Do not want! How will I be able to play my pokey-mans advanced games, huh?! Berries don't pick themselves you know. D:

435,000 units out of 350 million americans. The economy is still bad moron.

435,000 units sold out of 250 million potential american buyers. Yep, economy is still bad. Who knows how many of these were bought with credit. Tom's Hardware, leave economics out of your articles.

I upgraded my DS Lite over the weekend. Can't say I did it for any real reason, but at least it is new and has warranty.

After it was all said and done, I ended up paying $110.00 for it.

As for the feature sets? It has a bigger screen. I am not completely understanding how you will be able to use accessories for this unit for games that came with Advance slot accessories (Gitar Hero, rumble pack, etc)

The only morons on this page are the idiots above who think 435,000 units in the first week is bad when they (idiotically) compare that to the millions who live in the US.^
Did they not read the sales of the original DS when the economy WASNT bad? One analogy would be Michael Jackson is a failure for selling 60 million records when the population of the planet is 8 billion.
Absolute idiots.
Keep up the good work Toms Hardware.

'if you don't own a ds then the newest model is the one to get' ?!? hah..yeah right...only an idiot *would* pay $170 for a technological step backwards so Nintendo can filch more from their pockets via WiiWare...Grab your Ds Lite's now if you ever wanted one (Or an extra one if you're particularly clumsy), Ninten$dough definately has it on the chopping block, esp. when the DSi's don't sell as well or make em as much as they're initially hoping.

Or better yet, just wait and see if the rumored new PSP at CES is for real...

Perhaps I have missed out on the nintendo technology a bit lately...
It'd be nice to have some more info on the difference between the Nintendo DS,DS Lite and DSi. (So does the DSi have a faster processor, or higher resolution)?


They look pretty much the same to me,apart from the thickness.

There are some pretty significant technical differences, enough that one could argue that it's not even a DS, but rather a DS in the way a GBA was a Game Boy Color. If memory serves, these were the main changes:
[*]Larger screens. Still at 256x192, though.
[*]The ARM-9 main CPU is increased in speed from 67 MHz to 133 MHz.
[*]The RAM supply is increased from 4MB to 16MB.
[*]The GBA cartridge slot was removed, and replaced with a standard SD/SDHC slot. This also means no compatability with DS peripherals that used the GBA slot, and incompatability with all previous homebrew.
[*]Two cameras are added; one on the outside of the top panel, one in the hinge, meant to face the user.
Though the cameras are largely a gimmick, I feel that once cracked, the extra CPU power, and ESPECIALLY the extra RAM (which brings its PROGRAMMABLE memory to half the PSP) will help tremendously. (note that the PSP 2000/3000 have 64MB, but the latter half can only be used for caching in games)

Darnit, is there ANY way to get bulleted lists with these comments? Bleh.

I never never get a Nintendo DS

They are 2 words:

Fucking Shit

*warning I go completely off on a tangent in this post*

If you still like old school side scroller action. Its hard to beat a GBadv/DS. (ignoring emulators on the PC)

Some games/playstles simply don't translate well to 3D. Castlevania symphony of the night sold hand and fist over any 3d incarnation of the series. While the latest wii edition of Metroid is pretty darn good super metroid I still overall had more fun with. Side scroller beatemups/shooters like golden axe, streets of rage, contra, metal slug, bionic commando. Puzzle/adventure platformers. 2D 1vs1 fighters (though I feel soul calibur did a great job mixing the 2D "feel" in a 3d play area) and the list goes on.

A lot of these genres don't quite translate the original feel well to 3D. That's not always a bad thing, but in many cases on a personal level I still feel the 3D counterparts haven't caught up yet in overall fun.

I feel super mario world 3 from a fun and gameplay point of view still is superior to every 3D version that came out of the mario series including the wii version.

2D sidescroller games are still released on the nintendo hand helds. And for me (and it seems many in general) the real fuel behind a console is the experiences it can provide you and that is usually dominated by what games it makes available to you. Sometimes I get lucky and something like Bionic Commando Rearmed comes along. But that's pretty rare.


At some point, a user interface will be refined where it becomes cheap but very very 3d friendly. Along the lines of a head tracking system plus a wiimote control scheme, perhaps even plus something with your legs.

On a 2d you can pretty much "see" everything so leaving the "camera control" to the game isn't an issue. In 3d without head tracking, looking around you is somewhat of a chore, it shouldn't be.

In 2d there are only 360degrees of angles, in 3D there is 360degrees squared. Thus a pointer type device such a mouse/track/wiimote is crucial for accuracy of intentions.

Lastly movement, once again you go from 360degrees to 360degree squared in theory...but since most of the time you're on the ground it becomes limited to just 360degrees.

With two analog sticks you can only control two sets of 360. Which usually load movement to one stick and view+interaction on the other.

In general this feels sluggish and clumsy compared to the snap action of 2d because you simply lack the finesse of input needed to really make 3D respond to your desires.

If you have good head-tracking you get 360^2 view angle input intuitively tied to your natural movement.

If you have a pointer device you get 360^2 of range of motion for interacting with things in your view.

This leaves at least one analog stick for movement.

At that point I'll guess that most 3D titles should feel much much more intuitive and responsive and the interface will really be more on par with the environment. The tech is there for this of course, but the price and support really isn't. Someday though.

Until then there is a bit of fluidity that 2d games have which 3d ones don't in various cases.