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A side-effect of the console war mentality on gamers is that everyone's expected, on some level, to identify with a system as a particular favorite. In this hardware generation I acquired all the systems one by one, and I've enjoyed games for all of them. Yet, between bursts of activity, they mostly sit in the entertainment center, quietly gathering dust.

This is because I really, really love the DS, and you can be sure I didn't expect to. In concept the system sounded terrible, and it certainly had a rocky half-year after launch. Maybe it was Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, or maybe it was Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, but at some point the DS's profile completely changed. Suddenly it was the system with all the unique games, all the really creative games, and plenty of weird imports and ports of classics that appealed to the inevitable nostalgia that comes with a lifetime of gaming.

If someone were to press me for my favorite system, I'd have to say the DS is it. Is that allowed? I mean, after all, it's "only" a portable... or is that the charm of a DS game? Here, I'll explain behind the cut.

As the DS matures, it's turning into the system that covers every conceivable genre, and in a way that falls far outside of the formulas consoles have come to rely on. DS racers focus on innovative track-creation modes; the best DS sports games make amazing use of the Wi-Fi Connection. The DS even has solid fighters and RTS. Virtually every DS game is configured to be played in quick bursts of activity, and can be easily walked away from by closing your DS if something else comes up. This is far preferable to me than console games, which end up just kind of sitting there if I get called away. If I turn them off, they probably won't get turned back on later.

The DS is probably the most mature hardware on the market, not so much in terms of content but in terms of developer knowing exactly how to best use the hardware. While the PSP has the potential to be much better, you could easily argue that we're only now seeing games that make optimal use of the hardware. The DS has moved beyond mere optimizing and into the realm of glorious innovation with the likes of NInja Gaiden Dragon Sword. While it can push (N64-ish) 3D graphics neatly, this hasn't resulted in any sort of anti-2D mentality on the part of publishers or gamers. 2D games still find their niche on the DS, and games usually end up with the graphical style that best fits the gameplay.

DS games tend to be roughly as long as console games on the whole, with some especially sprawling RPGs and some simulations like Animal Crossing that, in a certain sense, are never going to end. I could seriously just play DS titles for a year and not feel especially deprived. The parade of promising action, puzzle, RPG, and multiplayer games I enjoy is endless, and there'd probably be some great experimental stuff that appealed to my longtime gamer's hunger for seeing titles that are new and different. In fact, there are quite a lot of titles you see only for the DS, like the 2D Castlevanias, that I would seek the system out for specifically anyway. In fact, I get actually excited for DS titles in a way that only the biggest Wii titles managed. It doesn't hurt that I know DS games are going to be pretty cheap, and the hardware's cheap enough I can think about buying new ones just because they're in a new color.

I know there are plenty of arguments to be made against giving the DS Best System Ever status. A lot of its games are based on older IP or are franchise expansions, and even a lot of its "new" IPs are just older Japanese franchises getting their first shot at being big in America. But no other system has had two screens or a stylus to use, and no other system has ever had games that feel the way playing a DS game feels. Even little things like not having to constantly toggle between a main game screen and a map screen make things tremendously more fun to me. Porting DS titles to future systems is going to be nightmarish, unless Nintendo sticks with a line of backwards-compatible dual-screen devices.

What we have in the Nintendo DS and in many of its games is something with little real precedent in gaming history, true console-quality games delivered to gamers in portable form at a steady, affordable clip. It's almost a unique moment in time to be a gamer, as the DS represents the near-total maturation of portable gaming. Not even the GBA was quite powerful enough to give you the feeling of being able to play anything you wanted, anywhere you wanted, and not leave you feeling sort of like you were playing the shortbus version of what was popular elsewhere. If you're playing DS games regularly, you're often playing games with no true equal to almost any other platform.

I'm not prone to gushing enthusiasm of this sort, but damn, I just love the Nintendo DS. I don't think there's been anything like it before, and I'm sort of left wondering what Nintendo could do to top it besides just making the basic hardware architecture more powerful. It feels good to play in a way few portables ever have, and it's actually upstaging almost all of the consoles I own. It even upstages my PC from time to time. For a portable to be that good, it's at least in the running for best ever. Personally, I think it's already won the race... even if the race technically isn't over yet.

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