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BY JESS RAGAN   When Nintendo first revealed information about the Nintendo DS in 2004, people weren't sure what to make of it.  Its marriage of standard gaming features to the touchscreen functionality of a personal digital assistant left skeptical gamers asking if Nintendo had learned any lessons from the failure of the Virtual Boy.  Almost nobody thought the ambitious but risky design of the Nintendo DS had a chance against the PSP.  Sony's system gave every indication of being a handheld gamer's dream, with a powerful processor, extensive multimedia features, and a high-resolution widescreen display. There was only one thing Sony forgot to add to its winning formula... compelling games.  After an underwhelming start, the Nintendo DS snowballed into a success with a selection of imaginative software, the likes of which had never been experienced on a game system.  Along with the intense surgery simulations and brain-straining mental challenges came an assortment of comfortably familiar titles starring the industry's heaviest hitters.  Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac-Man, Samus Aran, and (of course!) Mario joined forces to tilt the scales in favor of the DS, making it the most successful handheld since... well, the last one Nintendo released! It wasn't love at first sight, but gamers the world over have grown to appreciate the Nintendo DS and the daring new ideas it has brought to the hobby.  These reviews will help DS owners get even more enjoyment out of their favorite handheld system, steering them away from the bombs and in the direction of the sure-fire hits. RATING SYSTEM Like a rusty razor, it's the worst a man can get.  This is the digital equivalent of licking the stains out of a toilet bowl. It's not terrible, but not nearly good enough to be worth the cash.  If you absolutely must have it, buy it used. This game demands nothing more than competence from itself.  You could do better, but also a whole lot worse. Now we're talking!  Here's a DS title that you should at least consider, especially if you're a fan of games like it. This game stands confidently on the peak of excellence.  Regardless of your personal tastes, this is a must-have! REVIEWS BRAIN AGE NINTENDO EDUCATIONAL BIG BRAIN ACADEMY NINTENDO EDUCATIONAL Oh Nintendo, what have you done?  You had such a good thing going with Brain Age, but then you had to boot Doctor Kawashima out the door and replace him with this... this THING.  The mustached, insult-dispensing blob is only the tip of the iceberg that sank Nintendo's promising Brain Age series.  Either the developers forgot what made the last game appeal to an adult audience, or a new, less than bright team of designers was assigned to make this.  Whatever's the case, I'll take this opportunity to remind them what made Brain Age work... and why this doesn't.  Brain Age was instantly accessible to an older audience because the input was completely natural to them.  You're asked to add numbers, and you write the answers on the right hand side of the screen.  You're prompted for the color of a word, and you say it out loud.  It's just that simple.  However, nothing is that easy in Big Brain Academy.  All the answers appear as cryptic icons which must be tapped, which is not only harder to grasp for the senior crowd but just seems lazy on the part of the designers. That brings me to my next point.  Brain Age had a lot of whimsical, yet straightforward challenges.  You'd count the number of people inside a house, read selections from famous novels, and drew lines from point A to point B, avoiding points C, D, and E along the way.  These games could be tough to finish quickly, but they were always easy to understand.  By contrast, half the challenge of Big Brain Academy is just figuring out what the hell to do.  The games don't make a bit of sense to experienced players, let alone the baby boomers who've never touched a video game in their lives. Finally, there's the master of ceremonies.  Brain Age has Doctor Kawashima, a large, jolly man who goes to great lengths to make the player feel comfortable.  He makes idle chit-chat, he reminds you of past accomplishments, and (I can't stress this enough) he's never, ever judgemental.  What does Big Brain Academy give you?  A disgruntled glob of goop who ignores your successes while rubbing your nose in every mistake you make.  Look, Nintendo... Kawashima might be playing for the other team these days, but if you want to keep this series alive, you'll bring him back, along with the other minds behind Brain Age... the REAL Brain Age, and not this piece of crap.  Now turn around, walk away, and never look back at Big Brain Academy, lest you turn into an enormous pillar of suck. BOMBERMAN TOUCH DS ATLUS (HUDSON) ACTION / PARTY Gamers have very specific expectations of the Bomberman series, which is probably why they're so hostile to spin-offs like this one.  They figure that if it doesn't have the top-down view and the frenzied multiplayer action of the Turbografx-16 and Super NES games, it just ain't Bomberman.  Luckily, Bomberman Touch DS offers both the classic gameplay fans demand as well as a brand new adventure set at an amusement park.  This quest is the polar opposite of a traditional Bomberman game; a relaxing theme park tour controlled with the stylus and peppered with mini-games.  Some of these challenges are brilliantly conceived and fun to play, like drawing fuses to link sparks with like-colored bombs.  Others are less inspired, like scratching the living daylights out of the touchscreen to run.  All are necessary to advance through the park, but you won't have to finish a single one to challenge your friends to classic Bomberman battles.  Oh, and here's the best part... Wi-Fi support ensures that you'll never run out of opponents! BURNOUT LEGENDS ELECTRONIC ARTS RACING Wow.  If you ever needed proof that Electronic Arts hates DS owners, gamers, and the world in general, whoop here it is!  The Nintendo DS is anything but a perfect vehicle for the striking visuals and the intense crash 'n bash action of Burnout, but this flaming wreck just seems like a hilarious parody of the system's shortcomings and the indifference of Western game designers.  Seriously, this has got to be intentionally awful.  Just look at those mind-bending physics!  The streets in Burnout Legends must be made of industrial-strength flypaper, because inertia simply doesn't exist here.  The player's boxy robo-car turns on the edge of a dime, transforming what should be a white-knuckle street battle into a trip to the sandbox with a handful of broken Matchbox toys. Just when you think things couldn't get any worse, along comes the eerily deserted streets of the Crash mode to prove you wrong.  This former fan favorite has never been more challenging, simply because there aren't any fenders on the road to bend!  Then there's the Atari-quality fonts, the generic MIDI rock soundtrack, the lemon-shaped medals... frankly, there isn't anything that Burnout Legends can't get wrong.  It's got shorter load times than its PSP cousin, but this only proves that good things come to those who wait... and very, very bad things come to those who won't. CASTLEVANIA: DAWN OF SORROW KONAMI ACTION/ADVENTURE Soma Cruz resisted the call of darkness in Aria of Sorrow, but that temptation haunts him once more in the DS-exclusive sequel.  It's up to you whether the young hero will drive a stake through the heart of Dracula's successor, or if Soma will become the victim of his own burning rage.  Either way, you're sure to love every spell-casting, sword-swinging, soul-stealing minute!  Dawn of Sorrow follows closely in its predecessor's footsteps, but shakes up the familiar formula with massive characters and a new set of abilities and weapons for Soma.  Souls are cumulative this time around... the more you collect, the stronger your magic becomes.  This gives players the option to either settle for the most basic skills, or spend a few hours gathering souls to take their attacks to the next level.  If you're not interested in magic, you can also use the souls you've gathered to forge weapons, transforming your rusty old scrap metal into lightning-fast claws and scorching flame swords.  The variety offered in Dawn of Sorrow makes it easy to forget that the game isn't much different from past Castlevania titles on the Game Boy Advance and Playstation.  You'll scour the castle for towering bosses, slay them in epic battles, then take the items left in their wake to unlock new, more exciting areas.  It's familiar territory for sure, but who could complain when it's still so much fun to revisit? CASTLEVANIA: PORTRAIT OF RUIN KONAMI ACTION/ADVENTURE The last Castlevania game on the Nintendo DS introduced a handy item called the Doppleganger that let the player switch between two sets of equipment with a touch of a button.  Portrait of Ruin builds on this great idea by offering two entirely different characters.  Jonathan Morris, a hot-headed, whip-smacking vampire hunter, acts as the muscle of the team.  Charlotte Aulin provides the book smarts... any monster who's crossed her path can tell you that when she opens her weapon-filled book, it smarts!  The player not only has the option to switch between the two team members at will, but can use both as a pair, carving through monsters twice as quickly and solving otherwise impossible puzzles.  This has never been done before in a Metrovania title, and frankly, any fresh ingredients in this decade-old recipe would be welcome at this point.  However, the team play mechanics can be a handful at times, especially during the unreasonably demanding boss fights which require the use of both heroes.  Past that, Portrait of Ruin doesn't stray too far from its predecessors, offering the same vast supply of weapons and magic, the same gothic graphics and sinister monsters, and the same... pretty much everything, really.  It's still a fine game, but with so many others just like it, it's best reserved for the most dedicated Castlevania fans. DIG DUG: DIGGING STRIKE NAMCO ACTION The patriarch of the Driller family digs a nice, deep hole for himself in this action title that attempts to build a bridge between Dig Dug and Namco's more recent Mr. Driller series.  As Taizo Hori, you'll struggle to prove your relevance in the 21st century by rescuing a cluster of islands from an army of abstract monsters.  Digging Strike cleverly splits the action between the two DS screens, with the surface of each island shown on the top and the underlying dirt displayed on the bottom.  It's a great idea for sure, but one that's weighed down with ideas that only complicate the gameplay rather than contributing to it.  Defeating the beasts that roam each island is a time-consuming process of finding, turning, and digging under strategically placed spikes, and if the monster isn't standing directly on the chunk of the island you've sunk into the ocean, you may have to repeat the round from the beginning!  Useless power-ups put the brakes on the already sluggish gameplay, making you wish you'd left Digging Strike buried in the clearance bin where it belongs. GAME AND WATCH COLLECTION NINTENDO COLLECTION Your enjoyment of this Japanese exclusive is entirely dependent on how well you remember the originals... if you remember them at all!  If you recall bouncing off the walls with excitement when one of your friends snuck the latest Game+Watch into class, nothing should stop you from getting your hands on this release.  However, if these primitive precursors to the Nintendo DS are only a blip on your nostalgic radar, or have no effect on you at all, you're better off holding onto that C note.  For a hundred dollars, the Game and Watch Collection won't offer anyone but the most enduring Nintendo fans much bang for their buck.  For those of you still interested, listen up!  Of the three games in this package, Greenhouse best captures that frantic, Chinese plates feel that made the Game+Watch series famous.  It takes speed, reflexes, and perfect balance to keep your prize-winning flowers from getting munched by an unending onslaught of bugs.  Donkey Kong is far from a perfect translation of the arcade hit, but it does cover the basics, letting you leap over barrels and pull the rug (or rather, the steel girders) from under the big ape's feet.  Last on the list is Oil Panic, a frustrating dud that fails to capture the excitement of Greenhouse.  Here's hoping that Nintendo will bring this to the States with a larger selection of games... even the front line of Nintendo's army of fanboys would balk at the few titles available here. KIRBY SQUEAK SQUAD NINTENDO (HAL, FLAGSHIP) ACTION Although a good five to ten years younger than his fellow Nintendo mascots, few characters are as old-school as Kirby... and few games offer the gentle, nostalgic satisfaction of his series.  An old-fashioned Kirby game warms the heart like the best comfort food, and Kirby Squeak Squad continues that tradition with all the pastel playfields and astonishing variety players remember from their childhoods.  This is great news for anyone who was rubbed the wrong way by the touch-centric gameplay of Kirby Canvas Curse, but those who enjoyed it will be less thrilled by Squeak Squad's lack of challenge and originality.  The only key difference between this title and past entries in the Kirby series is the Squeak Squad, a gang of rascally rodents who try to sneak off with treasure chests hidden throughout each stage.  Retrieving the chests earns you bonus items which enhance the game, adding spice to an otherwise ordinary Kirby adventure. KONAMI CLASSICS SERIES: ARCADE HITS KONAMI CLASSIC COLLECTION Emulation usually provides the best possible reproduction of popular arcade games from the 1980's, but it's not always the right way to go.  Sometimes it's better to start from scratch with conversions designed specifically for the game system that will run them, which is the lesson learned from this release and its predecessor on the Game Boy Advance.  Yes, Konami Arcade Advanced had less than half the games available in its DS counterpart, but they were all better tailored to the system, featuring crisp graphics and (barely) hidden play modes that truly were advanced.  Konami's decision to use emulation for Konami Classics actually puts it a step behind its Game Boy Advance cousin... because the developers compressed the visuals to fit on the Nintendo DS screen, the sprites are distorted in nearly all of the games.  You can learn to live with it when the characters are as large as the ones in Track 'n Field or Yie Ar Kung Fu, but in shooters like Twinbee, Scramble, and Tutankham (Horror Maze?  Pfft... whatever, Konami!), all those tiny camoflagued bullets could spell your doom.  Konami Classics offers a lot of customization options and even the history behind your 80's favorites as restitution, but none of this matters much when the games themselves suffer.  Konami Classics is only worth picking up if you absolutely need the titles Konami missed in their first collection. MAGNETICA NINTENDO (MITCHELL) PUZZLE You've probably seen this under a dozen different names and with slight tweaks to