"Get it right the first time, Nintendo! - A Nintendo DS Lite Review"

Way back in 2004, Nintendo launched it's so-called innovative handheld, Nintendo DS. At that time, the Nintendo DS had great hardware and a lovely new feature called the touch screen. Unfortunately, it didn't have too many great games to kick-off it's November launch. But as time went by, and about 6 months after the system's release, the Nintendo DS started to get it's handful of good games. So here we are now! After about a year and a half, Nintendo decides to spice things up a bit with a another handheld. What is that handheld you ask? That handheld is Nintendo DS Lite: a lighter, brighter Nintendo DS.

Features - 7/10
The Nintendo DS Lite is a vast improvement over the original Nintendo DS. It's sleeker, smaller, and much, much brighter. It looks like it may have been manufactured by Apple because the clear, transparent plastic over the solid white plastic makes it look almost like an iPod. While on and compared to the original DS, the Nintendo DS Lite is much brighter, much more colorful, and much sharper and clearer. There are four brightness settings. The lowest setting is just as bright as the original DS, so that tells you how bright the DS Lite can go. When playing games like New Super Mario Bros. or Mario Kart DS, you will discover colors that you didn't know were there on the original Nintendo DS. These new colors and the four brightness settings make every single Nintendo DS game look a lot better. Also improved on the DS Lite is the stylus. It's much longer and thicker, making gameplay much more comfortable. It's repositioned to where it is much easier for right-handers to get to. Unfortunately, it's a bad place for left-handed people. Also repositioned is the mic. and the Start and Select buttons. The mic. is placed on the hinge, while the Start and Select buttons are placed vertically on the lower right-hand side of the touch screen. The battery on the Nintendo DS Lite is absolutely amazing. The battery is much, much better and has a much longer battery life. The Li-ion battery lasts up about 20 hours, claimed by Nintendo. It simply just makes the Nintendo DS so much better. Some of these new features may be a good thing. They may also be a bad thing, especially for left-handed people. It pretty much depends.

Design - 9/10
As I said before, the Nintendo DS Lite looks like an Apple product. It has a sleek, linear look and it has been designed with a solid colored plastic encased in clear, transparent plastic. The two vertical squares representing the dual screens are placed on the front of the system, pretty much mimicking Apple's products. Opened, the DS Lite has no transparent plastic. It's the solid plastic under the clear plastic from the outside. The button placement looks like the original DS button placement, excluding the Start and Select buttons. The D-pad has been trimmed down to a smaller look and is also less clicky. The power switch, which has been changed to a slider, is repositioned to the right side of the system. Thankfully, Nintendo got rid of the downhill look which was on the original DS's top hinge, vastly improving the design of the system. To improve the sleek look even more, Nintendo made a GBA cartridge that goes in the GBA slot. Speaking of the GBA cartridge, when playing a GBA game on the DS Lite, the cartridge juts out a little bit. It's not as bad as original Gameboy games on the GBA SP, but still looks a little goofy. This probably leads to the question about the GBA Rumble pack for the original DS. Well, thankfully, Nintendo has made Rumble pack specifically for the DS Lite, which can be purchased at Nintendo's online store. So, overall, the Nintendo DS Lite is a vast improvement in the looks department over the original DS.

Graphics - 9/10
Bad to some, great to others. Now with two brighter screens, the graphics couldn't look any better. Not as good as the Sony PSP, but a lot clearer and better than the Nintendo 64. Because of the backwards compatibility, GBA games look there best on the bright and sharp screens. Playing the same game on an original Nintendo DS and DS Lite for a comparison shows the incredible difference. Because of the sharper and clearer screens, the graphics do improve and make DS games look just as good, if not better, than most PSP games. Two games in particular, Super Mario 64 DS and Metroid Prime Hunters, really show off the Nintendo DS's 3D capabilities. They're simply amazing and really show off the full extent of the Nintendo DS's power. Simply put, the graphics are awesome for any system!

Games - 10/10
Let's talk games! When the original Nintendo DS came out, it didn't really have anything to show for it, and with the PSP coming out in a few months, it didn't look like the Nintendo DS had a chance. With an insane price tag, and also nothing to show for it, that speculation was nothing but a bunch of crap. After the Sony PSP's launch, the Nintendo DS began to get it's handful of good games. There was Phoenix Wright, Trauma Center, Nintendogs, and much, much more! While those games are hard to come by now, there are many great games available at retailers such as Walmart or Target. There's New Super Mario Bros., the Brain games, Metroid Prime: Hunters, Lost Magic, Super Princess Peach and much more! Most DS games now, especially first-party games, won't disappoint, and with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, you can play these great games, and many more later to come, with friends and rivals across the world. So, right now, the Nintendo DS can't really disappoint, and with the Nintendo DS Lite, these games can be experienced in a lighter, brighter way.

Value - 10/10
I'm going to begin saying that the Nintendo DS Lite is worth more than what it actually costs. For $130, you get a sleek system, two lovely and very bright screens, and a comfortable, small system. It's also a system that plays great games for no more than $35. Also worth it is an extremely excellent battery, Li-ion. On the lowest brightness setting, the battery can reach up to 20 hours, depending on the game. On the highest, the battery can last for up to 9 or 10 hours. It may cost you an hour more to charge, but it is well worth it. Gamers with original Nintendo DS's can upgrade to a DS Lite for about $70. That's not too bad. You can probably get a used DS Lite for about as high as $100. If that's the case, then it would cost you about $50 to upgrade. That's not bad either, but you won't get the same value as you would buying a brand new Nintendo DS Lite. Any way you decide, the Nintendo DS Lite is worth what it'll cost you, probably more.

Pros & Cons

Pros:
Sleek design
Smaller, more portable system
Brighter, clearer screens
Sharper images
Bigger stylus
Good games

Cons:
Poorly placed mic.
Bad reposition of stylus, Start and Select buttons
GBA cartridge games extends beyond bottom of system

Overall - 9/10
The features are good, depending on your characteristics. The design is very sleek and small, making it very portable. A good Li-ion battery will increase your gameplay a good while. Now, and many more to come, the games will be better than you ever imagined with two, very bright screens. All this for $130! Incredible! The Nintendo DS Lite is what the original wasn't: a lighter, brighter Nintendo DS. The future for the Nintendo DS couldn't look any brighter!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/06