Well...Yes he can play DS-like games on it. It is a touch screen as well as the DS. I play lots of games all the time, but if you want a true full list, download iTunes and go to iTunes Store and look under game applications. There are a few thousand games, about 680-700 which are free and 65% of those are just demo (lite as they call it) games. But some are full games. Games on there run roughly between $0.50 - $10.00 Most games are only a dollar or two. So, if all he wants to do is play games, then you might want to try to save a bit of money, and get a First Generation 8GB iPod Touch.
If in-case he does decide he wants to listen to some music or even watch some of his favorite videos, then by all means you can get them on there for on-the-go rides!
Hope this helps!
