Top 10 DS Exclusives

IT’S CHRISTMAS!!! And you know what that means don’t you? It’s time to whip out your wallet and hand over your hard-earned cash for some seriously good games. In this special series of VideoGamer.com Top 10s, we list the best exclusive games for each of the seven major platforms and tell you why they’re so ruddy brilliant. Today, it’s the Nintendo DS’ bulging back catalogue of touch screen wonders that gets the Top 10 treatment.

10. Hotel Dusk Room 215 – 2007

Ah, Hotel Dusk. We fell in love with Karl Hyde the moment we clamped eyes on him: we adore his scruffy dress sense, his silly-but-still-quite-cool goatee, and the fact that he looks like the saddest dog in the world. Despite being set entirely within a single location, Hotel Dusk has one of the best video game plots of the last ten years – a twisting mystery that dishes out laughs and melancholia in equal helpings. For a puzzle adventure game there really aren’t that many puzzles, and yet it spins such an ace little story that you’ll barely notice. The characters are wonderfully drawn, both in terms of their dialogue, and in the unforgettable hand-drawn art style – an aesthetic that recalls Aha’s video for Take On Me. Oh, and it all builds up to a fantastic ending, too.

9. Mario Vs Donkey Kong 2 – 2007

Like Tom and Jerry, or Liverpool and Man United fans, Mario and Donkey Kong will always hate each other’s guts. Pacifists may shed a tear over this sorry state of affairs, but if it means we continue to get games as good as this, you’ll hear no complaints from us. MvsDK2 is an excellent little puzzler that resembles a cross between the original Donkey Kong and Krusty’s Funhouse – the Simpsons spin-off from the early ’90s. This time Mario (that’s you) must defeat his simian nemesis by directing a supply of clockwork automatons, indirectly guiding their path with taps and sweeps of the stylus. It has the same just-one-more-go quality that Lemmings had – and in fact it’s not that dissimilar to play… except that the Lemmings are now mechanical plumbers, on a mission to murder a big ape. Aren’t gorillas an endangered species?

8. Elite Beat Agents – 2007

A penniless oil baron, a lost puppy and a taxi driver with a pregnant woman in the back of his cab; these are just three of the people you’ll help in Elite Beat Agents. You won’t give them money or sensible advice – instead you’ll perform an inspirational dance for them by tapping circles and sliding your stylus in time to the backing music. The soundtrack includes covers of everything from Bowie’s Let’s Dance to Avril Lavigne’s Sk8r Boi, while the backing stories are hilariously bizarre – although the one about the little girl who misses her Daddy at Christmas might make you cry… until your remember how damn hard the game can be, and hurl your DS at the nearest wall. We’re kidding – this is one of our favourite DS releases, despite the

difficulty.

7. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass – 2007

This follow-up to the GameCube’s Wind Waker effortlessly recreates the look and feel of that game on the smaller dual screens. With intuitive stylus controls and smart puzzles, Link feels perfectly at home on the DS, perhaps even more so than he did on the GameCube. It’s not without the odd problem; the central dungeon, which requires “re-beating” over and over again, commits the most heinous crime. But PH is still easily one of the DS’ best games. If you’re a Legend of Zelda fan, Phantom Hourglass is an essential purchase. If you’re not… wait… you’re not a Zelda fan? Get out.

6. Advance Wars: Dual Strike – 2005

Some people are addicted to The X-Factor. Others are addicted to love. DS owners are addicted to Advance Wars. Once you get into the turn-based war game there’s no escaping its moreish strategy. Like the best games, it’s easy to learn but hard to master, and could last you hundreds and hundreds of hours. Advance Wars: Dual introduced the ability to switch between two commanding officers mid battle, and combine their powers to form devastating multi-turn attacks. Better than that, though, Dual Strike opened up a second front, viewed on the top screen. If you’re after a high value DS game, Advance Wars: Dual Strike is for you; there are no more lengthy or addictive titles on the handheld.

5. Pokemon Platinum – 2009

Perhaps one day someone will make a game about an ambitious kid who sets out on a journey to collect every Pokemon game in existence; at this point the world will suffer an overload of post-modernism, tearing a hole in the fabric of the space-time continuum. Until that happens, there’s Pokemon Platinum – a juiced-up director’s cut version of Pokemons Diamond and Pearl, which in turn were evolved descendents of the game that we’ve all been playing for nearly 14 years. It’s easy to be cynical about Game Freak’s highly lucrative franchise, but there’s a clear reason why people keep coming back to the series: these are great games. Platinum serves up the usual collect-em-all shtick, along us with lots of nice features like WiFi mini-games, and the ability to record videos of matches against your chums.

4. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks – 2009

Better than Phantom Hourglass in almost every way, Spirit Tracks is the third Zelda game in the cel-shaded Wind Waker style. Rather than sail the high seas looking for treasure, you’re driving a train shooting monsters and dodging other trains like Pac-Man dodging monsters. Now, we know this is a bit of a bonkers departure for the Zelda series, and in practice train driving is a bit boring, but it’s better than aimlessly sailing around for hours on end not doing too much; one of the main criticisms of Link’s previous adventure. Other improvements are even more welcome: you can skip floors of the central dungeon you’ve already completed, and Princess Zelda comes along for the ride, adding complexity to the puzzles. There’s a feeling of “been here, done that”, but for Legend of Zelda fans Spirit Tracks is the bees knees.

3. Professor Layton and the Curious Village – 2008

Level-5’s enchanting puzzle game is not only one of the best DS games, but one of the best games ever created. It looks like a Studio Ghibli animated movie and it plays like a dream. While the puzzles steal the show, there’s so much more to admire. From the beautiful backgrounds to the whimsical music, from the engrossing story to the memorable characters, Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a game guaranteed to please everyone. Really, you’d have to be a scrooge of epic proportions not to fall for Layton’s charm. We can’t think of a bad word to say about it. Buy it, enjoy it, love it.

2. New Super Mario Bros. – 2006

Gamers old enough to remember Mario’s two dimensional days will love New Super Mario Bros.’ old school pixel perfect platforming. It’s not as hard as Mario’s classic NES and SNES adventures, but it still poses a sturdy challenge and is guaranteed to test your hand/eye coordination to the limit. It’s just loads of fun. There are few platform games that can match the brilliance of Nintendo’s flagship series. It’s satisfying, beautiful, brilliantly designed and dangerously addictive. Some of the new power-ups aren’t up to much (the Mega Mushroom doesn’t really work), but that’s nit-picking: the world’s most famous Italian plumber might look best in 3D, but he still does 2D better than anyone else.

1. Mario Kart DS – 2005

We all know what Mario Kart’s about: you race karts against the computer or friends. But just because it’s familiar doesn’t mean it’s not brilliant. Four DS’ plus one copy of Mario Kart DS equals the most fun you can have on Nintendo’s dual screen handheld. Mario Kart DS takes the number one spot in our best DS games list because of its universal appeal. Newcomers love it just as much as veterans do, and the game accepts them both with open arms. But equally impressive is how accessible it is. Making a four player race work over wireless connection is a breeze. If you only buy one game for your DS, make sure it’s Mario Kart.

Check back Saturday for the next instalment of VideoGamer.com’s Top 10 platform exclusives series, where we run down PS2’s ten best games.