It's so easy to look at the DS like just a kids' console, but funnily enough, it had a pretty wide variety of games for a variety of audiences, from sports games, arcade compilations, edutainment puzzlers, even the odd shooter. I've owned many flavors of the system since I was a little kid, and given how much I still enjoy playing my 3DS, I think it's aged very nicely alongside me. Here's some games I felt worth sharing with you.

[#] Clubhouse Games (Nintendo, 2006)

It is almost 2026, and I am playing mahjong on my DS.

Of course one of the finest demos for your shiny new $150 3D-capable Nintendo DS is, y'know, card games. It actually makes more sense when you consider the touchscreen, but either way, Clubhouse Games is a classic whether you like it or not. Imagine yourself a cozy little treehouse right at the start of autumn stacked up with tabletop games inside, 42 in all. Hearts, bridge, blackjack (get it twisted), chess, chinese checkers, solitaire, mahjong solitaire, hangman, Uno, bullshit, asshole (the game might call some of those something else)—even if you don't recognize what the game calls them, you know them, and it's a good time having them all in one place.

Games are customizable in rules, number of players (CPU players are your typical opponents, but there is local multiplayer), and even the table surfaces that you play on and the look of the cards. Games are quick to get underway, come with detailed instructions if you're unfamiliar, play nice with the touchscreen, and complete within a few minutes, so like all good DS games, you can bounce between games whenever you have 20 minutes to kill. Win and loss statistics do save after every game, and various little cute MOD-ish chiptune jazz tunes play as you run up gambling debts in Texas hold 'em or fail at chess. It's a really well thought out package.

The variety in games does a lot to help you not get bored. Though they don't call the licensed games Battleship or Uno, what you get is basically the classic board games, just in game form. They're nice to have! (If you're wondering if there's any great duds, the "action games" like bowling and darts aren't brilliant to control with the touchscreen, though shooting pool feels great.) To increase replayability further, there's mission and "stamp" modes that let you unlock more games, additional tables, even another soundtrack. If you feel a little aimless from all the cozy timewasting, rest assured you have plenty to neurotically complete here.

[#] Geometry Wars: Galaxies (Vivendi, 2007)

Studying your many many shapes on the go.

Geometry Wars has had one of the strangest arcs to prominence in gaming history. It was once a simple hidden minigame in the old Xbox racer Project Gotham Racing 2, became hugely popular once Xbox Live Arcade got ahold of it, and now is still a semi-regular concern while its parent racer hasn't seen a new entry since 2009. Imagine you take Robotron and replace each of the robots with glowing vector-like shapes that move around the playfield in recognizably quirky ways, and now mob the player with hundreds of them. It's awe inspiring twin stick goodness, and thoroughly earns its subtitle of Retro Evolved.

Galaxies tries to inject a campaign into the experience with mixed results. Levels are separated into planets that introduce gravity wells, strange level layouts, and tinker with your lives and smartbomb counts. Defeating enemies gives you "geoms" that add to your multiplier (up to 150x) and act as currency for new planets. Each planet has three score goals, though this is either annoyingly difficult to manage on one life or boringly easy to blow past 50,000,000 on. You have a helper droid you can upgrade as well, but all told, none of it makes things all that much more addicting.

There is good news, however. Retro Evolved is included, and it is still the aggressively good time it was on the Wii and Xbox 360. It's well-built, with only a bit of slowdown at its absolutely most hectic. For this DS version, you can shoot with the touchscreen or face buttons, and while the latter is the obviously nicer choice, buyer beware on heavier DS models like my 3DS XL, because holding and manipulating both sides of the console at the same time gets downright painful. My advice? Stick this on a multicart or TWiLight Menu solely for the Retro Evolved mode, and then go play the Wii version with a Classic Controller instead.

[#] Lego Rock Band (MTV Games, 2009)

Whimsy, chat, whimsy!

Plastic instrument games and consoles that don't support plastic instruments—name a better combo. No, seriously. Harmonix managed it not once, but twice with Lego Rock Band and Rock Band 3 for the DS, and they did it in kind of a clever way. Before Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Harmonix was making instrument-juggling normal controller rhythm games like FreQuency and Amplitude, and applying that to the Rock Band formula doesn't just make sense, it makes for a surprisingly fresh experience! Lego Rock Band, being the child-friendly, adorable entry in the series, only makes sense for a DS port, and while I can nitpick it, it was a favorite growing up and it's still a favorite now.

Like all Rock Band games, you form a band and play songs, touring the world (or in Lego's case, fantastical locales like pirate ships, racetracks, under the sea, and deep space) to unlock new gear and clothing to dress up your minifig bandmates. You play each instrument with the buttons and d-pad (or the touch screen, but have fun with that), swapping when you've played a two bars of each track successfully. It's a big juggling act, but one that's majorly satisfying to get into the flow of. Unlike most rhythm games, you don't lose your multiplier on missing a note, and that and Super Easy difficulty (you can't fail and only two buttons get used) both help to keep the difficulty manageable for the kids this was aimed at.

As said, I can nitpick. The charting is a little wonky at times, weirdly spaced off-beat notes and one-handed patterns that can be a little hard to follow, and fitting in a place to activate Overdrive between notes can be clumsy (all things they improved on for Rock Band 3). The setlist is just okay, certainly repetitive through the tour with only 25 songs in all, and featuring a ton of kiddie-friendly standards ("We Will Rock You", the Ghostbusters theme, "Walkin' on Sunshine") that I could mute the console for. You do get some huge tunes in Sum 41, Counting Crows, Vampire Weekend, KT Tunstall, The Primitives, and Spin Doctors to (almost) make up for it, though. Again, just nitpicking. You can play as Queen. We both know what you gotta do.

[#] Madden NFL 2005 (Electronic Arts, 2004)

A strong, satisfying core of pigskin, but with little adornment.

It's blocky, the audio is minimal, the touch screen is barely used, but this DS launch title has kept me pretty well entertained over the past few weeks. Madden 2005 majorly benefits from EA's realization that the DS is very similar to a PS1 in capabilities—and they just so happened to have a PS1 engine for Madden still knocking around (2005 was the last edition released for it). This is effectively a port of that PS1 version, right down to the UI, sound effects, summaries after each play, and camera angles, and that was a very smart move given how nicely PS1 Madden had matured by the early 2000s.

It's really easy to dismiss at first glance, because Madden 2005 is visually and audibly not brilliant. The players are chunky and have little more than eyes peeking from their helmets, but their animations are pretty smooth, and there's even some nice little touches like different field surfaces and the chain measurements for debated first downs. Audio is understandably poor, with only a loop of Earshot's "Wait" remaining from the soundtrack for the menus and almost no game commentary outside of Al Michaels' occasional first down and point after comments. John himself only ever seems to chime in to tell us that a two yard loss is "what football's all about"!

While there's certainly a lot of nitpicks (no Mini Camp, no weather, no scrolling menus with the touch screen, though picking plays with it is very fun), the core of Madden is still here, and it's hella solid. The lack of load times on a cartridge mean you get into a flow of first downs and pass attempts really quickly, and I find the running game especially satisfying in this version. The AI is decent, even cheeky, running down the clock by delaying the game or kneeing for touchbacks, and there's a lot to customize for rosters, penalties, and injuries. I'm sure you can do better for on-the-go handegg now, but I still felt compelled to play through a season here. Just remember to turn off those constant instant replays.

[#] Peggle Dual Shot (PopCap Games, 2009)

The occasionally-frustrating addiction, now portable!

I had a friend in high school needle me for putting off playing the admittedly-excellent Bastion because I was too busy with Peggle. Brenden, firstly, I still think about that time you had me over with a bunch of people to smoke weed in your backyard and your dad threw that shit on the campfire we had going and it turned green and I passed out on your futon, that was fun. Second, I stand by my decision. Bastion is thrilling, great visual style, really memorable music and narration—and Peggle has once again claimed a half hour of my day, every day, especially now that, like all good addictions, Dual Shot puts it always within reach.

If you've seriously never played Peggle, you launch balls from the top of the playfield, aiming to clear the screen of orange pegs. Each stage is themed after one of the game's ten Masters, who lend you some kind of power (multiball, pinball flippers, automatic shots) to aid in clearing the level. It sounds simple, but it's the doinky physics, as you make bank shots to clear one hard to reach peg, and the sounds and how quick it all goes that it becomes habit-forming. With this port, I had my reservations about some initial visual choppiness, but aiming with the touch screen is ace, and the charm of the cast and quirky music is still very much here.

Peggle: Dual Shot isn't just a cute play on the DS' name. You're actually getting two campaigns here, the original Peggle and sequel Nights, along with the PC's challenge levels and some new ones. In addition, the score bonus purple pegs have been given a new benefit, that of a satisfying underground bonus level which can award you extra balls (and yes, everything helps when the levels get tough, so use them). About my only complaint with Dual Shot is that Nights is gated behind completing the original's campaign, so that one fucking puzzle at the end can lock you out of half the content. That oversight aside, this could just be all the Peggle you need.

[#] Rock Band 3 (MTV Games, 2010)

The final frontier of fidget toy music gaming.

Listen, I've played just about all the Guitar Hero and Rock Band out there, with and without the Fisher Price instruments, but Rock Band 3 for the DS is up near the top. Do not mistake this for a cut-down cast-off port of a game that "needs" the drums and guitars—Rock Band 3 DS has you playing the whole band, tippy-tapping the D-pad and buttons for one instrument before switching to another (a la Amplitude), and this is the most polished, flow-inducing, manically satisfying of all the portable Rock Bands that fit that description. All the little nitpicks have been filed down, and you get all the band customization, play challenges, and even Pro Mode of the console versions. You can even still play in a band with multiple DSes.

The Rock Band 3 DS engine feels immaculate. The note scroll speed is just right. The notes are easy to read regardless of what crazy patterns they throw at you. Whereas the charts in Lego Rock Band DS and Rock Band Unplugged were a bit messy and awkward, damn near every pattern you play here is perfectly alternated between the thumbs. Adding onto those previous games are three-note chords and sustains with extra notes on top of them (say, for harmonies in songs, or complex keyboard parts), adding lots of tricky satisfying bits as you swap around and try to keep the whole band together. You don't even have to fit activating Overdrive between your notes—activating will also play the note you activate on. How's that for polish?

Obviously they couldn't fit the entire 83-song setlist onto a DS cartridge, but you do get 26 here, and they sound great. There's a definite bent towards the pop rock and indie end of the setlist (not complaining), but your Hendrix, Ozzy, Doobie Brothers, Joan Jett, The Cure, and Yes help to round out especially the higher difficulty songs. Sadly, they are more censored than the console counterparts to attain an E10 rating, so Smash Mouth doesn't want to buy the world a toke here, and Rilo Kiley can't tell of the touching leading to sex. Alas. I understand why, but it really is a shame you only get so many songs, because Rock Band 3 DS is just about the most mechanically satisfying game I have ever played. Someone let me know when they get customs working and I'll bake you a full new setlist. That's a promise.