Cute or Death's Favorite Nintendo DS Games

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Amazon Price: $29.49 (as of 05/31/2012)
Used Price: $13.94

Animal Crossing is a wonderful game for anyone young or young at heart. Your character moves into a new town, and it's your responsibility to make friends with your neighbors and keep the town clean and beautiful. You can visit your neighbors, collect furniture, upgrade your house and the local shop, plant trees, pick fruit, fish, catch bugs, and dig up fossils, and more! There are tons of mysteries and surprises in the Animal Crossing world, and you can play according to your own desires. You can even design your own clothes and accessories!

Animal Crossing: Wild World is played in real-time (even the seasons change along with the real calendar), and you have the ability to visit your friend's towns either locally or over Nintendo WFC. There are seasonal festivals and different NPC visitors on different days of the week (don't miss K.K. Slider's concert every Saturday night!)

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Amazon Price: $33.90 (as of 05/31/2012)
Used Price: $11.00

Puzzle fans will not want to miss the Professor Layton series. In the first installment, Professor Layton and his young assistant Luke travel to a strange village at the request of the residents in order to uncover the mystery of the "Golden Apple". Murder, mystery, and mayhem abound as you look for clues and solve over 130 puzzles to unravel the mystery.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village not only has an intriguing plot and fun, challenging puzzles; the voice acting and animation in the cut scenes are fantastic.

Touch Detective

Amazon Price: $30.00 (as of 05/31/2012)
Used Price: $4.87

Touch Detective is the story of young female detective Mackenzie solving cases in her small town, usually involving her friend Penelope. Her rival Chloe always takes the case at the same time and attempts to thwart her. Walk around town, collect clues, investigate the scenery, and talk to the town's residents to solve the mysteries.

The great thing about Touch Detective is the beautiful art and witty storylines. (Your character is followed everywhere by a pet mushroom-so cute!) Picking up items and scrutinizing them is really fun, and the game is actually quite challenging. It has been criticized for being a bit too difficult (admittedly if you get stuck, there's no way to get extra hints or tips without looking up a walkthrough), but if you keep your mind open and think abstractly, you should be able to solve the mysteries no problem.

Trace Memory

Amazon Price: $19.99 (as of 05/31/2012)
Used Price: $4.23

This game seriously blew my mind when I first played it. It is the story of a young girl who travels to a mysterious island in search of her father, hoping to unravel the mysteries of her past. There, she must solve puzzles and challenges with the help of a benevolent ghost. These are no ordinary puzzles, however! You will really need to "think outside the DS" to solve them. With an interesting story, challenging (and very fun) game play, Trace Memory suffers only in its short play time (about 6-8 hours).

Note: This game is rated "Teen" by the ESRB, but rated "All Ages" or 7+ by other country's rating systems. The game contains some suspense, but is otherwise relatively mild.

Cooking Mama

Amazon Price: $9.00 (as of 05/31/2012)
Used Price: $4.49

Cooking Mama has already had a ton of spin-offs, but the original is still my favorite. Use your DS stylus to slice, chop, mix, and fry foods to create dishes which will be graded by Mama! All the dishes are real Japanese foods (yes, they eat weird spaghetti dishes in Japan), so it's also a fun way to learn about Japanese cuisine!

Elite Beat Agents

Amazon Price: $9.21 (as of 05/31/2012)
Used Price: $0.98

Surprisingly fun and addictive, Elite Beat Agents is a rhythm game featuring a variety of pop songs (including David Bowie and Madonna). The Elite Beat Agents are an agency that helps people in need...by cheering them on with song and dance.

New Super Mario Bros

by: Unknown

Amazon Price: $24.99 (as of 05/31/2012)
Used Price: $11.99

Super Mario Bros is the most popular video game franchise of all time, and for good reason! This game is incredibly fun and a great update to the franchise, while still retaining all the great things that has made the series so well-loved for almost 30 years. Best new addition? Eating giant mushrooms and stomping all over everything!

Pokemon - Diamond Version

Amazon Price: $35.99 (as of 05/31/2012)
Used Price: $14.43

Pokemon Diamond (released alongside Pokemon Pearl, and later Pokemon Platinum) is the 4th generation of Pokemon games. Fighting to save Sinnoh from Team Galactic, Pokemon Diamond was the first Pokemon game to be able to make use of the touch screen. You can even dig underground for gems and stones, and build a secret hideout and play capture the flag with your friends!

Pokemon SoulSilver Version

Amazon Price: $34.90 (as of 05/31/2012)
Used Price: $25.97

Pokemon SoulSilver and HeartGold are remakes of Silver and Gold, respectively, which were the 2nd generation of Pokemon games. Not only are they awesome remakes with gorgeous graphics, the game also includes a PokeWalker, which is a pedometer mini game that lets you walk with your Pokemon in real life!

Pokemon - White Version

Amazon Price: $28.93 (as of 05/31/2012)

Pokemon White and Black are the latest Pokemon games, featuring all new monsters and an all new adventure! These games have already been receiving excellent reviews and acclaim!