Mario Kart DS
From: Nintendo
Price: $45 CDN or $35 USD
ESRB Rating: Everyone

Basically the same pip squeak fantasy race game you played on your N64 back in '97, but Mario Kart DS has retained all of it trademarked charm and substantial part of its uncanny mesmerism. It's also the flagship of the WiFi DS games, allowing you to do quick little pick up races (or marathons) with up to 4 other remote and appropriately connect players just about anywhere on the planet. The essence of quick fix reminiscence and instant fun.

Viewtiful Joe Double Trouble
From: Capcom
Price: $46 CDN or $40 USD
ESRB Rating: Teen (13+) (Cartoon Violence)

Categorically oozing with sass and style, Viewtiful Joe Double Trouble is action-brawler-puzzle-theater at its finest. Also features unique use of the stylus screen where you move all or parts of the environments from upper to lower screen, interact and them move them back (or not). It's bizarre but doable and thoroughly creative.

Advance Wars: Dual Strike
From: Nintendo
Price: $50 CDN or $35 USD
ESRB Rating: Everyone (Cartoon Violence)

You wouldn't think a sprawling strategy game could work on the small screen, but it does. Granted, you have to squint through some of Advance Wars: Dual Strike for DS, but managing units and inventory is supremely intuitive with that touch screen interface.

Nintendogs
From: Nintendo
Price: $43 CDN or $30 USD
ESRB Rating: Everyone (Comic Mischief)

Raise, train, and dote on a virtual puppy - or several of them - in Nintendogs, a finely crafted pet simulator that's a cheesy as it is addictive. Flat out flaunt it or keep it your guilty-pleasure secret, Nintendogs rocks.

Mario & Luigi Partners in Time
From: Nintendo
Price: $35 CDN or $35 USD
ESRB Rating: Everyone (Crude Humor, Mild Cartoon Violence)

A long-playing action-RPG, Mario & Luigi Partners in Time is a real thumb twister. You control not only the Brothers Mario, but also their "Toddlers Self" warped in from some time portal thingy. Boasts inventive use of both DS screens, the top one doing double duty as map or action screen, depending on the tasks at hand.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
From: Konami
Price: $36 CDN or $35 USD
ESRB Rating: Teen (13+) (Blood and Gore, Fantasy Violence)

Old school, 2D side scrolling stuff, but Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is a fresh rarity for the DS library. If you're into scouring a huge, beautifully rendered, ledge-laden castle, cutting down evil minions and sucking up their souls for booty and upgrades, this is definitive.

Animal Crossing Wild World
From: Nintendo
Price: $40 CDN or $44 USD
ESRB Rating: Everyone

An animal flavored hick town simulator that actually lives and breathes in real time and changes from day to day. You live in it, work, shop, decorate, explore and otherwise interact with it and its quaint and amusing denizens. Better still, go visit your friends' towns via WiFi; be a cyber broker of exotic fruit or just a transient tourist.

Metroid Prime Pinball
From: Nintendo
Price: $35 CDN or $35 USD
ESRB Rating: Everyone (Mild Fantasy Violence)

Though a shooter franchise remade as pinball on a small, wide screen might seem like on odd idea, remember that Metroid's main character, Samus, has always had the innate ability to curl up into a ball and roll around, and that the DS is two screens tall. It's a natural, and excellent to boot.

Tony Hawk's American Sk8land
From: Activision
Price: $30 CDN or $34 USD
ESRB Rating: Everyone (Mild Lyrics)

Tony Hawk's American Sk8land offers fresh take on the familiar superlativeness the series has enjoyed on consoles. It's been remade into an interactive cartoon just for DS, allows you to add your own scrawled tags and voiced quips and curses as well as share it all (or not) and play against others online.

Meteos
From: Nintendo
Price: $35 CDN or $30 USD
ESRB Rating: Everyone

A game of color-coded falling blocks that must be stacked just so to launch them off the screen before they stack too high. Like Tetris - or any other puzzler worth its salt - Meteos is deceptively simple, genuinely ornery, and thoroughly additive.