Top 15 Best Nintendo DS Hidden Gems

Today we’re going to be talking about Nintendo DS hidden gems. This handheld made major waves when it was released for numerous reasons. Nintendo initially planned for the DS to be a ‘third pillar’ while continuing support for the GBA. The focus with this new handheld was around unique features. It had two screens with one of them supporting touch inputs via an included stylus. The Nintendo DS came out at just the right time because it took the market by storm. It was cheap and easy to develop for, and software sold gangbusters on it. The market was absolutely flooded with software. Because of the high volume of games many were overlooked. That’s where I come in. Today we’re going to take a look at what I consider to be the top fifteen best Nintendo DS hidden gems in alphabetical order. Let’s start with a few rules:

• Today we’re focusing on North American releases. You won’t find any Japan or PAL-only games here. We’ll cover those in a separate list.
• The term ‘hidden gem’ is tough to define. Everyone has their own ideas about it. We’ve tried to limit this list to games for the platform that aren’t often brought up today. Some may have had hype at release, but by and large these have been mostly forgotten about now.
• This list is by no means definitive. I was just mentioning how everyone has a different idea of what a hidden gem is, and these are simply mine.

With that out of the way let’s dive right in. These are the top 15 best Nintendo DS hidden gems!

Big Bang Mini

We’re starting off strong here with a game that makes great use of the system’s features. Big Bang Mini offers a bizarre premise. You control a character on the bottom screen using the stylus. Enemies appear on the top display, and you dispatch them by shooting fireworks vertically. Of course you also have to worry about falling debris so your focus will be divided. It is a simple concept but one that’s highly addictive. It also helps that the graphics are plenty colorful and vibrant which perfectly suits a video game focused around fireworks. It’s a real shame that almost no one has heard of Big Bang Mini before because this truly is one of the greatest Nintendo DS hidden gems. It can also be had for cheap so there’s no reason to wait!

Contact

Developer Grasshopper Manufacture is known for their quirky titles. Their first game on the Nintendo DS was a bit unusual for them in that it was a turn based Japanese style RPG. In typical fashion it has some very unique twists. You play as yourself. You’re an onlooker who bridges contact between a professor in a space ship crash landed on an alien planet and a young man named Terry. You guide Terry by taking control of him as he goes on a quest to regain the power cells to restore energy to the professor’s ship. This one is vaguely reminiscent of Earthbound both in art style and overall zaniness. Combat is simple as Terry moves on his own after engaging a foe, but you can power him up using stickers and even changing his abilities via a neat job system. Contact is crazy, and amazing.

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime

This is game is actually a sequel. The original was called Slime MoriMori Dragon Quest and came out on the Game Boy Advance, but only in Japan. It’s strange then that we got this one especially because the franchise wasn’t doing particularly well in the West at the time. Regardless, the gameplay is different from the rest of the series. This is an action game where you play as the mascot enemy of the franchise; the slime. You traverse several areas full of enemies with one basic attack; Rocket can stretch and propel himself forward. It may sound pretty basic but gameplay is very fun and interesting with this mechanic. The boss battles in particular are crazy with you loading ammunition into a tank to fire at the enlarged foe. Dragon Quest Heroes has that typical charm the series is known for, and as a spin-off it’s fantastic.

Flower, Sun, and Rain

Here’s another title from Grasshopper Manufacture, and it’s just as unusual as the last one. Flower, Sun, and Rain is actually a de-make of a PS2 title of the same name. In this version you play as a private investigator named Sumio. He, along with his computer briefcase… thing named Catherine arrive at an island called Lospass in Micronesia. It’s up to you to explore, solve puzzles, and advance this non-sensical story to figure out just what’s going on. It’s a classic adventure game for better or worse. What I mean is your objectives are often extremely vague. This is one of the few instances I recommend using a guide right from the start. The story is disjointed and odd, but the game oozes style and I really did enjoy exploring this weird island. This is definitely one of those oddball Nintendo DS hidden gems.

Infinite Space

Platinum Games are no stranger to the hidden gems moniker. For the most part their titles have never gotten the attention they deserve, but their devoted fans and cult following have kept them alive. Infinite Space is one of the most ambitious games released for the Nintendo DS. This is an RPG where you manage a fleet of spaceships as you do battle with other armadas or ships in this sci-fi anime setting. The sheer amount of customization is insane. You can customize each of your ships with a variety of different options. There’s also a large cast of characters you can recruit as crewmates for each vessel. They have differing abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Outside of battle the story is handled kind of like an adventure/visual novel type game with a few things you can do to alter the narrative. Infinite Space is simply incredible.

Magician’s Quest: Mysterious Times

It’s strange that so few have tried to copy the Animal Crossing formula. Wild World on the Nintendo DS is one of the best selling games worldwide for the platform. Magician’s Quest is the only outright clone that I know of for the platform, but it does have enough to differentiate it from Nintendo’s game. This is a life sim using a real-time clock where you live in a town full of animal villagers. You have your own room that you decorate using furniture, wallpaper, and flooring that you acquire. What differentiates Magician’s Quest however is that you attend a magic school to learn new spells, and the villagers are your classmates. The characters themselves, and their speech is much more varied and dynamic than in Animal Crossing. In a lot of ways Magician’s Quest is actually better than it’s source material.

Meteos

Q Entertainment is best known for their puzzle title Lumines which launched on the Sony PSP. That one is so popular it’s still going on today. Meteos is the lesser known of their puzzle titles, but it’s actually better. I mean that. Meteos may be one of my favorite puzzle games of all time, and it’s clearly one of the best Nintendo DS hidden gems ever. This game makes use of the traditional side view set up with falling blocks that you must eliminate. The method to do so is quite different in this case. You have to line up like-colored blocks in traditional fashion. The difference is here is that they turn into rocket thrusters pushing entire sections upwards. If they don’t have enough momentum you can simply push them with another set of matched blocks. Gameplay is fast, frantic, and a ton of fun.

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

I’m not a huge fan of visual novels. Just being honest here. One would have to be very special to catch my eye, and that’s precisely what Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is (999 as I’ll refer to it from here on out). This game has a very dark story and premise wherein you have to escape a cruise ship compound making decisions that drastically affect the plot. It turns into a very interesting ‘who done it’ story and it’s surprisingly engaging. The main gameplay comes in the form of solving puzzles. These function kind of like escape rooms so if you’re in to that sort of thing you’ll absolutely love it here. I also enjoyed the fact that a few of them had multiple solutions. This really keeps you on your toes and greatly increases the replay value of this title. 999 deserved much more attention.

Nostalgia

I keep it no secret that Skies of Arcadia is one of my favorite video games of all time. It’s brand of airship exploration and battling has yet to be matched. That’s why I was incredibly interested in Nostalgia. This is an RPG set in a steampunk version of old London where you explore an anime style version of the world with airships. Combat is typical RPG fare with characters lining up on one side of the screen an enemies on the other as the two groups exchange blows. It’s pretty standard fare in this regard, but the skill trees are interesting enough to keep this one from being completely ordinary. What’s really interesting however are the airship battles. The developers took some serious notes from Skies of Arcadia in this regard. Combat in these encounters is still turn based, but it’s airships shooting each other down instead.

Okamiden

Capcom’s action adventure title was one of big underrated PS2 hits. It did not sell particularly well until subsequent releases. Few played it at the time, but even less people know there was a sequel. Enter Okamiden. This one picks up right where the original left off. You play as the son of the white wolf Amaterasu who must deal with the new threat as demons begin returning to the world. Fans will be happy to know that, despite the less powerful hardware, Okamiden plays very similarly to the original title. You run around this cel shaded world fighting off foes either with melee attacks or using the celestial brush to draw objects into the world. This is also used for a fair share of the puzzles found throughout this adventure. Okamiden doesn’t quite reach the same heights, but it’s easily one of the best Nintendo DS hidden gems.

Point Blank DS

The Point Blank franchise represents some of the best light gun action the 32-bit generation had to offer. Problem is with the rise of HD televisions the genre all but died off. That’s where the Nintendo DS came in with it’s touch screen. While it’s not exactly the same it’s close enough that the Point Blank formula is still a ton of fun! This DS iteration is sort of a ‘best of’ compilation including mini-games from all three of the original titles as well as some brand new ones. Rather than firing a plastic gun at a screen you instead tap with a stylus. Again, it isn’t quite the same but who cares because it’s still fun. The franchise was mostly forgotten by the time this handheld iteration released so it didn’t sell particularly well. That makes it a prime example of one of the greatest Nintendo DS hidden gems.

Retro Game Challenge

This is another title I was initially really hyped for. Retro Game Challenge is based on a game show in Japan (the license was dropped in the localization). Here you have eight video games. These are all small and very short, but they’re original and designed to look and feel like something you would find on the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System. Each of these is based on a different genre from platformer, shooter, racing, to RPG and more. You have four challenges per title to complete which will task you with separate objectives. It sounds simple, and it really is. The fact that the developers explored so many different genres is really neat. The games themselves are fun albeit short lived, and the objectives are fun. Retro Game Challenge is one I never hear mentioned anymore. If you’re a fan of the classics you’ll love it.

Sands of Destruction

The Nintendo DS had more than it’s fair share of RPG ports and spin-offs. What I wanted was some truly original yet classically styled role playing games for the platform. I got just that with Sands of Destruction from Imagepoch and Sega. Sands of Destruction uses 2D sprites on polygonal backgrounds. It features fantastic dungeon designs as well as a combat system based around combos which works surprisingly well. The graphics and soundtrack are fantastic especially considering the platform. I got vibes of Grandia and Xenogears both of which I love, yet Sands of Destruction feels like its own game. If you’re a fan of traditional RPGs then this one is surely worth checking out. It’s easily one of the best Nintendo DS hidden gems.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

I tried to not convolute this list too much with the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. Fact is outside of the Persona games these just aren’t very popular outside of Japan. Strange Journey is the best SMT game on the Nintendo DS. For all intents and purposes I feel like this is strong enough that it should not have been a mere spin-off. It uses the typical first person viewpoint while exploring detailed and maze-like environments. You create your own party with a main character as well as demons you recruit during gameplay. In this sense it’s a little like Pokemon’s ‘gotta catch em all’ mechanics, but Megami Tensei was doing this years before Pocket Monsters. The battle system here has been refined with different focuses such as demons that can attack co-operatively with one another. With the sheer amount of options and strategies this is a truly meaty RPG.

SNK Vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS

If you read my Neo Geo Pocket hidden gems list then you already know my feelings about Capcom/SNK’s brand of card battling. This Nintendo DS version is largely more of the same, but more refined and with much more content. You collect cards and battle against NPCs and even humans should you so choose. The matches are turn based and similar to something like Magic the Gathering or the Pokemon Trading Card game, but with Capcom and SNK characters for the artwork. It was hyped when announced, but Card Fighters DS fell victim to a game breaking bug that killed all momentum it otherwise might have had. The publisher recalled defunct copies of the title and replaced them but the damage had already been done. It’s unfortunate too because SNK Vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS is a lot of fun.