I thought you guys would like a little review of the DS, as I've just got a Japanese model. Battery seemed to be already charged. Gave about 2 hours life. Mine has two dead pixels, they're glowing bright green :smt009 This is a problem of course, as I can't really send it all the way back, being an import! However, it doesn't affect gaming too much, you don't really notice. The battery seemed to die without any warning... although that was possibly due to being absorbed by the game! The GBA slot refused to play Gameboy carts unfortunately :-( I got Asphalt Urban GT US cartridge with it, they look similar to some kinds of FLASH card. The game isn't bad, it can be quite difficult, but in a good, challenging way. It has a bit of the Atari Lynx effect, the graphics in the foreground being slightly blocky.
I bought the japanese DS a few weeks ago now and I can say that I love it !. I have no dead pixles too :-D Must be the only person in the entire country :smt082 When you open your DS the battery is already charged for a good 2 hours or so of play. When the battery runs low the green LED will start to flash red. When power only has about 2 minutes left it will glow bright red so that you know your game is about to die :smt022 Still, I charged my DS on Sunday (Now Tuesday night) and have played it quite a lot and still the battery seems to be going strong. I have noticed that the cvhat function does drain the battery power quicker than what playing games does. This is just like a mobile phone when you use the net on it. I guess all that wireless stuff takes quitea bit of power. I only have 2 games being Mario 64 which I've hardly played and Beat Brothers or what ever it's called. I play that every day Yakumo
I got mine for my b-day the other day and i gotta say i am extremely satisfied, i got the same amount of charge as yakumo did as well as no dead pixels. All i got for it right now is mario 64 ds, I was glad they didnt do a stragiht port and altered it to an extenet. GBA games look the best on this thing, theyre very sharp and you can see ever detail, you wouldnt belive how much better super ghouls and ghost looks on the ds compared to playing it on the gba(which makes it neer impossible to see the transparencies in the yard ship level) but on the ds you can see every little detail, the sp doesnt even display gba games as clear as the ds. The button response is a bit better as well, this is evident with fire pro wrestling a as the response was dead on and moves were alot easier to pull off(on the gba thered seem to be a slight delay and at times moves would not pull off), final fight one looked damn good on the thing as well, also i applaud nintendo for using stereo speakers this time around.
I also have a jap. Nintendo DS and am fully satisfied. Hardware is superb with no dead pixels. I play Mario DS every day and it's quite fun - even if you played the game through on N64. Now it's time to wait for some really new + good games. That will take some months, hope that Sonic DS will come in february. I'll like to see games like Panzer Dragoon and Nights! being ported to the DS. It's a shame that this little gem-handheld is not a Sega product.
Ooohboy that would be mega fun indeed, it'd get me running to the store for sure. Both games could be great with the stylus - especially Nights :smt045
I have a US NS, got it for 97.XX around there. My friend got it to me cheap . Games I got at about 25 per pick. Mario 64, Feel the Magic, and Ping Pals. After tax I ended up paying around 170 for everything. No dead pixels, but a little brother who loves to stab does not take my DS lightly. I have about 123 stars in mario 64, only the former blue switchbox level, 5 white rabbits and all the very top level to complete I belive. Feel the magic I stopped playing at chaser in favor of mario. The sound is gorgeous . I love my DS to death, especially the sleep mode, just wish if you closed the DS on GBA games the LCD would turn off, I have that movie advance thing and that would really help batteries for the MP3 mode. My battery lasts quite a bit longer than my friends' do for some reason. I got through a whole week without charging it and my friends' just 5 days. About the same amount of play time, and all with mario 64. Its interesting, maybe I got an unexplaiably good battery heh . I also wish I could adjust the brightness of the LCD so that I could further tweak battery life. I have alot of ideas for a future revision but hopefully nintendo has already seen and taken care of it. Over all I am very satisfied, as is my boss (who loves to play mine as well XD)
Hmm indeed, must find a US resident to get our import games, especially at the current exchange rate!! :smt023
