After quite a while of debating the matter, we picked up a DS Lite on Sunday. Acquiring it was a bit of a journey. After bagels we walked over to the mall to check out the EB Games, which of course wasn’t open at 11:00, so after killing an hour I went back at noon only to find out that they only had enough in stock for people who had pre-ordered them, which I strongly suspect was simply a lie designed to protect their ability to get people to pre-order. I’m sure that Nintendo won’t be able to meet the initial demand of the Lites, but I doubt that supply was so limited that major retail chains weren’t able to get more than a one-day supply of the devices, which would have to be the case if they only had enough to fill their pre-orders. I slapped the games I had picked out back on their counter and walked off, called Katherine, got disconnected (thanks Sprint), walked home, took the elevator upstairs, and suggested (in person) that we go to Best Buy or Target. A few minutes later, plus a few more minutes to find a sales rep to open the locked case, I had a DS Lite in hand along with a copy of New Super Mario Bros. and Brain Age.
I’ll keep the review short here, but do go read what 1Up and Ars Technica have to say and definitely watch Cabel Sasser’s three videos: first, second, third.
The Lite is a joy. It’s sleek and the screen is beautiful. I kind of don’t like how blatently Apple-inspired the design is, but it works so well that I’m not sure that’s a complaint. In a few years someone will come along with some new idea for what electronics should look like but, until then, shiny white is still very nice. New Super Mario Bros. is lots of old school fun. Super Mario World has always been one of my favorites and, while this one has no Yoshi, it captures the spirit of the original games and the nice cartoon look of the later era Marios. (See how Mario’s look has been updated over the years.) Brain Age is as innovative as I’d heard, and also a suprising amount of fun. Right now my brain’s in its 50s, but I’m sure as I exercise it each day I’ll get it down to a spry young age soon enough.