On March 11, 2005, Nintendo DS became a reality in Europe: almost 20 years have passed since the launch of one of the most revolutionary portable consoles ever created, still today among the best-selling systems ever with over 154 million units sold worldwide. And for many fans it was their first contact with video games.
Many of today’s gamers were probably still very young when the DS was all the rage in stores, and its colorful selection of titles combined with peculiar features like the touch screen, stylus and microphone were more than enough to immediately win the hearts of those who approached the console for the first time. After all, already in its first months of life it was full of titles that knew how to immediately capture attention: Super Mario 64 DS allowed newcomers (but also users who were already a few years old) to rediscover one of the best Nintendo 64 games ever, while works like Yoshi Touch & Go and WarioWare Touched were perfect for understanding how all the new features introduced by Nintendo with its new portable system worked.
Since then, bigger and better games have arrived, as well as true video game phenomena: New Super Mario Bros. became the best-selling Nintendo DS game of all, once again allowing us to enjoy a completely 2D Mario adventure, while Nintendogs introduced new concepts and became one of the most original titles for the platform. But if we were to name the most iconic DS games, we could talk about them for hours: 4 different Kirbys, the two Legend of Zelda games with a graphic style taken from Wind Waker, and plenty of space for brands like Final Fantasy and Castlevania. And what about Pokémon? The pocket monsters were the real stars of DS with high-profile productions such as Diamond and Pearl, Black and White, HeartGold and SoulSilver, all games that kept fans company for hundreds of hours.
In short, on Nintendo DS there were quality games without stopping, works that helped all the little players who discovered video games thanks to Nintendo to grow up well and therefore capable of giving indelible memories. So, what were the DS games that characterized your childhood or youth? Tell us everything in the comments!
