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I know the DS lite has been out for a long while now, but I really never had the chance to play one for a long period of time. I’m not a real big handheld gamer, more or less because I don’t really travel that much and I’m not out a lot for me to have free time to play handhelds. Back in November I received a Sony PSP to review on ThinkComputers. I really liked it and thought it was really cool. I picked up a few games and it served me well. Sad thing is I haven’t touched it since my trip to Las Vegas in January. Maybe it’s the lack of good games, I mean there are a few good games (Lumines, GTA, etc), but you can only play those games so much. So after thinking about it I went ahead and sold my PSP and went out and got a Nintendo DS Lite. I really could not justify having 2 handheld systems, and with the announcement of Sim City and amazing screenshots from Zelda Phantom Hourglass I had to get a DS Lite.

So I picked up the DS Lite and 2 games, the new Super Mario Bros. and Pokemon diamond. The reason I picked Pokemon is because I actually had Pokemon for Gameboy color and it was a lot of fun so I figured it was worth picking up. And Mario Bros. is a no-brainer, you can’t go wrong with Mario Bros! The DS itself really does not come with much; there is a charger and 2 styluses.

Comparing the DS Lite to a PSP it is a bit smaller and the screen is definitely smaller, but the DS has 2 screens! Of course when opened up the DS Lite is much larger. The ability to open and close the DS Lite is great because you don’t have to worry about scratching it if you have it in your pocket or during travel.

The DS lite itself has a pretty basic layout to it. When you open it up on the lid is your top screen and speakers and on the bottom you have the bottom screen, which is the touch screen, directional pad, Y, X, B, A buttons, and the start and select buttons. The buttons are very easy to use although it took me a while to get used to using them. The first day I got the DS Lite my hands hurt after about 30 minutes playing.

When I first tuned on the DS I was asked to input things like the date, time, etc. The dual-screen was interesting and took me a bit to get used to. Both screens looked really great and I really did not have the angle the DS a certain way to reduce glare because they wasn’t any! The touch screen ability is really cool and gives you more interaction with the game than just pressing buttons.

Playing games on the DS Lite is a lot of fun. I mean the graphics are no where near the graphics of the PSP, but the games are better. By taking something simple and adding a new dimension like the touch screen ability Nintendo has really made a great product. They have done the same thing with the Wii! Also everyone will tell you that the DS has better games. The feel of the DS also brings back those memories of playing Super Nintendo. Overall I really like it and hope to play it more than I played my PSP!

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