Buying a Nintendo DS in USA

[Pinklepurr361]

I am sorry if this has been posted many times before...

I am flying to NYC this week for some Xmas shopping. My DD wants a Nintendo DS Lite for Xmas and I thought of looking there for one. However, my DH says not to bother as the "region" is different and any games purchased over here will not be compatible. Is he right? Has anyone bought a Nintendo DS Lite in the USA recently? Are they a bargain?

 

[Claire L]

They were a bargain in the summer but due to the exchange rate now, not so good At Walmart they were selling for $129.99 plus tax so in £ now that would be about £81, then you would have to buy the UK charger which is £8.99 on Amazon. Considering Woolies were doing an offer of £89.99 then there is no saving.

Claire

 

[Revtel]

I agree with the previous post. There is very little to be gained, and the DS deals in the UK are very good.

On your other point, "region" is NOT an issue. Games bought in the US work on UK purchased machines (and vice versa). The only difference is the power supply.

It may be worth your while looking for games whilst in the States. They are well-priced.

 

[Deedee]

I got mine from Florida and bought games for us and friends and they work fine, you can get an adapter over here for about £5 or £6. As the other posts have said you need to check out the prices.

 

[Pinklepurr361]

Thanks everyone for your advice.

 

[brer_rabbit]

You could also try HMV or Dixons Tax Free at the airport - I think they were about £85 when I was last there. I ended up getting mine from HMV in my local town as they had a good deal including a Wall-E game.

Games are definitely worth buying over there though! I was looking on Amazon.com and they have Mario Kart (which is v popular) for $35 whilst it's £25-£30 here!

Have a great trip

 

[nibbo]

I'd definitely recommend buying the DS games over there. There's no compatibility issues due to region etc and they are a lot cheaper than over here.

Nick

 

[rosiejo]

The DS will work fine with US and UK games - you need to buy a UK adaptor though (about £5 in Game). Trying to charge the console with the US adaptor in a US to UK plug converter can apparently blow it up (mine just wouldn't charge at all).

 

[nibbo]

Trying to charge the console with the US adaptor in a US to UK plug converter can apparently blow it up (mine just wouldn't charge at all).

Don't try this. The US adapters are set for 110 Volts, using them, or any other 110v appliance from the US in the UK can result in overheating and fires.

Nick

 

[kristieuk]

DD's DS Lite was bought in America and works fine - it's just a case of getting the charger (make sure you get a DS lite charger - I made the mistake of thinking the DS and DS Lite used the same charger and they don't ).

Your DH may be referring to the Wii, which is region coded, and neither the console or games will work in the UK (I think I have read that they can somehow be chipped, but this is way beyond me!)

 

[kristieuk]

Oops - forgot to say have a wonderful trip!

 

[amandajim36]

you can get chargers on dealextreme for about $2 posted this is what i got for my dd ds which was bought in america

 

[wifey]

The new DSI from Nintendo is out for sale in Japan in November so the price of the original DS and the Lite version should come down a bit. There will no longer be the slot on the new machine for the old "Gameboy" cartridges.
There's an article about it on http://www.joystiq.com just put DSi into the search section,they do say it's not going to be ready for sale in the US until well into 2009 so hopefully you may be able to pick up a great console and games package on the DS Lite while you are there.