Hey Nintendo, Make Sure These Games Show up on DS Virtual Console

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Nintendo stealth-launched the Nintendo DS Virtual Console on Wii U in Japan yesterday, offering everyone a free copy of Brain Age. No doubt the U.S. equivalent will debut either tomorrow or next week during E3, and we're pretty happy about it.

Granted, I don't know that many of us are jonesing to play more Brain Age, but the idea of revisiting the DS's extraordinary library again has a certain amount of appeal. With so many dozens (hundreds!?) of genuinely great releases to choose from, Nintendo has the opportunity to really make something special with this new Virtual Console service. Admittedly, Virtual Console doesn't have a particular inspiring track record (despite playing host to some true classics), but you can't blame us for trying to keep an optimistic perspective.

With so many top-flight games available in the massive DS library, we've picked out our all-time favorites. DS Virtual Console just won't be complete without these greats.

Jeremy Parish, Editor-in-Chief

Dragon Quest IX: Not a surprising choice for me, given that I recently named this as one of my "comfort food” games, but I’d love to take another stab at this epic… especially if Nintendo’s DS Virtual Console involves some sort of contingency plan for Wi-Fi Connection features. A huge RPG with tons of bonus content, DQIX would be a massive challenge for Nintendo to replicate properly on Virtual Console if only because so much of the game experience involved playing with others and swapping data through street pass. But if they could get this one right, the rest of the DS catalog would be like rolling downhill.

Etrian Odyssey III: The one Etrian Odyssey game I’ve never finished, a Virtual Console release would give me the excuse to go back and have another go at it. And it’ll be a great placeholder until Atlus realizes the obvious and finally creates a proper Etrian Odyssey for Wii U. I mean, come on — the Game Pad is just begging to play the role of dungeon map graph paper.

Mega Man ZX Advent: A really excellent action platformer that went largely overlooked because everyone was burned out on Mega Man, and you don’t love what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. Not only did Advent neatly solve all the problems its predecessor suffered from, it also set up some interesting plot hooks that I’d kind of like to see resolved in a sequel. Which maybe Capcom would feel compelled to make if enough people took an interest in an Advent reissue. 

Pete Davison, News Editor

Elite Beat Agents: I love this game. It's an unusual, interesting take on the rhythm game genre with some unconventional song choices and, surprisingly, features some of the most emotional, heartfelt scenes in all of gaming. (Come on. Tell me you didn't at least tear up the first time you played the "You're The Inspiration" level.) The reason I think this would be great on Wii U is that on DS it was all but impossible to watch the top screen while you were actually playing. Whacking it on a TV-connected console would allow it to become something of a "spectator sport," with the player concentrating on tapping and spinning away on the GamePad while anyone else who happened to be in the room could enjoy the ridiculous scenes on the television.

Trauma Center: Under the Knife: In the absence of a true new Trauma Center game for Wii U -- come on, Atlus, the GamePad is practically begging for that to happen -- I'll accept a port of the DS original and its sequel. Again, your attention will largely be focused on the GamePad as you play, but you didn't look at the top screen much on the DS original while performing the operations anyway. Conversely, the visual novel-style story scenes will end up being displayed on the television, which makes a lot of sense.

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors: The more people who get to play the first installment in Uchikoshi's Zero Escape series, the better -- and the more likely it is that we'll see him get the opportunity to finish it once and for all. That aside, 999 is, in itself, a beautifully written visual novel with taxing puzzles and genuinely shocking plot twists.

Brendan Sinclair, Contributing Editor

Kirby's Canvas Curse: This was the first DS game I ever played that really took advantage of the system's touchscreen in an interesting way, letting players draw Kirby's path through the world as they saw fit. At the time, I thought it was going to be the template for successful DS games going forward, a simple control scheme that still allowed for expressive gameplay, where the touchscreen was more than just an inherently inferior proxy for buttons. Unfortunately, very few games ran with that idea, and it wound up being a template seen more on smartphones than Nintendo handhelds.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies: I know Jeremy already wrote about this one, but I might have loved it for slightly different reasons. I never bothered with the online features or bonus content, instead appreciating the game as a glorious throwback to the days when JRPGs were first carving out their place in the Western gaming industry. It was like I was 12 years old again and discovering the joys of the genre for the first time with Final Fantasy Legend on the Game Boy. From a magical difficulty curve that prompts just the right amount of grinding on the player's part to an episodic structure where every new town in the overworld has a distinct problem for the player to solve (not to mention weapons shops with enticing new gear to blow money on), Dragon Quest IX was a sublime handheld RPG.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars: The best Grand Theft Auto game of all time is also one of the most under-appreciated. To bring the series to Nintendo's at-the-time red-hot handheld, Rockstar went back to the series roots with a top-down overhead view more akin to the original GTA games from the PSone era. In doing so, they freed the series from perhaps its greatest failing, awkward third-person combat. The action in Chinatown Wars was fun and frenetic, but never frustrating. (To this day, it's the only GTA game I've managed to finish.) As if that weren't enough, the game also addressed the second-biggest flaw with the series' latter-day installments, the incredible dissonance that happens when you try to focus on serious characters in serious situations when they're surrounded by absurd gameplay and painfully juvenile satire. Chinatown Wars took a more light-hearted approach to story, one that fit much better with the rest of the game.

Mike Williams, Associate Editor

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow: One of the best Castlevania games ever created in my opinion and the beginning of a solid run that included Order of Ecclesia and Portrait of Ruin. Soma returns in a game that’s really just Aria of Sorrow with a better graphical push and more stuff. If the game have any stumbling point, it was the touchscreen-enabled Seals you had to use on bosses; complete waste of time. I remember days spent grinding souls in certain rooms, but I still never felt like it was a chore. I’ve lost and repurchased this game at least three times.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Honestly, none of the Final Fantasy Tactics sequels could touch the original, but A2 was probably the closest. Luso is no Ramza, but him and his Clan  were far better Marche and his band of children. 60 Jobs, Clan Quests, Auctions, Item Synthesis; you always had something to do and it all worked well together. Sadly, this was the series’ last hurrah and Square Enix hasn’t made another Final Fantasy Tactics since.

Ghost Trick: This quirky puzzle games came late in the Nintendo DS’s lifespan, but it still left a mark on me. The murdered Sissel has to possess different objects in order to get closer to the knowledge he wants: who killed him. Ghost Trick featured some stylish art and even featured a cameo from Phoenix Wright. Unfortunately, Ghost Trick creator Shu Takami hasn’t been able to make another one because he’s also the director of the Phoenix Wright games; cash cow before side project.

Kat Bailey, Senior Editor

The World Ends With You: There's a superior version available on the iPad now, but  I would still be okay with The World Ends With You making its way to a Wii U DS Virtual Console. The more versions, the merrier, right? There was a lot to love about the original: Memorable music, a great setting (Shibuya), mechanics that played on that setting, and a surprisingly emotional story. About the only drawback that I can see is that splitting the dual screen battle system between the TV and the Wii U gamepad would be even more awkward than before. Then again, the battle system was always the least interesting part of The World Ends With You, anyway. As one the Nintendo DS' best RPGs, I feel like a VC release should be a given.

Retro Game Challenge: A celebration of gaming history, Retro Game Challenge feels like a natural fit for the DS Virtual Console. The original did a wonderful job of transporting players back to 1980s Japan—the heyday of the Famicom—and making them feel like a part of the culture. The games contained within, though all knockoffs of the real thing, were all pretty great as well. Retro Game Challenge was a failure in the U.S., but I feel like that had more to do with poor marketing and exposure than anything else. I would love for Retro Game Challenge to get a second lease on life. Maybe we would even get one of the sequels.

Infinite Space: When I saw Infinite Space at TGS in either 2008 or 2009, my immediate comment was, "Hey, they made a game for me!" Essentially a visual novel, it packed elements of Japanese sci-fi ranging from Macross to Space Battleship Yamato, and sported surprisingly complex battle mechanics. Nowadays, it's one of the Nintendo DS' rarer games, going for as much as $150 on Amazon. I hesitate to call it a lost classic, but it would still be a fun find on the DS Virtual Console. Sadly, of all the games I've listed, Infinite Space is the least likely to make a comeback. What a shame.

Jaz Rignall, Editor-at-Large

Big Brain Academy: A rather odd pick considering the wealth of DS games to choose from, but I think Big Brain Academy would work really well with the Wii U pad. I enjoyed playing all the “Brain” games, and while I’m not sure just how much they actually improve your mental process, they certainly do help sharpen your mind when it comes to solving logic and math puzzles.

Picross: Speaking of puzzles, I absolutely loved the original DS Picross. It's such a clever game: sometimes fiendishly tricky, but never anything but fun. I’d love to revisit it on a big screen, especially since it’d give me the chance to finally finish the game – something I never managed to do the first time around.

Clubhouse Games: I played this to death on many a long journey, especially when I wanted to take it easy. Basically, it’s a collection of 42 classic board and card games. Boring? Sounds like it, but when you start playing things like Hearts and Rummy, you remember why they’re called "classics." Since the original DS version catered for up to eight simultaneous players online, I’m wondering that functionality could also work on Wii U. It'd be pretty damn cool if it did. Sometimes it's not all about pew, pew, pew.

Bob Mackey, Senior Writer

Hotel Dusk: Room 215: Definitely the strongest of late developer Cing's half-dozen adventure games, Hotel Dusk takes a remarkably mature approach with its slow-paced, melancholy mystery. Puzzles were never Cing's strong suit, but Hotel Dusk's memorable characters and knockout English localization more than make up for its weak design — yes, you'll be blowing into that DS microphone at least once (but you probably already knew that).

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light: This throwback wasn't greeted with the kindest reviews upon its release, but this Bravely Default predecessor offers a charming (and challenging) take on old-school Final Fantasy mechanics. The limitations it places on players might seem harsh at first, but 4 Heroes wants each of your decisions to be thoughtful and deliberate — you definitely won't be hoarding an entire shop's worth of supplies on your party's back in this Final Fantasy.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: The Mario & Luigi series has had its ups and downs, but Bowser's Inside Story definitely hits that sweet spot between Mario and RPG the series has always strived for. Not to mention it has one of the more out-there premises of the series, which improbably lands Mario and Luigi inside the body of their greatest foe. And, as expected from a Mario RPG, the segments with Bowser and his life of frustration make for a definite highlight, as do the segments where he goes Godzilla to take on similarly huge bosses.