Recently I’ve been playing Pokemon Emerald on Gameboid for Android on my a500 tablet over HDMI on a HDTV.
I want to get into the newer games so I’m looking into buying a DS Lite/DSi. My question is which DS should I get? I’ve read that people say that the DS Lite is the best value for the money. However those reviews are all circa 2009. Its 2013 now so the price difference is basically a matter of $10.00 $79/$89 respectively. That being said this is a question of what’s the best gaming experience between the 2 handhelds.
The guy at the game store recomends a Lite and that I start with HeartGold or SoulSilver. His reason was the Lite has a GBA slot so it would be best for Pokemon because you can import your Pokemon from Emerald into the DS titles. To me that sounds like decent advice but the DSi appears to be superior to the Lite hardware wise. Would I be missing that much by not playing and importing from Emerald?
I’m leaning toward the DSi am I making the right decision?
I can’t speak to Pokemon itself, having not played one in like 12 years. However, I just wanted to point out that Nintendo has since released a new handheld called the Nintendo 3DS. Unlike the DSi, it’s actually an entirely new platform that is also backwards compatible with DS games, but like the DSi, there’s no GBA slot. This is the only platform they’ll support moving forward as DS/DSi is basically dead, except for whatever 3rd party games might still be released for it.
And they also just announced a new Pokemon game coming exclusively to the 3DS this October called Pokemon X & Y.
Thanks for that, but I’ve seen the 3DS. I’m looking for the older games on a pre owned system. I’m selling my PSP3001 and a couple games to my buddy for $100. I really only plan to spend about $20 out of pocket on this purchase. I’m more of an Xbox/PC guy as far as spending the bigger money goes. This will be my 1st Nintendo product since N64.
I’ve owned the original DS, two different DS-Lites and a DSi XL, as well as a 3DS.
If you’re 100% serious about just playing the older stuff and not the newer games, here’s my advice:
If in your eyes smaller is better, then the DS-Lite will be your absolute best choice. This would be ideal if you’re going to be carrying it around in your pocket all over the place.
If you do most of your gaming at home and don’t care so much about size, I recommend getting a DSi-XL. I absolutely love my XL and would highly recommend it over the regular DSi. They are the same hardware-wise but the bigger screen is just so nice, especially for touch games (the pokemon games do have some touch screen stuff).
The DS Lite has no downloadable stuff, no internet browser or app abilities. It’s strictly a game playing platform. The DSi/DSi-XL have internet capabilities, ability to download certain apps and such, cameras, etc. I frankly don’t find all of that very useful and never use it.
I’ve made my decision. I’m going to go for the DS Lite, I spent some time weighing the cons and pros then the pros and the cons, watching YouTube reviews and talking to NDS gamers. The GBA slot is too hard to pass up, plus I’ve got a phone, a tablet, and a PC if I need to get on the internet. The only thing is that I will be giving up my PSP emulators if I do this deal. But I’ve got all of those on my tablet so I guess I really don’t care. DS Lite it is!