The DS Owns ME

If it can be considered a console, the DS is by far the best system going around right now. Soon, after the wallet-sucking releases coming up in March and April -- a new Tetris with online play, a new Worms with online play, Metroid Prime Hunters, Brain Age, Big Brain Academy, and New Super Mario Bros -- I will own more games for the system than I do for any of the current and "new" generation home consoles. Whew. That list doesn't even include games that I've been meaning to pick up (Mario & Luigi Partners in Time, Super Princess Peach).

There have been so many great games that I have difficulty putting them in any sort of ordered list, so here are my favorites thus far, in no particular order:

• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
• Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow
• Advance Wars Dual Strike
• Meteos
• Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!
• Animal Crossing
• Mario Kart DS

Age of Empires is on the bubble, but since I've not yet finished that game (I can actually grade games once completed on the DS, since it probably has my highest completion ratio since the N64) I'll let the jury hang out on that one. There are also a number of other fun games that could be on this list (Feel the Magic XY/XX, Wario Ware Touched!, and Trauma Center to name a few) but I've left this list to the créme de la créme; those others have some notable flaws that have kept me from coming back to the game again once I finished it.

Even still, to be able to put together a list that includes some truly all-time favorites (Phoenix Wright, Ouendan, Meteos) just a year and change after the system launched (November '04) is an impressive statistic. Upcoming releases don't seem to be slacking in quality, either, and there are a number of titles that I'm excited for based on rumor alone (a new 2D Metroid called Dread, a new Four Swords, a Crystal Chronicles done right...).

Basically, it's a great time to be a DS owner.