RetroGaming

Plenty of DS games did use 3D graphics though? Like lots of them did? The system's flagship launch title was a remake of Super Mario 64, and launch units included a demo of Metroid Prime Hunters.

But those kinds of 3D games often looked pretty bad on the DS, to the point where lists of the most fondly-remembered DS games will be dominated by the much more beautiful spritework the system was capable of. Or titles that deliberately limited their use of 3D to the point where you're maybe forgetting about them as such.

Just off the top of my head, some titles that did have good looking 3D on the system:

• Animal Crossing: Wild World - Heavily stylized in ways that cover the system's limitations. Low poly looks good here, and flat textures are better than bad textures.

• Rhythm Heaven - Like ACWW, the minigames that use 3D are heavily stylized. And these are mixed in with lots of 2D minigames in the same package, so it doesn't feel like a low-poly game.

• Etrian Odyssey - A good example of limited 3D, only used for the maze exploration. No models, just walls. Combat transitions back to a 2D screen, so that you're focused on the spritework.

• Rune Factory - Like Etrian Odyssey, you're looking at the large 2D portraits accompanying every dialogue box more than you're looking at the 3D. Keeping the farming and combat at a zoomed out and fixed camera angle actually helps to kinda cover it up.

I could name plenty more games that tried to make 3D more of a focal point with detailed models and textures, games that tried to look more like console games, but the point is that the games that did so rarely looked good. Lots more of those existed than I think you remember.