I have owned a DS since a few weeks after it was on sale in the UK. The DS is a great handheld, without a doubt the best on the market. However I got rid of mine (only because I quite fancied getting a DS lite). I went a few months without a DS missing a few great titles being released.



On June the 23rd UK release date I could wait no longer! I made a special trip into town to get my pre-ordered DS lite which I bought with two games, Brain Training and Metroid prime. I have been putting of this post for some time because I wanted the novelty factor to wear off before writing about it to make it as unbiased as I can (also this is going to be a lengthy post and I like to put those off for as long as I can ).

The DS lite is a DS that's smaller, lighter, has a much brighter screen and is much nicer looking. Apart from that it's repositioned some of the buttons and the mic for a clearer layout. Is it worth the upgrade though? That really does depend on how much £99 is worth to you. The DS lite's screen is fantastic and is reason enough alone for an upgrade in my opinion. The colours now look as they should, not dull and washed away as they have been on every past Nintendo handheld. If you have ever used an emulator for a GBA or DS (or seen screenshots) and compared what you see on your screen to what you see on your handheld, the results have always been disappointing until now. The DS lite bring the brightness and vibrancy of colour that a TFT monitor bears. There's not much more to say about the DS lite since the rest of the improvements, size, weight and look are all obviously a good thing. The DS lite rivals and, in my opinion, beats the sleak look of the PSP.

On to the games I got with the DS lite which are of course the main reason of purchase!

Metroid Prime Hunters
I have never been a fan of Metroid having played only the Gamecube version for all of half and hour. The DS lite version changed that and I have since gone back to the Gamecube version and have been enjoying playing it. The first thing that's strikingly odd about this game is how you control it, by using the stylus to aim. I first heard about this style of control months before the release and have remained sceptical about it until having a chance to try it out. This method works fantastically and brings the same level of control a mouse and keyboard would bring. I never though I would see a decent FPS on a handheld that lacks an analogue stick, however this control method far surpasses anything the analogue stick could offer. Finally concurrent strafe and aiming is back on the menu! The game is very fast paced and offers a good level of game play, the graphics are impressive but not distracting, the music's very good and suits the game perfectly. Overall it's an obvious Nintendo classic, what can I say except go out and buy it!

Brain Training
This I saw as novelty "game", you play it for a week perhaps and then loose interest. However I have been playing (or training) nearly every day. There are a variety of activities to train your brain as one would imagine, I didn't expect however them involve voice recognition and handwriting recognition which is indeed impressive. The "game" plays very well and is incredibly easy to operate it, so easy that both my parents and sister have accounts on the "game". Does it really work though? That's a good question and one I can and can't answer. That is since playing my brain age has dropped from 80 to 27 years so I am certainly getting better at playing the game but does this translate to anything useful in the real world? My thoughts are probably so, I have noticed my mental arithmetic skills improve drastically, I'm much quicker dealing with change for example. My memory has perhaps improved a bit, as well as my concentration. However I can't prove this and whilst I'm certainly about the improvement regarding my arithmetic I can't guarantee the others but yes, it does seem to work . Brain Training is fun and I shall continue to use it, playing it for around ten minutes a day, I might report again on this "game" later on, perhaps I will have noticed a definite change in a few areas later on?

The New Super Mario Bros
The last game is one I didn't purchase with the DS but bought two days ago so except plenty of novelty induce bias here coupled up with the bias introduced by this being the first Mario platform game in 13 years! At last, Nintendo did it. Why did it take so long to "go oldschool"? Well anyway 13 years of waiting/hoping is finally over and I now own a classic piece of Nintendo gaming. The New Super Mario Bros. game is as good and better than the original console versions. It still has the same great oldschool gameplay with many new elements which I'm pleased to say only add to the overall experience and do not take away from what a Mario platformer should be. I admit I was worried that it might not be as good as the original Mario series, after all it's been 13 years and looking at games like Super Mario Sunshine where Mario dons a fancy water pistol you begin to wonder if Nintendo have lost the plot, not so though. The only thing that remains to be said is this is a great Mario platformer, if you liked the original (and you should) go and get this, you already know what to expect Great grapics, great music, great game play. Another Nintendo classic.

On that note I'd like to finish by adding that I have been continually impressed by Nintendo's "comeback" they seem to be going from strength to strength and are poised to top the console markets once again with the Wii. It's a good time to be a Nintendo fan

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