9 Best Nintendo DS Compilations

Ys I and Ys II were first made by Nihon Falcom for Japanese personal computers in 1987 and 1988, and Legacy of Ys puts both on one DS card. Interchannel-Holon released the DS remakes in Japan in March 2008 as separate games, then as a combined package, and Atlus published the pair in North America on February 24, 2009.

The two games play as one continuous adventure. Beat the first and Adol starts Ys II with the experience and gear he already earned. The DS versions use three-dimensional fields and swap the old bump combat, where you hit enemies by walking into them off-center, for an optional stylus sword attack. Ys II adds magic, including a transformation spell that lets Adol talk with ordinary monsters, and they have plenty to say.

Jake Hunter is a Japanese detective series, and this was the first one localized in the West. Memories of the Past marked the series' 20th anniversary with remakes of its first five games plus one new case. You visit places, collect evidence and information, and answer a quiz at the end of each day to move the story along.

The history here is messy. The first Western release, Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles, lacked three of the cases and was widely criticized for its poor localization. The May 26, 2009 re-release fixed both with a completely new translation and the full content, so that is the one to buy. Critics still found it linear and menu-based, with a single ending to each case. Fans of DS mystery games name it in the same breath as Hotel Dusk and Trace Memory.

This is Konami's early arcade years on one card: 15 games, from Scramble in 1981 to Contra in 1987, with Time Pilot, Track and Field, Yie Ar Kung-Fu and Gradius in between. Each game comes with extensive historical information and options. It also marked the first North American appearance of the original TwinBee arcade game in any form.

Set your DS to Japanese and the games run in their Japanese versions, menus and all. Gradius changes the most: in any other language you get the harder European version. Not everything made the trip intact. The Chariots of Fire theme in Track and Field became a soundalike, presumably over licensing. Critics grumbled that some of the games aren't worth playing today, and they have a point, but Contra and Gradius alone justify the card. Players still name it when they list the DS's retro collections.

Namco Museum DS has eight games: seven from the arcades and a port of Pac-Man Vs., the multiplayer game Nintendo made in 2003. It came out in North America on September 18, 2007, ahead of Japan and Europe.

The options go deep. You can change the screen display and difficulty, and even set the DIP switches on a replica arcade board. The top screen shows the game while the bottom screen holds the settings. A sound test and a museum of promotional material for each game round it out. Critics were divided on the default graphics and on which games made the cut, and it holds a 67 out of 100 on Metacritic from 19 reviews. Pac-Man Vs. won them over. Players still bring it up when someone asks for retro collections on the DS.

On June 27, 2007, Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon confirmed a DS port called Ultimate Mortal Kombat, made by Other Ocean Interactive. It is an arcade-perfect port of UMK3 with Wi-Fi play, and it brings back the Puzzle Kombat minigame from Mortal Kombat: Deception. Of all the home versions of UMK3, none matched the arcade exactly, but the DS port came closest.

It went on sale in North America on November 12, 2007. Unlock the hidden fighters with Kombat Kodes on the VS screen and they stay unlocked for good. Shao Kahn's Lost Treasures are here too, prizes you pick after finishing the main game or the eight-player tournament, some of them extra fights. It is a tough game. One player warned it is hard, "but when you do well it can be super rewarding", and that sums it up.

Peggle: Dual Shot is the fourth game in the Peggle series, developed by Q Entertainment and published by PopCap Games for the DS in March 2009. It has content from both Peggle and Peggle Nights, so you get two games' worth of levels on one card.

This version adds a twist of its own. Each time you hit a purple bonus peg you earn a star, and five stars open a bonus minigame. In it you keep a ball bouncing with pinball-like bumpers to collect diamonds and extra balls. It is easy to learn and hard to put down, which is how PopCap games always worked. Players rate it among the best of the PopCap ports on the DS, and it keeps turning up whenever someone asks for a good DS puzzle game.

Battle Network 5 started on the Game Boy Advance as two versions, Team ProtoMan and Team Colonel, released together in the West in June 2005. Critics found it too similar to earlier entries. In mid-2005 both versions were combined and re-released on the DS as Double Team DS, with updated sound and additional content not found in the GBA versions. Two versions on one card makes it the one to own.

You explore the real world as Lan Hikari and the Net as MegaMan.EXE, where MegaMan battles viruses. The play is largely the same as in earlier Battle Network games, so if you liked those, you know what you are getting. Mega Man Battle Network 6 followed in 2005 and closed the series. Players still recommend Double Team DS to anyone digging into the DS library.

Sonic Classic Collection has the four main Sonic platform games from the Sega Genesis: Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. Sega announced it on December 1, 2009, and Creative Assembly's Australian studio developed it. Spain and Australia also got a limited edition in a tin box with a Sonic figurine and five postcards of Sonic artwork.

The lock-on modes from the original Sonic & Knuckles cartridge are part of the package. Reviews were mixed, and Metacritic has it at 70 out of 100. Players are honest about it as well. They admit there are better ways to play these games, and they keep recommending it anyway to anyone who wants classic Sonic on a DS.

Inti Creates developed it, Capcom published it, and it came out worldwide in June 2010 for the Nintendo DS. It gathers the Game Boy Advance Mega Man Zero games and keeps each one's own systems. A new option lets you play through all of them in order as one cohesive story.

The new Easy Scenario hands you power-up items and abilities from the start of each game, a kind gift for anyone the series scared off before. You can map controls to the two extra buttons the DS has over the GBA. During a boss fight, concept art of the enemy appears on the bottom screen, and every piece you see goes into the Gallery. The original GBA aspect ratio is kept with a black border around the action. Players recommend it more than any other DS compilation.