If you couldn't guess from the other content on this site, I love retro videogames. I was a kid in the middle of the N64 and GameCube eras, and my family was an early adopter of the Wii back in 2006. I also love emulation. You can find a write-up of my favorite emulation method that uses a Miyoo Mini at its core here.
Emulation is cheaper, more convenient, and can offer benefits like upgraded screens and hardware over original consoles but damn... nothing beats the real thing. Yes, it's 100% nostalgia but inserting a cartridge with a click, booting up my Cobalt Blue DS Lite by sliding the weak, spring-loaded side switch and hearing the original bootup sound on the soft, outdated speakers is nothing short of magical.
Apart from the home consoles I mentioned above, yes, I was a DS Kid. Big Time. I had my face glued to my DS Lite (A black one, then, [R.I.P.]) and eventually my upgraded DSi every day on the school bus and any other chance I got for years. I never ascended to the 3DS era, as that was when I got "too cool" for Nintendo and only played Call of Duty because that's what my friends played... even though I have never enjoyed a shootemup FPS game over anything with "Mario Bros" in the name. Ever.
Anyway, I haven't been able to put mine down the past couple of weeks. It's genuinely the perfect offline gaming system. It fits in my coat pocket or crossbody bag perfectly, and doesn't have any "fluff" that came with later handheld consoles (don't get me wrong, that is not a dig on my beloved Flipnote). I also don't have to worry about protecting a screen because it folds. This thing rules.
As I mentioned somewhere up there, this isn't my childhood NDS. That thing bit the dust about 15 years ago when the hinge and screen broke, so for my birthday my mother upgraded me to the DSi (no idea what happened to that guy). But what's lame about the DSi is the removal of the GBA slot (or Slot B if you're using its government name). I use this slot now for a Gameboy Advance EZ Flash Omega to carry around any and all Gameboy games I could ever want in addition to whatever DS game is camped out in Slot A. Mainly driving OEM DS cartridges, with a healthy mix of Gameboy emulation. Best of both worlds.
None of this is innovative or groundbreaking information, and I'm certainly not the only person in their mid 20s rocking a DS, but it's just something that's been putting a smile on my face lately. I've been tearing through The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, so if you have any game recs, let me know. I think tomorrow I'll pretend that I'm 10 years old again and go browse DS games at my local retro gaming store. 2026: Stop doomscrolling and pick up a DS stylus.