The Nintendo DS was an incredibly innovative system when it was released in 2004, and it still stands out to this day. The dual screens and the touch controls led to developers creating some truly unique games, though the system also became a good home for series that got their start on the Game Boy family of handhelds.
With a mix of old franchises and new IP, the Nintendo DS was home to many games, some of which have become exceptionally rare over the years. This is in part because developers tried tons of new gimmicks on the DS, leading some of the system's most popular games to become valuable collector's items.
Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver
It's fairly uncommon to see a well-known game franchise like Pokémon on lists of rare games, let alone two of the franchise's most popular remakes. Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver are remakes of the beloved Generation II games, revitalizing the Johto region with some impressive sprites that pushed the DS to its limits. What makes Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver so valuable nowadays, however, is the Pokéwalker that was included alongside the games.
The Pokéwalker was a pedometer that could interact with HeartGold and SoulSilver, letting players gain experience for their Pokémon by walking in real life. Today, boxed copies can go for around $800 due to the Pokéwalker being a collector's item. The games themselves don't hold too much value, but the Pokéwalker's limited release has made these remakes difficult to track down online.
Shepherd's Crossing 2
Similar to games like Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing, Shepherd's Crossing 2 was a DS title where players managed a farm and built relationships with the locals. While the game may not initially seem too distinct, Shepherd's Crossing 2 stood out for combining a realistic approach to farming and the RPG elements other farming sims are known for, essentially being a much more strategic Harvest Moon.
While the game got solid reviews from critics and found new life with fans after its release, Shepherd's Crossing 2 sold rather poorly at launch. Some fans speculate that, due to limited online reviews, the game wasn't marketed as much as it should've been. As a result, there aren't as many copies of the game these day as there are people interested in playing it. Mint condition copies of Shepard's Crossing 2 typically sell online for around $565 USD.
Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ
Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ is both one of the rarer DS games out there and one of the wildest. A shoot 'em up that was only given a physical release in North America, Zombie BBQ is a simplistic yet engaging game that got fairly decent reviews on launch and is sometimes mentioned as an underrated DS classic. Its rarity actually comes from the game's return to popularity in later years.
According to the website Price Charting, which tracks when games sell online and for how much, mint copies of Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ didn't start selling online until around 2015. Though its price was initially average, it steadily rose as collectors became aware of this forgotten DS game. Now, Zombie BBQ goes for around $390.
Commando: Steel Disaster
With only one known sale of the PAL version of this game in the past year, Commando: Steel Disaster may just be the rarest DS game out there. Steel Disaster's incredibly difficult side-scrolling action has drawn comparisons to games like Metal Slug and Contra, though that very fact likely contributed to it becoming a largely overlooked niche title that's now a hard-to-find collector's item.
Steel Disaster's rarity is a shame, as the game has a unique hand-drawn art style that on its own would make the game worth playing. Much like Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ, obscurity only led to the game becoming a greater interest in the eyes of collectors. Mint condition copies of Commando: Steel Disaster sell for around $300 USD, depending on if it's the PAL or NA release. The PAL release tends to sell for a bit more.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Trailer Cartridge
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was released on the Wii in 2006, but some fans were able to preview the game two years earlier in a unique way. While Nintendo would later release game trailers as DSiWare, Zelda fans who attended E3 2004 were able to pick up a special DS cartridge that contained a trailer for the upcoming game.
While this isn't actually a game, the Twilight Princess trailer cartridge's scarcity has led to it being incredibly difficult to track down. A mint copy of this DS cartridge last sold for $1,453 USD. The only other DS games that sell for more are versions of Pokémon SoulSilver & HeartGold that came bundled with figures of Ho-Oh and Lugia.