News from Lik Sang

The rumors have ended... 10 days later than what Japanese retailers and Lik Sang were speculating on. Nintendo of Japan has now made the official announcement everybody was waiting for: the Nintendo DS new look is named DS Lite and is coming out in Japan and on Lik-Sang.com this March 2nd of 2006, in five weeks from now. We are writing down reservations from this minute on for US$ 169. We recommend getting yourself in the preorder queue quickly if you want to be one of the first lucky few to hold it in your hands, "there is never enough of the good stuff on a launch day" as veteran gamers have learnt to know well already.

As the "Lite" extension suggests, the Nintendo DS dimensions and weight have been reduced by 42% and 21% respectively. The NDS Lite will be 148.7mm wide, 84.7mm high and 28.9mm deep and 215 grams only. The screens apparently will not be affected even though Nintendo did not go into that clearly in their statement. Oh, and guess what, it will be portable and fits in your pocket. Apart from that, there is no other major change except for a cool brightness adjustment feature that has been added, with four modes to select from. Start and Select are moved to the right, the power button is not visible on the face of the machine and may have been moved to the side, while the microphone has moved to the hinge between the two screens. Nintendo of Japan has only released two images of the fashionably-white Nintendo DS Lite at press time, we'll post more as it reaches our desk.