18 Nuggets of DS Gold

[sukishan]

To celebrate the DSi's release, we single out the greatest games in the platform's back catalogue.
Despite teasing with its future DSi ambitions, Nintendo is launching its latest handheld revision with no DSi-specific software. Essentially, that means you'll have a harder time than usual justifying your near compulsive need to own this third hardware iteration.

With the DSi Shop making little impact as an early proposition, we reasoned the past is as good a place to look as any. What better way to enjoy your brand new incremental upgrade than with a genuine gaming classic you missed first time around? Now on an ever-so-slightly larger screen! Of course, this might be your first foray into the world of DS too so, here, compiled through a mix of fevered research, critical consensus, personal taste and mere inexplicable whim, is IGN UK's inexhaustive personal pick of the current DS library. Think we've missed anything? Leave your recommendations in them there comments...

New Super Mario Bros.
As that retro-referencing moniker implies, New Super Mario Bros. is part nostalgic retread and part series reset designed to appeal to the polygon-boggled mainstream masses. This handheld outing sees a return to Mario's side-scrolling platform roots and offers a slender, stream-lined experience when stripped of the gimmicks found in later series instalments.

While some have mistaken New Super Mario Bros.'s platform purity for a lack of the series' trademark creativity and bemoaned a difficulty level pitched toward less capable gaming crowd, it's still a meticulously crafted, mercilessly refined jolt of pure platform joy.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Deftly combining the classic point-and-click adventure game with the entirely marketable mainstream brain-training phenomenon, Professor Layton and the Curious Village is the first entry in a now three-strong series to make it to the west.

While a cynic might argue it's little more than a glorified mini-game collection, it's a summary that entirely fails to do justice to developer Level 5's beautifully presented mystery yarn - a game that mixes devious brain teasers, glorious visuals and a deceptively breezy plot to form a uniquely engaging, uniquely charming affair.

Mario Kart DS For us, this DS iteration of the long-running karting franchise is right up there alongside the classic SNES original. Its streamlined racing experience, eschewing the increasingly convoluted formula of recent releases in favour of pure arcade thrills, masterfully combines ingenious track design and a generous roster of karts, characters and classic tracks from other franchise outings, to form an absolutely stellar package.

With pitch-perfect multiplayer thrills – whether locally or via its still-robust online component, Mario Kart DS is a game with near limitless capacity to entertain.