DS lite: fashion wins again

As much as I enjoyed holding Nintendo’s glistening white lozenge in my hands, something about it didn’t feel right. The DS Lite was more screen than portable gaming device – which is fine for showing off the significant difference in brightness from its predecessor. In a game like Metroid Prime: Hunters, I almost didn’t notice the difference when using the plastic nub and touch screen because my thumb was naturally closer to the edge of it. However, in any other game, having the ABXY buttons packed together and so close the edge of the unit can be a little unnerving when you’ve got oversized man-hands. The easiest comparison to make is playing any GBA platformer on my DS and then going back to play it on the GBA SP: my hands felt cramped in the smaller playing space. The old DS may be unattractive, but it wasn’t overdesigned to the point of being almost unusable. Are we really past the point where it's unfashionable to carry around an ugly piece of hardware?

On a general DS note, I wouldn’t advise changing the Gameboy/Gameboy Advance display screen on the DS while a game cartridge is in the slot. I lost all of my progress in Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (including my recent replay) when I switched from the upper to the lower screen, though I haven’t read of this happening to anyone else. It wasn't a big deal; I already know how it ends and my opinion of the game hasn’t changed two years later.