25 Best Nintendo DS Action Games

LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures plays through all three classic Indiana Jones movies in tongue-in-cheek LEGO form. You battle enemies and solve puzzles on the hunt for the world's greatest treasures. It covers Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom and the Last Crusade, and climbing and swinging were new for Traveller's Tales' LEGO games.

Collecting studs, the LEGO games' currency, is as addictive as ever, and there are traps to avoid and LEGO pieces to build into whatever you need next. Critics gave it generally favourable reviews and liked the graphics and the soundtrack. A sequel, LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues, followed in 2009. It is the lightest game on this list, and it knows it.

Big Bang Mini is a shoot 'em up with bullet hell influences, developed by Arkedo. Even your own shots turn dangerous, because they explode and come back down to the lower screen. You flick fireworks up from the bottom screen with the stylus to hit enemies on the top screen, then use the same stylus to steer your character away from the falling sparks.

It has more than 100 levels across four modes, plus multiplayer, and all of the music is original. Arkedo had already made Nervous Brickdown for the DS, and SouthPeak published this one in North America in January 2009. It is one of the few games here that could only exist on the DS. Friendly fire has rarely been this literal.

Space Invaders Extreme keeps the essence of the original game and wraps it in futuristic graphic design and new audio. It adds a vast array of new power-ups. It came out for the 30th anniversary of the 1978 arcade game, and it plays at a fast pace to an electronic soundtrack.

The waves change all the time, from tight formations to single invaders racing down the screen, and some end in a boss fight with a huge invader and its guards. It got a DS sequel, Space Invaders Extreme 2, in 2009, and today you can play it on Steam, or on PS4 and Switch in Space Invaders Forever. Under the light show, it is still the game everyone knows.

Nanostray is a vertical scrolling shooter in which you fly a futuristic spacecraft against a seemingly endless horde of enemies. A sequel, Nanostray 2, followed in 2008. Your weapons range from a plain forward laser to one that only fires sideways and a forcefield generator, and waves of small enemies give way to bigger, tougher ones.

You can play the first three stages, Mitsurin Jungle, Mokuzu Depths and Sunahara Desert, in any order. Challenge mode asks you to clear stages with odd rules, like one life only or no smart bombs, which is where shooter fans will find the real fun. Two players can also go head to head in modes like Bonus Race, where every destroyed enemy drops coins. It looks remarkably good for an early DS game.

In Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ, Little Red Riding Hood and her friend Momotaro face the greatest threat that has ever besieged folk tales. It is a rail shooter: you slide between seven spots along the bottom of the screen and aim with the stylus, and tapping your character makes them crouch. Little Red fights with guns, while Momotaro throws ninja stars.

Spanish studio EnjoyUp developed it, and Destineer published it in North America on October 31, 2008, the only possible release date for a game with this name. In Europe it came out as a DSiWare download instead. IGN put it at number six on its list of the 25 best DS games under $20. It is silly, quick and a lot more fun than it has any right to be.

Mega Man ZX mixes the Mega Man X and Mega Man Zero series, and it is the first in the series to let you pick the hero's gender, Vent or Aile. Each Biometal lets you change form and gain new abilities, and those abilities use up weapon energy. Anyone the Zero games scared off should start here.

It is set two hundred years after the Mega Man Zero games, and it opens the world up for you to explore. The forms are based on X, Zero and the Four Guardians from the Zero series. Critics praised the gameplay and the level design, though they were divided on how hard it is. A sequel, Mega Man ZX Advent, came out a year later, and both are in the Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection from 2020.

The DS version of Call of Duty: Black Ops brings the Perks system to six-player online multiplayer. You tap an icon to swap weapons, and auto lock-on is there on the Recruit and Regular difficulties. It is a separate game from the console Black Ops, built for the DS by n-Space.

Playing a proper online shooter with five other people on a DS felt like a magic trick in 2010. The campaign is short, but the online mode kept people playing long after. It works far better than a DS shooter has any right to, and it is the best of the Call of Duty games on the system.

Dementium: The Ward is a first-person shooter and survival horror game in which a man wakes up alone in a derelict hospital that is frozen in time. Grotesque surgical experiments wander the halls, and he has to solve puzzles to escape with his life. You start with only a nightstick and a flashlight.

It was the first game from Renegade Kid, a studio of former Iguana Entertainment developers, and it was originally planned as a Silent Hill game for the DS. IGN gave it awards for Best First-Person Shooter and Best Graphics Technology, though reviews overall were mixed. It came out in North America on October 31, 2007, and a remastered version reached the 3DS in 2015. Play it with the lights on.

In Geometry Wars: Galaxies you shoot geometric shapes in a space-like arena to score points and survive as long as possible, all to an upbeat electro soundtrack. Geometry Wars started out as a bonus game inside Project Gotham Racing 2 on the Xbox, and Galaxies was the first time it appeared on a non-Microsoft platform.

It adds a single-player campaign and several multiplayer modes, and it still includes Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved from Xbox Live Arcade. Some levels give you only one life or no bombs at all, and you cannot earn more. Kuju Entertainment developed it, and Chris Chudley, who wrote the music for the whole series, did the soundtrack. Five minutes turns into an hour very easily.

Moon puts you on the Moon in the mid-21st century as Major Kane of the Extra Terrestrial Encounter Organization. Contact with a lunar outpost was lost right after it reported finding a hatch of alien origin, and something deep below the surface is giving off erratic energy readings. No other DS game feels this much like a nineties PC shooter.

It comes from Renegade Kid, the studio behind Dementium, and it has full 3D environments to explore, with new areas as the reward for poking around. The team's view was that focusing on one thing and trying to make it good is usually the best thing to do, and you can feel it. Reviews were average. Renegade Kid later got full ownership back and remade it for the 3DS as Moon Chronicles in 2014.

Bangai-O Spirits is a Treasure shooter that fills the screen with fireworks and punishing supermoves. It also has a level editor, and you can pass levels between DS systems as sound, a trick it calls Sound Load. Your robot can fly but still falls with gravity, and it carries seven weapons plus a baseball bat or a sword for close-up hits.

The sound trick was inspired by the data cassettes older computers used, like the Sharp X1 that director Matsumoto first learned to program on. The levels scroll freely in every direction, and the hardest of them fill the screen with more missiles than seems possible. D3 Publisher brought it to North America in August 2008, and a sequel, Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury, followed in 2011. Sending your levels to a friend as noise is a very Treasure idea.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is the second Zelda game on the DS, still cel-shaded, and it gets around by train. You draw your route on the map, and in some dungeons Zelda is playable alongside Link. It is set a century after Phantom Hourglass, in New Hyrule, where Link and Zelda try to stop the Demon King Malladus from waking up.

Nintendo planned it as a quick sequel, like Majora's Mask, but the new features stretched the work to two years. You also carry a pan flute, and playing songs on it unlocks magic and reveals secrets. Critics loved it, and up to four friends can battle each other with a single game card. Zelda finally gets to do something, and it suits her.

In Metal Slug 7 the Peregrine Falcon Strike Force hunts General Morden again to stop another coup d'état. As soon as he is beaten, a strange army from the future comes to his aid. Metal Slug has rarely been this generous, on a screen half the size.

It was the first main Metal Slug with no arcade version at all, made for the DS from the start, and it turned out to be the last numbered game in the series. Toshikazu Tanaka, who scored Metal Slug 4 and 5, wrote the music. Ignition brought it to North America in November 2008, and an updated version, Metal Slug XX, later reached the PSP and, in 2019, Steam.

LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga covers all six Star Wars episodes, combining the first two LEGO Star Wars games with new characters and more bonus levels. You pick characters to fight and solve puzzles together against the dark side.

TT Fusion made the handheld version, while Traveller's Tales made the console one. LucasArts announced it at Star Wars Celebration IV in May 2007, and it came out that November. Since it packs both earlier LEGO Star Wars games into one, it is the obvious pick if you only want one. Hand this one to a younger player first, then try to get it back.

Monster Tale is a platformer and virtual pet game from DreamRift, released only in North America. Ellie and her monster companion Chomp have to stop the evil Kid-Kings and find Ellie a way home. Raising Chomp makes the game feel like your own.

DreamRift said some publishers pushed back on having a young girl as the hero, because they did not want to risk a lead who had not been proven with big audiences. Director Peter Ong called the choice somewhat controversial, and they kept Ellie anyway. In 2015 the studio announced a 3DS remake, Monster Tale Ultimate, with less backtracking and a new orchestral soundtrack you can switch on.

Aliens: Infestation sends a squad of Colonial Marines after the Xenomorph, and its story adapts to the squad you choose. You fight through the U.S.S. Sulaco and planet LV-426 with the film's pulse rifles and smart guns. It is tense in the way the film is tense.

Director Adam Tierney based it on Ridley Scott's Alien and James Cameron's Aliens, and the play borrows from Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, so you explore one big map and open it up as you go. The team even brought in different kinds of Alien from across the films. Reviews were generally favourable, and it is one of the best licensed games on the DS.

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is played with the DS held sideways, the area map on one screen and the action on the other. Ryu Hayabusa goes after the Black Spider Ninja Clan when they kidnap Momiji, and he uncovers the secrets of the Dark Dragonstones along the way. Slashing with the stylus feels better than it should.

It was Team Ninja's first game for a Nintendo system, and Tomonobu Itagaki said he picked the DS because of the originality the platform allows, and to set himself a challenge. Critics loved the visuals and the controls, but it lasts only six to seven hours and is easier than the console games. GamePro said it was almost at the level of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, which sits three places higher here.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin has you switch between Jonathan Morris, who carries the Vampire Killer whip, and Charlotte Aulin, who casts magic. It is set in 1944, eight painted worlds hide inside Dracula's castle, and your decisions decide which ending you get. Two heroes means twice the excuses to revisit every room.

It continues the story of Castlevania: Bloodlines from the Sega Genesis, and Jonathan is the son of that game's hero, John Morris. It was the first Castlevania with co-op play and the first handheld one with English voice acting. Critics loved the soundtrack and the co-op, and in 2024 it came back in the Castlevania Dominus Collection on modern consoles.

Ōkamiden is the DS follow-up to Ōkami, which first came out on the PlayStation 2, and it is a spiritual successor rather than a straight sequel. You play Chibiterasu, a small celestial wolf born from Amaterasu, and you still paint on the world with the Celestial Brush, now using the touch screen.

Kuniomi Matsushita, who directed the Wii version of Ōkami, showed producer Motohide Eshiro a technical demo in December 2008, and the demo was so good that the project went ahead. It came out in Japan in September 2010, four years after Ōkami, and in North America in March 2011. Reviews were positive, and like Ōkami it plays a lot like a Zelda game. Small and earnest is the point.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is the first Zelda game on the DS and a direct sequel to The Wind Waker, in the same cel-shaded style seen from above. You move and attack with the touch screen, and you can write notes about secret treasures straight onto the map. Scribbling on the map never gets old.

Critics loved the controls and the world design, and GameSpot, GameSpy and IGN all named it their DS Game of the Year. It was the best-selling game in Japan in its first month, with 302,887 copies, and it sold 4.13 million worldwide by March 2008. The only common complaint was that its online features were too simple.

In Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia the Holy Whip is gone, and Shanoa fights Dracula with Glyphs instead. The Glyph system has over 100 attack combinations, spread across 20 explorable areas. It is sterner than the other two, and better for it.

It was the first canonical Castlevania where the Vampire Killer whip does not appear in any form. The Belmont clan has vanished, so the Order of Ecclesia made its own weapon from Dracula's power, three glyphs called Dominus, and chose Shanoa to carry it. Along the way you rescue the people of Wygol Village, whom Albus has hidden all over the map. Koji Igarashi produced it, and it is in the Castlevania Dominus Collection from 2024.

Contra 4 is set after Contra III: Alien Wars, with Bill Rizer and Lance Bean saving the world from a new extraterrestrial threat. It stretches the action across both DS screens, with massive enemies and detailed platforming.

It was made for the series' 20th anniversary, and it was the first new Contra on a portable console since Operation C on the Game Boy in 1991. It goes right back to the old 2D style, with power-up icons to grab, and ignores most of what the later games added. Critics called it a return to form for the series, and it is every bit as hard as the classics. My thumbs have filed a complaint.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is set a year after Soma Cruz discovered the evil of Dracula hidden inside his body, and now a cult wants that power released. You have to draw the correct magic seal quickly or your enemies will never die, and a versus mode lets you race another player through custom castle rooms.

It was the first Castlevania on the DS, and it is a sequel to Aria of Sorrow that keeps many of its ideas. Every area has its own theme music. It sold 164,000 copies in the United States in its first three months, and it is now in the Castlevania Dominus Collection alongside the other two DS games. The other two get measured against this one.

Metroid Prime Hunters is a first-person action-adventure that mixes exploration and shooting across interconnected locations. Along the way you meet rival bounty hunters, each with distinct abilities and weapons, and there is a multiplayer mode as well.

A demo of it, Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, came packed in with the DS itself at launch. The full game leans harder into shooting than the other Prime games, with online play and even voice chat, which was a big deal on a handheld in 2006. IGN named it the best DS action game of 2006, and it sold over 410,000 copies in North America in its first month. Few DS games feel this fast.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is an entirely original entry in the series, and the DS touch screen is how you find your way through the streets. Its story uncovers crime and corruption inside the Triad crime syndicate. You play Huang Lee, a young Triad member trying to get back the sword his late father gave him after it is stolen in Liberty City.

Rockstar Leeds made it with Rockstar North, and it looks back to the first Grand Theft Auto games, seen from above, with cel-shaded, comic book art, a first for the series. Its best idea is a drug dealing side game where you buy cheap in one part of the city and sell where the demand is. Critics loved it, even though it sold fewer copies at launch than Rockstar expected. It is the whole series squeezed into a pocket, and almost nothing fell out.