The 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Nintendo DS was the first console I ever truly loved. I probably played my Game Boy Advance, with all two games I had, for more hours overall, but the DS felt revolutionary. Every problem I had with the Advance, the DS fixed and then some. It had a backlit screen. It had wireless Pokemon trading. It had twice as many screens and a lid that flipped up and down, making a mockery of my brother&𝕴rsquo;s prized SP.
The DS is where I started experimenting with other games. I had Pokemon Silver (and later, Sapphire) and Super Mario Advance 2 for the Game Boy, and played them until the clocks ran out or points maxed. Then I played them some more. I rented some games from my local video shop, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:inad🐭vertently turning them into roguelikes, but those were the Big Two. But 🙈on the DS, I could afford mor𒆙e games and spread my horizons beyond Nintendo’s mascots.
I stuck to the big hitters at first. Nintendogs (packaged in with the console and a great bone-shaped carry case), Luigi’s Mansion 3, Animal Crossing, you know the drill. I sold a bunch of shiny Pokemon cards to afford Mario Kart. It opened my eyes to the whole world of Nintendo games, and I played everything I could get my hands on or my friends would let me borrow. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training, Electroplankton, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:even Call of Duty: World at War (DS) entered my childhood brain space thanks to this quirky console. But the most important thing about it wasn’t its dual screens, nor its weird and wonderful library 🙈of games, but its sheer, rugged ‘get it done’ attitude.
The Nintendo DS wasn’t meant to be a powerhouse. Nobody expected brilliant graphics like they do of the Switch for some reason. Games leaned into distinctive art styles to make up for the lack of power in the pocket-sized 🐼portable, and therefore the DS would last for hours and hours.
My formative gaming memories were spent on lo💧ng car journeys. Where I had once been limited to choosing my Typhlosion’s moves in the flashes of street lamps, the backlit screen made it all too easy to while the evenings away. We holidayed all over the country, from Cornwall to Northumberland and practically everywhere in between, so six hours in a car before setting the tent up was the norm. I’d love to do the same now, as I face a 17 hour journey꧒ to America at the end of the month.
I could pack my 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Steam Deck and play 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dragon Age: Inquisition, a game I pledged to finally finish this year, for an hour. Maybe two at a push. I could take my Switch and plug through three or four hours of drudgery as I attempt to complete my Pokedex, for my sins. I could take both, filling half my hand luggage, and have entertainment for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:nearly a third of my journey.
I’d also be worried about the devices not surviving the trip. I could throw my DS naked into any bag of rubbish I was carrying as a teenager and it’d come out a little scratched, but otherwise in perfect working order. I’d worry that one awkward knock or putting my bag down on a hard surface a little too fast would shatter my Switch into tiny pieces like a crystal goblet dropped at a masquerade ball when a shocking murder isꦡ discovered.
You may think I’m exaggerating, but I know a developer whose Steamꦆ Deck suffered a similar fate on a flight. In hand luggage, in a relatively well-stuffed bag for protection, but, crucially, without a case. Gone. Murdered by carelessness and poor build quality. If the Steam Deck is the murder victim and 🔥the Switch is the damsel who faints in shock at the revelation, the humble DS is the no-nonsense investigator who figures out the culprit and saves the day.
I don’t have my original DS (I ꦫwas a kid who sold their old console to afford the nꦫew one), but I’ve still got a 3DS knocking about. And it’s for these reasons, the durability and esoteric library, the iconic flipping lid and the goshdarn battery life, that I’ll be taking my 3DS to America rather than any of my contemporary consoles. These modern upstarts could learn a lot from the simple, effective portability of this ‘00s legend.
