~~ NINTENDO DS LITE VS. XBOX 360 ~~

I am lucky that I still have at least one more holiday year before the whole sky falls on me and the The Real Santa Vs. No Such Thing As Santa is exposed for good. I still get to have the thrill of magic in my home, so I am still like a kid in the candy store when it comes to keeping items hid and secret from the kids! My son who just turned 12..(Yes, I know he is a little old to still believe, but alot can happen in the next 6 weeks, so please, let me have my fun!!) back to my son...He is a self proclaimed Video game master! On most days, I have to deter him from one of his many outlets, such as XBOX, Playstation 2, Gameboy Advance and Nintendo 64..Yes, quite alot. Why on earth would I subject myself and our family to yet another video game system? Because I am a sucker. And I love my son. And he wanted this. So I bought it. That settles it. I purchased a few games to go with it, even though we are still shopping. The games that were chose were: Animal Crossing ~ Wild World, New Super MarioBros, and Advance Wars ~ Dual Strike.

My husband is just as bad. He may be worse. When I bought this for my son, of course, hubby was with me to play Co-Santa, and he actually had the gall to buy himself one for Christmas too! He is hiding it at work, where he plays with it at lunch, but I have taken a spin at this wheel while my son Josh was in school, and I actually had alot of fun, and I usually cringe at video games (I am horrible at them). So without further adu, let me tell you about our new toy! This is very similar to the original model, but as with most modern cell phones, it is lighter, slimmer and easier to take with you anywhere you go. (I wish my laptop were so!) We bought my son a black one, and my husband bought himself a white one, which is the one I am reviewing. The only other color choice was pink, which I tried to talk him into, but he was not having it!

When holding it, it feels easy to carry around and fun to work with. It holds open and close in a laptop manner, with one screen on top and one on the bottom. For the touch screen feature, it has 2 stylus pens for educational and ease of use. It comes with an AC Adapter, a battery charger and lithium battery. This is a very attractive model that comes in white, black and pink colors. I wish they made silver, or teal, or even a wide variety to match everyone's taste, I think that kids would enjoy that better as far as the color is concerned. This is not at all heavy like the original, it has about 1/2 of the width, and has basically the same layout that you are familiar with if you own the original. It can play for hours, up to a full day before having to be recharged. The battery can be charged over 500 times before having to replace it anytime soon. You will have a year or so before that worry ever comes to mind. And by that time, I am sure Nintendo will have something else out!!


~~ OVERALL LOOK AND QUALITY ~~


This system features very bold, very bright colors, displaying up to 260,000 vivid and vibrant colors. With a resolution of 256 X 192, it almost takes on a three dimensional look. Even on the small screen, you can see the details very well, especially if you use the middle light, which is part of a 3 part system of light display, being dark, medium and light. *Light* is very harsh on the eyes and make it extremely difficult to see the angles from a distance, so I would keep with medium, which is a safe bet!

The D-PAD is on the left side of the Nintendo unit as you open it up to start the game. The date, time and alarm are all built in. The sound quality is wonderful, and does not seem to have as many annoying, squeaky sounds as other systems before it. You will see four face buttons on the right that control the ups and downs, twists and turns, and jumps. There are also two buttons on the top of the lower section of the system for two player availability. The power switch is now on the side of the system, very easy to turn on and off. There are 2 game slots to have the choice of playing 2 games at once.

What makes this so interesting beyond the new features and ease, is that is has a technology called PICTOCHANT which acts as a radio of sorts to chat with your friends if they are close by with their NDS's! I thought that was a wonderful surprise to an already terrific upgrade! With the ease of use and the light frame and 2 player option, this may very well be one of the best toys you can put under the tree. I was very happy that we bought this for my son and I know that he & my husband will have fun using the talk advantage!!