Five Web games we'd like to see recreated on handhelds

The internet is renowned for being a source of time-wasting, mouse-clicking, simple and bright arcade games, and at last they're starting to come to handheld. Line Rider, due out later this year, looks like being one of the most innovative games on the DS, and the forthcoming N+ will carry the baton for internet-to-handheld conversions, at least in the US (no European release has been confirmed).

Of course, there will be a few duds along the way (we weren't hugely impressed with the recent Diner Dash DS conversion); partly it's down to developers choosing the right games to convert. So what gems are hiding away to be unearthed? We've got some suggestions…

Luminara
It's that arcade classic Asteroids, thrown into a food blender with some hallucinogenic drugs and a school geometry set.

Luminara's control system is very simple – you strafe around the screen, shooting at the different shapes and types of enemies that are all brilliantly varied. Collisions, explosions and power-ups result in an explosion of colour, painting the screen in shapes and rainbow shades as your score goes up and up.

The control system is a little inflexible on the internet – moving the mouse outside the game stops your aim, but we'd have none of these problems on our consoles; D-pad to move around, and either the DS' stylus or the PSP's nubbin could be used to target your gun at the polygon opponents. Bright, simple and addictive, like all the best games.

Draw Play
We've seen some games a little like Draw Play before. Line Rider, of course, had us drawing our own platforms to slide down on, and Kirby Power Paintbrush used the DS stylus to paint rainbow trails across the landscape.

Draw Play is somewhere between the two, but with a nice puzzle-solving element. Draw on the canvas to paint platforms, then run and jump your character to the exit. The game's a bit on the light side, but the concept is all there, and the stylus/D-pad combination would be perfect for creative platforming on the DS. Unlikely to be a Mario-beater, but it's a gimmick that works.

The Hapland Series
Flash games usually have one thing in common – simplicity. Hapland takes it the other way, and provides a rich, loving level of detail that covers every inch of these surreal puzzles.

You're shown an entire level, and given a goal. But there's no sword-swinging hero or magical power-up. Instead, you've got to play around with the environment, click on doors and buttons, and see what happens. Put the pieces together, and you'll finish the puzzle – but half of the fun is discovering the surprises put in by the creator.

We can imagine this working well on the DS, with you zooming in on the lower screen and tapping with the stylus, leaving the top screen to show you the whole puzzle. A series would make a great puzzle compendium.

iSketch
If there ever was a game waiting for a DS conversion, it would be iSketch. iSketch is based on the boardgame Pictionary, where players are given a word and must get other players to guess it by drawing alone.

iSketch has massive word lists on topics ranging from the usual film and game titles through to challenging topics like proverbs. With the DS' wi-fi capabilities, multiplayer matches would be a breeze, enabling other players to join in and start guessing while one player uses the stylus to draw. A single-player mode would be almost impossible, but download play support could make it one of the best multiplayer games on the console.

Orisinal – Morning Sunshine
Cute, simple and effective. That's how handheld games began, and it's how the best of them continue – grabbing an idea for a game, crushing it down so they can fit it into a cartridge, and making it fun enough for you to flip open and switch on in every free moment you've got.

Orisinal's games – based around a single game idea, and a menagerie of cute characters from little princesses to balloon pilots to bunny rabbits – are brilliantly designed and extremely lightweight (in a good way). The entire package would make a brilliant compilation for the PSP's big, bright screen, and it could even use the PSP's network capability to upload high scores.