The 15 Greatest Nintendo DS Games of All Time

destructoid.com:

Over the far-too-many years I’ve been with Destructoid, I don’t think there is an article I’ve written that’s caused me as much trouble as this one.

Despite the fact you’re seeing more of these on this website, listicles are hard. Whether it’s something simple like ranking family games or trying to sum up an entire console catalog in just ten spots, writing articles like this can cause a type of anguish no review or impressions piece ever could. I’d much rather try to explain the gameplay of the latest Nobunaga’s Ambition to an octogenarian than try to whittle down a list of the best Nintendo DS games.

But I do it because I love the Nintendo DS. In my opinion, it’s the greatest gaming device the company has created. With its combination of touch and classic controls, the Nintendo DS provided developers with an opportunity to change how we envision the games we play and how we interact with them. The device was a perfect marriage of the industry’s past and its future. There were gaming experiences on the DS that you simply couldn’t get anywhere else. Games like Feel the Magic: XX/XY or Cooking Mama or Scribblenauts would not have resonated the way they did if those experiences were tied to classic controls.

And that is what makes creating a ranking of the best Nintendo DS games so difficult. Because it would be easy to list 10 excellent traditional games and call it a day. Chrono Trigger DS would probably top that list. But the Nintendo DS was not a traditional system, and to ignore its greatest experimental or “blue ocean” titles would do the system an injustice.

That’s why I expanded this list to 15. I needed that extra space to ensure it would be as widely representative as possible. And I ran this by the Destructoid