7 Best DS Demakes

Civilization Revolution was built as an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game first. Firaxis programmer Scott Lewis said it was in development for over a year before the Wii and DS versions were added. The Wii version was then cancelled, so the DS was the only Nintendo console that got it. It is Civilization made smaller and quicker. You still lead one civilization through history against rival leaders. One way to win is to research every technology you need to build and launch a space ship and be the first to reach Alpha Centauri.

Players keep putting it on their lists of DS picks, often next to much bigger names. That says a lot about a strategy game that had to shrink this much. A full game fits into a few train rides, and the old pull of one more turn works just as well on a small screen.

Call of Duty: Black Ops came out in November 2010 on Windows, the PlayStation 3, the Wii and the Xbox 360, with a separate version for the Nintendo DS developed by n-Space. It is the seventh Call of Duty and a sequel to World at War. The DS game is a smaller version built for the cartridge, and it still has online multiplayer. Online matches hold six players, and there is a Perks system for them. You tap an icon to swap your gun for a new one. You can also drag a weapon into an empty slot to keep it without dropping the one you hold. The two easier difficulties even give you an auto lock-on.

Players call it a fun first-person shooter, with a lot packed in for a handheld game. It takes a few minutes to get used to. After that it feels like Call of Duty, just a lot smaller.

SimCity DS was published by Electronic Arts and developed by AKI Corporation and EA Japan. It brings the city builder to a cartridge and changes a few things on the way. Older SimCity games let you lean on a whole team of advisors. Here you choose only one advisor when you sign the town charter. Pick carefully, because that voice is the one you will hear for the rest of the game. Some buildings only show up if you spend money on research, which you set near the bottom of your expense budget sheet.

Players who grew up with it still come back to it, and they recommend it to anyone who wants a city builder in their pocket. It is the kind of game that eats a long trip without you noticing. Your mayor never gets a holiday.

The Sims 2 on DS shares little with the PC game besides the name. Development started after the PC version was a hit, and Griptonite made it, as it had The Urbz and the handheld Bustin' Out. You play a Sim who becomes the manager of the only hotel in Strangetown. The job is to improve the hotel by adding extensions and keeping it clean. Guests also need rescuing now and then. As the plot goes on, your Sim uncovers the town's secrets. The game also has mini-games and lets you make music and draw pictures.

It was noted for its dark plot and absurdist humor. The developers even wanted the player to control the Sim as a parasitic amoeba living in its brain. EA said no. Players remember it as one of the strangest Sims games ever made. They mean that as praise.

On the big consoles, The Urbz came with songs by The Black Eyed Peas, translated into Simlish. The DS got its own story instead, a sequel to the handheld version of The Sims Bustin' Out. It plays as an adventure game, and you have direct control of your character, the Urb. That makes it feel closer to a small role-playing game than to the Sims most people know.

It is the third Sims game for consoles, and a planned PC port and sequel were both cancelled because of mediocre sales. On the DS it found its fans anyway. Players call it silly in the best way, full of odd jobs and stranger mini-games. Several still name it as their favorite in the whole series, which is quite something for a spin-off that never got its sequel.

Sonic Colors was made in two versions at the same time. Sonic Team built the Wii game, and Dimps built the one for the Nintendo DS. Development began in 2008, after Sonic Unleashed was finished. The developers looked at what people had disliked in past games, made Sonic the only playable character and worked on balancing speed with platforming. They added the Wisps to keep things varied without slowing him down. In the story, an amusement park appears in orbit around Sonic's home planet, and Dr. Eggman is holding the alien Wisps captive there.

Critics liked it, and many saw it as a return to form for the series. The DS version is a 2D Sonic, and one player summed it up in two words: "Rush 3". Players rate it as a really good 2D Sonic, and fans of the Sonic Rush games should play it next.

PopCap Seattle developed the original Plants vs. Zombies, released by PopCap Games in 2009, and the DS version came later. It is a tower defense game. You protect your suburban home from waves of zombies by placing plants on a grid-based lawn. Each plant has its own job, and different zombie types need different plans. The game spans five stages, moving from daytime to night, then to the backyard pool, the fog and finally the rooftop. There are extra modes on top, puzzles and survival among them.

Players remember it as a blast on the DS, and they named it more often than any other game on this list. The stylus suits it well. You tap a seed packet, then tap the lawn, and the zombies keep coming either way.