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Top 10 best Nintendo DS games ever

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Top 10 best Nintendo DS games ever
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The Nintendo DS has now been around for over five years, and it's about to become the best selling console of all time.

It's truly been the god of all handhelds, with some fantastic releases over the years.

Here at Pocket Gamer, we've set ourselves the mammoth task of going back through every wonderful release and picking out the ten best DS games. Ever.

It's been tough, but we've finally managed it. The games chosen are based on a number of factors, including their original appeal and how they hold up now in the current Nintendo DS library.

Journey with us back through half a decade's worth of quality, dual-screen gaming.

Agree with our selection? Disagree? Let your voice be heard in the comments below.

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

The Mario RPGs have always been a breath of fresh air, throwing our favourite plumber into a world of laugh-out-loud humour and stat-building.

The first Mario RPG release for Nintendo DS, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, continued the trend with a clever concept and a huge world to explore.

With four characters at your disposal - the Mario brothers plus their baby versions - enemy battles are magnificent, with timed button presses the key to dealing the most damage.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story later added depth and an entirely new angle to the concept, but Partners in Time still gets our vote for providing that initial wow factor and feeling flawless throughout.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Following on from the GameCube's Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass also brought along the Marmite-like graphical style.

Yet whether you appreciated Link's cel-shaded look or not, it was impossible to deny that Phantom Hourglass was one of the best handheld Zelda releases to date.

From drawing your sailing course out on the touchscreen to firing off a whole whore of different weapons and items, there was just so much to see and do, all wrapped up in the kind of wonderful Zelda world we've come to know and love.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks followed on from Hourglass's success, replacing the open sea with train-tracks, but the original will always hold the biggest space in our hearts.

The World Ends with You

Set in Square Enix's own version of the Shibuya district of Tokyo, The World Ends with You's plot and setting were something so unique and wonderful it was impossible not to be blown away by the whole experience.

After death, certain people are chosen to enter the Underground - an existence co-existing alongside the Realground (i.e. real life), where the dead can interact with the living via a number of key phrases.

Unfortunately, the Underground was set up as an arena for a killing game - a group called the Reapers are given seven days to kill all the chosen ones. If a player manages to survive the week, they can be brought back to life as a reward.

With its dual-screen battling and Psych unleashing, The World Ends with You is truly a sublime and unique RPG title with a wonderfully twisted storyline.

Elite Beat Agents

The creme de la creme of rhythm games on Nintendo DS. The world is in danger, and only the musical powers of the Elite Beat Agents can save the day.

Playing through a variety of carefully chosen songs, players tap and drag numbers in order as they appear on screen. The more in time with the beat you are, the more points you'll receive and the bigger combo you'll bag.

Each song comes with hilarious animations and a silly storyline. Depending on how well you play, you'll see good or bad events occur, with the Agents dancing furiously the entire time.

Incredibly wacky and fun, we're still waiting on a sequel. Make it happen, Nintendo!

New Super Mario Bros

It's hard to believe that Mario hadn't featured in his own side-scrolling platformer for 14 years before New Super Mario Bros came along. What a comeback it was, though.

Attempting to recreate what made the original Super Mario Bros series so iconic, Nintendo pulled out all the stops, with eight huge worlds, tons of power-ups to grab, and special coins to collect on each level.

All the features that made the NES/SNES games so wonderful returned, with a non-linear world map, flags and castles at the end of each level, ghost houses, and Koopa bosses. The 2D Mario fans had been pining for had finally arrived.

Throw in a Mario versus Luigi multiplayer romp and a re-envisioning of the mini-games from Super Mario 64 DS, and New Super Mario Bros became essential DS-ware, even spawning a Wii multiplayer counterpart.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Enticed by the search for a Golden Apple, the key to inheriting a huge fortune, Professor Hershel Layton sets out with his assistant Luke to the mysterious town of St Mystere, where things aren't what they seem.

Every town dweller he speaks to has some sort of puzzle to solve, and Layton is more than happy to help out. The main filling of the game, the puzzles, come in all shapes and sizes, and they reinvented the puzzle genre on Nintendo DS.

There's some genuinely clever and interesting ideas to be found, and you'll be reeling off the brainteasers to friends for weeks to come. Special coins can be found around levels and used to give puzzle clues in case you're stuck.

The sequel Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box continued the puzzling tradition, but didn't manage to capture the initial freshness that Curious Village exhibited.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Originally released in Japan as a Game Boy Advance title in 2001, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney finally made its way west-wards in 2005 as a Nintendo DS release. And boy, are we glad it did.

Phoenix Wright is a defense attorney, tasked with searching the scene of a crime for clues, then presenting evidence and cross-examinating witnesses to get his client a Not Guilty verdict.

The storylines are mind-blowingly diverse and clever, while the characters are fun and make the whole experience feel incredibly worthwhile. Phoenix pointing his finger and shouting 'Objection!' will forever be a gaming meme and keep his memory alive.

A flurry of sequels followed Ace Attorney, including spin-offs involving new attorney Apollo Justice and Phoenix's enemy/friend Miles Edgeworth, but the original title remains the best.

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin

The Advance Wars series is solid strategy action through and through, but Days of Ruin (Dark Conflict in the UK) is arguably the finest Advance Wars to date, with a much darker tone than the rest of the series.

Meteor strikes have killed off the majority of the human race, with dust clouds drowning out the sunlight. Factions begin to emerge - some good, some horribly bad. A young cadet of the Rubinelle military academy called Will, along with an amnesiac girl who has secrets in her head which need unlocking, join the fight against evil forces to bring peace to the land.

As with past Advance Wars titles, it's a turn-based affair, with a huge range of units and weapons to take charge over. This is tactical gaming at its finest, with some wonderful level design and intriguing ideas.

The multiplayer is fantastic, too, with tons of different options - online multiplayer, local multiplayer and pass-the-DS play are all present, while players can create their own levels using a custom creation tool.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

While the GTA series on home consoles has had its fair share of critical acclaim, the handheld versions haven't always been so lucky. Hence when Chinatown Wars landed on Nintendo DS, our smiles were wide and our hearts were no longer heavy.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was so completely different from the rest of the GTA series, and yet worked so beautifully. All the driving/shooting/killing was still there, but this time from an angled-down perspective and with lovely cel-shaded graphics.

Running from the cops was different, too - police needed to be taken down by smashing into them, rather than scarpered from. Apart from the regular missions, there were also a variety of touchscreen mini-games, including hotwiring cars and playing around with your PDA.

The side order of carefully selected drug dealing gave a dark undertone to the proceedings, too - as if the setting needed be any darker! Chinatown Wars truly was the handheld GTA we'd all be screaming out for.

Mario Kart DS

The Mario Kart series is still going strong 18 years after its conception, and with good reason - its well-balanced mix of racing and power-ups has made it king of the karts and kept it on the throne.

Mario Kart DS brought the series to the Nintendo DS back in 2005, and retained the fine form of the past releases, with a huge selection of tracks and special game modes to satisfy any avid Mario Karter.

The standard Grand Prix followed the usual Mario Kart suit, while the new Mission mode threw in some new ideas, with players asked to collect coins and kill enemies to progress. Mario Kart DS was also the first MK to feature online play, which was a little fiddly to get going, but was still great fun.

Of course, local multiplayer was also available, and provided huge laughs. Mario Kart DS was exactly the handheld Mario Kart gamers were hoping for, and it's still great fun today.

For the sake of argument, here are a list of the games that were close, but just missed out on the top 10.

Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Wario DIY
Sonic Rush
Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise
Chrono Trigger
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Super Mario 64 DS
Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution
42 All-Time Classics

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
Mike Rose
Mike Rose
An expert in the indie games scene, Mike comes to Pocket Gamer as our handheld gaming correspondent. He is the author of 250 Indie Games You Must Play.