This is hardly news, but boy is the DS Lite nice. Smaller, lighter, brighter indeed. Penny-arcade joked that the screen burns with the brightness of 1,000 suns, and they aren't far off. I found it slightly easier to pause (reach the start button) on the old DS, but that's all I can really come up with on the negative side.
As of a couple months ago, the DS sold 16 million hardware units worldwide. I wonder what the numbers will be like a month or two after the US release.
--Sirlin
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on Wednesday, June 14th, 2006 at 10:42 am and is filed under Nintendo Stuff.
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June 14th, 2006 at 7:43 pm
I am so happy for myself that I waited with buying a DS.
After waiting so long, I hardly can’t wait anymore.
Thinking of buying New Super Mario Brothers, Brain Training (which one?) and Mario Kart DS.
It comes out on 23 June in Europe here, so I have to wait a little more.
June 14th, 2006 at 9:06 pm
Great. another way for Nintendo to milk me out of my money. I know I don’t need it, but at the same time the siren song keeps calling me… and I said the same thing about the SP. Must remain strong! I wonder how long I can resist picking one up…
June 16th, 2006 at 2:42 am
I don’t know about nintendo milking my money.
This is just such a superior product in comparison to the old one.
My retailer in Singapore showed me the lite when it was first launched in Japan.
She knew I would be interested n kept a copy for me so I could play around with it.
After 5 mins of playtime, I flat out refused to play on my old DS anymore. The screen is just..that much better. And the materials used on the Lite is just great.
Needless to say, she took the machine away from me and made me wait another month.
Evil girl.
June 16th, 2006 at 11:29 pm
Chipping a little piece off the hinge of my old DS was a blessing in disguise. :o)
June 17th, 2006 at 4:37 am
oh yeah, now i remember why we swore never to buy the first version of any console.
June 17th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
It sold 135,000 copies in North America. In two days!
I don’t need a new one (no problems with the old DS) but it’s always good to see something new.
June 19th, 2006 at 4:25 am
I’ve never liked the practice of rereleasing a system with better features/updated styling/coupons for cat food. I remember when they did this with the NES, the SNES, the Genesis, the Sega CD, the PS1, the PS2, the GB, the GBA, and now the DS. I’ve also noticed the disturbing trend of system redesigns having a shorter turn-around time from when the original systems hit the market. I’m sure the DS Lite was already in development by the time the original DS hit American shores.
My question to the hardware manufacturers is this: Why didn’t you just do a little more R&D and release the better product in the first place? I recall when the SNES hit that there was something like 10 proto designs that had already been fully mocked up and had been approved for production before the design that eventually went retail was produced.
The fact that all of us early adopters that went out and bought the system first and showed it to our friends, effectively running an underground marketing campaign for you, are now turning around and seeing a better system come out feel as though we are getting slapped in the face. I understand that we can trade in our old systems for a discount on the new ones, but why should we have to do that in the first place? Why wasn’t the first iteration of a system good enough?
I guess what I’m saying is, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! I for one am going to stick with my old, archaic DS that was perfectly fine right up until the point Ninty ran a press release announcing the DS Lite. Just like I still have my 3rd gen iPod mini, the first and only iPod I’ve ever owned. Despite the fact the Nano has come out, my mini still does the job, and does a damn fine job at that.
June 19th, 2006 at 6:33 am
The main reason I didn’t buy a DS when it came out was because it was bulky and wasn’t very friendly to my pockets. I decided to wait until they came out with a smaller, better model, and my waiting has paid off.
June 29th, 2006 at 7:24 pm
Finally I got my hands on the DS lite myself, and I did get quite disappointed. While battery time, screens and design seem to be better, I cannot understand the idea behind replacing the great d-pad of the original DS. The first point is the size. The original DS-d-pad had the perfect size for me, the new size is back on the alibi-side (who uses it anyway, huh?). The second point is the feel. While on the original DS the buttons had this ‘klick’ providing haptical feedback for the moment the button press occured, the lite feels awfully soft.
July 10th, 2006 at 9:21 am
Aurgh! Why can’t I pause!?!? Even worse, hit select? I rarely need it fast, but if/when I do, it’s a nightmare to hit it without pausing. Battery life and brightnesses are a huge plus, though. But what really bugs me is how the Advance games stick out, and it makes it so much harder to stow away somewhere with it in there… The A button on mine is also WAY undersensitive, so on MKDS I’m decelerating even though holding down A all the way… BECAUSE I’M NOT PRESSING HARD ENOUGH ON A FULLY DEPRESSED BUTTON. The lite sure looks a hell of a lot better, just don’t play it (esp. with advance games).
February 3rd, 2007 at 3:44 pm
The only problem I have with my Lite is that it is litterally smaller than my hand, which can be awkward. I sort of feel like a giant, building climbing monkey. That looks like Homer… heh