Nintendo's premium handheld is a great choice for 2005. No other console has such an original and bizarre variety of games. The system is pocket-sized (if you have large pockets) and has a unique touch-screen control system, opening up many new possibilities.
Just in the last month, the DS has also embraced wireless Internet play, so it's possible to compete with people all over the world from your living room. Or, if you're so inclined, while you're stuffing your face at the local McDonalds, thanks to a nationwide network of free hotspots. It's a good thing that ketchup wipes off the touch-screen easily.
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Mario Kart DS
This conversion of the Nintendo classic is this year's hottest gift for the DS. Anyone who played the Mario Kart titles on older consoles is bound to be delighted at this trip down memory lane. Mario Kart looks like a simple kart racer, but includes a set of vicious power-ups and weapons that can be used to attack other racers. The DS version combines all the good points of the previous games into one, and tops it off with wireless multiplayer over the Internet. It's beautifully done.
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Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Splendid looking and accessible, Dawn of Sorrow is a perfect introduction to the much-loved Castlevania series. Sure, the two-dimensional platform game format might be old-school, but the gameplay and visuals are anything but dated. Gimmicky touch-screen features are mostly absent, so there's little to get in the way of the engrossing and not overly difficult action.
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Meteos
As Tetris was to the original Game Boy, so Meteos is to the Nintendo DS. Colored blocks are still the order of the day, but in Meteos you shuffle them around using the touch-screen's stylus. The pace is blistering, and the game keeps track of every line you make, saving the blocks to unlock tons of hidden content. While it might not quite have the mesmeric addictiveness of Tetris, Meteos is better suited to short bursts of play -- perfect for the on-the-go DS owner.
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Kirby: Canvas Curse
Handheld 2D platformers aren't often anything to get excited about, but this one's special. Instead of a conventional control system, you control the game's hero, a pink blob called Kirby, by drawing lines and tapping objects on the touch-screen. Canvas Curse received a rare five-star perfect score when we reviewed it back in June, and it remains a stunningly original and splendid-looking game.
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Advance Wars: Dual Strike
There's no finer handheld strategy game than this. Turn-based and playing a little bit like a much more complex version of the board game Risk, Advance Wars has that easy to learn, hard to master quality that's the mark of a seriously well designed game. It's no slouch in the graphics department either, with a great line in cartoon tanks and planes that gives even the most crushing of defeats a humorous note. It's outstanding in wireless multiplayer too -- but for the best experience, you need two game cards.
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Nintendogs: Chihuahua and Friends
Remember those Tamagotchi virtual pets that were all the rage back in 1996? Imagine one that's a convincingly animated puppy. Now imagine that you can pet it by rubbing a stylus on the screen, and have it react to your attention by, say, rolling over. Impressed? How about if it recognized your voice and did tricks on command? Nintendogs does all this, and more. It's a fantastic gift for someone who maybe isn't a video gamer, in the strict sense of the word.
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Trauma Center: Under the Knife
Remember the board game Operation? Here's the DS version, just without the big red nose that lights up when you make a mistake. Rather than plucking out the bits with tweezers, you have a realistic -- sometimes almost too realistic -- view of your unfortunate patient's offending body part, and your stylus does the cutting. Being a surgeon isn't the easiest job in the world, but at least in Trauma Center you can reload and try again if you make a pig's ear of it.
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WarioWare: Touched!
Packed with 180 fast-paced, rapid-fire minigames (almost all of which use the touch-screen), WarioWare: Touched! crams an almost unlimited amount of fun into its small package. Even those with the shortest of attention spans can't fail to be hooked, as most games only last a few seconds. Frantic, addictive, and perfect for the platform, WarioWare: Touched! should please old-school gamers and newcomers alike.
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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Objection! Surely it's impossible to make a decent video game based on courtroom drama, your honor? As it happens, it's more than possible, and here's the proof. Phoenix Wright is, unsurprisingly, an ace attorney, and this game lets players take charge of defending a variety of wrongly accused innocents. In a delightfully silly twist, you can even shout into the DS's built-in microphone during cross-examinations to attract the judge's attention.
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