Yeah, I Know I SAID I Was Going to Wait...

Well, it is no big secret that when CRChair and I go away on our little "vacations" that we sometimes wind up giving in to our gadget-love. On our vacation a long time back, we bought our first DVD players - back when the entire library of available DVDs were restricted to about 25 titles. Last year, we invested in our first DVD Recorders. Well, at this Thanksgiving vacation, I gave in and bought a Nintendo DS. I had been planning on waiting to invest in my next portable system until the Sony PSP, but the coolness of the wireless multiplayer modes was too much for me. Especially when CRChair would also have one.



So I bought a Nintendo DS (not called the Gameboy DS, as I had expected) at Wal-Mart. (Amusingly, all of the Electronics Boutiques and other video game specialty stores were sold out, but good ole Wal-Mart had an overstock. Course, it also helped that we were buying in upstate New York, where there were fewer competitors for the rare commodity. Tip, if you are looking for Nintendo DS in stock, the Wal-mart in Olean, New York had about 25 of them.) I also purchased a Spider-Man 2 DS and Super Mario 64 DS game, as well as the old GBA Zelda: Advantures of Link as the DS is supposed to have backwards compatibility with the GBA systems (but not Gameboy or GameBoy Color).



Impressions so far:

• Great graphics. Mario64 looks just like it did on the big screen, and Spidey looks somewhat better than on my PS2 (though it is only a side-scroller).
• Wireless link is quite cool. But I wish it worked on GBA games as well. As of now, if you want multiplayer on a GBA game, you need to keep your old Gameboy SP.
• The GBA SP is still a better form factor. Smaller, lighter, fits the hand better. But this will do.
• The dual screen gimmick is cool, but won't be taking the world by storm. The demo that comes with the DS (Metroid: First Hunt) shows the best use in aiming your weapons. But even there is is a bit clumsy.
• Not many games yet. But the release schedule is heating up between now and Christmas... and shortly after Christmas.

I guess that is not a rave review. Still, I have no regrets about buying this thing, after having played with it for a few hours. I am enjoying the new games and enjoying keeping my collection of GBA games still playable. Now I just can't wait for MarioKart DS!!!