Best DS Games: 20 Nintendo DS Classics and the Handhelds That Play Them Best

The best DS games are The World Ends with You, Chrono Trigger, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Mario Kart DS and Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver and the two DS Castlevanias are close behind. This list ranks 20 of them by how well they hold up and how much they get out of two screens and a stylus. If you want to play them now, the last section covers the dual-screen handhelds on sale in October 2026, starting at $94.99.

The DS sold more than any Nintendo handheld before it, and its library runs from big-budget sequels to strange one-offs that only made sense on a machine with a microphone and a touchscreen. The best games on it are often both, and plenty of them have never been reissued on anything with a second screen, which is why a dual-screen handheld is still the best way to play them.

The 20 best DS games at a glance

1. The World Ends with You

Square Enix's Shibuya RPG is the game people point to when they ask what the DS could do that nothing else could. You control Neku on the bottom screen with the stylus while his partner fights on the top screen with the D-pad, both at once. It sounds like too much. It isn't. After an hour it feels natural, and the fashion, music and pin-collecting systems give it a personality no other RPG of the time had.

It has had later versions on phones and the Switch, but those squeeze the fights onto one screen. Play the DS original.

2. Chrono Trigger

The DS release is the 1995 Super Nintendo RPG with additions: new dungeons, an arena for raising monsters and a new ending. The story of a group of friends jumping across time to stop the end of the world holds up, and the combat, where characters combine attacks, still moves faster than most RPGs from the era. Metacritic lists it at 92, one point behind the top of the system.

3. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Rockstar built a complete GTA for the DS instead of a cut-down port. It plays from a top-down camera, and the touchscreen handles everything from hot-wiring cars to building Molotov cocktails. A drug-trading economy across the city's neighbourhoods gives it a loop the console games never had. Metacritic lists it at 93, tied with Flipnote Studio for the highest DS score on the site.

4. Mario Kart DS

Mario Kart DS has 16 new tracks and 16 from earlier games, a mission mode and a battle mode. The bottom screen shows a live map with every racer and item, which makes it easier to read than most entries in the series. Metacritic lists it at 91. It is still the quickest game on this list to pick up for ten minutes, and the one most likely to keep you playing for an hour when you meant to stop after one race.

5. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

AlphaDream split this RPG across both screens. Bowser stomps around the top screen while Mario and Luigi explore the inside of his body on the bottom one, and what happens in one affects the other. The writing is funny, the timed-button battles keep every fight active, and Bowser gets the best lines he has had in any game.

6. Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver

Game Freak's remakes of Gold and Silver include the full Johto region and then Kanto after it, which makes them two adventures in one. Your lead Pokémon follows you around, the bottom screen handles menus, and the original release came with the Pokéwalker step-counter. One Pokémon game on the DS? This one.

7. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

The sequel to the Game Boy Advance's Aria of Sorrow keeps Soma Cruz and his soul-stealing powers. Each enemy can drop a soul that gives Soma a new attack or ability. Boss fights end with a short touchscreen seal you draw with the stylus. The map sits on the top screen the whole time, which helps in a game this large.

8. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Order of Ecclesia moves away from one big castle into a series of smaller areas, and it is harder than Dawn of Sorrow. Shanoa fights with glyphs, magic absorbed from enemies and combined into attacks. It asks more of you than any other DS Castlevania. Players who like a challenge often rank it first.

9. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Shu Takumi, who created Ace Attorney, made this puzzle adventure for Capcom. You play Sissel, a ghost who can possess objects and rewind to four minutes before someone dies to change what happens. Every puzzle is a chain of small physical events, and the story ties them together better than almost any game of its kind.

10. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

The first Ace Attorney came out on the Game Boy Advance in Japan in 2001. The DS version brought it to North America in 2005 and added a fifth case built around the touchscreen and microphone. You investigate crime scenes, then cross-examine witnesses and press on contradictions until the testimony falls apart. Yes, you can shout "Objection!" into the microphone.

11. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

Level-5's Layton games mix a mystery story with a steady stream of puzzles you solve with the stylus. Unwound Future, the third game, sends Layton and Luke to a future London, and its ending is the series' strongest moment. Start with Curious Village. Finish here.

12. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Phantom Hourglass follows The Wind Waker and is played almost entirely with the stylus. You tap to move, draw paths for your boomerang and write notes straight onto the dungeon maps. The repeated central dungeon divides people, but the ideas around it are some of the most inventive in the series.

13. Elite Beat Agents

iNiS made a rhythm game where you tap circles, trace sliders and spin wheels on the touchscreen in time with pop songs. Each stage is a short comic about someone in trouble, and the agents cheer them through it. It is the western version of the Japanese Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, and it is better than it has any right to be.

14. New Super Mario Bros.

This was the first new side-scrolling Mario on a Nintendo console in more than a decade. The Mega Mushroom, which makes Mario huge enough to wreck the level, and the Mini Mushroom, which opens hidden paths, keep the stages surprising. It started a series.

15. Super Mario 64 DS

The launch remake of Super Mario 64 adds Yoshi, Luigi and Wario as playable characters, new stars and a set of touchscreen minigames. Controlling a 3D Mario with a D-pad takes adjusting, which is one reason a handheld with an analog stick suits it better than the original hardware.

16. Kirby Super Star Ultra

HAL remade the 1996 Super Nintendo collection and added new modes, including a harder Revenge of the King and a Meta Knight campaign. Every mode is short and every one plays differently. It is one of the friendliest games on the system and a good choice for younger players.

17. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

The DS remake of the 1992 Super Famicom game was the first time Dragon Quest V came out in English. The story follows one hero from childhood through marriage and parenthood, and the choice of bride changes the party. Monsters you defeat can join you, which gives the long middle of the game a collecting hook.

18. Advance Wars: Dual Strike

Intelligent Systems' strategy series moved to the DS with battles that can run on two fronts at once, one on each screen. Dual Strike adds tag-team commanders and a real-time Combat mode. Nothing else on the DS goes as deep.

19. Hotel Dusk: Room 215

Cing's adventure game is played with the DS turned sideways like a book. You are Kyle Hyde, a former detective staying at a run-down Los Angeles hotel in 1979, and every guest is hiding something. The sketched black-and-white character art still looks distinctive, and the touch-based puzzles fit the setting.

20. Contra 4

WayForward and Konami treated both screens as one tall playfield, with the gap between them as part of the level. It plays like the 8-bit and 16-bit Contra games, adds a grappling hook to reach the upper screen, and is just as hard. It is short. You will replay it anyway.

The best handhelds for DS games in 2026

DS games need two screens, and the bottom one has to take touch input. Single-screen handhelds can run DS games by placing both screens side by side or switching between them, but a clamshell with two physical screens plays them as designed. These are the dual-screen handhelds on sale in October 2026, with prices checked on 19 October.

LitNXT and Anbernic pay this site a commission when you buy through these links. Retroid's own store does not; the Duo and Duo Lite are only sold there.

On a budget, the Anbernic RG DS Plus is the cheapest way to play DS games on two real screens. Its 4.3-inch screens are 4:3 at 1024x768, exactly four times the DS resolution in each direction, so the games scale cleanly. It runs Linux, and our RG DDS news piece describes it as a DS and older-console device, not a 3DS one.

On Android, the Retroid Pocket Duo Lite is the cheapest current clamshell at $149, and the Retroid Pocket Duo adds AMOLED screens for $269. The Anbernic RG DDS, which ships from 10 December 2026, is the newest option. Its screens are sized for three times the 3DS resolution, so DS and 3DS games both fit.

If you want one device for everything, the AYN Thor runs DS and 3DS games on its two AMOLED screens and has the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 headroom for PS2 and GameCube. Our AYN Thor Max piece covers the tiers, and Cartridge is a free frontend built around its second screen.

Our dual-screen handheld guide compares every model in more detail, including the AYANEO Pocket DS and Retroid's $69 add-on. The full catalogue, single-screen handhelds included, is on the devices page. For the generation before the DS, our list of the best GBA games covers the Game Boy Advance.