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Nintendo DS
7.0
final rating

reviewed on
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Criteria Comments Rating
  • Game library The quality of the DS library is unmatched among portable game systems. While it does have a lot of crap, the A+ titles are plentiful enough to keep you busy. great!
  • Graphics It might not look at good as rival PSP, it does its job (and you don't buy Nintendo for the graphics anyway). so-so
  • Battery life 8 hours a charge? Excellent. Nintendo always puts battery life first when it comes to their hardware, because you can't play a system with no power. great!
  • Portability (size / weight) Holy crap did I hate lugging this fat (or is it "phat") thing around in my bag. After the novelty wore off I stopped bringing it anywhere. poor
  • Durability The outside is still trucking away, though the touchscreen might be a little worse for wear depending on the types of games you play. so-so
Detailed review
It was a pretty exciting time when this thing came out, with the dual-screen DS being pitted against the (admittedly much shinier) PSP. That excitement wore off pretty quickly when it became apparent that the early titles were pretty weak: the biggest launch title I remember was Mario 64 DS, a game we all enjoyed on the N64, but I hadn't exactly heard anyone clamoring for a touch-screen, miniature version.

I think I liked it more for the GBA slot, which let me keep playing my GBA games and I could keep a game stored in there all the time--in fact, you had to keep one in there to keep the slot clean, since it didn't come with a cover. Eventually I just went back to carrying about my actual GBA, though.

By the time there was a strong, attractive (to me) lineup of games, Nintendo was debuting the DS lite, which was a huge improvement in form factor over the original DS, and there was little reason to hold on to the clunky older model so I gave it to my mom.