At first glance, The Urbz (DS) looks frighteningly similar to its GBA cousin. Not only do the games share identical graphical styles, they also both present you with many of the same characters, objectives, and locations as well.

There is one new location, though, called Splicer Island. It’s a Jurassic Park-inspired place, kept hidden by the mysterious and power-hungry Daddy Bigbucks. The island is home to lots of exotic and pre-historic animals, as well as some unique and quirky mini-games. In one of them, you must use the stylus to extract a mosquito from amber by zapping cut lines along the rock. The mosquito's captured DNA can be placed in the Gene Manipulator, and used to create a virtual pet. This pet can be taken care of outside of the main game. This feature is exclusive to the DS version of the game. With this device, you can also modify your pet to your liking. Pet species include a veloci-rooster, jackalope, unicorn, Simosarus-Rex, Dodo and more.

There are five completely new mini-games in The Urbz for DS, many of which can be played with up to three friends through wireless multiplayer. Other mini-games have been altered from the GBA version to make use of the system’s dual screens. Otherwise, the Urbz makes use of the two screens in a pretty conventional way. All the action is displayed on the top screen, while objectives and maps are shown on the lower one, so they don’t disrupt gameplay. The general purpose of the touch-screen is to navigate menus. For instance, it’s used when customizing your Urb's appearance, or when painting pictures, which can be set up in your Urb's house or traded with other players.

Hopefully, these exclusive features, of which many take advantage of the touch-screen and wireless functionality, will be enough to distinguish this game enough from the GBA version.