10 Best Nintendo DS Ports

Tetris Party began as a WiiWare download by Hudson Soft, and Tetris Party Deluxe brought it to shops in 2010 for the Wii and the DS. Deluxe adds six new game modes, and critics liked the DS version better than the Wii one. Reviewers praised its online play, though they wished it came with more online modes.

Players weigh it against Tetris DS, and some of them prefer it. That is a bold thing to say about a handheld Tetris, and it tells you how much this one packs in. If you already own the classic, this is the one to try next. It is an easy pick up for a quick game on the bus or a long night in bed.

Ivy the Kiwi? is a platform game developed by Prope and designed by Yuji Naka, and it started out on phones before the Wii and DS versions. You draw stretchy vines with the stylus to propel Ivy forward. Both versions have 100 levels, and the Wii and DS games share the same basic level designs, with the controls as the main difference. The cheaper DSiWare version only has 50 levels.

It still makes players' lists of DS games to play. The stylus fits the idea so well that you forget the game ever lived on a phone, and the vines never stop being fun to bend. It is cute and clever, and a pleasant surprise for anyone who skipped it.

Diner Dash is a time management game developed by Gamelab and published by PlayFirst, and it became one of the top-selling downloadable games of all time. The DS version came out in North America on May 13, 2007. You guide Flo, an office worker turned restaurant owner, as she builds her business across four diners. Customer satisfaction shows up as a heart meter that empties as customers lose patience.

Players mention it in the same breath as Bejeweled. It is the kind of game you pick up for five minutes and put down an hour later, with the stylus making every table feel urgent. Every level asks you to be a little faster than the last one.

Rayman DS is the Nintendo 64 version of Rayman 2: The Great Escape, squeezed onto a DS card. It was a launch game in Europe on 11 March 2005 and reached North America later that month. Rayman must defeat the pirates who have enslaved his world, and the bottom screen lets you track your lums and keep an eye on his health. Reviews were mixed, mostly over rough graphics and a camera with a mind of its own.

Camera and all, it still gets recommended. Playing a full 3D platformer on a launch day handheld was a big deal, and players remember it fondly. If you want a taste of the Nintendo 64 era on the go, this is how you get it.

The browser game Zoo Keeper came from Robot Communications, and Success later ported it to the DS, among other consoles. The DS version is the one people remember. You swap animals with the stylus to make lines of three, and the captured animals make room for others to fall into their place. The top screen shows a favourite animal that is worth extra points, and you can also battle another DS owner.

It keeps turning up when players list their DS favourites. The rules take ten seconds to learn and the stylus makes it feel instant, which is a big reason it sticks. Few puzzle games on the system are this easy to start and this hard to stop.

Orcs & Elves is a turn-based RPG played in first person, made by id Software and Fountainhead Entertainment for mobile phones. It came out on phones in May 2006 and reached the DS in November 2007. The port adds two new levels and 3D environments, and you cast spells by drawing runes on the touch screen. Every step you take lands on an invisible grid, which keeps it turn-based even though it moves like a fast first-person adventure.

The players who tracked it down rate it highly as a first-person RPG. It is a dungeon crawler that fits in your pocket, and it shows what the DS could do in 3D. Not many people know about it, and that is what makes finding it fun.

Nippon Ichi Software made Disgaea: Hour of Darkness for the PS2, and Disgaea DS followed in Japan on June 26, 2008 and in North America on September 23, 2008. Laharl, the son of a demon overlord, wakes from a two-year slumber and sets out to take his father's place. The DS version reworks the interface and brings over Geo Cubes, which first turned up in the PSP version. Geo Panels on the maps can change the rules of a fight, and you can throw the symbols that sit on them.

On players' lists it sits with the DS's other tactics games. Its penguins and its huge numbers are just as funny on a small screen. Everything that made the original a cult favourite made the trip across.

PopCap released Bejeweled 3 for Windows and Mac OS X on December 7, 2010, as the fifth game in the series, and ports to other consoles followed. The game was released to retailers on November 15, 2011, for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo DS. Its Quest mode runs to 40 quests that restore the five Lost Relics of Bejeweled, which the DS version calls the Lost Treasures of Bejeweled instead. It has 8 game modes, including a Zen mode made to help you relax.

PopCap's DS ports get a lot of love, and players treat this one as a puzzle game to sink hours into. It is the biggest and brightest the series ever got on the handheld. The Zen mode alone is worth the cartridge when you need to wind down.

Capcom released Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on the Game Boy Advance in Japan in 2001. The 2005 DS version added an English option, and with it the first release in North America and Europe. It also added a fifth case, Rise from the Ashes, built around the touch screen, where Phoenix is hired to defend the head of the prosecutor's office, who is accused of murdering a detective. You can press witnesses and present evidence by voice if tapping feels too polite.

Anyone recommending it tends to mean the whole original trilogy. The DS made the courtroom feel closer than it ever did before, and shouting objection at your own handheld is a joy. The writing is as sharp as ever, and the jokes land just as well in the new case.

Chrono Trigger came out on the Super Nintendo in 1995, made by Square, and Tose ported a slightly enhanced version to the DS in 2008. The DS version added two new scenarios and a thirteenth ending, which waits behind an extra dungeon and an optional final boss. Young Crono must travel through time after a teleportation device malfunctions at the Millennial Fair, and the other endings depend on when you take on the final battle.

Players rank it among the best RPGs ever made, on any console. If you only ever play one old Super Nintendo classic on a handheld, this is the one. It still holds up, and the two new scenarios are a good reason to play it again.