The DS has ended up taking the gaming world by storm. It's only competition, and most successful to challenge Nintendo's portables, has been the Sony Playstation Portable. And so far, it has not come close to posing any sort-of threat. I can't help but compare the design of the DS to the “Game & Watch" series of portables. I'm thinking of the ones that had the hinge in the middle with two screens. The unit may seem bulky when compared to the GBSP, and not as pocket friendly. The original system is now referred to as the “DS phat" compared to the new redesigned “DS lite." It has a nice feel when holding it in your hands. A nice high quality build construction. Nintendo is known for quality built portable gaming machines, IMO. The original Gameboy was almost indestructible. Although I don't roughhouse any of my systems, I would say that the DS phat is well built. I have always liked the GBSP's design of being able to fold up and I like this idea for the DS as well. This offers great protection to the screen or screens as in this case. They are rather bulky in size and was slimed down in the DS lite models. The basic difference between the DS phat and the DS lite is, the lite has been slimed down, some of the buttons reconfigured along with relocating the mic, and with brighter LCD screens.    

Games:

     With the DS game carts, Nintendo takes a step, with concept and design, totally in a different direction than in the past. Previous cart designs has always been a large cart with PC board. This always allowed extra room for those extra special chips and, of course, batteries for game saves. Now all we have is a thumbnail size Rom only cart. Only two other systems have used this idea in the past, the Turbo Express and the Atari Lynx. Nintendo also designed these tiny carts to contain your game save points. It is a unique design for modern gaming. When a gaming hardware manufacturer, like Nintendo, focuses on the hardware, we, the gamer, lose. When they focus on the games, we, the gamer, win. My first experience with the DS was an in-store display. The game was Wario Ware. I was using the stylus to unroll a roll of toilet paper and was being timed. It was a hilarious experience and fun. It is heavily dependent on the game companies to utilize the touch screen as a part of the gaming experience. I'm waiting for a Mario Paint, that would be great on something like this. Surely there is one in the works, hopefully? To me, it is the kind of innovation that is usually found in the arcades. I like that sort-of arcade feel and fun. And that is what gaming is all about, the games. It has been said that the DS is a little more powerful than a Nintendo 64 and it can show impressive 2D and 3D visuals. My pack in game was a demo of Metroid Prime: Hunters. I am not a first person shooter gamer, but I liked and enjoyed this demo which had great control. My first game was Super Mario 64. This game really showcased the system by showing that it is capable of delivering Nintendo 64 graphics and gameplay. I am surprised that there has not been more N64 ports. The N64 had some great games that would be nice on a portable. The DS is loaded with gaming fun. There is Mario Kart, New Super Mario Brothers, Animal Crossing, Viewtiful Joe, Sonic the Hedgehog, etc, many using or not using the stylus. Some utilize the Wifi capabilities of the DS to give you multi-player gaming. And that multi-player gaming can be over the Internet too! (one has to have the high speed net service) Animal Crossing can be highly addictive no matter how you choose to play it, over the net, with a close by friend, or going it alone. Some games have a feature where you can host a game. This means with only one cart you can invite others to play and they just download from your DS. Of course the system offers backward compatibility with all of the Gameboy Advance games, which opens up a large library of games. There is a slot located on the bottom of the unit especially made for the GBA carts. It is the same slot that is used for the DS rumble pak. One thing to take note of here is that on the DS lite, the GBA cart, and DS rumble Pak, sticks out past the system housing and is not well integrated as in the DS phat. One sacrifice for the new slim trim design of the DS lite. It is very awkward to carry the DS lite with a GBA cart inserted. But there is no game compatibility beyond the GBA carts. The GBA was able to play all of the GB and GBC games. This can be a negative with a lot of gamers, especially if they have a lot of games that they like to play, in one of those particular systems game library. There are a ton of the old Game Boy games that I still consider a lot of fun to play. I don't like leaving those games behind. So, the GBSP is still a winner with me when dealing with this sort-of issue.

     

     You have all the standard buttons that you have grown accustomed to from a portable designed by Nintendo. On the bottom half of the unit is where all of the controls lie. You have your shoulder buttons at the top corners, directional button on the right side of the bottom screen, your Y, X, A, B buttons on the right with your power button above the directional pad, select and start above the right thumb buttons. Of course this is the configuration of the DS phat. I personally have found the location of the power button bad. I cannot recall how many times that I have lost a gamesave with accidentally hitting the power button with my thumb from the directional pad. The power button was, thankfully, relocated on the DS lite model to the side. The stylus, used for the touch screen, is neatly stored away in the case housing of both system models. The system also has a built-in mic that has seen little use in games.

 
 Power:
     The unit is powered by built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Play time is said to be around 10 hours. But the play time can be affected by a number of factors like, your use of wi-fi, using both screens, wireless connecting for two player games, backlighting, speaker volume, etc. In some games it can be considered, and feel, kind-of short if the game really pulls the juice.


 

    The Stylus is well hidden inside the case housing and stays in place until needed.

Nintendo's DS is reigon free and will run any DS game released in any part of the world.