Finally, Nintendo comes out with the official successor to the Game Boy Advance. But, is it that much of an upgrade? Read the Review for the outlook and future outlook . . .



Design...85/100
I have to give credit where credit is due. Nintendo came up with a really neat design here. This has never been done before in the hand-held market. They added duel screens. Even better is the redesigned DS lite. It cut a lot of the extra bulk out and made it much more portable friendly. The screens give off a nice and crystal clear image. Nintendo must have been listening to gamer complaints, because they have actually included a backlit-controlled screen. This means that when it's getting dark you can control how bright you want the screens set to. This is so you don't have to go out and buy one of those stupid attachable glow lights. But, hey if you like those things more power to you. Everything is pretty much set up how you would figure it would be in regards to volume control, game slots, AC adapter plug, and back lighting control. It's all laid out very clearly and very easy to set. The speakers also work very well. You can crisply hear the sound from both of the speakers. If the sound is supposed to be coming from the left sided speaker, right sided speaker, or both of the speakers you can definitely hear the sound the way it is suppose to be heard. Not only that, but it is of excellent quality for the hand-held device.

Battery Life...75/100
You will be getting anywhere between I would say 6-10 hours of game play. I usually get closer to about 7 hrs. It really depends on the type of games you play and how long you continually play them without breaks. I personally would have liked something closer to 10+ hours of continuous game play. However, from what I hear this is quite a bit longer than what you will be getting with Sony's PSP. So maybe 12 hours of game play isn't too bad for the high quality of gaming you do get to experience. Much better then it's competitor in the PSP.

Features...100/100
Well lets see what doesn't the DS offer? It has touch screen technology, Wireless connection for 2 player
games are supported by about up to 30 ft. away from each other, it also supports a microphone, and tilt screen recognition, along with the smartly built in back lit lighting system it has everything you can ask for. It even has the PictoChat you can use to communicate with each other by using a stylus pen and a virtual Keyboard. The DS offers so many different and unique features that you are getting a lot of different technology for the price you are paying. It is one thing for a system to come packed with really cool features, but another for developers to actually take advantage of these features.

The only downfall for the GBA backwards compatibility is that you can't link the DS together with a cable. So 2 player GBA games that need to be linked together cannot be played cooperatively on the DS's wireless network. But, I guess you can't have everything you wish for; they can still be played, just not on multiplayer modes.

I caution everyone that just because the DS has a lot of features, does not mean these features will be used to their full extent. Hopefully developers will realize the unique position the DS puts them in and they will take full advantage of the DS's capabilities.

Developer Support . . . 100/100
While Developer support for Nintendos Gamecube may be dwindling, it is just the opposite for Nintendos new successor for the Game Boy Advance. Game developers were anxiously waiting to get their hands on Nintendo DS development kits to get their games started.

There isn't a major 3rd party developer that hasn't signed on. Take a look at all of the major parties. EA has signed on, Sega, Namco, UBI Soft, Atari, SquareEnix, Activision, Konami, Capcom, Koie etc. Basically, if you have heard of a developer, they probably have a couple games going in the pipeline for Nintendos DS.

The developer support is there right now and expect it to be there in the future. The Nintendo DS is a huge holiday seller, which means a large installed user base. Everyone knows with a large installed user base. There is lots of money to be made. Which is why developer support will follow and stay with Nintendo and their DS system.

Present Games... 85/100
Well since the there is backwards compatibility with the game boy advance I guess you could say the presently there is a huge library of games available, and no it is not backwards compatible with the Game boy Color. However, if you look at what's available for the DS it's lineup is strong. Following titles are already available: Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, Mario Party, Brain Age 2, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hour Glass as you can see it has a wide veriaty and strong linup out on the market. Way too many to list in this review.

Future Games... 100/100
With just about all of the major and minor 3rd party company's in Nintendos corner the future will be a very bright one indeed. Just look at the games wating in the release wings. Titles such as: Mario & Sonic Olympics games, Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles, Star Wars The Force Unleashed, Splinter Cell Conviction, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates and many, many more. As you can see the software for the DS will not be slowing down anytime soon.

conclusion...
If it's one thing Nintendo always did right were hand held game machines. With the exception of the Virtual Boy of course. The Nintendo DS will follow in the footsteps of the GBA and be a very successful system until it’s successor hits the market it could possibly go another 2-4 years. Even with launch of the PSP on American shores, the victor of the 2 systems is the DS. Nintendo has once again dominated the handheld market with it's dual screen system.

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Recommended: Yes