It really is necessary. Otherwise in the second game the characters would be exclaiming: "Oh my God! [NAME REDACTED]! What are you doing here?!", or "She's the daughter of [NAME REDACTED EVEN HARDER]?!"

And you'd just be thinking "Who the fuck are these people and why should I care?"

You have been forgiven of your sins, my son.
Now go, and may you game in peace.

No love for Metroid Prime Pinball? Psh. That game is fucking ace, man! It even came with this oddball rumble pack that would go into the GBA slot of the DS. Yeah, it was a pretty crap gimmick, but the game is definitely one of my DS favorites.

Whoa, you actually got a Rumble Pak? There was like, what, 5 games that used it?

Well, yeah, it came packaged with the game. I would never have bought it on its own.

I'm nobodies son, pal. I was grown by machines, in the Matrix.

Apparently it's a port of an old game that received an English MS-DOS version, so you can.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.B._Harold_Murder_Club

It's an FMV game! *meme* Get all the FMV games! :D
Have you tried Project Hacker? How are you liking it? I'm disappointed it never got an English release in the end, it seems like a fun adventure game that makes good use of the stylus and lower screen capabilities.

Lufia II for the GBC is supposedly really good and one of the few RPGs with puzzles, like Golden Sun.

Also Golden Sun 1+2 are the best original GBA RPGs for the system and overall one of the best RPGs for any system you can get because of the story, music, graphics and combat system. GS: Dark Dawn for the DS is also good, but it spoils the GBA games story, which is basically one story in two cartridges.

Boktai 1-3 are totally awesome action RPGs that use real sunlight, so if you don't own the real cartridges you need to patch them to simulate sunlight - I'm missing only the third game which only came out in Japan, however there's a 100%ˇtranslation patch for it, so you need a flashcart or an emulator if you want to play the last game. However the story continues only loosely, each one is standalone, so you can play them in any order and the frist two games are a real blast, I recommend buying the real carts to enjoy the sunlight feature!

Actually, two of the best games for the DS are missing:

Infinite Space - a totally awesome space scifi RPG, watch the trailer!

and

Suikoden Tierkreis- if you're a fan of the series you might be disappointed as it's in a new world (no cameos or a continuing of the established world) and has a different magic and weapons system, and doesn't have minigames at the HQ, however on its own it's a remarkably good RPG.

Also Lunar Knights are really good if you like action RPGs, it's a spiritual sequel to the GBA Boktai series, minus the sunlight chip. That makes it three.

2 things:
1. The GBC Lufia game is not Lufia 2. It is Lufia: The Legend Returns and is notable in that *every* dungeon is randomly generated, and there are few, if any, puzzles. It *does* have an interesting battle system in which 9 characters can fight during combat, but only 3 can actually attack in any round.
2. No version of the DS can play legal copies of GBC games.

There is a Lufia for the GBA, but it's a different game, has a class system similar to Dragon Quest 6, and was not well received for whatever reason.

Out of curiosity, could you explain why? (I have played the DS version, but not the GBA one.)

For some reason I thought the second game was for GBC, I've always seen people recommending Lufia II: Rise of Sinistrals, so that's the one I meant.

Yeah, I know, but if the OP or anyone else like puzzle based RPGs like Golden Sun, there's a recommendation there. :)

About Mazes of Fate DS - read this review.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/10/09/mazes-of-fate-ds-review

Oooh! Nifty!
...any clue on where I can play it?

Huh? Lufia 2 is also on GBC? I thought it's only on SNES.

Agree with golden sun 1+2. Never played nds one

That suikoden. I forgot about it. I was mid game when my nephew took back his nds :D

I don't know if it was mentioned, but Tetris DS is probably the best version of that game EVER. Available on DS ;)

I noticed Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions on PSP, it's very tempting.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift on DS should be added to this list.