaw: Thanks! You're right about JRPGs too. The DS has been great to those niche genres, as well as the "mid-tier" games that have been slowly phased out of HD consoles during this gen. One of the best things about the system.

@JasonR86: Well played my friend, well played. :)

the DS is a Great handheld, so I hope the 3DS can be as good as DS.

Well played: the picture you chose for Elite Beat Agents just happens to be one of the best 3 songs in the game (in case you were wondering, the other 2 are "Canned Heat" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash").

My great shame is that I didn't get a DS until March 2010, and while I've made some progress, I still have a significant stack that I must play. I own many of the games you've mentioned (some I've played, some I haven't opened yet), but may I point out that HOLY SHIT is Ghost Trick ever a good game, and if you haven't played it, try to find a copy of it.

Anyway, I'm kinda glad that the 3DS has had a slow start, because it gives me some breathing room to work away on my DS backlog.

fantastic writeup/eulogy

the DS is/was an amazing system, I'll miss it a alot

Funny enough I finally decided to get a DSi. I mostly forgot to get one after never owning one up until a couple of weeks ago. While you say goodbye to your DS I say hello to it :)

@MajorMitch: Those early days of the DS were kind of magical.

This has been promoted to the front page of the site in the community section.

I owned a DS twice and traded them both in, but never because I didn't like them. I have a 3DS now, and I've been playing as much DS as I have 3DS.

For me the big DS games were New Super Mario Bros., Animal Crossing: Wild World, Mario Kart, and the remakes of FF's 3 and 4. I just bought Pokemon White a few hours ago and seeing as it's essentially my first Pokemon game I'm sure I'll love it too.

I bought my 3DS purely on the strength of the DS before it. I'd put the DS right up there with Playstation 2 and Super Nintendo.

@BisonHero: ALL the songs in EBA are great :P I have played Ghost Trick as well, another awesome game. There are plenty of really good DS games I played but didn't mention here, and probably some really good ones I missed too!

@Slag: Thanks! I'll also miss it too, but I plan on squeezing every single ounce I can out of it first!

@Phatmac: You have a lot to look forward to!

@Marino: Those early years were indeed amazing, and the DS is one of the few systems that immediately justified itself to me.

@MajorMitch Thanks for making me cry.

In retrospect, it wasn't the best DS game by a long shot, but it was the sort of strange game that really stuck out at the DS's launch, and it used the touch screen in some ways that were just bonkers. Like this:

You go on a date, and then suddenly SCORPIONS EVERYWHERE and you have to pull them off your girlfriend. This game is home to one seriously ridiculous courtship, and it defined the early days of the DS for me, because I was one of the five people that bought this instead of Super Mario 64 DS.

Order of Ecclesia alone made the DS worth owning to me.

Contra 4 helped!

Yeah the DS was a great system with a lot of great games, I'd even go so far as to call it my favorite system. Being region free let me import some Japanese curiosities like Jump Ultimate Stars and Ouendan and the download play let me play some games with a friend without requiring 2 carts or a link cable, and it was portable too with a good battery length, fantastic!

It was just powerful enough to have a lot of 2D games made for it, while still being quirky enough with its dual screen-touch screen to have weird stuff like Ninja Gaiden DS (where you held the system sideways) on it.

I didn't get one until the DS lite was out but I ended up buying 3 of those throughout its lifespan.

@Hailinel said:

Only because I still see a used copy of it whenever I go to the game store.

It's called Project Rub over here though, for some reason...

@Trondood: You're welcome! :P

@Hailinel: Those crazy early days of the DS were pretty incredible weren't they?

@JackSukeru said:

Yeah the DS was a great system with a lot of great games, I'd even go so far as to call it my favorite system. Being region free let me import some Japanese curiosities like Jump Ultimate Stars and Ouendan and the download play let me play some games with a friend without requiring 2 carts or a link cable, and it was portable too with a good battery length, fantastic!

I absolutely love it when a system is region free, and really wished more systems did it. Ouendan was totally ridiculous and amazing :)

I would go on record saying the Nintendo DS is the best handheld system ever...obviously the Game Boy was more significant, but I think the DS has had the most unique and varied library we've ever seen on a handheld. That, along with the build of the actual system with its rechargeable battery and dual screens.

the DS was one hell of a system. from launch and onwards, lots of things on it felt magical in a way that no other console or handheld has yet to achieve. playing together wirelessly with lots of people in Mario Kart or like, Metroid or something was the best thing. even today, i feel pretty strongly about it.

this all reminds me that i need to catch up with what the 3DS has to offer. it's been pretty much collecting dust since i bought it.

I still have my DS phat here man.. it's getting it's well earned rest in it's nice pouch, so many good games for that thing.

It's a shame that it really feels we might be seeing what may be the last generation of handheld dedicated gaming devices...

I remember I got a DS and Mario Kart for Christmas one year and I played that thing for the entire day. In fact, I played it so much that when I was going to bed that night I could still hear the Mario Kart music in my head, clear as day.

@onarum said:

I still have my DS phat here man.. it's getting it's well earned rest in it's nice pouch, so many good games for that thing.

It's a shame that it really feels we might be seeing what may be the last generation of handheld dedicated gaming devices...

I also still have my DS phat, a blue one, but that poor thing isn't getting laid to rest anytime soon. That's what I have Chrono Trigger on.

I just sold my DS about a week ago. As you mentioned, it was a great system with a ton of wonderful games. Shu Takumi's oeuvre is almost entirely on the DS. The Ace Attorney games and Ghost Trick are all superb. In addition to the great line-up of games that came to the U.S., it was the first system on which I started importing games. I had a lot of fun with Inazuma Eleven 3, Solatorobo, and Eyeshield 21's DS game. I also treasured the system's compatibility with the GBA and its stellar battery life. The 3DS has big shoes to fill.