DS Games on Wii U: Not Supported—Hardware Incompatibility; Play on 3DS Instead

No. Wii U cannot play Nintendo DS games.

Hardware Barriers

• CPU: Wii U = PowerPC (Espresso, 3-core). DS = Dual ARM (ARM9 + ARM7). No hardware emulation.
• Media: DS = Cartridge (Slot-1). Wii U = Proprietary 25 GB optical disc / eShop. No cartridge slot.
• Architecture: Dual-screen, touchscreen, microphone, Wi-Fi hardware — not virtualized on Wii U.

Software

• No official DS emulator on Wii U eShop.
• Homebrew (Wii U mode) has no functional DS emulator (DeSmuME too heavy; melonDS not ported).
• vWii (Wii Mode) only runs Wii/GameCube homebrew.

Play DS Games On:

• Nintendo 3DS / 2DS / New 3DS / New 2DS: Native backward compatibility (Slot-1).
• PC / Mobile: melonDS, DeSmuME, DraStic (Android), RetroArch.

Wii U is a dead end for DS games.