GI's Top 25 DS games of all time

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Game Informer’s top 25 games of all time
June 6th, 2013 Posted in DS, News, Posted by Brian | 1 Comment »

In its latest issue, Game Informer ranked the top 25 DS games of all time.

New Super Mario Bros. took the top spot. Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, and Pokemon Black/White rounded out the top five.

Here’s the full list:

1. New Super Mario Bros.
2. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
3. Advance Wars: Dual Strike
4. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
5. Pokemon Black & White
6. Professor Layton and the Curious Village
7. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
8. Contra 4
9. Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
10. Animal Crossing: Wild World
11. Radiant Historia
12. Kirby Canvas Curse
13. The World Ends with You
14. Super Scribblenauts
15. Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story
16. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials & Tribulations
17. Metroid Prime Pinball
18. Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime
19. Tetris DS
20. Trauma Center: Under the Knife
21. Okamiden
22. Picross 3D
23. Mario Kart DS
24. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
25. Korg DS-10 Synthesizer

-Thoughts? I had a DS, but played it very sporadically and have only played about half of these. My personal faves out of this list are probably DQH: Rocket Slime & Bowser's Inside Story.

 
Firstly, I'd say that all of the DS Castlevania games were of incredible quality, and made the system worth owning all by themselves.

Secondly, I could never get past the controls for the Zelda games. I Played 70% of Phantom Hourglass before I finally accepted "Nope, I'm not having fun."

Thirdly, New Super Bros. was acceptable enough, honestly, but it was really more of a practice run before Nintendo finally nailed the 2D Mario games again with NSMB Wii. I think Giana Sisters DS frankly had better level-design for a Mario platformer (which, let's face it, is what Giana Sisters really is deep inside). And Super Princess Peach was really the best Mario universe platformer on the system.

Thirdly, the Korg DS-10 Synthesizer? What? Really?

Dawn of Sorrow, Canvas Curse, Super Scribblenauts and Ghost Trick are all great choices, but otherwise... no sir, this would not be my list. To each their own.

 
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Bishop said:
Firstly, I'd say that all of the DS Castlevania games were of incredible quality, and made the system worth owning all by themselves.

Secondly, I could never get past the controls for the Zelda games. I Played 70% of Phantom Hourglass before I finally accepted "Nope, I'm not having fun."

Thirdly, New Super Bros. was acceptable enough, honestly, but it was really more of a practice run before Nintendo finally nailed the 2D Mario games again with NSMB Wii. I think Giana Sisters DS frankly had better level-design for a Mario platformer (which, let's face it, is what Giana Sisters really is deep inside). And Super Princess Peach was really the best Mario universe platformer on the system.

Thirdly, the Korg DS-10 Synthesizer? What? Really?

Dawn of Sorrow, Canvas Curse, Super Scribblenauts and Ghost Trick are all great choices, but otherwise... no sir, this would not be my list. To each their own.
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I did not like the stylus controls either. Just didn't feel like Zelda.

 
I'd put Phantom Hourglass way lower... like #20. I would also put Tactics A2 and Wild World lower. I'd completely take out Prime Pinball, Trauma Center and Rocket Slime. I'd probably remove Advance Wars and Pokemon, but only beacuse I'm not big on those two series.

Radiant Historia would be my #1 (assuming we're ignoring ports, otherwise, CT would be #1). I'd put TWEWY, Mario Kart DS, and Phoenix Wright T&T higher.

And not having Canvas Curse, Hotel Dusk or 999 are huge travesties... all three are easily in my top 10/15.

 
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Spirit Tracks was about 20x better than Phantom Hourglass. Almost Wind Waker good.

While Black and White were indeed awesome and deserve to be up there, I kind of liked the sequels more.
 
My top 25 list is very different from this list but I can't disagree too much with this. Yea, the DS has an incredible library.

 
TWEWY and Ghost Trick ranked lower than Final Fantasy Tactics A2?! Yeah, FFTA2 was pretty decent, but I can't take this list seriously now.

Bishop said:
Thirdly, the Korg DS-10 Synthesizer? What? Really?
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I love the DS-10, and it's easily one of the best pieces of software of any kind for the DS, but I'm not sure I would put it on a list of best games...
 
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Didn't play FFTA2... the first was disappointing, though.

 
I had a DS back in '06/'07 but I became too busy for it. I had a decent chunk of those games back then and specifically remember loving Rocket Slime, Canvas Curse and Trauma Center. I've been looking to scoop up the first two again...I don't think I would appreciate Trauma Center quite as much anymore. 

I would also probably put Kirby Squak Squad on that list...and probably take Okamiden off, just because it didn't live up to that same quality it's predecessor had.

 
It's a fair list, but I've got my qualms with it. 

Missing in a big way is Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes which goes for like $8 used and is a really unique turn-based puzzle/strategy game. It's still at the top of my 3ds's play time list.

A lot of games were polarizing. I could not play Phantom Hourglass because of the touchscreen-only controls, or ghost trick because of the dialogue. I tried Pokemon Black, but it wasnt for me.

Any of the 4 Layton games are great, but the simple puzzle / brain teaser format isn't for everyone (though my wife really likes that game, and normally gets tired after 15 minutes of any platformer).

I also really liked Minis March Again. Though I beat it in two sessions, which were like 3 hours long because I was addicted.

 
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I thought Nine Hours Nine Persons, Nine Doors would have made the last one on the list.  Or maybe Hotel Dusk.   Never played the Korg game.

These are all great titles that should get the "Nintendo Selects" emblem on them if they were to be reprinted for $19.XX.  Along with the "Can be played on a 3DS" sticker.

 
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Um, where the heck is IMHO the greatest game in the DS library didn't even make the list.

Dragon Quest 9, besides pokemon I clocked more hours in this game then any other game.

Over 200. Not even top 25, LiES

 
umbry said:
Dragon Quest 9, besides pokemon I clocked more hours in this game then any other game.

Over 200. Not even top 25, LiES
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This. Also, Dragon Quest IV, V and Final Fantasy III. Hell, I wouldn't have complained if Fire Emblem, FFIV or DQVI would've made it. It irked me when I'd hear seasoned/'core' gamers complain of the lack of RPGs in the generation. It has been a great generation for the genre - in the portables, though a majority of the games I hae listed here are remakes. Perhaps they're disqualified from said list.

 
I have to disagree NSMB and Zelda are the two best games on the system. I mean NSMB was ok but it was far from the best on the system. Zelda was pretty meh for me. The whole touchscreen kinda made it akward to play.

 
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