Any Nintendo DS experts out there?

[smitch425]

My teenager, who has had nearly every DS ever created has been highly unimpressed with the 3DS. However he does love to play my younger sons DSIXL, which we got him for Xmas a few years ago in the limited Mario Red. The larger screen is awesome, and he loves to use the camera features to be goofy and I almost daily have to tell him to turn off the volume and quit making the obnoxious sound recordings in the car.

My husband managed to pick up a used one with games for less than $100 so now we have two of them in the house and they are the favorites.

One of our XLs is the red Mario special edition and we love it!

Let's keep in mind that the person OP wants to get this for is a 6 year old little girl. Many of the 3D games are geared for older kids. And if she is used to playing games on a Kindle Fire, she would likely take more of a liking to an XL based on screen size. Also, it's not as if they have stopped making games for the regular DS, either. When Wipeout 2 came out, it was made for both systems. Though, truth be told, I was very tempted to buy a 3DS for myself just to play the new Marioland game, but after playing it at Target, I decided it was too small and too expensive of a system for me to buy for just that one game. The next gaming system we buy will be the Wii U. Can't wait for that one!

 

[3boymthr]

Thanks for all of the input everyone. I have researched what I can online but I thought you all could provide more input

After reading the responses, it does make sense to me to maybe go ahead and get the 3d version if that is the future and it will last longer (games etc...) I was just thinking that we didnt need the top of the line version but if they others are soon to be obsolete it doesnt make sense to get them.

We have a Kindle fire already and she loves playing that so that is why an Ipod isnt the best option right now.

She really liked Mario - in fact the only time she played a DS was on our cruise a couple of months ago. One of the kids at our table every night at dinner had a DS of some sort and she loved playing it. Almost every day now she is asking me to get her one.

If she really liked Mario then you definitely want to go with the 3DS. While there are other versions available, all the lastest and greatest Mario games are in 3D. My youngest in particular likes the newst MarioKart 7 and the new Super Mario 3D land and is begging for Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games. All three of these are only available on the 3DS platform. Plus you can absolutely play the older non-3D games on the 3D platform.

A PP mentioned trouble with the 3DS, headaches, etc. My kids have never had any problems with the 3DS and all wear glasses. All their friends have also been able to use it. I'm guessing here, but if she doesn't have any trouble with 3D movies she'll probably be okay with the 3DS.

 

[Jaime4004]

XL vote. My kids had the DS lite a few years ago. Loved it for a few months before they discovered the XL. They have that now, love the larger screen and the camera for making crazy pictures... My DS4 just recently got one. I thought he was way too young but he kept stealing his siblings' while they were at school and accidentally deleting their saved files. He loves it and is Mario obsessed...

 

[goofyredraider]

OP, I'm glad to see you are leaning toward the 3ds. All of the the best upcoming games (including Paper Mario, Luigi's Mansion 2, the new Animal Crossing and the new Kingdom Hearts) will be for that one. Even for someone who never intends to use the 3d at all I think it's definitely the best choice.



That's really strange. I have both a regular DS and a 3DS and they look virtually identical when the 3d is turned off. I wonder if your cousin accidentally left the 3d on slightly and that was the problem. If you never turn the 3d on it isn't really an issue, but if you do use it sometimes it can be easy to accidentally leave the slider a little way from the bottom when you turn it off, which makes the screen a little bit blurry.

Between the 3 kids -- we have DS Lite, DSi, and 3DS. When the 3D is turned off on the 3DS, I cannot tell the difference between the others.
My 6 yo is the one with the 3DS...he loves to take pictures and play some of the games that are preloaded on the system.

 

[perdidochas]

I am looking into getting some sort of DS for my 6 year old daughter. We have several long road trips coming up soon and I know it would keep her entertained. She already has a leapfrog explorer and loves that but has somewhat outgrown that.

I am trying to decide which type to get. I looked and from what I can see, the DS Lite is about $115, the DS SI is about $150 and the DS XL is about $180. I do know we dont need the 3d one.

Any suggestions on which type to get? She wont be a serious "gamer" but I dont know if it is worth it to pay the extra for the more expensive versions.

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!! Also, if you have seen them on sale anywhere that would be great too!!

Thanks in advance.

I'd probably go for the DSI, unless you have gameboy advanced cartridges (then go for the DS lite). The DSI has a camera, and can be used as a music player with SD memory cards. The DS lite is almost obsolete now.

 

[YO's Mom]

I did this same thing at Christmas. I ended up getting her the 3DS for $150. The older 2 versions are really not worth the money at this point. She already has an iPod touch, and little sister wants a touch over the 3DS for her birthday. I like the touch because there are no cartridges to lose and you can watch videos. 3 hours worth of Ned's Declassified made our trip to Disney seem a little shorter!

 

[Leajess99]

My youngest got a DS Lite for Christmas when she was 6 and she rarely plays it. She will play the Ipod Touch (it is now hers as her siblings have one) and now the Nook Color she got for her birthday. Some kids are just not big into game systems like the DS.

I would honestly go with the Nook color or an Ipod touch as she would probably get much more use out of it. My youngest loved her Leapster Lmax so we figured she would like the DS but she likes educational games over DS ones.

 

[Nintfamily]

We are a HUGE Nintendo family (hence the screen name, lol). We started our kids out on a DS lite. I do NOT recommend those at all. The hinge breaks on them very easily and it will be the end of them. Two of our 3 have DSI XL's and they are wonderful! Very sturdy, my rough and tumble 10 year old son has had NO issues with it at all. One of my kiddos traded his DSI (also very sturdy) with his birthday money for a 3DS. I honestly was worried. DH and I each have one and I thought for sure he'd break it. Nope, it has held up very well. You can turn the 3DS off and the DSI's and 3DS's all have parental controls so you can really lock down anything you don't want them playing. We use them and have great success.

 

[summermac]

If she isn't into Nintendo really I'd just get her an iPod touch to be honest. Both my kids have DS's and the stinking games are $10-$20 a piece compared to $1 or so for a game on the touch.

 

[Suz D]

Are you an ipod house? Have you considered getting her an ipod touch? My younger 2 boys (12,9) have both had the ds lite when they got ipods 2 years ago. Since them the ds rarely gets played with. I prefer them taking the ipod on trips, no game cartridges to keep up with. They can also listen to music and read.

I totally agree with this post!

We have both the ipod touch and the dslite. Our daughter uses both (she's going on 6), but if I had it to do over again I don't know if I'd go with the DS because the apps are much less expensive for the ipod touch. We've been VERY happy with that (got it free for signing up for Comcast). DD loves to listen to music as well and since we're already an ipod family it's very easy to just put some of our music on her ipod.

There are lots of educational apps for the ipod and our DD prefers the educational ones over the "just games" ones.

 

[TwistGrl101]

Can someone list pros/cons/features of:

Kindle
Nook
iPod touch
iPad

Thank you!