Nintendo made a huge splash in the gaming market when they released the DS in 2004. It immediately took off as something more than a gaming console as a lot of casual players latched onto it. This was the era of Nintendo that was its most accessible, including the Wii a couple of years later.
As accessible as the DS was, it still had plenty of hardcore titles for longtime fans. Not a lot of them were strictly aimed at adults though. There weren’t more than a handful of M-rated games on the system and even fewer of them are worth a darn today. Let’s go over the standouts.
7Touch The Dead
Metacritic Score: 56
Touch The Deadis not a well-remembered game, if anyone even remembers it at all. It also didn’t receive high reviews but it’s one of those types of games that is better in retrospect. It begins with a nameless inmate being brought to prison.
After a brief cutscene, he wakes up, finds a gun, and then gets bombarded byhordes of zombies. The game is on-rails with players using the bottom screen to both shoot and reload their weapons. There are some branching segments though wherein players can choose a direction to follow.
6Dementium: The Ward
Metacritic Score: 72
Dementium: The Wardis a bit of a famous DS game for a couple of reasons. One, there weren’t many Mature games on the system or horror games. Two, this started asaSilent Hillgameor at least that was the pitch the developer, Renegade Kid, made to Konami.
Even though it’s not official, the DNA ofSilent Hillis written all over this horror game. The dim lighting, the emphasis on the flashlight, the slower-paced story, the freako designs, and so on. It did well enough to get a sequel on the DS and this original game even got a remaster for the 3DS.
Ultimate Mortal Kombatis mostly a remake ofMortal Kombat 3which came out during the SNES era. It was the final main entry of that series and introduced characters like Sindel and Stryker to the franchise. As a DS remake, it both looks and plays well on the system.
The reason to pick this game up at the time, however, was not the fighting game segments. It was the mini-game that came packed in calledPuzzle Kombat. It was like this franchise’s attempt to make a Tetris game likeStreet Fighterdid withSuper Puzzle Fighter 2 Turboand it’s not a bad clone at that.
4999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
Metacritic Score: 82
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doorsis part of theZero Escapefranchise which is a series of light novels.Fans ofDanganronpawill probably enjoy it as it follows similar dark themes although there is more of an emphasis on puzzle-solving. The game begins with a young college student, Junpei, who wakes up in a room unsure of how he got there.
As Junpei, players will run into other kidnapped characters as they solve more and more puzzles. It’s one of those games that has to be replayed multiple times to understand what’s going on. The story is engrossing and memorable, and the puzzles are some of the hardest in any light novel game.
Nintendo isn’t known for its support of this series, but they have received limited exclusivity on some spinoffs. For example,Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Warswas a big get even though the game would receive a PSP edition a few months later. That version was devoid of the intuitive touch-based puzzles though which was kind of the best thing about this game.
For example, players had to physically hot-wire a car if they didn’t have the keys. The story was set in Liberty City and focused on a Triad member, Huang Lee, who was a first for the franchise. The perspective was also old-school as it was a top-down game but with modern mechanics.
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journeywas a return to the early entries in this series. It was a first-person dungeon crawler but the battle system was more modernized to what fans were used to at the time. In combat, players could befriend demons to join their party.
Certain elemental attacks could grant extra turns and bonuses which has been a standard for years now. The story was a unique one as it followed a secret organization in Antarctica who were investigating a void where demons were spewing out. The game was remastered on the 3DS as well although a direct sequel has yet to see the light of day.
Resident Evil: Deadly Silenceis a full-on remake of the original PS1 classic. Graphically, it looks slightly better than a PS1 game although certain things are more compressed like the cutscenes. Both campaigns, between Jill and Chris, are contained within this version along with a new mode.
Players can choose to play the game almost exactly as the PS1 version or they can tackle Rebirth mode which will add touch-based puzzles. This will change and add some different interactions with characters too. As a special note, there were attempts to bring this game to a Nintendo portable earlier via the Game Boy Color and there is even a playable demo online. Overall, as a DS port, this game is quite impressive even though there are certainly better versions of the firstResident Evilto play.
