The 10 best DS games of 2010 (so far)

2010 hasn’t exactly been a bumper year for pocket gaming. While the iPhone has another incredible year of success, and the Android finds its feet as a gaming platform, the DS is severely slowing down its releases in anticipation of next year’s 3DS, and the PSP is practically on life support.

Still, don’t let these depressing scenes put you off from buying some top software for your DS. What this year’s dual-screened portable portfolio has lacked in quantity, it’s made up for in quality.

So here are the ten best games released for Nintendo’s latest handheld so far this year. We’ve included everything from crime scene hunters to anthropomorphic hedgehog racers, and from music making birds to downloadable drivers.

It’s no Phoenix Wright, with the spiky haired lawyer being relegated to background cameo and his propensity for fiery courtroom showdowns dropped entirely in favour of battles-of-wits located firmly on the crime scenes themselves.

Still, despite its lack of gavels and bearded judicial types, Edgeworth’s investigatory romp retains much of what makes the Ace Attorney games so delicious; brilliant writing, mind-bendingly complicated crimes and excellent music. Any fan of Phoenix Wright needs to get this game.

Sonic’s impressive racer might crib most of its ideas from the portly plumber’s go-karter, but the hedgehog's first driving game since the Saturn’s Sonic R gives Mario a run for his money.

The best thing about All-Stars is the way it’s packed to bursting with memorable Sega heroes, from stoic Shenmue bruiser Ryo Hazuki to egg-rolling bird boy Billy Hatcher. Packed with obscure references to ancient gaming culture, it’s like Smash Bros for Sega, and on wheels.

Another mention for Sega’s waning superstar, this collection of dusty Mega Drive cartridges remembers Sonic in his prime, and reminisces about the good old days when Robotnik was called Robotnik, he didn’t have a talking sword, and ‘Shadow’ was what Tails cast on the ground as he flew..

This bumper DS cart has Sonic, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, and Sonic & Knuckles, and chucks them out in a pretty faithful emulation of the monolithic black 16-bit console. Sure there’s some image squishing and some slowdown, but if you want retro Sonic on the go this pack is not to be sniffed at.

The Pokemon company isn’t satisfied with just injecting another dollop of critter filled fun into your face every year. No sir, Nintendo’s also re-making its past Poketitles at such an alarming rate that we bet by 2015 it’ll be releasing a game and remaking it the next month.

Anyway, Pokemon Gold and Silver are pretty much considered to be the creme of the crop when it comes to monster hunting adventures, with its interesting new critters, cool Japanese backdrop (instead of an ambiguously saccharine world) and massively long adventure.

It’s all in HeartGold and SoulSilver, plus new features, upgraded graphics and the Pokewalker pedometer.

The third game from new Japanese wonder company Platinum, creators of brutal Wii brawler MadWorld and batshit crazy action game Bayonetta, Infinite Space is a deep DS RPG that lets you design your own spaceship. You’ve got 150 different design models and 150 crew members to choose from.

Once you’re done pimping your ride, you can take off into the furthest reaches of space (well, if it wasn’t so infinite) and fight other space ships. The Japanese critics adored the games, but us westerners knocked it down a peg or two for being a bit hard.

We’re such babies.

Sick of playing other people’s games? ‘I could design this so much better’, we hear you say. Well, now your dreams of a game about crocodiles that ride time-traveling penny farthings back through time to kill Hitler, can come true.

WarioWare D.I.Y., the latest micro-game collection from Mario’s dastardly nemesis, is done with twisting, touching, and waggling. This time around, the twist is that you make the games in a deep custom level studio, and then share them with buddies to see who made the most offensive and unplayable mess.

You know your console has got the goods when it's rocking a numbered Dragon Quest game. The Japanese go berserk for this veteran RPG series, with rumours persisting that Enix had to release the games on weekends and holidays to avoid Japan’s productivity plummeting.

So DQ (as the cool kids call it) follows the money, with the latest game, IX, hitting the 128 million selling DS today. If you’ve never decked dragons and slain slimes, Dragon Quest is a very traditional number crunching RPG, though IX controversially features some strong changes to the formula, including social aspects.

That’s right, a movie tie-in - usually a sign that you should leave the shop in disgust. A million years of precedent say that movie games suck, but Alice in Wonderland is something of a exception to that well tested rule.

Intrepid Pocket Gamer reviewer Mike Rose was as pleasantly surprised as anyone, saying “this particular movie/game coalition is clever, witty and really good fun.” It’s a cute puzzle platformer, with a few bits of wonky combat thrown in as a palette cleanser.

Check your bargain bins.

One of the most criminally ignored games on the various mobile platforms it's hit, Maestro is like Guitar Hero but with a pink bird thing instead of a plastic axe, and spiders, fruit, seagulls, and fish instead of sheet music.

It’s also bloody hard. Admittedly, I have absolute zero timing and no sense of rhythm, but I thought the pink bird thing would go easy on me. Nope, he’s kicking my ass up and down the street as I awkwardly plink and plonk my way through Chopin. Give me a break, you feathered jerk.

Another DSiWare game, and another pleasant surprise for ex-intern Mike who thought, once again, that he’d landed another dud to play and review. His response? “The best DSiWare game to date.”

So that’s probably not the hardest trophy in the world to grab, but it’s enough encouragement for AiRace, an old propeller plane based racer with impeccable controls and a brilliant sense of speed, to make our list.