Well, since Nintendo’s recent announcement of the Nintendo DS Lite (A cosmetically updated DS) I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. I’ve been thinking about why Nintendo seems to be falling into a trend of re-releasing handhelds with minor differences. And it seems to get worse every time. What do I mean? Well, the Gameboy to the Gameboy Pocket wasn’t such a big change, but it did make it properly portable. Then the GBA to GBA SP was good, the backlight was a well needed feature, and the shape completely changed. Then the GBA SP to the GBM was pretty unnecessary, but at least it did make it slightly more portable. But the DS Lite is the worst. It’s doing the same thing as the Gameboy Pocket did, and that’s okay- except for one thing: it’s pretty much contradicting Nintendo’s innovation message. And then, the looks aren’t even improved. In my opinion the DS Lite looks tacky and cheap (although I’m basing this off two pictures) it would do better in black. The slight button re-arrangements are nothing big, the start and select buttons are good where they are, and you have to hold down the power button to turn the DS off so there shouldn’t be a problem of accidentally turning it off. In fact, the only good thing about it is the weight and size reduction, which will make it more portable. Now, all these complaining thoughts gave me an idea- instead of just ‘improving’ the DS by giving it a make-over Nintendo could do so much more. ‘How?’ you ask? Well, it’s simple. Make the DS compatible with Gameboy Color and Gameboy games, this with encourage people with large Gameboy (Color) library’s to pick up a DS. Another thing to add would be a built in MP3 player. I know this would raise the price a bit, but no one can deny that MP3 compatibility would be a bad thing, and, instead of cluttering up the DS’s internal memory you include a memory card with the DS (instead of the Metroid Prime demo) that you store all your songs on. And, you should be able to link up Gameboys using your DS. I know that these features may make the DS Lite a bit bigger, but isn’t it worth it for a proper update that actually improves the console. I really do hope that Nintendo gives us something more than a superficial make over.
