So every week, I have to write a 1,000 word essay for my Language arts class. I get to pick the subject and my teacher has to approve the idea. Last week, I wrote about a rant about gameshows, this week I wrote a review for the DS. Enjoy. I know I suck at writing. Spoiler There are 130 million DS units sold worldwide while only 50 million PSPs have been sold. The DS has the most sales out of all the handhelds including the iTouch. This may be due to the fact that it appeals to a larger audience, or because there are more Nintendo fanboys. In this review, I will focus on the DS Lite and some aspects of the DS in general. I have owned the system for two years and I think it’s a great portable gaming system. I have a small game library, but that won’t stop me from making a review. The DS Lite is a portable gaming system released in 2006. At first, it was revealed to have two screens and many people thought this was a stupid idea. Then it was revealed that it was going to have a touch screen and it sounded like just a gimmick. But over the years, it has proven to enhance the games. Many games utilize the touch screen effectively, but many more fail to do so properly. Certain companies are just hopping onto the bandwagon and making seemingly attractive games. The DS is home to shovelware and all the crappy games you can imagine. Many games fail to be debugged properly while others are just games churned out in a week. There are very few good games for the DS when compared to all of the bad games. But the the few good games remain faithful to the older players who have loved Nintendo for years. Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Bros., and Super Mario 64 DS have all been great games with addictive qualities. Nintendo constantly churns out great games, but many of the third-party companies release tons of crap. The DS has many of the lowest rated games ever released and fails even with its low standards. The DS is overflowed with many quiz games and other games with no replay value. You’ll find games full of glitches and terrible controls but you just need to figure out a strategy to pick out the good games out from the bad games. The DS Lite is a great thing to have when you’re at parties or events with other kids. There are tons of fun party games released for the DS such as Mario Party DS and Clubhouse Games. Other multiplayer games such as Mario Kart can be played with just about anybody. Multiplayer gaming with people who you know won’t quit are more fun to play with than the computer players. There are games that appeal to all audiences. No matter if you’re 70 years old, or 2 years old, there are games made especially for everyone, though, most of the games are created for children 7-18. The DS is basically centered for younger children. The DS isn’t meant for hardcore gaming. But as a 13 year old kid who lives in an environment where nobody knows a shit about gaming but me, I’d have to say that it’s a fine console. If you’re one of those people who think Modern Warfare 2 is the greatest game ever and praise it for the graphics, you need to quit gaming permanently and never buy the DS. The DS Lite has a great community to back it up. There are no console wars that ever occur, mostly because they can’t compete, but it’s still great for what it has done. The communities that I have participated in have been helpful when it comes to just about everything. They recommend great games and shine light to games that aren’t noticed. Some aspects of the community are terrible though. If you focus less on the online communities and more on the kiddies who play against you in WiFi arenas, then you won’t have a very enjoyable experience. There are a lot of dishonest players when it comes to online gaming. People often cheat when they play online. Datel created a little device called the Action Replay which allows players to basically cheat in the game they’re playing. Many people use the device when they play online which basically insures that they win in everything. Cheating isn’t the biggest issue though. Many players are sore losers and quit right before you win. When it comes to the actual system itself, the DS Lite is a very fine portable gaming device. I would actually recommend this instead of the DSi or the DSiXL. They’ve made a lot of unnecessary changes when it comes to the DSi. The camera they added to the DSi is more of a gimmick than the touch screen. Similar to the EyeToy for PS2, there are no fun games. Some may argue that the DS Lite is an unnecessary upgrade from the DS Phat, but I think that in order for a portable game system to be portable, you need to be able to play with it in any condition. The DS Lite only had a few improvements, actually, only two that are noteworthy. It had brighter screens and it was lighter. But these two things change a lot. With the DS Phat, you could only play in darker light conditions. When you’re playing with the DS Lite, you could basically go everywhere and the glare won’t be a problem. The DS Lite is hinged very much like the GameBoy Advance. It fits in your pocket nicely and is not too big to too small. I have encountered a few problems with the hardware though. Many times, the L and R buttons fail to work until you blow the dust out from the inside and I have noticed that many other people have buttons that fail altogether. I personally have not experienced any major problems; it’s generally just people mistreating their DS. The DS Lite only has 8 mb of ram meaning that it can’t handle too much at a time. 3D graphics look like they were from the N64 era and the DS has a very low resolution. Even Toon Link still looks like a bunch of polygons and bad textures in 2009. Nevertheless, the games are still amazing. DS games generally lean towards the simpler side. If you’re not into RPGs and hate straightforward adventure games, then the DS in not for you but if you like online first person shooter games, then you should invest in a console such as the Xbox 360. The DS Lite is barely capable of anything of this matter. The DS Lite is a great gaming system. It’s not the best by any means, but it’s worth the money. There are tons of games released for the DS every month and only a few are worth picking up. This is definitely a bad thing, but once you find all of the hidden gems, it’s going to entertain you for hours. Even when you beat the games, you can go online and download extra missions for certain games, or play against other players. It’s great for any age and the library of games definitely proves this.
I love this. I think it's great that you made it obvious you were for the DS Lite without showing too much bias towards Nintendo. I would like to read more of your essays. Thumbs up-ness!
ur an idiot the idevices shit on ds with sales amount but pretty fucken good otherwise and yay wrong release date i think and NINTENDO SHITS ON SONY
ur an idiot. Comparing ALL the iDevices compared to ONE handheld? Hardly fair, comparing the sales of all the iDevices and all the Nintendo handheld sales? A lot more fair. As far as the review goes, I'd call out words like 'stupid', 'I', 'crappy', 'shit', they have no place in an essay, well, a professional one, anyways.
True, the iDevices is a multimedia device with games attached to it in the newer iterations. But judging by the amount of iDevices sold in total, I'm sure that the GB/GBC/GBA/DS and all it's hardware revisions sold more.
soz i was hard on him ds was made way before idevices now that i think of it i recon apple copied the idea but yeah what u gonna do and yes i am a nintendo fanboy cause they have the most awesome consoles i still have my super nintendo
You also might not want to use a word like Shovelware in case the teacher in school doesn't know what it means, or possibly put a brief definition on what the word means.
My teacher doesn't even read the essays. He just makes sure that we write them. I'll have to change that. Who are you replying to? Thanks. It's very hard for me not to use those words though. Quick note, these writing pieces don't have to be very formal. As long as you're not totally badmouthing someone like a NORMAL 13 year old boy, then you're fine.
A good way to get used to the formal writings you'll do later in school is to avoid using 'I' or 'you'. By the end of my high school years, my teacher always made it a giant deal to avoid any of that type of stuff in an essay. Also to avoid any slang words unless directly referencing them.
We've only been reviewing things like how to write a good hook and similar stuff like credibility or word usage. The normal students are still learning about grammar and punctuation which is totally messed up. Lol. I need to proofread my writing next time.
brilliant review though its only now i realised just how much of an improvement 3ds is 200-300 mb ram while ds is 8mb ram (not sure what 3ds ram is)
