© Nintendo Life

This ranked reader-voted list of the 50 best Nintendo DS games is governed by Nintendo Life User Ratings and can change depending on those scores. Feel free to rate your favourites and, perhaps, rejig the ranking below. Enjoy!

One of the joys of Nintendo's Switch is how it marries the company's home console heritage with its equally prestigious handheld line. Ask anybody over the age of thirty to name a handheld system and "Game Boy" will likely still be the first answer; the name became synonymous with portable gaming just as home consoles were routinely referred to as "Nintendos" back in the day. Younger generations, though, are more likely to name the unlikely upstart that stole Game Boy's portable crown and permanently ousted that mighty brand name from Nintendo's lineup: Nintendo DS.

It's strange to think back to a time when the Nintendo DS - that odd-looking folding system - was positioned as a 'third pillar' alongside GameCube and Game Boy Advance. That was until it promptly slayed the Boy king and took his throne.

© Nintendo Life

The original prototype and even the initial 'Phat' version of the hardware certainly didn't look like much of a threat. The early reveal model Reggie pulled from his pocket looked undeniably clunky, especially up against the sleek elegance of Sony's PSP. There was a nervousness from fans that Sony's arrival on the handheld market was the death knell to Nintendo's dominance in the same way it had been with the home console market nearly a decade earlier. How was an ugly dual screen Game and Watch-alike going to win a console war?! Nintendo seemed to be grabbing at straws, and inexplicably jumping off the good ship Game Boy, scuppering its flagship handheld for no good reason.

The gamble paid off, though, and the Nintendo DS became the first movement in a blue ocean strategy that Nintendo President Satoru Iwata would soon employ on the company's home console line with the Wii. With its approachable touchscreen input and huge breadth of software to appeal to audiences old and young, gamer and non-gamer alike, the DS helped bring handheld gaming to the masses which had felt 'excluded' from the Game Boy phenomenon for whatever reason.

Software like Brain Training and Nintendogs sat alongside core RPGs and classic games on a system that could be as wacky or as straight-laced as a developer desired. Gamers' favourite franchises continued to arrive in fresh forms while games like Animal Crossing: Wild World found a huge new audience, too. Perhaps the biggest compliment we can pay the Nintendo DS is that it made us forget entirely about the retirement of the 'Game Boy' brand - it's got one hell of a library!

We asked Nintendo Life readers to score for their favourite Nintendo DS games and, thanks to those User Ratings, the following ranked list of 50 games steadily congealed into existence. It's a very fine selection, but not one that's set in stone. This list can still evolve as games receive new user scores, so don't worry if you missed out on 'voting' - simply scroll down and rate them now! Be sure to check out our feature on the 50 best Nintendo 3DS games if you want to compare this console's lineup with its successor.

For now, though, we proudly present the 50 best Nintendo DS games ever...