The Nintendo DS was released in 2004. It went on to sell over 150 million units around the world, making it the 2nd most sold gaming console of all time.
It had four editions. The original DS, the DS Lite, the DSi and the DSi XL (as seen above).
I did not own an original DS because, at the time, many people were still playing with their Gameboys. The Gameboy was Nintendo's first portable console which allowed people to change cartridges. It's also where Tetris and Pokemon became international hits.
For my 6th Birthday, I would get my hands on a black DS Lite. It had MarioKart DS and Bust-A-Move DS. I would play these religiously whenever me and my family went on road trips or when I was getting dropped off for school. Unfortunately, my DS would break in 2009.
So, for my 8th Birthday, my parents bought me a DSi. I had this for a few years, until it stopped working for some reason. I enjoyed using all the software the DSi had for free. I will get to all of this later.
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| My 8th Birthday cake. I was a big Mario Fan at the time |
My Brother, on the other hand, got the Green DSi XL for his 6th Birthday. As my DSi crashed, my brother was losing interest with his DSi XL; therefore, we both shared it together until we got ourselves our own iPads around the mid 2010s.
At this time, kids were now getting tablets and phones for entertainment instead of portable consoles or MP3 players.
By 2014, the DSi XL was put in my Dad's working office. If me or my brother wanted to go on it again, it would always be there.
This week was the day I decided to revisit my DSi XL and have fun with it.
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| The only surviving DS games I have |
Obviously, me and my family were surprised that the console was still working, especially when I also found the charger for it.
The game card selector wasn't working at first. After shaking the console gently and tinkering with the slot, it finally started responding.
I don't remember all of the games I used to play on my DS when I was a kid. That's probably because I either sold them for money or I just didn't play them that much.
So, I booted my DSi XL and was greeted to a menu screen with peaceful music in the background. There is a selection of things to do if you don't feel like playing a video game yet. So, let's talk about these 'things'.
The first free software is the camera. Yes, the DSi isn't just a console, it's also a camera. It was the late 2000s and the world was about to be dragged into the era of social media.
Unfortunately, you can only take around 411 photos as the file space is not as big. The camera for the time was alright (the quality has changed for modern cameras.
I can take normal photos on it, but there are also 10 other fun modes to play with. You can distort your camera, you can draw all over it, you can take photos without colour and you can mess around with a mirror to make collages.
It's a pretty fun feature.
The best thing is yet to come, the album had so many photos I or my brother had taken back when we were kids. I won't get into these because I'd be embarrassed.
Other software that came for free was Sounds. Simple record some audio from anything for 10 seconds and store it.
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| DSi Sounds |
Before I left sounds, I recorded one sound. Just me saying 'hello'. And, of course, I played around with it.
The DSi Shop was sadly shut down. Obviously after 15 years, you could not buy games for the DSi after a long time.
The other free software included was a dictionary, a web browser and Flipnote Studio. The latter was an animation software that allows anyone to animate their drawings on the console and share them around the world.
But my personal favourite free software was Pictochat.
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| Pictochat on the DSi XL |
This was the only software that was carried over from the original DS. It's a messaging app that allows you to chat to anyone else with a DS by a radius of 10 metres. I used to mess with Pictochat when my school was allowed to take their DS consoles for the final day of school for the Christmas and Summer holidays.
Finally, it's time to talk about the games that I rediscovered. Only eight games survived the wilderness.
I'll start off with the game I enjoyed the least, Bust-A-Move DS. It's basically a bubble shooter with various levels. You can choose any of the seven characters you would like to play as and you have to burst all the bubbles in the time that keeps on ticking down. It wasn't for me because of its repetition.
Worms Open Warfare 2 was a fun game when I was young. Getting worms to fight each other with wacky weapons in different famous historical wars.
Unfortunately, my copy couldn't get past the opening screen and it stopped working. Such a shame, especially when I played it a lot back then.
I never played the original Yoshi's Island on the SNES. From what I hear, it's a good game. You play as Yoshi as you have to escort Baby Mario throughout your journey. The big criticism came from when you get hit by an enemy and Baby Mario starts crying his eyes out. This happens a lot and it gets irritating!
Despite that, I played a few levels and thought it was alright. That was until the game stopped working ten minutes in.
The Rabbids were a huge phenomenon in the 2000s, with the minions overtaking them in popularity through the new decade. Their first foray was Rayman Raving Rabbids and I had the DS version as a birthday gift from my older cousin.
While Rayman Raving Rabbids was a mini-game game on home consoles, it was an adventure game on the DS. This was because the original version was supposed to be just like that, only for Ubisoft to change their minds in order to appease casual people.
Before I stopped playing on my DS, I got up to the halfway point on Rayman. It's a 2D game where you play as Rayman as you have to defeat the Rabbids to save the entire planet from their invasion. Throughout, Rayman gains costumes that give him special powers. One of these, for some reason, gives Rayman the power to spawn boulders.
Could my DSi XL play Rayman Raving Rabbids? It did, but it could not load a level. Such a shame. On to the next game.
During my life, I always wonder why my older cousin allowed me to play Grand Theft Auto : Chinatown Wars at the age of 8. It was a whole new level for me, as if it had turned me from a small kid to a big kid. I could steal cars, shoot at people, knock lamp-posts down and do missions to make money. From then, I've been a fan of GTA and all of its games. GTA 5 remains my personal favourite; I would play it a lot on my XBOX 360 and have a fun time in the sandbox city of Los Santos.
Of course, the game failed to load. This is because I never kept my games in their original cases and put them in third-party cases that would damage the cartridges. This is the case for all of my games and is why a lot of them have been shelved away.
However, Tony Hawk: American Sk8land lasted the longest (20 minutes) before it crashed. I also had his other game, Downhill Jam. That, unfortunately, is nowhere to be seen because I accidentally left it at a holiday resort many years ago. Whoever picked the game up, must've had a fun time playing it.
The story of American Sk8land is a fun one to get you through the game. You're a skateboarder that has been chosen to help Tony Hawk and his gang refurbish an abandoned warehouse into a skatepark. By doing that, you're tasked to go around the USA to make money by completing skating tasks. It's the usual Tony Hawk skateboard game, but the theme, soundtrack, graphics and entertainment values makes it one of my favourite games on the DS.
When I booted the game back on, I revisited Alcatraz and Hollywood. It was exciting to do some tricks with my character and skating around seemed nostalgic and pleasant.
As always, the game stopped working. And so I switched on Super Monkey Ball Touch & Roll.
The game did not respond.
It was a shame because this was probably because I played this game the most as a young boy. You take control of your chosen monkey of choice and you use your stylus to control the ball in which the monkey is situated in. The aim of the game is to control the ball to the goal in many puzzles and mazes.
If that's not for you, then there are also mini-games to play. This is where I mostly played whenever I booted the game into my console. There's hockey, boxing, bowling, war, racing and (my favourite) golf.
Again, if only I could play it if the game was still working.
Finally, I get to the last game. Mariokart DS. Overall, it's my personal favourite DS game. There are 8 cups to win, 32 circuits, a wide selection of characters and mission modes.
This and American Sk8land were the only two games I had completed during my childhood.
When I booted it onto my DSi XL, it did not crash.
Playing the game again was an absolute joy. I chose Mario as my character and picked the Mushroom Cup, where I would have to compete in four races with seven other characters.
I finished 1st in Figure-8 Circuit, finished 2nd in Yoshi Falls, 3rd in Cheep Cheep Beach and 2nd in Luigi's Mansion.
If I had finished 1st in another race, I would've won the entire cup. Instead, I finished behind Princess Daisy by 2 points. Not bad after I hadn't played Mariokart DS for almost 10 years.
Overall, my time rediscovering my Nintendo DSi XL was an enjoyable experience. Some games worked and some games did not start. What mattered the most was that the console worked and was at full power.
The lesson I learnt about this experience is that you shouldn't throw all of your childhood belongings away. The objects, toys and hardware that gave you the most memories should stick around, so you can show your future sons or daughters
That's why I'll be keeping my DSi XL with me, for whenever I have kids so I can show them what gaming and entertainment was like back in 2010.
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