The Nintendo DS, much like the Wii, quickly became synonymous with family-friendly gaming. When looking back at the most popular DS titles, there are the likes of Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Bros., Nintendogs, Animal Crossing, Brain Age, and Pokemon. While more mature, adult-focused games were certainly released for the Nintendo DS, they aren't often the ones remembered today. And that's why gems like Dementium: The Ward have been forgotten.

Released in 2007, Dementium: The Ward is a first-person survival horror crammed onto a Nintendo DS cartridge. Despite being one of the best survival horrors on any handheld console, let alone one from 2007, Dementium: The Ward has been largely forgotten about in recent years. The only time Dementium is brought up in modern gaming discussions is when it's on top 10 lists of the most graphically impressive DS games, which it certainly belongs on. But Dementium: The Ward is so much more than that.

RELATED: Nintendo and PlayStation's Handheld Console Launch Prices Adjusted for Inflation

Dementium: The Ward - A Rare Nintendo DS Horror Classic

Developed by Renegade Kid, Dementium: The Ward puts players in the shaking boots of William Redmoor who suddenly awakens in an abandoned hospital ward, with no memory of how he got there. Equipped with just a flashlight and nightstick, Redmoor must explore the ward, but he isn't quite as alone as he initially thought.

From a first-person perspective, players need to work their way through the hospital, using the light from the flashlight to deter all manner of horrifying creatures and monsters. As the game progresses, players will eventually unlock a few more weapons, but Dementium strikes the perfect balance of giving the player enough ammo to be able to defeat their enemies, but not quite enough to make it through completely unscathed, keeping every single encounter as intense as the last.

Control-wise, Dementium: The Ward plays pretty similarly to just about every other good first-person shooter on the Nintendo DS. While the D-pad controls movement and the face and shoulder buttons activate attacks and access inventories, the touch screen is used to move the player's first-person perspective. It's obviously not as natural as using a mouse or second analog stick, but Dementium makes its limited control scheme work by giving its enemies slower, more deliberate movements. Throughout the game, players will also be able to jot down notes via the touch screen to help solve puzzles, which is a pretty neat implementation of the Nintendo DS' hardware.

While Dementium: The Ward has decent gameplay, it's the game's visuals and the resulting atmosphere that are worthy of praise. As far as Nintendo DS games go, Dementium: The Ward may just be the most atmospheric, visually-impressive game on the platform. Though its graphics are still blocky and low-res, it's what Dementium does with its limitations that makes it so impressive. Rather than fight against the Nintendo DS' hardware, Dementium adopts it, using the console's natural film grain-like graphics to give the game a sense of eerie dread. The same is done with draw distance, with Dementium embracing the console's lack of sight to introduce a range of different scares.

Dementium also uses lighting to its full potential, with the game's flashlight casting a surprisingly realistic cone of light. The game's character models are also a real highlight. Taking clear inspiration from the Silent Hill franchise, with Renegade Kid even pitching Dementium to Konami as a Silent Hill spinoff, this game's monsters are truly horrifying, even with the DS' limited graphical capabilities. Though there aren't too many monsters, each one features a unique, spooky design, with plenty of horrifying moving parts and tons of pixilated gore. Dementium: The Ward absolutely nails its survival horror atmosphere from start to finish, and it remains one of the most impressive Nintendo DS games.

Dementium: The Ward is available on Nintendo DS and 3DS.

MORE: What The New Silent Hill Movie Can Do To Succeed