Originally I thought I could keep a list of DS titles that I've played and really enjoyed playing on the side bar but, the list will end up too long. Not to mention I can't make short comments about them.

Here are the ones I recommend. Click on the boxart or name to visit the official site. I'll try to link to the official English sites whenever I can. If not, I'll be referring to the Japanese sites. All dates are when the title was first released in Japan unless specified.

I'll be updating this as I play titles both old and new.

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Seiken Densetsu: Children of Mana

A beautifully made 2D action RPG based in the world of "Secret of Mana". Playing as Flick, a young boy living on the Island of Illusia, you fight your way through dungeons to prevent the destruction of the world by stopping the overflow of Mana energy.

Unlike the previous Secret of Mana games, this is a dungeon crawler where you have to progress through a certain amount of levels before reaching the boss. Each level has a Mana Droplet that you must find hidden with a monster or some other object. You then take this to a Mana Spring before you can get to the next level. There's a little bit of puzzle solving with the 4 different weapons available too as you use a hammer to break large objects that block your way or, use the flail to obtain far away items.

Combat system remains as quick paced as before and selecting items can be done very quickly. New however, is the Mana Gem system that allows you to implement various stones to boost your stats. There are also many side quests to do although all them only require you to go back to old dungeons and make your way to the last area.

Graphics wise, the in-game 2D artwork are as good as Magical Starsign but the Anime style video cutscenes are much better!

Once you finish the game, you're free to play on and go about sidequests or explore old dungeons.

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Chou Soujuu Mecha MG

Ever wanted to be in the pilot seat of one of those giant mechas in Anime? Well, now you can! Playing as the 13 year old trainee pilot, you get to control "Marionation Gears" via the touch screen with over 100 different looking control panels to experience. While they don't look as high-tech as those you see in this type of Anime, the MGs certainly move realistically! A great game to play with over 80 different missions that have various difficulties offering some excellent replay value!

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Mogitate Tingle no Barairo Rupee Land

Don't let the gay boxart fool you because this is another one of Nintendo's original games and is also a spinoff Zelda title. With many parodies linked to various games (mostly Zelda), you must play as Tingle to help him reach the paradise of Rupee Land by making as much Rupees as possible. Only then can you throw them away into a spring to build a tower to Tingle's dream but, it's not going to be easy! Everything costs Rupees no matter if you're just meeting someone for the first time or just speaking to them!

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Rune Factory: New Harvest Moon

Marking the beginning of the New Harvest Moon series on the DS, Rune Factory has you managing a farm and exploring caves, battling against monsters. It might sound odd at first but, all the old Harvest Moon elements are there and you're not forced to go fight monsters. You can farm all day if you wanted to! A brilliant game where NPCs actually say different things and has some great visuals to boot.

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Final Fantasy III

Excellent 3D remake of the famous FFIII NES game that was made 16 years ago, the game in the FF series that first employed the job system. Characters now have names and a personality, jobs are balanced so that you're not forced to use a certain job to fight bosses and there are some extra content unlockable via the Mognet mailing system. The opening video is nothing short of Squarenix's artwork. A must own for all RPG fans!

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Trauma Centre: Under the Knife

This is one of those rare original games for the DS. At first glance, it looks like just another visual novel adventure game but, it's not really in a way. There are no decisions to make and no multi-branching storyline. All you have to do is keep tapping the screen to follow the story until you reach the next operation. The operations are great fun but be warned that most of them are hard and you'll need quite a bit of patience to retry them a good number of times!

Other than that, although it's an operation game, the graphics aren't that detailed to make the game hard to stomach. The visual novel style artwork is generally good although I think the characters could do with a few more expressions and a bit of animation. The game has great dramatic music and the story solid, telling of how a rookie doctor questions himself about his role. With a talent known as the "Healing Hands", he fights against the "incurable" diseases.

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Bleach DS: Souten ni Kakeru Unmei

One day, Ichigo Kurosaki meets the Death God, Rukia Kuchiki. To protect his family from the evil spirits "Hollows", Ichigo accepts the power of the Death Gods from Rukia and since then, acting as an agent of the Death Gods, he helps to protect people from the Hollows.

Soon later, Rukia is charged for passing on the power of the Death Gods to humans and, Renji Abarai and Byakuya Kuchiki arrives to take Rukia back to the spiritual world, the Soul Society, for judgement.

After training to become stronger, Ichigo aims to rescue Rukia, trespassing into the Soul Society together with his classmates Uryuu, Orihime and Chad.

A classic beat-em-up game... Well, almost. Based on a popular Anime/Manga of the same name, you can have up to 4 characters fighting on the screen at once. Besides the usual array of special moves, building up a Reiatsu gauge will also let you unleash more powerful moves to help you create those massive combos. Another Reiryoku gauge also helps you dish out more damaging special moves. Then there are also Reifus, cards that help boost your character in certain areas temporarily.

Matches are very fast and unlike most beat-em-ups I played on the DS so far, they provide quite a challenge on normal difficulty during the first tries. There are also plenty of modes available including a survival mode where you beat up as many opponents as you want... As long as you have enough health. Story mode itself takes a good few hours to complete, splitting itself into 23 episodes and having you play as several different characters, starting with Ichigo. Episode 1 even has multiple branches you can go through depending on the results of your fights.

And if that's not enough for replayability, there's also a bundle of unlockables which you can purchase with Kans. Kans can be earned by playing through certain modes and spent at Urahara's Store to purchase more Reifus, unlock artwork, colours for your characters, sounds and music.

Finally, if the AI players are getting too easy, you can jump onto Wi-Fi network to either play with friends or battle it out with random players.

Unfortunately, the game is JP only at the moment but, this shouldn't prove too much of a barrier apart from the first stage of story mode. Even then you can go find a translation guide to help you out easily. Bleach fans will recognise all their favourite characters here.

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Starfox Command

It's been several years since the Starfox team defeated the threat on Planet Venom and since then, it has been under close surveillance by the Cornerian Army. All seems quiet but little did they know a new unknown evil was manifesting. Soon bases everywhere are under attack by the Anglor and it is up the Starfox team to get themselves together to stop the new foe.

Fun fast paced shooting with a little bit of strategy in between. Graphics look great with the various environments and models and, the stylus only controls work flawlessly because you'll want all the accuracy you can get to shoot the enemy at their weak spots. All this with a multiple ending storyline and Wi-Fi dogfighting mayhem provides some good long hours of gameplay and replayability.

Fans of the classic Star Fox games will not miss the old characters and their (Cornerian?) language.

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Deep Labyrinth

One day, Shuu, his dog Alf and his parents who were having a quarrel go for a drive. Along the way they get a flat tyre and stop outside an onimous Western mansion. Sensing something strange, Alf rushes off into the mansion and disappears. Shuu's parents also follow inside but when Shuu opens the doors, he finds himself being sucked into a magical vortex. Shuu finds himself in another world where creatures manage and eat "past memories". now he must work his way through to find his parents.

With scenarios and music from the creators of Chrono Trigger, this is a classic dungeon crawler where you make use of the DS' features again. Swing your sword at enemies and cast spells by drawing incantations on a grid.

While the music and graphics are excellent for the DS, boss fights and enemies can be very easy to defeat. The game only takes around 8 hours to complete but it's still and enjoyable experience. Story wise, there's not much depth to it.

If you like dungeon crawlers and hacking away at monsters then, this game is for you!

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Kaitou Roussseau

Another adventure game that makes full use of the DS' features. Playing as Phantom Thief Rousseau, you go about solving cases while using your DS stylus to draw disguises to help Rousseau deceive the enemy. While easy at first with no time limits on drawing your disguises, it gets tougher later in the game. The story is presented as an interactive comic with speech bubbles and sound effects rather than the usual series of dialogue boxes that are common to these types of adventure games. Unfortunately, it'll take a bit of effort to play this if you don't know Japanese.

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Ganbare Goemon: Toukaidouchuu

A very fun action RPG starring the Goemon gang (or Mystical Ninjas) that go way back to 1986 in the arcades. Run around bashing enemies and solve puzzles with each of the characters' unique abilities as Goemon and Ebisumaru try to prove their innocence. And of course, pilot the giant Goemon Impact via a touchscreen remote! Great and simple controls, easy to manage inventory system. Cell shaded graphics and "hand-painted" 2D backgrounds are wonderfully done. You shouldn't have many problems playing this game even if you don't know Japanese.

New Super Mario Bros.

An excellent platformer with the classic Mario Bros. from Nintendo. Brilliant mix of 2D and 3D graphics with several new powerups including a shrinking mushroom. There are coins to collect to unlock paths and new moves for Mario. The only problem with the game is that it felt too short.

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Magical Starsign

From the developers of Secret of Mana and Mother 3, Magical Vacation truly is a magical adventure with the uniquely designed worlds you can explore. Every planet has its own culture and different environments. Dialogues includes choices for a bit of variety but doesn't affect the main storyline and the way battles work with the in-game time and starsigns is interesting too. This is the second Magical Vacation game from Brownie Brown with the first on the GBA.

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Osu! Tatakae Ouendan

A change from the usual button bashing series of rhythm games thanks to the DS' touch screen. Tap circles, spin wheels, follow the ball as you play your way through different wacky Manga illustrated scenarios including a student trying to study despite the noise from his family, a pottery master who is lacking inspiration and an overweight Cleopatra trying to build a pyramid of power to grant herself beauty. Each scenario is divided into stages and depending on how well you time your hits, a success or failure scene will be shown which really makes you want to do well.

There are lots of catchy (editted) Japanese tunes both old (going way back to 1973) and new including "Shanghai Honey" from Orange Range, "Ready Steady Go" from L'Arc-en-Ciel and "Loop & Loop" from Asian Kungfu Generation. The lyrics pretty much have nothing to do with the scenarios in a strict sense but they do work in a way. They are all great songs but my favourites will have to be ????? (Taisetsu na Mono, Precious Things) by Road of Major and, ?????? (Kokoro Odoru, Dancing Heart) by nobodyknows+.

There's plenty of replayability in this game and once you start playing, you'll find it hard to stop. The English sequel will be released later under the title "Elite Beat Agents" with English songs and new scenarios. This version is Japanese only but you don't need to know the language at all to play this.

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Another Code: Two Memories

An adventure game with interesting, easy-to-solve puzzles that make full use of the DS' features such as blowing into the mic to clear dust off an old painting and closing the console to stamp something. Has a good story revolving around the memories of two characters, a living one and a dead one on Blood Edward Island. Some very nice visuals.

The game really shows off what the DS is capable off. Rather than concentrate on presenting games with the best graphics available, it gives you lots of new ways to play games.

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Brain Age

The "game" from Nintendo that started the whole new brain teaser genre. Exercise your brain by doing a series of simple activities such as maths sums, counting syllables and keeping track of how many people move in and out of a house. You can then take a test to see how old your brain is. Getting the best age of 20 isn't all that hard to be honest. Whether it really makes your mind any sharper or not is up to you. Game for all ages!

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Ace Attorney: Phoenix Wright

A remake of the first Gyakuten Saiban adventure game from the GBA that was out way back in 2001 (three GBA games have already been released). Apart from the 4 original cases to enjoy, there is also an extra 5th case for this remake offering up to over 15 hours of gameplay. Lots of unique characters, hilarious script and fun crime solving where you have to go around gathering evidence then using it all on court as you, Phoenix Wright, cross-examine people. This DS port makes full use of the dual screens and allows the player to shout out "Hold it!" on the microphone. Note that the JP version of this game also contains an English language option so if you want to have both the original JP and English together, you can always import the JP version of the game!