Considering how ubiquitous and iconic the Game Boy had become over its roughly 15-year reign over the handheld gaming scene, the pressure was on Nintendo when it came time to launch a successor. How did Nintendo respond to that pressure? By following up the Game Boy with a family of handhelds that was even more successful, naturally. The Nintendo DS, with its novel dual-screen design, touchscreen controls, and N64-quality 3D visuals, burst onto the scene in 2004. It didn't take too long for the unique new clamshell handheld to garner a legion of fans, in large part due to a seriously impressive library. We've rounded up the best Nintendo DS games of all time--a list of 25 titles in alphabetical order.

Longtime Game Boy fans were perhaps a bit skeptical of the Nintendo DS at first, and we're sure that the handheld's backward-compatibility with GBA games helped to convert hesitant buyers. But thanks to a steady stream of great games and multiple clever revisions to the hardware--DS Lite, DSi, and DSi XL--the Nintendo DS had a remarkable six-plus-year run. Games that took advantage of its touchscreen and microphone were capable of creating unique gaming experiences, the first-party line-up was a showcase of imagination, and later models of the console streamlined the design to make the DS a pocket-friendly entertainment device to carry around town in your pocket.

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