With thousands of games made for Nintendo’s GBA successor, and very little pocket money to buy them all when you were young, it can be pretty easy to let the DS’ vast library slip you by. But let’s fix that. I’m Jimmy for Cultured Vultures, and these are the Nintendo DS hidden gems you probably never even heard about.
Contact
One of the first things you’ll notice when starting Contact, developed by none other than Suda51’s Grasshopper Manufacture, is its art style. While the bottom screen uses a hand drawn art style, the top screen features a Professor inside a spaceship, all rendered in an art style very reminiscent to Shigesato Itoi’s Mother series. The resemblance was so uncanny, in fact, that prior to the game’s initial Japanese reveal, the promotional teasers posted online briefly sparked speculation that it was the long-anticipated Mother 3, which had been cancelled on Nintendo 64 before being revived for the GBA.
Contact may have no relation to Mother and Earthbound, but it’s no less quirky — in fact, it’s an even more bizarre experience in some ways. For starters, the Professor frequently breaks the fourth wall to talk directly to the player and give instructions on guiding Terry, who is the game’s protagonist and also, a distinct, separate entity from the player themselves?
Rather than a turn-based battle system, Contact features real-time combat in which Terry’s actions happen mostly automatically, with the player only intervening to move the character, swap gear, and use skills. And instead of a traditional level-up system, Terry’s stats directly improve as they’re used, ala Final Fantasy II.
As with Grasshopper’s other output, Contact is a strange game, and, while obviously not legendary, it is one of the DS’s most unique RPGs.
The Legendary Starfy
Though Kirby is sure to come to mind when someone is asked to name a Nintendo platformer with a cute mascot character, his series isn’t the only one under the company’s umbrella.
Developed by Tose, the Starfy series is kinda like an aquatic counterpart to Kirby. The titular character is a cute starfish, who, like the more popular pink puffball, often finds himself thrown into adventures to save the world from the villain of the week. The Starfy games are also all relatively easy and beginner friendly, though while Kirby’s gameplay features flight and Copy Abilities, Starfy spends much of his time swimming through the ocean, gathering permanent upgrades and new moves. Starfy’s adventures are also all fairly dialogue heavy compared to Nintendo’s other platformers.
Until 2009, the series was firmly Japan-exclusive. The Legendary Starfy for the Nintendo DS, the series’ fifth (and currently last) entry, was the first game to come west, and the only one to receive a full English localization.
Though The Legendary Starfy didn’t innovate over previous entries, it was and still is a solid platformer and a great alternative to Kirby for those seeking different art and gameplay styles. It’s unlikely that Starfy will get a new game, but he certainly deserves one. To this day, the starfish’s last appearance was as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He deserves a better end to his tale than that.
Monster Tale
Released exclusively in North America, Monster Tale is a rather curious Metroidvania. For the most part, it features the usual genre trappings: beautiful pixel art work, a complex 2D world to explore, and permanent upgrades to find for your character.
Monster Tale’s primary twist comes in how it utilizes the two DS screens. Peter Ong and his studio DreamRift wanted to make use of the dual screens in a unique way that didn’t simply involve an extended view of the game world or basic menu screens.
From there, the game’s central gimmick was born.
Early on in the story, protagonist Ellie ends up in another world, and partners with Chomp, a monster hatchling. Chomp follows her around on her journey to get home, and can be extensively developed, with its own stats, experience, abilities, and evolutionary forms to manage. While Ellie explores the world on the top screen, the bottom screen is a sanctuary for Chomp, from where he can be summoned to aid her. Ellie can also provide Chomp with food and toys to further his growth, and at times, puzzles require Chomp’s help to solve.
Having released only a little over two weeks after Pokémon Black & White in North America, Monster Tale sadly remains mostly forgotten. Though it has a small following online, efforts by publisher Majesco Entertainment have seemingly struggled to materialize. Might be done and dusk-ed.
Hotel Dusk: Room 215
The DS’s touch screen makes it a natural fit for point-and-click adventure games, so naturally, developer Cing stepped up to the plate. After releasing Another Code: Two Memories in 2005, Hotel Dusk: Room 215 came along in 2007.
Hotel Dusk stars Kyle Hyde, who checks into the mysterious titular hotel with that pesky room 215 that can supposedly grant wishes. Kyle is on the search for Brian Bradley, a partner gone rogue that he was forced to shoot. Believing that Brian is still alive, Kyle seeks answers Brian’s actions in the past. While there, Kyle also begins to investigate and unravel many mysteries regarding the hotel and its residents.
Hotel Dusk’s gameplay is rather simplistic; the DS is held sideways, and the touch screen, D-Pad, and microphone are all used to navigate the hotel and solve puzzles. Kyle also periodically interrogates people throughout the story, which requires players to carefully use what they’ve learned, with wrong choices having pretty dire consequences.
Hotel Dusk was well-received at launch, eventually receiving a sequel called Last Window: The Secret of Cape West. Sadly, not only was this sequel never released outside of Japan and Europe, it would also be Cing’s final game before the studio filed for bankruptcy. Its developers did, thankfully, get a second chance, joining Arc System Works to release spiritual successor Chase: Cold Case Investigations – Distant Memories in 2016, which you can hunt down on the 3DS
Solatorobo: Red the Hunter
While developer CyberConnect2 has built up a portfolio of licensed anime games and a few notable original IPs like Fuga: Melodies of Steel, one of their more forgotten releases has to be Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, itself a successor of sorts to Tail Concerto on the PS1. Released in 2011, Solatorobo is set in a world of floating islands populated by anthropomorphic animals.
As with many other JRPGs, it’s also got a steampunk setting — though Solatorobo sets itself apart in how it handles its core gameplay. Protagonist Red primarily pilots a mecha, and fights by repeatedly grabbing and throwing objects and enemies. In addition to a standard EXP and leveling system, Red can also upgrade his mech, learn new abilities, and occasionally disembark from his mech as the situation calls.
Solatorobo’s narrative is split into two parts, the first of which primarily focuses on characters and worldbuilding before the second half delves into the origins of the world. The story is regarded as one of the game’s greatest strengths, with charming and well-written characters that linger in the mind.
Though Solatorobo has fallen into obscurity, CyberConnect2 hasn’t forgotten about it, as the aforementioned Fuga games are all actually distant prequels set in the same universe. Given the positive reception of the Fuga series, CyberConnect2 should absolutely consider a remaster of Solatorobo, or we will be elebit mad. Did that work? Probably not, anyway next game.
Elebits: The Adventures of Kai and Zero
In the world of Elebits, all electronics are powered by the titular creatures. The star of the show, Kai, resents them, as his parents spend much of their time conducting research on Elebits, leaving him feeling neglected. After a thunderstorm causes a blackout in which the Elebits go into hiding, Kai takes up his father’s capture gun to find the Elebits and restore power.
The game ultimately culminated, sorry for the heavy Elebits spoilers here gang, in Kai discovering a new type of Elebit, known as Zero, and adopting it, leading into this DS sequel.
The Adventures of Kai and Zero took a massive shift in direction, leaving behind the Wii original’s simple first-person shooter roots in favor of creating a puzzle-focused adventure game reminiscent of the Zelda series. The central mechanic of capturing Elebits remains, though they’re now used to solve puzzles and power Zero’s abilities.
Though relatively simple and easy to play for younger audiences, Kai and Zero still manages to be a charming experience that greatly expanded on the simplistic Wii original. And hey, kudos to Konami for having tried something different instead of simply releasing the same thing again with better graphics, more content, and a big number 2 on the box. It’s Infinitely better than what they’d do a year later with Metal Gear Survive.
Infinite Space
When you hear the name “PlatinumGames”, your first thoughts are probably of Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising, or Astral Chain — stylish, over-the-top action games that both razzle and dazzle, while providing just as much substance as it does style with high skill ceilings and advanced mechanics.
It might be a bit of a surprise, then, to hear that they were also responsible for creating a sci-fi RPG for the DS that absolutely nobody played. This collaboration with Nude Maker, don’t Google them, is unlike anything Platinum has put out before or since, with a real-time combat system that focuses on issuing commands to a fleet of up to five ships. There’s a rock-paper-scissors element at play here with the three primary commands of normal attacks, barrages, and dodges. Barrages are a powerful stream of attacks, but choosing to dodge will evade nearly all of them. Interestingly, during dodges, normal attacks are more likely to hit ships.
Though more combat options and mechanics open up as you progress, Infinite Space’s greatest strength is its narrative. Set in the distant future, the game stars Yuri, a young man living on planet Ropesk who longs to see the stars. To that end, he hires Nia, a Zero-G Dog (essentially a mercenary) to help him escape his home planet, eventually leading him to a life of adventure and intrigue.
Though at times clunky and unintuitive, Infinite Space more than makes up for it due to its sheer scope and ambition, especially for a DS title, and it doesn’t drag-on much either.
Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword
Set between Ninja Gaiden and its sequel (the Xbox ones, not the NES originals), Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword is unusual in not only being a full 3D action game for the system, but also one where the DS is held sideways for the whole game. Series creator Tomonobu Itagaki wanted to create something unique, owing to the DS’s originality, and surprisingly enough, succeeded with this unconventional release.
Dragon Sword’s gameplay relies almost entirely on the touch screen, with various motions and gestures linked to Ryu’s different actions. Much of the spirit of Ninja Gaiden remains present in this portable outing; combat is as fast-paced and frenetic as you’d expect, and Ryu retains key abilities, like absorbing essences from slain enemies to power his Ultimate Techniques.
Though fundamentally solid, Dragon Sword lacks two key tenets of the franchise: 1) the extreme levels of violence, and 2) the extreme difficulty. It’s one of the few titles in the series after its 2004 revival not to be rated M by the ESRB, and it shows. Still, while short and sweet, the fact that such an unusual action game turned out as good as it did is worth knighting.
Lunar Knights
There was a time when Konami still cared about releasing unique and creative new games — and few are more unique and creative than Boktai. Remember it? Well, Boktai was created by none other than Hideo Kojima himself.
Released for the GBA, the Boktai games are a group of action RPGs centered around the concept of sunlight. Protagonist Django used solar-based weapons to combat the undead, but you needed to use real sunlight, in the real world. Even now it’s an extremely unique and innovative concept — but also one that essentially doomed the series to obscurity, especially after its third entry never made it west.
Lunar Knights is a soft reboot set in the same universe, with new protagonists and Kojima in a producer role. Like Django before them, Lucian and Aaron are vampire hunters; while the former has dominion over dark powers, the latter uses solar guns instead.
Due to the inherent problems that came from forcing players to play Boktai in direct sunlight, Lunar Knights dropped the requirement, instead focusing on a dedicated in-game weather system. Fans of the trilogy, however, were still rewarded for their loyalty, as having one of the three prior games in the series inserted in the GBA slot would grant bonus effects.
Though inherently more accessible than its predecessors, the fact that Kojima has long since left Konami likely means that Lunar Knights and Boktai will forever remain obscure relics, even more so because the sun remains simply a concept in places like the UK. Hey, speaking of the sun:
Ōkamiden
If you grew up with Capcom’s all-time classic, Ōkami, then chances are, The Game Awards 2024 left you crying tears of joy when Capcom announced that a full sequel was in development, helmed by none other than the legend, Hideki Kamiya himself.
But before you return to the world of Ōkami with this new entry, it’s worth taking a pit stop to check out this most likely now non-canon spinoff, even without Hideki Kamiya’s involvement. Don’t tell him we said that.
Set nine months after the end of Ōkami, Ōkamiden features a cast made up of children of the previous game’s major characters. Among them is Chibiterasu, Amaterasu’s son and the star of this game.
Like Ōkami before it, Ōkamiden is an action-adventure game that sees the player solving puzzles and beating down enemies. The Celestial Brush returns, now adapted as a perfect fit for the DS’s touch screen.
To compensate for Chibiterasu’s youth and weaker powers compared to his mother, he spends most of the journey together with one of several different partners, each of which has their own set of abilities to help navigate the environment and solve puzzles.
Though quite well-received, Ōkamiden didn’t quite reach the same heights of its predecessor, owing to it just not having the same…sauce. And yet, it’s still a solid little side attraction — one that will help tide you over until the sequel, assuming you can find a copy of this game in the wild, or slip and fall into a search engine, oh noooo.
READ NEXT: PS1 Hidden Gems Nobody Remembers
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