Would gaming affect my battery life in the long run?

So I just got a few RPGs to play on the go, and naturally being RPGs they'll probably take a few dozen hours or so to beat. But one thing I'm concerned about is the battery. It heats up, it drains a little quicker while playing games, that much I understand. The games I play aren't particularly powerful, performance-wise (The World Ends With You, GTA Chinatown Wars, Final Fantasy IV, all Nintendo DS ports) but what I'm concerned about is if the battery will suffer long-term effects from while gaming, since it would be charging and then draining kinda rapidly while I play. I always keep my Macbook plugged in while gaming on that, but unlike an iPhone, it's not exactly in the way of my hands while doing so.

If battery health is gonna be a concern then I think I'll just play those games on my DS, but I rather not bring that around with me if I can have the same games on my phone.