Nintendo World Report highlights the best of the year that was.
There have been a lot of hot looking DS games released this year. Our staff nominated seven different games for consideration, which is a testament of how great the DS lineup looks. The hottest of the bunch gets the NWR Award for Best DS Graphics.
We're suckers for 2D games. Even with all of the impressive 3D DS games released in 2006, nothing beats the art style of the Castlevania games. Portrait had some 3D graphics sprinkled in with the animated sprites and wonderful backgrounds, but it was done in a way that augmented how much the game pops. It's a beautiful piece of art, and we feel it's the best looking DS game of the year.
Runner-up (tie): Final Fantasy III
What happens if you take the power of the DS and put it all towards making the best single-screen game you can? You get Final Fantasy III, an amazing piece of work showing off the handheld's polygon pushing prowess. It's hard to believe the DS can do what FFIII does, and even harder to believe it can only do better in the years ahead.
Runner-up (tie): Metroid Prime Hunters
It stunned everyone at E3 2005. What was shown on that little screen almost looked like a GameCube game. The free launch demo and the final product confirmed it. Not only were the 3D graphics very good, but the game also kept an impressive frame rate. You can't do well in an online FPS without a consistently fast frame rate, and Hunters delivered one.
Also Nominated:
