It’s been just about two years since the damn near improbable happened: David beat Goliath. I’m not speaking Biblically, but figuratively. The David in question is a well known video game company that has lost mainstream appeal, and by extension, one of their flagship products is also a David of sorts. This product was the DS. Dual Screen or Developer System, take your pick, it was still a bizarre concept that had even me grumbling cynical remarks.
Goliath, on the other hand, was Sony’s Playstation Portable, a graphical giant that could play music, movies and maybe even do your taxes. It ran discs. It had Wifi internet at launch. Its graphics looked almost as good as Sony’s current-gen home console, the PS2. That in and of itself was one hell of a trick. In every conceivable way the homely, oddball little DS was inferior…all but one, that is. DS had the games, the addictive software and quality content that Nintendo was infamous for. Nintendo’s first party houses proved that the hardware concept worked, as strange as it seemed, and third party developers flocked to the DS. In the end, Nintendo just knew portables better than Sony. While Sony tried to cram the console experience into a pocket-sized box, Nintendo knew that an epic like Grand Theft Auto wouldn’t be too much fun on a bus.
The hardware worked, that much was clear, but Nintendo made such a dash to get their portable onto the market, they didn’t have a lot of time to polish the aesthetics. The DS had a face only a mother could love, one of the console’s main areas of criticism. With their foothold assured and the battle going well, Nintendo is ready to step back, take a look at the big picture and update the DS. The result is the difference between night and day.
Of course I’m talking about the DS Lite, the first hardware upgrade for the little handheld that could. I’d like to draw a parallel now: the Game Boy Advance. When the GBA came out around 2001 it to was somewhat revolutionary in its design and had a lot of developers talking, but the hardware just wasn’t up to snuff. The design, while garnering a cult fandom that had previously fallen in love with the taco-esque Game Gear, was admittedly rough around the edges, making the original GBA look more like a child’s toy than a serious game console. The GBA SP changed all that, with a few shortcomings; it wasn’t as comfortable and it lost the headphone jack. The brighter screen and smaller size seemed like a workable payoff, though.
With the DS Lite, there are no drawbacks, no exchanges. It is simply 110% better than the original DS (now dubbed the “DS Phat” by forum goers). One look at a comparison shot, and it’s clear that there was a lot to improve on.
The old DS has the distinct “video game” look. The silver finish, while novel, rubbed off easily and was more reminiscent of 80’s era electronics than modern class. The size and shape of the DS followed the hard-edged, semi-soph...