wraggster
April 15th, 2006, 12:20
Heres an excerpt of a DS Lite Review by Cnet:
The Nintendo DS Lite, like the original Nintendo DS, is a portable gaming system with two vertically tiered screens. On the bottom is a touch screen that allows you to use a stylus or a finger for anything from selecting options to moving characters. There's also a normal face-button layout that allows a more standard method of control. The system plays its own proprietary cartridges (which are somewhere between SD and CompactFlash cards in size), in addition to its near-full backward compatibility with Game Boy Advance (GBA) titles. The DS Lite is currently out in Japan for approximately $145, though scarce supplies have set the import rate at about $200. The system is completely region-free and supports multiple languages, meaning our "Japanese" DS Lite had no problem playing all of our "American" games.
The games for the DS Lite are of decent graphical quality--a bit better than the PS1/N64 but nowhere near Xbox/PS2/GameCube standards. It also pales in comparison to PSP games. Where the DS Lite really earns its stripes is the innovative quality of its titles. Whereas PSP games feel much like their console cousins, the DS Lite's dual- and touch-screen setup allows for some truly unique gameplay, whether it's drawing your own Pac-Man in Namco's Pac Pix or performing surgery via stylus in Atlus's Trauma Center: Under the Knife. That said, not many of the other third-party software developers are up to the challenge of taking full advantage of the DS's capabilities. For every Nintendo-produced hit such as Nintendogs or Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, there are several barely updated GBA ports or slightly downgraded PSP ports--neither of which make much use of the touch- and dual-screen technology.
Until the release of Nintendo's next home console, the company seems intent on focusing its creative juices on the DS rather than the near-dead GameCube. There's also multimedia functionality down the pike, with Web browsing and TV tuner add-ons promised by the end of the year. If you still haven't picked a portable gaming system, the DS Lite is definitely worth waiting for if you like its growing list of quirky, original titles. Nintendo has yet to make its U.S. release plans official, but it's safe to say that we'll see it by the holiday season--if not much sooner. However, if you've already purchased the original, the improvements aren't significant enough to warrant shelling out another $150 unless you're truly put off by the bulkiness of the original.
Read the excellent full review here --> http://reviews.cnet.com/Nintendo_DS_Lite/4505-6464_7-31756952-2.html?tag=nav
The Nintendo DS Lite, like the original Nintendo DS, is a portable gaming system with two vertically tiered screens. On the bottom is a touch screen that allows you to use a stylus or a finger for anything from selecting options to moving characters. There's also a normal face-button layout that allows a more standard method of control. The system plays its own proprietary cartridges (which are somewhere between SD and CompactFlash cards in size), in addition to its near-full backward compatibility with Game Boy Advance (GBA) titles. The DS Lite is currently out in Japan for approximately $145, though scarce supplies have set the import rate at about $200. The system is completely region-free and supports multiple languages, meaning our "Japanese" DS Lite had no problem playing all of our "American" games.
The games for the DS Lite are of decent graphical quality--a bit better than the PS1/N64 but nowhere near Xbox/PS2/GameCube standards. It also pales in comparison to PSP games. Where the DS Lite really earns its stripes is the innovative quality of its titles. Whereas PSP games feel much like their console cousins, the DS Lite's dual- and touch-screen setup allows for some truly unique gameplay, whether it's drawing your own Pac-Man in Namco's Pac Pix or performing surgery via stylus in Atlus's Trauma Center: Under the Knife. That said, not many of the other third-party software developers are up to the challenge of taking full advantage of the DS's capabilities. For every Nintendo-produced hit such as Nintendogs or Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, there are several barely updated GBA ports or slightly downgraded PSP ports--neither of which make much use of the touch- and dual-screen technology.
Until the release of Nintendo's next home console, the company seems intent on focusing its creative juices on the DS rather than the near-dead GameCube. There's also multimedia functionality down the pike, with Web browsing and TV tuner add-ons promised by the end of the year. If you still haven't picked a portable gaming system, the DS Lite is definitely worth waiting for if you like its growing list of quirky, original titles. Nintendo has yet to make its U.S. release plans official, but it's safe to say that we'll see it by the holiday season--if not much sooner. However, if you've already purchased the original, the improvements aren't significant enough to warrant shelling out another $150 unless you're truly put off by the bulkiness of the original.
Read the excellent full review here --> http://reviews.cnet.com/Nintendo_DS_Lite/4505-6464_7-31756952-2.html?tag=nav