 Gameboy DS - first impressions
posted by Christopher on 11.28.2004 - 9:34 pm
I've bought at least one of every iteration of the gameboy since the very first one. It's consistently been my favorite game system, mostly because of portability.
I didn't go and preorder the new gameboy, or get all hyped up about it, because i had some reservations based on some of the sites i read. also, i know nintendo has a habit of not making nearly enough hardware for their launch, and i guess i figured i could just wait until they were more readily available and there was more of a selection of games. well... walking around the mall, i wandered into sears, and what do you know, there's a big stack of them. after a lot of initial disbelief, i nonchalantly plopped down the sears card, and walked out w/ a system and a game.
first two words that sprung to mind as i pulled it out of the box were "big" and "heavy". in the closed position, it's twice the width of a gameboy advance SP and four times the weight. opening it up, i was greeted by two lcd screens that were dwarfed by the plastic housing. "what a waste of space", i thought.
then i turned it on.
the screens are beautiful, and the operating system makes it feel "grown up". i had no idea how dim and blurry the SP's screen was until i tried out an old gamboy advance game. night and day, i tell you. i'm actually really impressed with all of the hardware. the sound is awesome (built-in stereo speakers actually do make a difference). the sensitivity of the touch screen is pretty impressive, and it passes well for an analog controller (something absolutely necessary for a 3d system). i'm really happy with the fact that it's backwards compatible w/ all previous gameboy games. that's one thing i've always loved about all gameboys, and was worried they'd scrap that with the new (TINY) form factor of the DS games.
only two gripes so far:
1. it's huge. this is emphasized when playing an older gameboy advance style game, since the one blank screen makes half of the thing seem wasted.
2. it could be more comfortable to hold. sometimes the edges dig in when trying to support the thing with the hand you're pushing buttons with and pushing down on the touch screen w/ the other. analog games seem cumbersome.
aside from those issues (which i'm certain i'll end up ignoring and/or working around), i'm super happy with the new system and look forward to seeing all the new games come out for it.
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