10 Nintendo DS Games With the Best Graphics, Ranked

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Summary

  • Despite its hardware limitations, Nintendo DS hosted visually striking games like The World Ends With You, maximizing its potential.
  • Games like The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road showcased richly crafted environments despite console constraints.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks’ cel-shading graphics and expressive animations made it one of the most visually pleasing DS games.

Despite being a handheld console with less powerful hardware than its contemporaries at the time of its 2004 launch, the Nintendo DS still ranks among the top portable systems ever made. This is due to it making a significant quality leap within the gaming medium. Consequently, this popularity led to an abundance of releases for the console throughout its entire lifespan.

As a devoted fan, I must admit that while some Nintendo DS games showcased stunning graphics, demonstrating the system’s potential, it wasn’t the visual spectacle that most titles were celebrated for. Due to technical limitations, the focus often shifted towards innovative gameplay concepts and ingenious application of the dual screens. Remarkably, a handful of games still managed to shine visually, proving that even within constraints, captivating graphics could be achieved on this remarkable portable console.

10. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Cartoon Visuals And Animations Make This Capcom Game Stand Out

Despite the Nintendo DS’s technical constraints, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective stood out by adopting a distinctive cartoon aesthetic reminiscent of 1970s animation. Instead of focusing on realistic graphics, the game chose vibrant settings and exceptionally smooth animations, which provided detailed character movements – a rarity on that handheld device, highlighting its innovative visual design.

In the game ‘Ghost Trick’, every item has distinct textures and borders, which creates a clean, diverse aesthetic, particularly noticeable during the unique object-“possession” feature. Moreover, the clever application of the DS’s two screens facilitates swift changes and allows for a simultaneous view of the spiritual and physical realms, offering a fresh visual design that demonstrates the system’s capabilities and maintains the game’s technical excellence.

9. Metroid Prime Hunters

Technical Aspects Of This FPS Impress On The Nintendo DS

Despite some textures being less complex than in certain other DS games, the unique feature of Metroid Prime Hunters lies in its varied environments, each planet visited by Samus Aran having a distinct atmosphere. This results in an experience that is truly remarkable. As players traverse these diverse maps, they can anticipate encountering a wide range of biomes, each with distinctive flora and other environmental features.

Additionally, Metroid Prime Hunters uses dynamic lighting effectively, even in a relatively basic form. This feature is especially noticeable during darker sections, boosting immersion significantly. The game manages to provide one of the best 3D experiences for a handheld device, given its technical requirements. Notably, the frame rate stays consistently high and stable throughout most of the gameplay, making fast-paced battles feel smooth and responsive.

8. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

The Series’ Art Direction Quality Remained Intact

The distinctive style of the Kingdom Hearts series, particularly its bold art direction, has consistently been one of its key strengths. By blending Disney realms with Final Fantasy characters and other JRPG elements, it presents an intriguing concept that manages to be both exotic and effective. In the case of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days on Nintendo DS, this essence is maintained, as it boasts appealing, vivid environments by adopting fully three-dimensional graphics that run smoothly on the handheld device.

As a gamer, I must admit that the worlds I explore in this game are incredibly immersive, but it’s during the heated battles that the developers really showcase the system’s power. The attack and ability animations are nothing short of impressive, making each fight a thrilling experience. The cutscenes, while not as extensive as some other Kingdom Hearts installments, are skillfully directed, maintaining a gripping narrative and visual consistency throughout.

7. Dragon Quest 9: Sentinels Of The Starry Skies

One Of The Most Ambitious JRPGs On Nintendo DS

On a device such as the Nintendo DS, which had significant hardware constraints at its debut, Dragon Quest 9 stands out as one of the system’s most impressive games. This achievement isn’t just due to its size, boasting a lengthy campaign typical for the genre, but also because of its vibrant, finely detailed 3D settings and characters that were visually appealing for their time, thanks to excellent art direction.

One standout aspect that significantly boosted the DS version’s overall quality in the JRPG genre is its character customization system. This is because any armor or items worn by characters are clearly visible not only on the map but also during battles. As a result, this attention to detail, coupled with the game’s expansive nature, makes the graphical standard it attained on that generation’s portable hardware all the more remarkable.

6. Ōkamiden

Game Managed To Adapt Okami’s Art Direction To A Handheld

Despite having numerous attributes that make it an exceptional game, the unique art direction of “Okami” truly shines, with techniques that give each scene and character the appearance of being plucked from a traditional Japanese painting. As such, “Ōkamiden” maintains this style, serving as a spiritual successor to “Okami” by offering a similar experience and ranking among the console’s most visually stunning games.

As a devoted admirer, I must say that despite Ōkamiden initially appearing on hardware less potent than the one that introduced Okami, the developers skillfully recreated the signature style in an impressive manner. Instead of the intricate hand-drawn visuals of the original game, they opted for a more pixelated aesthetic that still captured the vibrant, distinctive flair that captivated players’ hearts, ensuring that the adventure remained equally mesmerizing on the go.

5. Pokemon Black And White 2

The Overworld Art Direction Is Very Well Executed

Many gamers consider the Pokemon games released on Nintendo DS as the series’ peak, and it’s no wonder, as several of the franchise’s finest Pixel Art masterpieces can be found on this platform. Among these, Pokemon Black and White 2 truly shine, particularly noteworthy. As the final mainline games released for the handheld, they also boast some of the best graphics in the series, pushing the console to its limits and making full use of its capabilities.

This significant enhancement is due to a revitalized artistic approach that exceeds previous Pokemon versions, presenting more appealing Pixel Art on all screens, particularly in the enhanced, expressive character designs. Furthermore, the 3D environments, primarily utilized for towns, significantly enhance the exploration experience, enabling Pokemon Black and White 2 to embody the style of the era flawlessly and secure a spot among the most visually stunning titles on the Nintendo DS.

4. Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow

The Sprites In This Game Are Incredible

In terms of its enemy diversity and level layout, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow stands out as one of the top games in the series. But what truly sets it apart is the exceptional quality of its character sprites, which showcase remarkable detail considering it was released on the Nintendo DS. This attention to detail is also evident in the stage backdrops and enemy movements, ensuring smooth and visually captivating combat throughout the entire gameplay experience.

The developers’ painstaking work resulted in a Gothic-style design that shone on the Nintendo DS, featuring intricate and immersive settings that truly embodied the series’ spirit. This adventure offered not only captivating gameplay mechanics but also never skimped on visual aesthetics. All these aspects combined make Dawn of Sorrow a standout experience for Castlevania enthusiasts, ranking among the best games delivered on the handheld platform.

3. The Legend Of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Cel-Shading Matched Link’s Journey Perfectly

Nintendo’s choice to employ cel-shading in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker took players by surprise as they were expecting a more realistic appearance, however, this technique resulted in some of the series’ most timeless games. Similarly, Spirit Tracks follows suit, being one of the Nintendo DS’s most visually appealing games and still easy on the eyes with its attractive graphics even to this day.

This success arises because Cel-Shading effectively matches the console’s limited hardware capabilities, allowing developers to showcase slightly more intricate settings and sleeker effects without narrowing the project’s ambitious scope or sacrificing performance. Similarly, as seen in Phantom Hourglass, a notable feature is the wealth of emotive facial expressions, notably for Link, that clearly convey his changing emotions and intensify narrative moments during in-game cutscenes.

2. The Wizard Of Oz: Beyond The Yellow Brick Road

One Of The Most Beautiful Games By Nintendo DS Standards

Despite being well-known for its extensive library of RPG games, some titles didn’t receive as much attention as they deserved during the system’s lifetime, like the less-familiar title “The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road“. This Japanese Role Playing Game boasted a lively and vivid art style, offering some of the best graphics on the Nintendo DS platform. Remarkably, it achieved this level of visual quality despite the limitations of the console itself, thanks to the intricately designed environments that were brought to life.

As a result, the gaming segments take place in diverse 3D environments, enabling players to journey through locations inspired by the books, yet without losing complexity due to it being played on a handheld device. In addition, the character designs are consistent with the storyline and crafted with attention to detail, enhancing the game’s unique visual appeal even more.

1. The World Ends With You

The Stylized Graphics Suit The Console Perfectly

Despite not being as widely recognized as other games on the handheld, The World Ends With You stands out as one of the most daring and visually appealing JRPGs ever released for the Nintendo DS. It maximizes the system’s dual screens to deliver fast-paced gameplay. Drawing inspiration from Shibuya’s urban culture, the game showcases 2D sprite characters in a stylish manner, while the backdrops boast an additional layer of stylization that harmoniously complements the overall aesthetic.

Despite the constraints imposed by the console, the creators of The World Ends With You skillfully leveraged the capabilities of the Nintendo DS to produce visually stunning graphics. They seamlessly extended the game’s environments across both screens, enhancing immersion and ensuring smooth pacing. The combat sequences are particularly noteworthy, as each character attack is accompanied by sharp, energetic animations that were impressive at the time of release and continue to convey a sense of momentum today.

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2025-06-06 05:55