Anticipation: DS Lite

I am anxiously anticipating the US release of the Nintendo DS Lite!

I have always had some affection for portable gaming. As a boy, I remember I was completely fascinated with having a watch that had a game on it. It just seemed so James Bond or Dick Tracy, just cool! I remember one Christmas I got a PacMan watch that I went nuts for. Unfortunately, my wee little frail arm was too thin. The watch band didn't have enough holes for me to fit it snugly, and by the time I added a hole with an icepick and trimmed the rest of the band, the pins broke holding the band to the watch.


I recall another Christmas after that I got a little portable Frogger arcade game. Very cool! I remember I played the heck out of this thing.


Some other hand-held portables were available, new ones came out, but they were all so.. ech..

Then that fateful day in junior college when I bought a Nintendo Gameboy. Wow! A REAL cartridge based portable gaming system! I was hooked. Of course, other portables came out that had backlit (and even color) screens. I destroyed several Gameboys trying to figure out how to get mine to do that, not realizing it wasn't designed to be backlit at all.



I eventually wanted to get another portable system that had a backlit screen and color. Gameboy Color had come out, but it still wasn't backlit. I sold my Gameboy and games to purchase a Sega Gamegear. I liked it very much, it had a much better screen than the Gameboy.


I eventually sold my Gamegear and games to purchase a Sega Nomad. WOW! YES! Finally, a REAL 16bit gaming system that was totally portable, had a great fully backlit color screen, plus it used NORMAL SEGA GENESIS CARTS (which were available everywhere for very cheap) and could even be hooked up to a television like a normal gaming system! It even came with a second joystick port for two player games! I loved this system, it had everything I thought I would ever want in a portable gaming system. I would take it with me to work at the TV station and me and my friends would play games on one of the monitors at the news desk set. I still have it today.


Then I happened upon the new Gameboy Advanced SP. Woah. I loved the retro "classic nintendo" scheme. The screen looked good and the games were awesome (and plentiful). I picked one up and was back to my roots with a Gameboy decendent. Once I picked up a flashable cart that allowed me to play NES, Sega, Gamegear, Gameboy, and Gameboy Color games, I was in heaven! What had really changed technologically since the Nomad was the portability. I mean, this thing was SMALL compared to anything I had ever had. All my other systems required you to carry a little briefcase of equipment to power/service/accessorize the device. The GBASp needed none of that. Easily slips into your pocket, battery life is great, gameplay is excellent, a definite winner in my book. I still have it today, and Ian (and Emily) play with it.



Then Nintendo knocked my socks off with the DS (Dual Screen). Very shortly after the DS release, Sony came out with their portable handheld, the PSP (Play Station Portable). Although it looked nice, I went with the DS because of it's innovative lower touch screen. Amazing! Gameplay will never be the same. It comes with a built-in stylus, so just touch and drag to control characters direction of travel, aim your weapon, or pull back sling-shots to hit objects on the top screen. VERY fun and addictive, truly innovative. Plus, this is a serious gaming system, with full 3D worlds to explore and lots of great graphics and interaction. No more wired portable-to-portable two-person gaming, it even has built-in WiFi! You can even play with other people via WiFi over the internet.


What few drawbacks the DS has should be remedied with the DS Lite. The main things are it's smaller, it has brighter screens, and it has a better stylus. Other niceties are a flush-edged clamshell Ipod-esque design and a cover for the Gameboy cart port when not in use. It is fully backward compatible with all previous Gameboy, GameboyColor, GameboyAdvanced, and GameboyAdvancedSP games, and already has over 400 DS games available. The future is bright (and fun)!

The DS Lite is released in the US on June 11th.