i don't think i really saw many people carrying the original ds when these things first became popular in my home town. the lite was released 2 years after the original one, which is pretty early to release a new console. i suspect it was foresought during the original's debut as a redesign.

while i see the benefits to the lite, i have to favor the fatty for its chunkiness; its grip is reliable with many grooves for the human finger to tuck into, and the weight feels nice to me. while that kind of bulky attitude makes her unpopular, it also makes her much more accessible on the secondhand.

i noticed the fatty doesn't feel great in pants pockets, but tbh if you're going to play games you will want something that feels fun to hold, not a machine that is made to conceal the fact that its a machine. something i thought the lite (and versions beyond) has a weaker race in was its tactile feedback and how shy it wanted to be in the wrong ways. fatty's d-pad is solid and its audible clicks even complement its games just like the gba while the lite tried to adopt a quieter design only to have worse diagonal control. speaking of the gameboy advance, the fatty's tray seats cartridges completely. though, the ds has my favorite library...

there's always a game for each console i've owned ever that i think best conveys its graphic capabilities. for the ds, it's solatorobo.

for context solatorobo succeeds after tail concerto on the ps1, following the politics of pilot mechas across islands dotting the skies. arguably the best part is that these games were made for/by furries, but its protagonists being dog people is also why it's so undertalked. each installment was an action jrpg in which the player needs a mecha to progress, discover passages by moving around obstacles, or use said obstacles to projectile at enemies in battle. there's not as much depth to the combat mechanics as i'd like, but you're not really playing solatorobo for its combat.

red "the hunter" savarin is a french teenager who works as a mercenary and pilots the "dahak". in the beginning of the game he performs trespass onto republic air cargo, but his shounen himboisms get in the way of a successful raid and he instead leaves with a companion of which the story will mostly follow their relationship. he and his sister lives amongst other "caninu" and "felineko".

if you opened a gameplay screencap right now you'll notice all the 3d models are designed with a low polygon count. 3d fidelity the series does not excel, but the charm lies in how big it executes with what little they're working with. sometimes you don't even realize the characters aren't even rigged until someone tells you this because the developers knew how to make the world feel vast with 2d/3d marriage when most games can't. because of its commitment to visual flavor, simplicity has never looked this moe on ds hardware. good textures go a long way.

if you are into characters akin to klonoa or bot-wrestling you're most likely see the value in this game, its flaws aside.

i am not going to lie to you, i don't care about turn-based rpgs and i don't think pokémon is a great example of them. gsc was the only enjoyable pokemon game i've ever played (still is) and the g4 remakes + comfy hardware just improves the experience like letting you interact with your pokémon in the overworld screen or questing beyond the gym challenges. i think a little bit of imagination on the player's part is core to having a lick of fun in any rpg, but features like that makes the pokémon feel more mundane to the way of living in johto rather than the game reducing them tools you only see in battle.

i don't think i ever heard a pokémon fan praise or even talk about the story of the games despite being a jrpg so i'm fine admitting it only appeals to me solely as a self-insert fantasy and because the beasts themselves are cute gachapon-inspired critters. i make most of my fun making up stories about my team and their relationships.

when it comes to my pokémon team i like to follow a naming convention. my starter was saw-wave the typhlosion and he is the mustelid duo of sinewave the furret, raised from the hood of new bark. my canine duos are an arcanine called ruffneck (after the gabber label) and eugene the mightyena. finally, the ampharos in charge of our cave expeditions is PSYko (after the mascot of psycho blast).