15 Best Cheap DS Games

Wario: Master of Disguise is a stranger game than the box lets on. Its Japanese title, Phantom Thief Wario the Seven, refers to the fact that he has seven "forms" on top of his normal thief outfit. New items and abilities open up new parts of the map, much like a metroidvania. A rival thief, the Silver Zephyr, gives chase the whole way.

A loose cart sells for a typical $13. It is not a polished game. One reviewer criticised the pacing and the dialogue, with characters going on about their motivation between very weak fart jokes. Still, it is a cheap way to see a side of Wario that Nintendo never tried again.

Picross 3D takes the number puzzles from Picross and turns them into blocks. Every puzzle is a block of cubes, and the numbers tell you which ones to break away until a little sculpture is left. Finish a puzzle within a certain time limit and with no strikes and you get maximum stars, which unlock bonus puzzles. A sequel, Picross 3D: Round 2, came to the 3DS in 2016.

A loose cart sells for a typical $10, the lowest price on this list. Puzzle fans keep naming it, often right next to the regular Picross games. Be warned: there are a lot of puzzles on that cart, and they eat whole evenings.

Dawn of Sorrow is the sequel to Aria of Sorrow on the GBA, and it was the first Castlevania game released on the DS. Koji Igarashi, the longtime Castlevania producer, led the team and wrote the story. You play Soma Cruz again, a young man with the power to take the souls of the monsters he kills. You can have one Bullet, Guardian and Enchant soul equipped at any time, and mixing them is half the fun.

A loose cart sells for a typical $24, a dollar under our limit. Players tell you to get all three DS Castlevania games, and Portrait of Ruin also sells for a typical $24. Order of Ecclesia is the one that costs more, at $36.

Mario Party DS is the second handheld Mario Party, and the only one released on the DS. It was also the last game in the series made by Hudson Soft before Nintendo Cube took over. The story has Bowser trap Mario and his friends and steal Mario's Sky Crystal, which is mostly an excuse to send everyone across the boards.

The game got mixed reviews. Critics liked the minigame variety and missed an online mode. It still sold more than nine million units. A loose cart sells for a typical $14. Players still name it among the DS games to own. Bring friends.

Final Fantasy IV on the DS is a full 3D remake of the SNES classic that North America first knew as Final Fantasy II. Matrix Software made it, the same team behind the 3D Final Fantasy III remake. Takashi Tokita served as executive producer and director, and Hiroyuki Ito came back as battle designer. The remake adds the Augment System, which lets you hand certain abilities to characters who never had them before.

A loose cart sells for a typical $18. Players who love RPGs keep it on their DS lists next to Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy III. Final Fantasy III is even cheaper, at a typical $13 loose. Hidden bosses wait for you in a New Game Plus, so the cart lasts well past the credits.

Cooking Mama turns cooking into a string of quick touchscreen minigames. To make a sandwich, you first have to chop a cucumber into slices before the time runs out, and every step of a dish is its own little challenge. Your result for each dish is the average of those steps, and a good run earns a bronze, silver or gold medal. Mama is always watching.

It won IGN's "Best Of E3" award for 2006. A loose cart sells for a typical $14. Players remember losing whole afternoons to it, and it is the game on this list most likely to get a younger sibling hooked on the DS. It was later ported to iOS as Cooking Mama: Let's Cook!

Metroid Prime Hunters is the Metroid that turned into a first-person shooter. Nintendo Software Technology made it after Retro Studios was already busy, and a demo called Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt came packed in with the DS at launch. You move with the d-pad and aim with the stylus on the touchscreen. It has more shooter in it than any earlier Prime, with multiplayer modes over Wi-Fi and voice chat.

IGN named it the "Best DS Action Game" of 2006. A loose cart sells for a typical $22. Players praise the touchscreen aiming and the multiplayer. Expect a sore hand after a long session.

Kirby Super Star Ultra is a remake of the SNES Kirby Super Star, and HAL went well past a simple port. It was first meant to be a smaller remake called Kirby Super Deluxe Plus, until the president of HAL asked for a deluxe package that would exceed customers' expectations. The team kept every mode from the original and added new bosses and music on top.

A loose cart sells for a typical $21. It sold just under 3 million copies, the best-selling Kirby game since Kirby's Dream Land in 1992. Like the original, it was criticized for being too easy. Players keep naming it among the DS games to own, and some call it the best Kirby game.

Sonic Rush is a 2D Sonic that runs across both screens of the DS at once. Its 2.5D format came from Sonic Team's idea to combine elements from 2D and 3D games in the series. It was the final game in the mainline Sonic series to be produced by Yuji Naka before he left Sega. It also brought in Blaze the Cat, who insists she is the only one who can save their worlds.

Critics praised the visuals and the music, and some found it too fast. A loose cart sells for a typical $16. Players who like 2D platformers call the Rush games some of the best Sonic around. The sequel, Sonic Rush Adventure, came out in 2007.

Plants vs. Zombies started life on computers in 2009. It was developed by PopCap Seattle and released by PopCap Games before EA bought the studio. You defend your lawn with plants against a slow march of zombies. PopCap promoted it with a music video for the song "Zombies on Your Lawn" by Laura Shigihara.

A loose cart sells for a typical $14. Players who own the DS port speak up for it, and it is a gentle pick for anyone new to strategy games.

Tetris DS is Tetris with a lot of extra ways to play packed in. The game received positive reviews from critics, who cited its extra modes and its multiplayer. Long after its release it was still held up as the best portable Tetris and one of the best in the series. Not everyone was sold. One review said it made "enough minor, obvious mistakes to keep it from becoming essential".

A loose cart sells for a typical $21. Players talk about it in hours sunk, and a few compare it to Picross 3D for how hard it is to put down. If you only want one puzzle game for the system, this is the safe pick.

Super Mario 64 DS is an enhanced remake of Super Mario 64, and it was a launch title for the DS. It adds new characters and courses, plus extra Power Stars to find. The models have more polygons than the Nintendo 64 version, and there is a set of touchscreen minigames on the side.

The lack of an analog stick was a common complaint in reviews, and you will feel it on the d-pad. It is still the tenth best-selling DS game, with over 11.06 million copies sold by 2018. A loose cart sells for a typical $18. Players list it next to New Super Mario Bros. as the Mario games to own.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is a detective story. You lead Kyle around a map of the hotel on the touch screen while a 3D view fills the other screen. You are Kyle Hyde, a former NYPD detective now working as a salesman, searching for his missing partner Brian Bradley. The whole game takes place in a rural Nevada hotel. Director Taisuke Kanasaki said the team wanted "an unprecedented visual expression not found in any other game", and the characters were drawn with rotoscoping.

A loose cart sells for a typical $20. Players who love story games keep putting it next to Ghost Trick and its sequel Last Window. Ghost Trick sells for a typical $48 loose, so Hotel Dusk is the cheaper way into that crowd.

Mario Kart DS was the fifth main Mario Kart and the first one you could play online, through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. It runs at a consistent 60 frames per second with full 3D characters and tracks. Reviewers liked the tight controls, with power-sliding and drafting adding strategy, and some found the rubberband AI frustrating.

It won IGN's Best Racing/Driving Game and sold 23.6 million copies. A loose cart sells for a typical $13. Players name it more than almost any other DS game, and one put it plainly: "Mario Kart DS is the best Mario Kart to date in my opinion".

New Super Mario Bros. was the first side-scrolling Super Mario since Yoshi's Island in 1995. Takashi Tezuka led the team with Hiroyuki Kimura, and Shigeru Miyamoto supervised. It was shown alongside the reveal of the DS at E3 2004. It brought Mario back to 2D and gave him a mini form so light that he can run on water.

It sold over 30 million copies, the best-selling game on the DS, and many credit it with reviving the 2D platformer. A loose cart sells for a typical $15. Players name it in the same breath as Mario Kart DS and Animal Crossing.