The Best of the Nintendo DS – Staff Opinions!
Posted on 10 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in DS, DSiWare, Features | 4 Comments
As our celebration of the Nintendo DS’ 10th birthday draws to a close, the Nintendo Everything staff got together to discuss the games we thought defined the console for us. You’ve probably noticed all the DS-centric listicles we’ve been posting over the last few weeks, but these were all user-voted so we didn’t exactly have much control over the games that made the list. So with that in mind we’re adding in our opinions on everything from the best soundtracks to the most disappointing titles, including a few games that didn’t make the original lists.
Each of the staff members contributing has their own unique gaming tastes and just so you know exactly who to argue with in the comments section, the guys who you’ll be hearing from in this article are:
Name: Brian
Site Role: The Leader of the Bunch, You Know Him Well
Name: Patrick
Site Role: Famicolumnist, Bought Too Many DS Games
Name: Austin
Site Role: Buster of Eggs, Veteran of the Review Crew
Name: Kirara
Site Role: The Radiant Reporter, Amiibo Aficionado
The Top 10 First Party Nintendo DS Games
Posted on 10 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in DS, Features, Reader Poll | 7 Comments
Alright, it’s time to wrap up this series of features by counting down the best first party games on the Nintendo DS. Well, first and second party games, really. If it was published by Nintendo, it’s fair game. Anyway, the ten Nintendo-published games you guys voted as the best on the console are as follows (hope you like plumbers and Pokémon)…
The Top 10 Third Party Nintendo DS Games
Posted on 10 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in DS, Features, Reader Poll | 9 Comments
It’s hard to think of a Nintendo console in recent memory that had as much third party support as the DS. Sega, Capcom, Square-Enix, Atlus, XSEED and even Rockstar all supported the console with some of the finest games on the system. True, the popularity of the console also meant that store shelves were usually packed with garbage shovelware, but we’re not here to discuss those. Instead, let’s take a look at ten of the third party games that defined the Nintendo DS throughout its lifespan:
The Top 5 Most Under-Appreciated and Disappointing Games on the Nintendo DS
Posted on 10 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in DS, Features, Reader Poll | 30 Comments
Like Fred Durst, our series of “Best of DS” lists keeps on rollin’ with a double feature of the top five most under-appreciated and disappointing titles on the console. Let’s start off with the good and recognise the games that might have scored well with critics, but fell under the radar for whatever reason.
Even though I’m happy with the games you guys picked, the “most under-appreciated” might also be the “most unnecessary” list, because how do you use a popularity contest to determine if something is the most under-appreciated? Of course, the deepest cuts were the ones that didn’t get enough votes to make the list so consider the real victors to be Bangai-O Spirits and Kira Kira: Pop Princess:
The Top 10 Nintendo DS Soundtracks
Posted on 10 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in DS, Features, Reader Poll | 8 Comments
Highlighting the best soundtracks on the Nintendo DS might just be my favourite entry in our month-long series of DS-related articles. Not because it’s easy to write about soundtracks after dropping music class in high school, but because it turned me on to all the best music on the console. Shout-outs are in order to whoever put down the DS game adaptation of the animated movie Robots, which is the only thing more forgettable than the movie itself. The soundtrack, however, happens to be this amazing synth pop score, which turned out to be composed by the developer of Escape Goat! Well anyway, Robots didn’t come remotely close to making the list, but here are the DS soundtracks that did:
The Top 6 DSiWare Titles
Posted on 10 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in DS, DSiWare, Features, Reader Poll | 3 Comments
The big (only?) selling point of the DSi was the existence of DSiWare, a collection of downloadable games available for purchase. From cheap, simple titles like Pyoro and other re-released WarioWare games to larger titles that were a bit too niche for a retail release like Wayforward’s Mighty Flip Champs, there was a fair bit worth playing on the service, so I thought it was worth highlighting the best it has to offer – or at least the games you readers claimed to be the best. I personally have minimal experience with DSiWare, only discovering a handful of games through the 3DS eShop, which is why other editors, namely Austin, are giving me a hand in writing this up.
I had initially planned to do all these lists as a “top 10” since it’s the tenth anniversary of the Nintendo DS, but since the DSi has only been out for six years let’s streamline things a bit. Yes, that’s the reason that only six games are on it and not because there were only a few entries that completely dominated the poll.
More: best of ds, Cave Story, dsiware, flipnote studio, highlight, nintendo ds, photo dojo, shantae, top
The Top 10 Most Visually Appealing Nintendo DS Games
Posted on 10 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in DS, DSiWare, Features, News, Reader Poll | 14 Comments
One of the big selling points of the Nintendo DS was its ability to render things in both 2D AND 3D. Wow! I mean sure developers could pull off polygons on the Game Boy Advance, but they probably shouldn’t have.
Like the jump from the 16-bit to 32-bit/64-bit consoles, the games on the DS contained a mix of art styles that don’t all hold up particularly well, but there are certain titles that overcome the low resolution of the console and deliver an experience that looks pretty darn nice. Consider this the top 10 least ugly games on the console, as voted by you:
Have Your Say! The 10th anniversary of the Nintendo DS
Posted on 10 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in DS, DSiWare, Features, Reader Poll, Reader Poll | 16 Comments
It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a decade since the Nintendo DS hit store shelves. From its humble beginnings an experimental “third pillar” to the existing GameCube and Game Boy Advance, the DS grew to become both Nintendo’s most successful console in terms of sales and the best-selling handheld of all time. The two screens and stylus controls might have been initially dismissed as a gimmick, but thanks to a great lineup of games everyone from existing fans to casual users seemed to be sold on that touch screen. Predating the boom in mobile gaming, software like Brain Training and Nintendogs helped to bring a new audience to the console. Heck, even my Grandma owns a DS!
What started as a truly terrible launch lineup (well, Super Mario 64 DS and Feel the Magic: XX/XY were okay) grew to an absolutely massive library of titles with something for everyone. Sure, there was a lot of shovelware, but it seemed like everyone from Atlus to Zoonami were backing the console. Nintendo’s New Super Mario Bros. and Pokemon games might have dominated the sales charts, but the DS became home to a number of more off-beat series like Phoenix Wright, Trauma Center, Etrian Odyssey and Dementium. I’d argue the Nintendo DS had the best third-party support of any Nintendo console since the NES, and this time Nintendo weren’t bullying publishers with oppressive, restrictive contracts!
But let’s get down to business; we’re running a bunch of DS-related features throughout the month and we need your feedback. If you remember our Big Huge NintendoEverything Wii Send-Off from 2012, you can expect something along those lines, with a series of top-arbitrary-number lists and other things. So please fill in our handy dandy voting form and help us in celebrating the best the DS had to offer.
