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I haven’t gotten into the handhelds since I was just a kid. I used to "have them all:" the original brick GameBoy, the GameBoy pocket, the purple GameBoy Color. As I aged my interest dropped off into just PC gaming. Then the "next gen" of handhelds came out: PSP and DS. Although I noticed them, I just never saw it worthwhile to shell out hundreds of bucks for a screen the size of a credit card when the much more inferior PC was still my gaming domain. But alas, time has passed, I’ve bought a 360 and re-kindled my love for consoles through many-a-night of Street Fighter 2 on PS2, and now the DS Lite makes its grand debut. I went out and picked mine up at Walmart at midnight and have some intriguing impressions on this beauty of a handheld.

I haven’t gotten into the handhelds since I was just a kid. I used to "have them all:" the original brick GameBoy, the GameBoy pocket, the purple GameBoy Color. As I aged my interest dropped off into just PC gaming. Then the "next gen" of handhelds came out: PSP and DS. Although I noticed them, I just never saw it worthwhile to shell out hundreds of bucks for a screen the size of a credit card when the much more inferior PC was still my gaming domain. But alas, time has passed, I’ve bought a 360 and re-kindled my love for consoles through many-a-night of Street Fighter 2 on PS2, and now the DS Lite makes its grand debut. I went out and picked mine up at Walmart at midnight and have some intriguing impressions on this beauty of a handheld.

I’ll jump right in. This isn’t meant to be a review - this is a minor collection of my thoughts so far. I can say that since purchasing it a brief 48 hours ago I have played it for nearly 20% of those hours since. I only have 3 games so far: New Super Mario Bros., Metroid Prime Hunters, and Advance Wars Dual Strike. Over the last few months following the gaming hype since the Xbox 360 was released and especially attending E3, I’ve gained an interest in specifically the DS. The PSP has enough bad "rap" with its UMD troubles and more that I couldn’t even wish for the money to buy one. I think my interest in DS peaked when I saw numerous reviews of a little indie game called Electroplankton circulate the internet mainstream. It was one of those games where it just emphasized gameplay and unique features far above graphics and popularity, and it showed that this is what the DS (and Nintendo on the whole) is the best at.

After purchasing it at Walmart I opened up the box with my friend nearby to check out a Spiderman DS game he just bought (for his DS as well). My true first impression: this thing IS lite! I think I’ve held a Phat DS once or twice, and I remember it being a bit clunky. And I just had this idea in my mind that the DS would weigh "more than it did." But damn that wasn’t true. Beyond that the box was nearly empty, just an incredibly compact charger and the paperwork.

After playing the Spiderman game and all of the other 3 games I have, the DS Lite certainly does rock. I don’t have an old one to compare brightness to, but I don’t need one. The brightness on the Lite is incredible itself. The screen quality is just as good as the Samsung LCD monitor I have sitting in front of me, except about 1/20th the size and resolution. It’s sleek and smooth, a polished white that shines like a thing of beauty (although I wish it was in blue too). The buttons are incredibly small, but my thumbs still play perfectly fine and the whole unit still fits in the palm of my hand easily.

There is so much on the "good" side that I can comment about that it would just be much more worth it to go read a real review. So I’ll just mention any of the very few complaints I have. The stylus is a piece of junk, as I think it has often been referred to. It’s plastic and clunky and just cheap. I’m going to buy one of the sleek battle styluses once they release a DS Lite version. In addition the biggest complaint I have is with the continual "unit will shut down now" and lack of constant saving. I play through half of the world in the New Super Mario and then have to leave. So I turn it off (as a normal person would do) and what do you know, it doesn’t save at all. All but the Advance Wars Dual Strike game requires you to reach a certain random point in the game before it saves. It wasn’t until a bit later that I found out about the freeze state feature when you close the lid. Now that I know that I’m putting that to much better use - and not losing my progress.

I can say with certainty that at this moment in time I am loving the DS Lite. However I think I am in the same new-system-haze that I was in when I first got the Xbox 360. I have to give it some time and see where it’ll go. See if the $130 was actually worth it and see if I’ll actually be putting this thing to good use. I bought it not as an individual console on its own that will take gaming time away from the PC or 360; but rather as a handheld that can help pass the time on airplanes and while waiting in lines and at the same time providing incredible gaming experiences like in Electroplankton. For now, the DS Lite is well worth every penny and on its way to becoming the most popular handheld of the next-generation - for myself included.

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