Nintendo DS: A Pretrospective

I made up that word. It’s not an old gaming system, so how could there be a retrospective. I’m just assuming that as time wears on and new gaming systems come and go, people will have fond memories of the Nintendo DS. I know that I will.

I bought a PSP last year because I was looking forward to being able to play great games on the subway or while my wife was watching “Project Runway” or when I had to wait in line for the post office. I had seen the Nintendo DS, but there was no reason for me to buy it. I haven’t owned a Nintendo handheld since the original Gameboy back in 7th grade, and I really wasn’t inclined to ever play a Pokemon game… because in my mind that’s what Nintendo had started specializing in… nevermind the addiction I had to “Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” on the N64 in college.

Then, Nintendo did something that opened my eyes. They released an update to the DS called the DS Lite which is ipodesque and beautiful, and they released “New Super Mario Brothers” which plays like the original + SMB3 for the NES with a bit of Super Mario World for the SNES (I assume… though I never owned an SNES) but with a 2k+ look. Suddenly, I had to own it! Had to! And so after working my charm with my wife, I bought one… and then went on to spend every non-work and non-wife hour playing it. I beat New Super Mario Brothers in about a week and then bought Tetris DS, Brain Age, and most recently Mario Cart DS. All of them have absolutely glowing reviews from all the critics and fanboys… just ask metacritic.com.

Now, the PSP is relegated to DVD rips for airplane trips and World Series of Poker (don’t knock it.) And Nintendo has once again ruined my productive free time. I need to read more books.

~ by dnorton on August 3, 2006.