9 Best Looking DS Games

Ghost Trick comes from Shu Takumi, the creator of Ace Attorney. It came out on the DS in Japan in June 2010 and in North America, Europe and Australia in January 2011. You play Sissel, a ghost trying to find out who he was and who killed him. You do it with ghost tricks, which solve puzzles and change what happens around you. Critics praised its art direction and its animation, and it was nominated for Game of the Year by GameSpot and Nintendo Power.

Takumi has said Tom and Jerry rubbed off on him, and you can see it in how everyone moves. The team had trouble rendering the 3D character models properly on the DS. You would never guess it from how smoothly they glide and flail across the screen. It is a slow, talky game, and no DS game moves with more style.

Beyond the Yellow Brick Road was made by Media.Vision, the studio behind the Wild Arms series. It came out in Japan on December 25, 2008, and Xseed Games brought it to North America on September 29, 2009. Its Japanese title, RIZ-ZOAWD, is an anagram of "Wizard" and "Oz". Battles are seen in first person, like Dragon Quest and Earthbound.

Players single it out as one of the most impressive 3D games on the DS. The story puts its own spin on Oz, with a version of Glinda who is the mother of three witch sisters. Each of your four companions gets a set number of action slots per turn, so Tin Man and Lion can never attack in the same round. For a licensed game, it got far more care than it needed.

C.O.P. The Recruit is a 2009 action adventure game made by VD-dev and published by Ubisoft. It started out as a Driver game called Driver: The Recruit before it was turned into its own thing. You play Dan Miles, a former street racer who now works as a detective protecting New York. Reviews were mixed. It still won Best Graphics Technology at the Best of E3 2009 awards.

Players call it one of the best looking games on the DS. A 3D New York you can drive around was a big ask for a cartridge, and VD-dev pulled it off. The story is a standard cop thriller about a terrorist plot and a framed partner. Play it to see the city move.

Dominion of the Dark Djinn is a role-playing game from Level-5. It came out in Japan for the DS on December 9, 2010. Studio Ghibli made its animated scenes. Joe Hisaishi co-wrote the music, and the artwork takes from other Ghibli films too. You play Oliver, a boy who travels to another world to save his mother.

Reviewers praised its story and its art style. Players rank it among the best looking games the DS ever got. An enhanced version, Wrath of the White Witch, came to the PS3 in November 2011, and that is the one most English players know. The DS original stayed in Japan. If you want the Ghibli look on your DS, you will be reading Japanese.

Okamiden is the spiritual successor to Ōkami, which first came out on the PS2. It was directed by Kuniomi Matsushita, who also directed the Wii port of Ōkami. It came out in North America on March 15, 2011. Most reviews were positive, and reviewers liked how much of Ōkami it brought over to the DS. One critic called the visuals terrible and said the DS was the wrong home for it.

Players name it as one of the best looking games on the DS.

That critic must have played it with the lights off.

The ink and paper look of Ōkami shrank down to two small screens and somehow kept its charm. Everything is a little rounder and cuter than in the first game.

Black 2 and White 2 are direct sequels to Black and White, and they were the first sequels in the Pokémon series. They came out in Japan in June 2012 and around the world in October 2012, as the last first-party games for the DS. Takao Unno wanted players to look at Unova from a different perspective. Junichi Masuda hoped that starting in a new city would make the world look new to returning players.

Lots of players can't choose between the two pairs and name them together. These two came at the very end of the DS, and they show a team that knew the hardware inside out. The new towns and routes make Unova feel bigger the second time round.

Solatorobo is the spiritual sequel to Tail Concerto. Manga artist Nobuteru Yūki did its artwork and character designs, and Madhouse made the animated cutscenes. It came out in Japan in October 2010, and Xseed Games released it in North America in September 2011. You travel between floating islands, and everyone there is a dog or a cat, the Caninu and the Felineko.

Players vote for it again and again when the question is which DS game looks best. It plays like a Saturday morning cartoon you get to steer, with bright skies and big robots. It came out late in the life of the DS, when most people had moved on, and that may be why so few played it.

The World Ends with You is set in the Shibuya shopping district of Tokyo, and its distinctive art style comes from Shibuya and its youth culture. It came out in Japan in July 2007 and in North America in April 2008. Fights take place on both screens at once, and you attack with motions on the touchscreen. Critics praised its graphics and its soundtrack.

Players call the art amazing and the whole game a spectacular thing to look at. It looks like a street poster that started moving. Neku stomps around Shibuya in loud clothes, and the city around him is all sharp lines and bold colour. It has aged better than most games from 2007 on any system.

Black and White are the first games in the fifth generation of Pokémon, and they take place in a new region called Unova. They came out in Japan on 18 September 2010 and in Europe, North America and Australia in March 2011. Junichi Masuda directed them and wrote the music. They became the fastest DS games to sell 5 million copies. Reviewers were divided on some of the new Pokémon designs.

Players love the animated Pokémon sprites in battle. You can even find and battle a trainer named after Shigeki Morimoto, a Game Freak programmer. The 3D cities and bridges still look great on a DS today. More players picked it than any other game on this list.