The Nintendo DS stands out as one of the most successful handheld consoles of all time, in no small part due to its more than 154 million units sold. While the popular gaming handheld offers a portable experience, it doesn’t shy away from worthy multiplayer games and modes.
The best multiplayer Nintendo DS games often rank among the most robust overall experiences on the entire platform regarding gameplay, content, and graphics. Better yet, the best multiplayer Nintendo DS games extend across many different genres, ranging from FPS to racing to even RPGs. These best DS multiplayer games feel like quintessential experiences for all handheld owners.
1. Mario Kart DS
This early Nintendo DS experience showed multiplayer potential for the handheld system. It represented the first Mario Kart game to offer online multiplayer, and it played pretty well with players racing across iconic tracks and decimating each other with items like blue shells.
2. Advance Wars: Dual Strike
This grid-based tactical action game features war in a colorful and strategic style. It has multiplayer but doesn’t require players to own multiple copies. Players have the option to use the same DS and pass it around or play against other users wirelessly. Players even create and share their own battlefield maps with others.
3. Metroid Prime Hunters
This first-person shooter spin-off game in this series features the strongest FPS multiplayer gameplay on the system. Players zip around the sci-fi maps and blast their foes with weapons similar to the ones that bounty hunters like Samus use. It feels like one of the most underrated multiplayer experiences on the console.
4. New Super Mario Bros.
This new 3D style for the Mario platforming series looked and played great on the Nintendo DS. But it also contained the multiplayer elements from past games, where players take on the role of Luigi. Its multiplayer feels a bit too separate, but it still offers excellent platforming action as multiplayer Nintendo DS games go.
5. Pokémon Black 2 & White 2
These fascinating Pokémon games follow up on the original Generation 5 titles for direct sequels. This includes phenomenal modes like the World Championship. Better yet, the multiplayer feels great with all of the various Pokémon available from the past five generations for battles and trading alike.
6. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
This top-down GTA game follows in the footsteps of the first couple of titles in the series with a nostalgic vibe to its open-world structure. It includes multiplayer to let players join together with someone else and wreak havoc on the city.
7. Meteos
This fascinating mix of the Tetris-like puzzles where players match together colored blocks has an intriguing twist in its sci-fi mechanics where players battle against other planets and aliens. It included a forgotten multiplayer option where players with the cartridge share part of the game for free with up to three others.
8. Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels Of The Starry Skies
This ninth mainline game in the ground-breaking JRPG series Dragon Quest took a vast departure from the past titles. It focuses on a multiplayer experience where players create their own characters and traverse the world alongside a couple of friends. The massive fantasy world plays decent solo, but its actual draw comes from playing with others, though it has some notable restrictions for the guest players.
9. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring Of Fates
This massive action JRPG has some MMO-like elements to it. Though players have the option to play through the entire game solo, they also have a couple of modes available for multiplayer. Players create their own custom characters, send messages to others online, explore dungeons, and complete quests together in this thrilling fantasy experience.
10. Bomberman Land Touch!
This Bomberman spin-off game uses the DS’ touch controls quite well for its more than 30 minigames. It offers a competitive multiplayer experience similar to that of the Mario Party series with its various activities. In addition, it provides the usual Bomberman maze competitions where players blow each other up with up to a whopping ten players in a match at once.
11. Tetris DS
The touchscreen on the bottom half of the DS works wonders for this entry in the puzzle series. It takes a lot of inspiration from classic Nintendo franchises like Mario and Zelda for unique gameplay gimmicks and items. These play into the multiplayer modes as well, which shakes up the already excellent block-matching gameplay for up to 10 players.
12. Animal Crossing: Wild World
This life simulator game has players explore, upgrade, and gather across a charming and colorful world full of lovable talking animal creatures. It works well on its own for solo players, but it only gets better in multiplayer as players visit each other’s villages.
13. Worms: Open Warfare 2
This Nintendo DS entry in the series takes the classic 2D turn-based warfare of the Worms franchise and gives it some solid multiplayer twists. Players either compete across randomly generated maps in Deathmatch, try to destroy each other’s forts with various weapons, or even race against each other in the new jetpack mode.
14. Clubhouse Games
This massive collection of 42 different complete games, such as Blackjack and chess, lets players engage in a variety of experiences with others, both offline and online. The sheer number of games ensures players don’t have to pick up another DS title to have tons of multiplayer content.
15. Elite Beat Agents
This beloved musical rhythm game uses the touchscreen quite well for players to hit the circle notes at the right time in the song for action to happen on the top screen. It contains a plethora of multiplayer options, including for up to four players in competitive or cooperative play, with only a single game in some cases.
16. Mario Party DS
This final entry in the series from renowned developer Hudson Soft didn’t have online multiplayer support, but it didn’t stop the game from providing excellent offline connectivity. Players connect offline for up to four competitors in the board game with dozens of minigames to battle in.
17. Might & Magic: Clash Of Heroes
This surprising mix of the high fantasy story and character elements from the Heroes of Might & Magic series with the more puzzle-like strategic turn-based battles feels so unlike any other RPG on the platform. It has a welcome two-player multiplayer mode, which lets users battle to see who has the best tactics.
18. Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land
The graphics of this DS spin-off of American Wasteland may lack in the visual department, but it makes up for it with some ground-breaking multiplayer options. Players create their own graffiti art using the touchscreen to share with others outside of the solid competitive skateboarding modes like Trick Attack.
19. Bleach: Dark Souls
This anime fighting game bases itself off of the popular Bleach manga series. The 2D fighting game offers competitive multiplayer for the various fighters, but its hook comes from the card-based gameplay. Players select cards to use in the middle of battle to gain an advantage, such as boosting defense.
20. Star Fox Command
The high-octane ship combat of the sci-fi Star Fox series returns. While it has a solid single-player experience, the actual value for some players comes from the offline and online multiplayer options. A single mode exists where players destroy other ships to gather the most stars dropped from defeated players, with up to three players online and an impressive six players offline.
21. Ultimate Mortal Kombat
This Nintendo DS port of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 brings the 2D fighting masterpiece to the handheld console, including multiplayer with the classic fighters. It also includes multiplayer for the underrated Puzzle Kombat mode, which blends together the typical sideways fighting mechanics with Tetris-like blocks.
22. Puzzle Quest: Challenge Of The Warlords
This lengthy puzzle RPG features a mix of the typical fantasy RPGs with combat based on a Bejeweled-like system of swapping around colored gems to match them together to deal damage to the opponent. It includes a simple multiplayer competitive experience with match-3 RPG battles.
23. Space Invaders Extreme
This ultimate version of the classic Space Invaders ship combat arcade game lets up to two players on the DS zip around the galaxy and blast away at enemy ships to score as many points as possible. It offers both online multiplayer and single-cart multiplayer, where one owner of the game shares it with others for free.
24. Phantasy Star 0
This spin-off entry in the popular sci-fi action RPG series from Sega contains many elements from the proper MMORPG games but in handheld form. Players create their own character to explore the galaxy, compete in quests using various weapon types, and have the option to do it alongside others.
Teams of up to four players work together on missions to progress their characters using one of the most profound multiplayer communication systems on the DS.
