NINTENDO DS - LITE

The Nintendo DS LITE is truly a wonderful handheld gaming device. I played my Gameboy SP to death and really enjoyed the heck out of it, but when the DS came out, I just had this feeling that I would be snagging one sometime. I waited though, because I wanted the price to go down, and I wanted there to be enough games to warrant my getting one. I looked at the Sony PSP for quite some time as well, but decided that the $250 mark is just a little big to much for a handheld...even if it is a graphically superior machine to the DS. Then I got wind that the DS-LITE would be coming out in June...and I went...wha wha whaaaaaat? After reading up on the LITE I knew that I would be waiting until this variant came out because of all it's upgraded features. The battery life is longer, the screen now has different settings depending on where you are playing it, and the max brightness setting is significantly brighter than the original DS. The size had been slimmed down as well. Now this slimming process also took away some of the comfort you get while holding the original and larger DS, but once you figure out a comfortable way, (holding it lightly in your fingers), to hold the new DS-LITE that obstacle seems more like a user preference problem than anything else.

Game wise, I have picked up quite a few different titles. The most exciting, which I have been playing like CRAZY, is the new Age of Empires: Age of Kings game. This game is so much fun. It has all the different features that the original games had, but is now turn based....which is really for the best because of the stylus use that is required. There is a complete TECH tree, upgradable units, different ages to go through, tons of different units, even MONKS! You can make castles like the original, which gives you a special unit that is only for your race ( a better word could be used here but I can't think of one), and all in all, I am just hooked on it. It's also not an easy game. The computer AI is pretty smart and will really screw things up with their Hero units if given the chance. All in all, probably my favorite game on the DS so far.

Another game is the new Super Mario Brothers. Great game, sort of a remake in some respects, but lots of new things to make it feel really new and different. The mini-games are also pretty dang fun!

Resident Evil is also pretty fun on there. It's a remake of the PS game from a long time ago, but the DS version really holds onto all the scary moments, and the feel of the original game. And YES Mark, I did play the original game over at my friend Jarod's house....even if I didn't beat it. And YES Mark, sometime here, I will get around to beating it on GameCube....haha.

One game I don't have yet, but want to get sometime, is Mario Kart. Matt and I have been playing that over the DS WIRELESS LINK and it is pretty sweet. He just sends me a multiplayer only version of the game, via the wireless feature on the DS, and we race....very fun and very cool idea being able to share the game even if one person doesn't have the game.

One thing that is coming out very soon, is the DS WEB BROWSER. There is a SWEET video that details how the whole thing works over at YOUTUBE.
Now, the load times are not great on this thing, but hey, it's the internet on your Handheld gaming device...how sweet is that. All you need is a wireless connection. You can do e-mail, check any website, no chatting though....yet. That might be kind of hard to do though, without a real keyboard. Who knows though, there may be something adapted that will enable people to chat on AIM or what not over the DS. Not sure when the US release will be for this browser, but it is already on in Japan and I'm hoping it comes state-side sometime this Fall.

Other than all of that....life is going well. Maya and Andrea are doin good and my life is hectic, but exciting with the new addition to the family.

I also found out that my buddy Andy just picked up World of Warcraft. Let the questing begin baby!

-Dan out-