So, the DS does get a redesign

Rumours of a DS redesign have been floating around since at least the start of the year, a rumour which has been ‘dismissed’ (read: cleverly evaded) several times by Nintendo officials, including as recently as the 25th of January. So, I was a tad sceptical when I saw this announced on several Nintendo blogs, this morning, but no, it all seems legitimate. Indeed, David Yarnton, who was the latest to ‘dismiss’ the rumour, in fact only stated there would be no redesign announcement at E3 as far as he knew. Well, he wasn’t lying.

So, what of the new design then? After spending a fair amount of time looking through some fan made mock ups in prior weeks, the DS Lite really does not look hugely different from its predecessor, which is to be expected. Yes, it’s lighter, sleeker, there has been a positional change of the start/select buttons and you’ll be able to change the brightness of the screen, but this is not radically different. Initially I was disappointed – my only problem with the original DS is the location of the action buttons, as there’s not enough space between them for my liking, which makes playing games like Mario Kart DS a tad uncomfortable after a while. Compare, for a moment, the space between the ‘a’ and ‘b’ buttons on the GBA, then look at the space you get on the DS. There is a difference, and the buttons are smaller too. It’s hard to tell from the new pictures of the DS Lite if the buttons will be bigger, or have more space between them, but as the unit is actually smaller, I don’t really expect that the buttons will be bigger. Either way, as pretty as the redesign is, I’m quite happy with my DS as it is. Heck, I only changed my Gameboy from the original model when the GBA came out, so that should tell you my stance on redesigns. However, I think this is what we could have expected. The image conscious should snap it up, and original DS owners shouldn’t feel too narked by the new improvements.

[source: Nintendo of Japan]