Some games may have English translations available. Check the descriptions for more details.
Japan-only games[]
| Title | Genre | Description | Fan
Translation? |
Box Art |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chōsōjū Mecha MG/Super Control Mecha MG | Mecha/
Simulation |
A great mecha game from Sandlot. Play as a "Puppeteer" who pilots and rides mecha called Marionation Gear (or MG). Arguably the most creative use of the NDS touch screen of all-time. Each MG has a unique "cockpit", where players can pull levers to swing their robot's arms and hurl buildings at the enemy, flip a switch to transform into a car, punch in launch codes to fire nukes, and countless other imaginative setups. The MGs are more Robot Alchemic Drive (if you've played the old PS2 game, also developed by Sandlot) and "tanks with arms and legs", and less Armored Core or Gundam. Controlling your MG is slow and clunky on purpose. You are supposed to feel like you're operating a piece of heavy machinery, not unlike a crane on a construction site. With well over 100 missions, ranging from battling to racing to destroying burger joints, every MG has a use. A wide variety of MGs too, humanoid that transform into cars, trucks, trains etc., insects/bugs/crab-like, etc. Has a translation patch released in 2019, FULLY IN ENGLISH! Cult classic material. | YES (Full) [RHDN] |
|
| Cid to Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon - Tokiwasure no Meikyuu DS+ | RPG / Roguelike |
This is a Port of the Wii Game Final Fantasy Fables - Chocobo's Dungeon. The story mode is all in Japanese but you can figure out the story if you play the Wii version. Very cool rougelike dungeon descending game. In the DS version there are some new classes for Chocobo, and each one has unique features and skills. It also has a special dungeon that lets you play as Cid. The best part of this are the bonus missions, which have various restrictions and are quite challenging, requiring some real strategy to finish. Has a partial English patch that translates all the menu and battle text. |
Yes (Menus only) |
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| Coropata | Puzzle | The Incredible Machine featuring a loli. Over 100 different puzzles in which you must provide means for the autonomous Himawari to reach her destination. Entirely in moonspeak, but it's not like the plot is important. Menus are simple to navigate. You can check a trailer here | No | 
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| Crimson Room (SuperLite 2500) | Puzzle / Compilation | Excellent compilation featuring all four games of the Crimson Room series, fully adapted to the touch controls and with some minor things changed (like the secret password in the first game). | No | 
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| Cross Treasures | Action / Roguelike | Procedurally generated dungeons, customizable characters and 4 player co-op, Like a sweet, sweet lovechild between Diablo, DQIX and all the retarded monsters you drew when you were 6 years old. Filled to the brim with references to Shonen Jump and arcade games, Put on your maid outfit and grab your christmas tree, we're going to floor 25 to take down a battleship in an 8-bit dungeon. One of the most under-appreciated DS games out there. You can check a trailer here | Yes (Mostly menus, plus part of the intro is translated.) |
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| Culdcept DS | Board game / RPG | Similar to the Culdcept Saga game for Xbox 360, Culdcept DS is a mixture of Yu-Gi-Oh and Monopoly. Take various 'properties' by putting monsters on them, and raise their levels to increase the tolls your opponent must pay when he lands on them. Monsters can be boosted with items from your hand, and spells can affect a cepter's cards before he even plays them. NOTE: this game WILL make you A) Scream 'Fuck you, game!' and B) Throw your DS. This game is EXCRUCIATINGLY BASTARDESQUE - it will challenge you. Only released in Japan. You can check a trailer here TIP: get cards in multiplayer mode by having the npc win for you. | YES |
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| Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butoden | Fightan | A heapload of fun fighting game with Dragon Ball Z's storyline (from the Saiyan to Buu arcs), and similar gameplay from the 2D/3D/2.5D/what thefuckever Budokai games. 38 playable characters, cutscenes are done justice to the storyline, graphics are superb and relatable to the manga, and soundtrack is done great for a DS DBZ game; intro theme uses an instrumental of this . Also has a challenge mode, wifi 2 player connectivity, and a TF2 simulator . Surprisingly, this little gem never saw a release outside Japan; however, an almost complete translation patch is available. | Yes (Incomplete) [ |
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| Element Hunters | Action / RPG | Learn chemistry through violence! High speed Monster Hunter. Features awesome giant monsters, but actually allows you to jump on them instead of dodging. The sprites and models on the bosses are surprisingly stylish for a DS game. Has translated menus (via a patch) and a story no one gives a shit about. | No | 
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| Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo ~Hikari to Kage no Eiyū | RPG / Strategy | Did you like Shadow Dragon? If you did, you probably were very pissed when the developers said that the sequel (Or remake of the sequel) wasn't going to be released outside of Japan, especially considering how much BETTER the second title was going to be. But let me tell you something: FUCK THAT. A bunch of really cool guys translated pretty much the entire game, and now you can actually play this. Your own custom unit, improved art, support conversations, old and new characters to play with: It's all here. Get the translation patch, and thank the glorious people that made it while you're at it. This is a direct sequel to the game above, |
YES [RHDN] |
|
| Game Center CX: Arino no Chousenjou 2 | Minigame | Based on the popular Japanese show Game Center CX, where a comedian (Arino) plays old games and comments on them. This is the JP-only sequel to "Retro Game Challenge", which is superior for its SNES and GBC style games, |
YES
[RHDN] |
|
| G.G. Series Collection Plus | Compilation | In Japan, there have been a series of games released for DSiWare called G.G. Series. This is a 30-game collection of most of those games plus many new ones. The games include platformers, shmups, puzzle games and other genres. If you have a love for 2D or classic gaming, you really need to check this one out. Note: The games require no knowledge of Japanese, but earning enough GP to unlock games fucking takes FOREVER, so it's highly recommended you use cheats to max out your money & access everything. | No | 
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| Hokuto no Ken: Hokuto Kami Denshousha no Michi | ATATATATATA simulator | This game presents the story of The Fist of the North Star as manga panels. Whenever a bad guy appears in a panel, targets will appear over him and you'll have a few seconds to ATATATATATA the targets with your stylus. Starts easy, but when the game adds other objectives (numbered targets, paths to follow, go back and forth between two points) it gets really fun. | No | 
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| Irozuki Tingle no Koi no Balloon Trip | Action / RPG | The sequel to Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland. A middle-aged man gets sucked into a picture book dating guide and becomes Tingle. Woo women, and solve puzzles with the aid of a Scarecrow, Tin Woman, and Cowardly Lion. | YES
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| Illust Logic DS + Colorful Logic | Puzzle | Picross plus a few more other features where there are also puzzles that use color. You could also solve pieces of a bigger picture somewhat like in Picross 3D. Animations and small minigames are gone though. It's in moonspeak but still playable. | No | 
|
| Jump! Ultimate Stars | Fighting | A Smash-Bros-esque fighter with a fuckton of animu characters (unfortunately, though, only JUMP!-exclusive ones) and cameos. The roster will appeal both to classic animu fans (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Fist of the North Star, Dragon Ball, Kinnikuman, One Piece, etc.) and modern weeaboos (Nayrutoe, Bleach, etc.). Has online play, but everyone uses cheat codes. In addition, the community is filled with petty people who, upon losing, will use a glitch that forces everyone to reset the game. Highly recommended to play with friends. Improved sequel to Jump! Super Stars, also on the DS. Full translation available. | YES [RHDN] |
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| Kaiju Busters / Kaiju Busters Powered | Action / RPG | The DS version of Monster Hunter. Stays true to the formula of using giant weapons to fight huge monsters, but uses monsters from old Japanese monster movies. The game is entirely in moonspeak, and the chances of a patch are low, but the language barrier isn't overwhelming. Actually has 3 player local co-op. Make sure to use the Universal Child's Play patch. | No | 
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| Ketsui Death Label | Shoot 'em Up | Boss Rush version of the popular shooter by Cave. Loads of difficulties and a weird ass multiplayer. It's got some weird Japanese humor on it if you can understand moonspeak. | YES [RHDN] |
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| Loopop Cube: Loop * Salad DS | Puzzle | Think Sokoban as a 2D platformer, with a loli on top. Puzzler where you push blocks around to bring them together and make them disappear. Sounds simple and even looks it at first but these are really tough - and there are hundreds of puzzles. Also features the sweetest music ever (subtitled if you care). | No | 
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| Love Plus | Dating Sim | An extremely popular Dating Sim from Japan, widely considered by some of the Japanese to be the killer app for the Nintendo DS. You get to choose one of three girls to date, you must get the girl to love you and you can kiss her by tapping her lips on the touchscreen. Much, MUCH harder than it seems. Since it is designed with realism and complexity in mind, you have to be careful with your choices. Less kawaiidesu and more "Dating for Dummies". May give you feels by the time the kissing with the stylus time comes on. Has a girl's version with Bishonuen instead of Moe girls which is listed below. | YES |
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| Mawashite Tsunageru Touch Panic | Puzzle | A pink ball wants to eat all the other balls and reach the goal, but the path is broken into tiles! In this puzzler, you have to rearrange the path so that your pink blob can eat the most balls and get to the goal within the time limit. Gets really intense when you have to eat a minimum of balls to pass the level within an unforgiving time limit. In Japanese, but completely playable even if you don't know the language | No | 
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| Nanashi no Geemu | Adventure / Survival Horror | Developed and published by Square Enix, Nanashi no Geemu or "The Nameless Game" is a survival horror point-and-click adventure. It's a game about a game, a cursed handheld RPG that kills anyone who plays it after a week. You play most of the game in a 3D environment (like Dementium), with sections where you play the "cursed" game itself, playing like an 8-bit RPG. Has a great plot which can give some chills. It has 3D sound, so you should play with headphones. It's been only released in Japan. A full English translation is available.
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YES |
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| Nodame Cantabile/Nodame Cantabile Tanoshii Ongaku no Jikan desu | Music / Rhythm | The gameplay has an Ouendan feel to it, but replaces the J-pop with classical music. Also has other modes, one of them being a basic Taiko no Tatsujin. In Japanese, but with a little trial and error it should be easy to navigate the menus to the songs. In the story mode just click over every bear and you should be fine unlocking more songs. The sequel drops the Ouendan-like gameplay and replaces it with a mix of DDR and stylus gestures/taps. Still very fun, though. | No | 
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| Okaeri! Chibi-Robo! - Happy Rich Oosouji! | Action / Adventure | Happy Richie Oosouji is the "true" sequel to the first Chibi-Robo, in that you actually do house-cleaning. It takes place in grown-up Jenny's house. New tools, new locations, same awesome gameplay (but a little bit harder). |
YES
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| One Piece Gigant Battle 2 | Fighting | Pretty good One Piece game for the DS, take control of a fuckload of characters from the show and just battle that shit out. First game released in Europe, but sadly, this one has yet to see any port whatsoever. | No | 
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| Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan / Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 | Music / Rhythm | Same idea and the basis for Elite Beat Agents, except instead of American pop/rock you get J-pop and J-rock instead. Near-Gurren Lagann levels of HOTBLOODEDNESS to be found. The sequel features a second "rival" team that you play half of the songs as. Obviously, Japanese only, but if you played Elite Beat Agents, you won't have a problem. OUEN, DAI SEI KOHHH! | No | 
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| Puyo Puyo! 15th/20th Anniversary and Puyo Puyo 7 | Puzzle | 15th Anniversary includes classic and Fever modes along with a bunch of gimmick ones. A great package unless you really hate the aesthetics of the Fever series. There's online, but it's not very populated these days. A translation patch is available, and it calls Satan "Satan" instead of "Dark Prince". Puyo Puyo 7 has a few different characters (more like reskins), a new take on fever mode (Mini/Huge Mode) in favor of gimmicks, and a more active online community. Get your ass beat down by moon people or huge weeaboos. It also continues to include the classic modes. A full translation patch is available, if you care about the riveting storyline or can't figure out how to navigate the menus.There's also a 20th Anniversary version for the DS and Wii, with all new gimmicks! (spoilers: they're not new.) Still worth checking out because hey, it's Puyo. | YES (15th) [RHDN] YES (20th) Yes (7) |
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| Puzzle Series (Sudoku, Kakuro, Slither Link, Hitori, Nurikabe, Akari) | Puzzle | The Puzzle Series is a Japanese series of really fun puzzle games designed by Nikoli, only the sudoku one was released in the US as Sudoku Gridmaster (Sudoku Master in EU). Some of the games in the series require you to know Japanese but these ones don't. Since all the instructions are in Japanese, you should check these links if you don't know how to play Kakuro, Slitherlink, Hitori, Nurikabe, or Akari. Tip: To save in the middle of a puzzle, press Start, then Y, then A. Works in most the games in this series, except in Hitori, where it's Start > Up > Left > A. (Note Akari may be listed as "Bijutsukan" (despite saying "Akari" on the box), it's the same thing) | Yes... for Slither, and Bijutsukan / Akari. |
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| SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu - Goddess of Destiny | RPG | A remake of the RPG released in the US for the Gameboy as Final Fantasy Legend II. The remake does away with random encounters and replaces them with the system used in later SaGa games, where the monsters appear in the world map; stat growths are now based on the equipment used and there's a new multiplayer boss arena. In Japanese, but there's a fan translation. | YES [RHDN] |
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| SaGa 3: Jikuu no Hasha - Shadow or Light | RPG | Much like the above, this is a remake of the Gameboy SaGa 3/Final Fantasy Legend III, also adapted to the systems of the later SaGa games. And like the above, it also got a fan translation. | YES [RHDN] |
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| Simple DS Series Vol.18 - The Soukou Kihei Gun Ground | Heavy Mecha Run 'n Gun Sidescroller | Basically a successor to the likes of Metal Warriors/Front Mission: Gun Hazard/Assault Suits Series (aka Target Earth/Cybernator etc.), where you basically run around shooting and punching mechs with your customisable mech. Completely in Japanese but you can fudge your way through the language barrier. Arguably one of the best of the Simple DS series of budget titles released in Japan. | No | 
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| Soma Bringer | RPG | Diablo with animu characters. Very customizable with many options as to how to build your character. Full translation patch (aside from the glossary you'll never use), look on GBATemp. | YES [RHDN] |
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| Taiko no Tatsujin DS - Touch de Dokodon! / 7-tsu no Shima no Daibouken / Dororon! Yookai Daikessen!! | Music / Rhythm | IT'S LIKE I'M REALLY A DRUMMER! It's in Japanese. Also check out the sequel for more songs and stuff to do. The second sequel adds a story mode to the mix that plays like a RPG. Really, it even has random encounters where you fight with the power of rhythm. | No | 
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| Tales of Innocence | RPG | A fully 3D Tales of on the DS, huzzah. The battle system is similar to Abyss', letting you move around freely. The difficulty spike is crushing, but manageable, and the dungeons can be a little on the bland side. The translation patch is now available. | YES [RHDN] |
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| theta | Puzzle | A simple yet potentially very confusing puzzler. The top screen and the bottom screen have disks with slots for balls. If a ball is above an empty slot it will fall. The balls can fall from the bottom screen to the top screen. Every disk on the bottom screen is conected to another one in the top screen so if you turn a disk with the stylus another one will turn at the top screen. The goal is to get all the colored balls on its correspondingly colored disks. This will be definitively a challenge for your spatial IQ. In Japanese, but it's completely playable even if you don't know the language. | No | 
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| Tingle no Balloon Fight DS | Platformer | If you've ever played Balloon Fight, you know what to expect. Balloon Fight is Nintendo's version of Joust and is arguably better. This version features backgrounds remind you of Wind Waker, and your main character is of course Tingle. Multiplayer (2-4) in this game is a BLAST, especially if you're just looking to waste some quick time, and Balloon Trip mode is surprisingly addictive. This was only released in Japan for their Club Nintendo, but even so, it's not particularly hard to find. | No | 
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| Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 1st Love Plus | Sim / Visual Novel | Female version of the original foreveralone franchise for males. Co-ordinate your outfits! Hit on teachers! Fondle your boyfriend with the Touch Screen! Disarm bombs! Make Valentine's chocolates! Much harder than it appears, since fucking up is VERY easy, and you have no way of knowing a guy completely without |
YES |
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| Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2nd Season | Sim / Visual Novel | You want more bishie boys? Here's more bishie boys. Now with more androgyny and MUCH more fondling. Easier than the original TMGS, so if you're intimidated by that one, go for this. Chocolate making still fucking sucks though. The third is also translated, and arguably the most fun, since you can turn two best friends into hardcore bitter rivals as they pine for you. | YES [RHDN] |
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| Umihara Kawase Shun: Second Edition Kanzen Ban | Platformer / Puzzle | Use a rubbery fishing line to get through physics-based puzzle platforming levels of ball-busting difficulty. Contains both the SNES (which is on the recommended SNES games page) and PS games, brand new levels, an extras gallery and it's not a buggy piece of shit like the PSP port. More importantly, Umihara may be both the cutest and sexiest of any obscure vidya female. | No | 
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| Utacchi | Music / Rhythm | A really fun Rhythm game made by the Bemani, the developers of Pop'n Music from which Utacchi was inspired. It's full of songs from your favorite anime and other weeaboo-related things. But don't think it's as easy as it is cute, because this game can become tough and unforgiving at later levels, especially with the yellow flick notes. Be sure to get the patch to fix the dead touchscreen issue. Also, there might be a savegame issue with some flashcarts (the game creates a savfile with an all-cap filename but the rom filename is lower-case); if this happens just manually change the savefile filename to match the ROM filename. | No | 
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| Xenosaga I + II | RPG | A retelling of the first two episodes of the Xenosaga trilogy for the PS2. The Episode II portion of the game, originally told through Jr.'s perspective, now focuses on Shion. Features new content and some parts of the script that were originally cut from Episode II. It should be noted the entire game uses the battle system from Episode I. It was only released in Japan, but there is allegedly a fan translation in the works. | No | 
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| Yakuman DS | Board game | One of the best mahjong games for the DS (real mahjong, not that solitaire garbage). Featuring Mario and co., this game has lots of optional rules for free matches. You can even do Open Riichis, the most badass move possible in mahjong in case you haven't watched Akagi. In Japanese, but it's easy to follow if you know some mahjong and there's a translation guide available here (Note: There's a version called "Wi-Fi Taiyou: Yakuman DS" that adds an online play, but is otherwise exactly the same). If you like mahjong you should also check the Akagi DS game. That one is not as good as Yakuman DS, but it has Washizu Mahjong (you bet your blood and three quarters of the tiles are transparent), which no other DS mahjong game has. | No | 
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