The mighty Nintendo DS handheld was a smashing world-wide success with over 150 million units sold since 2004. The DS is home to hundreds of fun & unique games in every genre...but in this video my friend Kinsey & I reveal some Hidden Gems or lesser known games that every DS gamer should have in their collection.
Another Code/Trace Memory - Excellent adventure game that makes fantastic use of all the DS features.
Bangai-O Spirits - It's by Treasure, so it's automatically awesome. Hundreds of stages, a level design system where you can share levels via audio clips using the DS microphone, and tons of weapon combo options.
Electroplankton - Weird experimental art and music game that lets you create weird ambient music.
Ghost Trick - One of my favourite games of all time. Amazing story, excellent puzzles and great use of the touch screen. By the creator of the Ace Attorney series.
Henry Hatsworth - Vastly underrated platformer. Lots of action, awesome bosses, brilliant sense of humour, and a weird gameplay which switches from platformign action to block matching puzzle game on the fly.
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 & The Last Window - Another game series by Cing, the guys who made Another Code/Trace Memory. Awesome film noire style story and excellent rotoscoped graphics, with brilliant adventure gameplay and puzzles that make you think outside of the box.
Jam with the Band /Daigasso Band Brothers DX - Only came out in Europe and Japan, it's an excellent but simple rhythm game where the face buttons play notes and the L and R buttons adjust pitch and octave. Pretty tough, but good fun.
Meteos - Inventive puzzle game that makes good use of the touch screen. Matching blocks causes them to take off like a rocket, and you need to combo enough together to get enough fuel to blast big combos off screen.
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes - Weird puzzle/strategy spin-off of the might and magic series. Gameplay is half turn based strategy and half match 3 puzzler. Vertical matches line up attacks and horizontal matches create walls to bolster your defences.
Pac-Pix - Fun little game that was a very early DS release. Draw pacmen to eat ghosts.
Pokémon Link/Pokémon Trozei - Weird to call it a hidden gem as its got Pokémon in it's name, but everyone forgets about this one. A fast paced puzzle game with a cool combo system where matching several combos fast lets you create matches with smaller and smaller lines of blocks.
Rhythm Paradise/Rhythm Heaven - Awesome Nintendo rhythm game that is off the wall, challenging and a ton of fun. Pretty challenging.
Soul Bubbles - A fun game where you have to blow a bubble full of souls around an assault course. Kind of like a spiritual (literally) sequel to the Game Boy game Bubble Ghost. You also get different masks that let you shrink, grow and divide bubbles.
Trauma Centre - Fun game where you perform surgery on patients with crazy mutant superviruses that slash holes in their vital organs. Really challenging.
I adore the DS, one of my favourites. Trying to identify Hidden Gems on the system is tough though, there are just too many good games.
You guys should also check out Knights in the Nightmare! That game is, in my eyes THE hidden gem of the system. Not many people seem to know about it, yet it is one of the most unique JRPGs out there. It borrows gameplay elements from from Ikaruga, Valkyrie Profile, and Final fantasy Tactics. The music is also really good and while the story may be a little confusing at first, is actually very interesting. If you have not already done so, check it out. There really is nothing else quite like it.
Another interesting hidden gem is Solatorobo, which is a very charming action adventure game. Not the best in the genre by any means, but still worth at least trying.
A game that should be on the list, is the Legendary Starfy. This game deserves to be on the list, because it's packed full of funny animations and detailed sprites. Moreover the best part of the game is the level design and colorful backgrounds, that although on the small screen still immerses you into the many worlds explored in the game.
Attachments
250px-The_Legendary_Starfy_NA_Boxart.jpg (40.78 KiB) Viewed 16782 times
Klassic PlastiK @ youtube.com/KlassicplastiK Currently playing:Super Smash bros.(4)(3DS/WiiU) Currently reading: Batman: Death of a Family
AppleQueso wrote:
You can't even pronounce "RPG" or "FPS" like you can "Shmup"
Arpuhguh? Fffpiss? Bah!
"Shmup" is far more elegant!
I love Rocket Slime. I agree with her, that's my favorite game on the DS also. It's not at all hard to find, nor is it expensive. People should grab it if they haven't.
I would say, Ace Attorney (Series). I know it's gotten more popular, but certain entries like Investigations were almost entirely ignored.
A severe hidden gem is the Chibi Robo Sequel, since it was a Walmart exclusive release. It's also extremely cheap right now.
I second Starfy
Nanostray 2, instead of being vertical it's a horizontal shmup. (There's also a third one, sort of, on 3DS!)
Dementium The Ward. And the sequel (recently got a HD remake on Steam)
I'd also like to see the Mega Man ZX games talked about, though I don't know how "hidden" they are.
Cronozilla wrote:Nanostray 2, instead of being vertical it's a horizontal shmup.
It's both actually, like Life Force/Salamander.
RyaNtheSlayA wrote:Check out MOON as well. Made by the same guys that did the Dementium games.
It's interesting. In my opinion it's kind of a better Metroid Prime game than Metroid Prime Hunters was. It couldn't hold my interest all the way through but it's very technically impressive.