TCF What's Your Favourite DS Game?

[YouTubular🌳]

This is a spinoff of the thread "So TCF whats YOUR favorite GBA game?," but instead about the successor to the GBA, the DS! One of my personal favourites I have to go with is Mario & Luigi Bowser's Inside Story. It's my personal favourite Mario RPG (although I still haven't finished a lot of the early ones like TTYD and Legend of the Seven Stars I've just gotten part of the way through,) but I think it's at least the best of the Mario & Luigi spinoff series because it comes at a point in the series where the games reach the peak of balancing the gameplay mechanics with the story and pacing, and it also has one of the most interesting visual aesthetics in the series, excellent uses of the DS's features, a goofy and memorable cast of characters, and an unforgettable soundtrack.

I love everything about this game and to me it's the perfect DS game. I think it really understood what made handheld games unique and is one of my favourites in the RPG genre, but it seems like a lot of what makes games great for handheld has been forgotten since Nintendo decided to make the Switch a hybried console, and all we're really left with is mobile games which take the soul out of games with microtransactions and anti-player-friendly practices. Of course, Terraria is one of my favourite mobile gaming experiences, but I feel like Nintendo captured a golden goose with the DS and had to let it go (I mean, it's the second best-selling video game console of all time.) There are so many fantastic games on it, and I want to know what YOUR favourite games are from that era.

 

[Federal Crow]

I would have had the most hours on Pokemon Heartgold, but I remember also playing a lot of Nintendogs.

The DS has been lost to time but I have a lot of fond memories.

 

[ppowersteef]

There were many great DS games, all that made great memories.

Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver is probably the best for what it delivers,
but when I think of one personally, then it's going to be Drawn to Life.

Drawn to Life was a game where you drew your own character, along with weapons, gameplay objects, objects to draw in the town.
It had a very nice gameplay loop, as every level felt like you made more progress in growing your town. And it had a great story as well.

 

[Lord_O_Donnell_64]

I Guess it's the rerelease of Mario 64 or Resident Evil Deadly silence which is a perfect port of the PSX version.

 

[EustaceCS]

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood .
This game alone IS the reason to own NDS in 2023.

 

[Fluxxation]

I like Dark Souls 3 the most out of the souls trilogy!!

I know that wasn’t the question

 

[Orchamut]

Ok, this is basically the best topic ever, wow.
People here have already said most of them:
M&L: BIS - Literally one of my top 3 favorite RPGs, if not my favorite.
DTL - This game is amazing. I'll add Scribblenauts here too, to round out the package.
DS Mario 64 - Not only is Mario 64 a good game... this is practically an entirely new game in itself! Anyone who is a huge fan of Mario 64 and doesn't know about this game needs to try it.
HeartGold - This game is really difficult and I... was too young and inexperienced to ever make it past the first half. But I remember it having some ridiculous features I basically fell in love with-- the Pokewalker if anyone knows what that is, and then the minigame stadium that might be the absolute best side-game in a Pokemon main game...

Surprised nobody said Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky. That game is a combination of perfect graphics, perfect storyline, and super deep content that only appears gradually so you don't feel overwhelmed.

Some obscure games that are still some of my favorite games ever:
Zelda Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks - These are some of the coolest Zelda games ever, plus the multiplayer battle mode is really fun.
The Legendary Starfy - I don't want to admit how important this game was to me in the distant past. It still holds up as an amazing platformer adventure similar to Shantae and other games like that.
Kirby Mass Attack - This weird kirby spin-off is basically Kirby combined with Pikmin. ...It also might be deeper in content than every single other Kirby game that exists so far. Don't like how most Kirby games have a short story mode? Not this one-- and basically every single level introduces a complex new gimmick...
LEGO Battles - This game has the worst name ever, but it's a well-designed real-time strategy game with 6 separate storylines taking place in a medieval theme, pirate theme, and space theme. There are tons of secrets to find and things to unlock, and like other old LEGO games, you can use collectible red blocks to enable cheats if you feel like it. You can play multiplayer, too, but I never got a chance to do that.
DRAGON QUEST HEROES: Rocket Slime - This game is so creative, enjoyable, and unique that I'm hardly able to explain the game at all. Explore a beautiful top-down world as a slime with the power to smash into stuff, sending them flying so you can pick them up, and throw them, bouncing everything all over the place-- essentially creating chaos everywhere. You can use dynamic abilities to explore, and fighting monsters doesn't have to be hard when it can be extremely silly. The story is light-hearted and full of jokes and puns but the characters are quite interesting and likeable. You can battle bosses, save all 100 unique townslimes, and collect every single item and enemy you find along the way-- you can ship home anything you can carry, which is practically everything!
But that's not even the end of it. The other half of the game is battling in a GIANT TANK, firing everything at your disposal at the enemy tank in bizarre battles that combine strategy with absolute chaos. Upgrade your tank, hire different crew members (collect enough of one type of monster and they can help, too) and use all those items you collected as ammo! ...The balance of the game is a little off, and it's easy to cheese almost every tank battle just by infiltrating the enemy tank and harassing them, but all in all it's otherwise a perfect game. You can tank battle other players, too, but I never got a chance to do that.

 

[DragonMals]

For my Indie Game taking inspiration from this era of gaming, I would have too many games I would list off of the top of my mind.

Ill just say that Monster Tale is one of them.

 

[King Jameth III🌳]

Phantom Hourglass canonically takes like 1 day, right?

 

[Idola Deus!]

Pokemon Heart Gold, by far. It's the only DS Pokemon game that I've completed the post game in, along with all the other side content like the Pokeathalon. I did a lot else too, like making a living regional dex, lots of shiny hunting, and I- err, very legitimately got the extra event legendaries and mythicals like Celebi. It even gave me a new 2nd favorite pokemon, Heracross.

 

[RabidBirthday]

the sims 2 for ds, or scribblenauts. also pokemon bw and b2w2

 

[trya]

mario kart DS (WALUIGI PINBALL)
New Super Mario Bros. DS
DS Mario 64


(I Actually just got a DS and have been grinding Mario Kart seirously ) (already 100%ed NSMBDS and DS Mario 64

 

[HellHeater]

The together one

 

[Asternove]

Pokemon Black 2 & White 2

 

[MoultonLava]

I never had a DS, but it looked really cool...

 

[Benry Gaming]

Rhythm Heaven was the most peakest creative game I ever played on the DS. And it has a fantastic ost

 

[RainbowPotato 🌳🪓]

Uh, i never used the DS.

3DS on the other hand…
(Superstar saga)

 

[Mecha_]

Ok, this is basically the best topic ever, wow.
People here have already said most of them:
M&L: BIS - Literally one of my top 3 favorite RPGs, if not my favorite.
DTL - This game is amazing. I'll add Scribblenauts here too, to round out the package.
DS Mario 64 - Not only is Mario 64 a good game... this is practically an entirely new game in itself! Anyone who is a huge fan of Mario 64 and doesn't know about this game needs to try it.
HeartGold - This game is really difficult and I... was too young and inexperienced to ever make it past the first half. But I remember it having some ridiculous features I basically fell in love with-- the Pokewalker if anyone knows what that is, and then the minigame stadium that might be the absolute best side-game in a Pokemon main game...

Surprised nobody said Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky. That game is a combination of perfect graphics, perfect storyline, and super deep content that only appears gradually so you don't feel overwhelmed.

Some obscure games that are still some of my favorite games ever:
Zelda Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks - These are some of the coolest Zelda games ever, plus the multiplayer battle mode is really fun.
The Legendary Starfy - I don't want to admit how important this game was to me in the distant past. It still holds up as an amazing platformer adventure similar to Shantae and other games like that.
Kirby Mass Attack - This weird kirby spin-off is basically Kirby combined with Pikmin. ...It also might be deeper in content than every single other Kirby game that exists so far. Don't like how most Kirby games have a short story mode? Not this one-- and basically every single level introduces a complex new gimmick...
LEGO Battles - This game has the worst name ever, but it's a well-designed real-time strategy game with 6 separate storylines taking place in a medieval theme, pirate theme, and space theme. There are tons of secrets to find and things to unlock, and like other old LEGO games, you can use collectible red blocks to enable cheats if you feel like it. You can play multiplayer, too, but I never got a chance to do that.
DRAGON QUEST HEROES: Rocket Slime - This game is so creative, enjoyable, and unique that I'm hardly able to explain the game at all. Explore a beautiful top-down world as a slime with the power to smash into stuff, sending them flying so you can pick them up, and throw them, bouncing everything all over the place-- essentially creating chaos everywhere. You can use dynamic abilities to explore, and fighting monsters doesn't have to be hard when it can be extremely silly. The story is light-hearted and full of jokes and puns but the characters are quite interesting and likeable. You can battle bosses, save all 100 unique townslimes, and collect every single item and enemy you find along the way-- you can ship home anything you can carry, which is practically everything!
But that's not even the end of it. The other half of the game is battling in a GIANT TANK, firing everything at your disposal at the enemy tank in bizarre battles that combine strategy with absolute chaos. Upgrade your tank, hire different crew members (collect enough of one type of monster and they can help, too) and use all those items you collected as ammo! ...The balance of the game is a little off, and it's easy to cheese almost every tank battle just by infiltrating the enemy tank and harassing them, but all in all it's otherwise a perfect game. You can tank battle other players, too, but I never got a chance to do that.

I knew either you or esther would post a MASSIVE wall of text in this thread

Honestly, tricky question. Of the games I've gotten before, NSMB2, Pokemon X/Y and Mariokart 7 were the ones I played the most...
I'm going to say Pokemon X/Y was the best. I think. I got my DS for Christmas in 2015, I believe, and other than the preinstalled copy of Mariokart 7 (which I somehow managed to delete as a kid), X/Y was the first game I got, and I had SO much fun with it!
Though in recent years it's been pretty nice to play old 3ds Terraria for a step backwards