Most Beautiful / Ugliest 3D games on the DS

[neilencio]

I just had a chance to play Dragonball Kai: Ultimate Butouden and while it's not as enjoyable as the Dragonball titles on Sony's side (partly because it depends too much on luck and rock/paper/scissors mechanics), I was blown away by how good it looks. There's still a lot of jaggies and the textures are still flat in some areas, but it's good enough to make the game look like a low resolution PSP game.

The game made me appreciate the DS' 3D capabilities, which is unfairly panned. It's true that it's underpowered, but some developers can really make it work. I rummaged through my stack and started looking for more games that took advantage of the handheld's 3D capabilities, and here are the ones that I found (I ignored the obvious, first party titles):

1. Dirt 2 -it looks good enough to be mistaken for a Dreamcast game. The animation is smooth, and there's surprisingly less jaggies noticeable.

2. The FPS titles - The CoDs and Dementium. I had to lump them all together since I didn't care much for them. Not used to FPS using the stylus.

3. Viewtiful Joe: DT - it looks as good as the console counterparts, and the only downside you will notice is that some of the textures are grainy and flat. I know there's another VJ title on the DS but I don't have it so I have no idea if there's an improvement.

4. Dragonball Origins - looks almost good enough to be an early PS2 title.

5. WWE Smackdown VS Raw 2k8/2k9/2k19 - Horrible stylus based controls, I admit (2k10 used buttons for control, but it was too laggy to be of any use). But the graphics are awesome. The wrestlers are recognizable, and they even managed to include full entrances.

6. Marvel Superhero Squad - Infinity Gems - it reminds me of the MUA series on the consoles, with obvious sacrifices just to work on an underpowered engine (e.g. 2 characters at a time, less enemies)

On the other hand, I also found some games that really crapped on the DS's 3D capabilities, which makes you wonder why the developers even bothered:

1. Star Wars - Force Unleashed - it's not even the low resolution that made this ugly. It's like the developers didn't even try to make things recognizable and just stacked random polygons on top of each other: "that black polygon is the head and that black polygon is the body, and that black polygon is the cape. That red line is a lightsaber. KA-CHING!"

2. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 - It's as ugly as Star Wars Force Unleashed, with the added bonus of having really jerky animation. It's like they have two frames each for every action the characters make. It's a really poor port of the console MUAs. It's even more shameful since the kiddie-oriented Marvel Superhero Squad: Infinity Gems showed that you can do a proper MUA on the DS.

3. Sonic Rush Adventure - I had fun with this game, but the 2.5D/3D engine they used is really awkward, and they should have just stayed with 2D (or at least used a cel-shaded style)

I'm currently on a DS 3D kick as a result of this, any other recommendations for titles I can pick up?

[Anayo]

Mario Kart DS is probably the best looking 3D game I can think of. The levels are really big and have an awe inspiring sense of scale.

Metroid Prime Hunters looked great even though the gameplay was insultingly watered down. To me it looked more or less like the original Half Life.

[Axelord83]

Dementium was probably the 1 game that caught my attention when it was first released. Aside from that...Mario Kart looks decent and mario 64 ds.

[AmishSamurai]

Avalon Code, Mario kart DS, the Zelda games are all worth mentioning.

[Frizz.Meister]

Lego star wars the orginal trilogy. If you can look past the maxxive graphical glitches ever so often it looks great. Reflections on shiny surfaces and water, dynamic shadows and the gameplay isnt to bad.

Also Mario basketball looks really nice. But then its only 6 characters and a few objects.

[SuperAnthony64]

Phantasy Star Zero looks great.

[toadhall]

In recent memory, the most beautiful game I can think of is Final Fantasy - 4 Heroes of Light. The ugliest is probably Goldeneye.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Pocket Monsters Black and White make excellent use of 3D.

[lisalover1]

Most 3D RPGs on the DS look gorgeous: Kingdom Hearts 354/2 Days, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, Dragon Quest IX, Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded, and Tales of Innocence are all packed to the gills with eye candy.

In recent memory, the most beautiful game I can think of is Final Fantasy - 4 Heroes of Light. The ugliest is probably Goldeneye.

Trust me, there are much worse 3D graphics on the DS. Besides, Goldeneye: Rogue Agent was actually quite a good game for the DS. It was an early title that capitalized well on the DS' potential for First-Person Shooters.