I finally caved and bought a Nintendo DS Lite a few weeks ago after seeing a few of my friends play with their’s. All I can say is that I’m totally impressed with it. Arstechnica’s review gets it right – the DS Lite is almost perfect, and is much better than the original DS, (which I do not own), it seems.

The DS Lite is not only a lightweight and portable gaming platform, it’s almost a revolution of sorts. The the touchscreen input and microphone allow for games to be much more intuitive and easy to learn, which is good for attracting the non-hardcore gamer crowd. (Most of the population). And, the price is right, being just around $150 CDN before taxes. This has allowed for a whole new breed of games to become popular, in addition to the console classics such as Mario Bros. and Mario Kart.

However, other games typically made for the PC (such as Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory) don’t port well to the NDS Lite – do not expect it to replace the PC as a gaming platform, but rather to complement it. The types of games that play well on the PC don’t do well on the NDS Lite, and vice-versa.

Other features worth mentioning are the auto-suspend, which automatically pauses a game and turns off the screen when you shut the DS Lite, and allows you to pick up where you left off when you reopen the unit. No need to go through a complicated series of steps to pause/susped the game – just shut the NDS Lite, and you’re able to reopen and continue just like you would when reading a book. The games also tend to be fun, quick to get into, and addicting – the perfect time-waster.

The DS Lite also scores points for having bright and vibrant displays, and having an excellent battery life. I’d say the quoted value of 15-19 hours is about right, though your mileage may vary. There are four brightness settings, which will obviously influence battery life. Of the four, I only use the second-lowest; the others either don’t change too much or are too dim.

It’s a good thing midterms are over, since I also recently got Guild Wars Nightfall, making things doubly-bad! Unfortunately, final exams are coming up soon…