Moms really do play the DS Lite

Disclaimer: I'm a 36 yr old mom who bought my own DS after buying one for my then 7 yr old son.

Having started with the Nintendo Gamecube and then the Sony Playstation II at 4 years of age, it was only a matter of time before my son had his heart fixated on a handheld gaming system. He started with a Gameboy Advance SP and when it was time to upgrade we looked at the two major options; the DS Lite and the PSP. The DS Lite is a newer version of the original DS. It is lighter and brighter than the original and the buttons have been rearranged slightly but its otherwise the same. The original DS has been discontinued in favor of the DS Lite so if you go to purchase a Nintendo DS today, you will purchase the DS Lite. When I mention Nintendo DS in the rest of this review, I mean the DS Lite version of it.

As a parent, there were a few things I was looking for:

A Good Price: The Nintendo DS lite performed best here at 149$ vs the Sony Playstation Portable at 250$.

Kid Friendly Games: I wanted to make sure that the games were not full of blood and gore and hopefully that my son was also learning something while playing. The Brain Age and Pokemon and Mario games attracted us to the Nintendo DS lite. It just seemed to have more kid-themed offerings than those available on the PSP.

Durability: I was concerned about the durability of both systems. The DS Lite felt a bit less breakable when holding it and I had a quick mental flash of the psp screen in a gabillion pieces when testing it out. The edge on this requirement went only slightly to the DS Lite.

I was also very intrigued by the touchscreen options on the DS and so in the end we purchased the DS lite and have been quite happy with it. Soon after he got one, I had to get one for myself and I haven't looked back.

In the box:
DS Lite system,
Plastic Stylus (Pen) plus one extra
Game Charger (with fold flat plug which is good for travel)
Instruction Manuals

There are two slots on the DS system. One will fit a DS game cartridge and the other slot will fit a Gameboy Advance Game cartridge. When you do not have a GBA game in the system, there is an insert/cover that goes in the slot.

Game data is saved direct on the internal system and there is no need for an additional memory card.

Currently available in white, black and pink. Secondary market "bling" stickers available to dress it up more as are a variety of skins (stick on graphics) and cases.

Immediately out of the box, the ds lite has enough juice to play for about 30 minutes but you will need to charge it almost immediately. You can play while it is charging. We have gotten around 9 - 10 hours of battery life and then are secondary market items that allow you to extend this charge by docking the ds with them. You can get more battery time out of the DS by selecting lower backlight options. We prefer to keep it on the highest setting.

Controls: The pen (stylus) and touchscreen really do allow you to pick up and play the ds with no instruction whatsoever. The startup screen is easy to navigate and by touching the name of the game, you can start playing right away. There is also an option to automatically bypass the startup screen and have the game play immediately. This requires setup as an option on ds settings. There are many games that use the pen for control and some that still use the classic gamepad controls which are also included comfortably positioned for adult or child hands. Many of the games will allow you to choose one of the other during gameplay and I often use this option when my hand tires of the other. After extended gameplay with the stylus, some users have complained that they start to scratch their screen. Sheer plastic screen protectors are available to help keep this from happening. We haven't had any issues with our screens with regular gameplay but we do use the protectors.

There are also two screens to play on. Both have great resolution, can render graphics quite gorgeously for a handheld (especially Final Fantasy) and are quite useful for the gameplay on one screen and a map, timer, reference screen, different view on the second screen. Some games like Metroid Pinball and Sonic Rush spread the action over both screens.

Innovation: The Nintendo DS has taken traditional gaming and turned it on its head. Game developers are using the touch screen, wireless and microphone to create games that are above all fun to play. For instance, my son and I have played games that incorporated the following things:

Drawing the character's screen movements (Kirby's Canvas Curse)
Blowing into the microphone to blow dust off of a picture to turn up the next clue (Trace Memory)
Trading characters wirelessly over the internet (Pokemon Diamond and Pearl)
Rubbing the screen to reveal a clue or item (Lost in Blue 2)
Touching the screen to swap jewels (Puzzle Quest)
Moving an onscreen paddle (Nervous Brickdown)
Writing in letters and words (New York Times Crosswords)
Using the sytlus to slash like a sword (Taos Adventure, I think this was the one there were a few similar ones here)
Tapping to indicate a path the character should take (Sims)
Tapping along with the beat of the song (Elite Beat Agents)
Drawing magical symbols to cast spells (Lost Magic)
And so much more...

There is also the option to play wirelessly against friends who have a DS (some require them to also have the game, others do not). There are other games that allow you to play an opponent over the internet. Wireless play over the internet is setup using a friend code system. Basically, you are assigned a friend code and you need to give this code to other people to be able to play them. Older gamers may be frustrated by this system but as a parent I find it comforting that my child, by virtue of friend codes, will know personally whomever he is playing with over the internet.

Available Games: One of the best features of the Nintendo DS is that developers seem to have gone crazy for it. They release new games in so many different genres, we can't possibly keep up. What this also means is that the used game market moves fast as well. I think we have bought only about 6 games total new and from there have traded them in for used at the local video game stores.

Pick up and Play: One of the key focus markets for Nintendo with the DS was not only kids but those who maybe always wanted to play video games but couldn't manage all those buttons or the only occasional player. I am both.

So on to how I became a mom who played video games...
My son as mentioned above has been a gamer since he was four. About 4 years now. In the beginning I could attempt to play things with him on the gamecube or the playstation but I always ended up frustrating him by dying much too early in the game since, well I just wasn't that good. I've always been intimidated by those buttons and as a single mom...I just can't sit there all day and play the games with him to get better. And frankly, I have no interest in either of us doing so. Enter the ds lite.

He had the ds for probably about 2 months when I found myself sneaking a look-see at it one night after he'd went to bed. I couldn't believe how easy it was to use. The game he was playing at the time (Mario World) wasn't much interest to me but I'd noticed a few puzzle games (Brain Age) and a mystery game (Trace Memory) that I wouldn't mind trying out. So next time we went to the used game section, I picked these up and I was a gamer from then on out.

Why the system is good for adults: Its great for travel. I travel internationally a few times a year and I use it to while away the hours on the plane. Brain Age and the like will actually teach you something. I also got the cooking mama game which teaches you how to cook a variety of dishes by timing you (chopping, order of ingredients etc.) and creating a game out of it. Nintendo has recently announced they will have out soon games to learn languages, a life coach (don't ask me what this is exactly!), learn piano and guitar and a game for training your visual senses.

There are also loads of puzzle games available (Jewel Quest or Luxor anyone? New York Times Crosswords, Planet Puzzle League, A breakout type thing, tetris etc..)

There are Role Playing Games (though not as many here as there are I think coming out on the Playstation) Mystery Games, Action, Shooters (again a light category on the DS but they have some). All the game types are represented in one form or another.

Its so easy to pick up and put back down that the DS is well suited for those waits at the doctor's too.

I'm a little rabid about loving my ds so please forgive me if I come off as too enthusiastic. There are some cons:

The durability concerns I originally had have borne out so that we are on our 4th DS. His second and my second though he argues that I broke it on purpose just to buy a pink one. Not true! We purchased his DS lites on the day it was e released to market and at that time they were only available in white. The system was released in late April and by December, my son's system had a broken hinge. He is 8 and so I made the assumption he had been too rough with it and made him continue with the system as it now was.
In Jan of the following year, he had dropped it which resulted in a top smashed screen. The system was still playable even in this condition and since the warrantly was up on it, we didn't do anything about it. A month or so later, he requested gift certificates for his birthday and purchased a black DS lite. There have been no issues thus far with the black one.

I purchased my DS about 2 months after his and also received the original issue in white. In July of the following year, the hinge just suddenly cracked in half. Now I have never dropped it and have taken very good care of it so this immediately concerned me. For 120$, I would have thought a system should last at least 2 years with good care. I searched the internet and found that with the very first issued white ds lite, there was a hinge issue and you could tell by a crack in the left top of the hinge. I looked at my ds and my son's original one and sure enough the crack was there. I called Nintendo. Our warranty was long up but Nintendo was great and offered to fix both hinges for 25$ and shipping and to take a look at the screen and see if they could do anything about that. The systems were just shipped to Nintendo for repair so I can't report on how that turned out yet but so far I'm very pleased with their response.

I did go out and buy myself a brand new pink one. When I get the others back, I plan on giving one to my almost 5 year old daughter as I think she is ready and then the other to my 5 year old niece.

In summary: The Nintendo DS system is a fine bit of work, great for both the child and the adult player and for the casual and serious gamers.