Hello, it’s Liz Weston and according to my boys, I’m Officially The Coolest Mummy In The Whole Wide World. Why? Because we’ve had a grand old time trying out Nintendo DS kit over the past couple of weeks. We’ve got two boy testers in our house – E is 7, going on 16 and W is 6 going on, well, 3/4…. And then there’s Lovely Bloke who is about to have a Special Birthday soon. He’s been Daddytastic and tried everything he can on both of them.
Younger son – W – really liked the smaller DS – the 2DS. He found it easy to handle and when I asked him why he liked it he said it’s because it’s being red and white. I know. Go figure. He could hold it nicely and preferred the screen even though it’s the smaller of the two.
Elder son – E – preferred the black, 3DS XL because it is made of two parts and folds over. To be honest, the 3D doesn’t seem to have had much effect on him – he just likes the fact that it opens and closes in a way that he relates to. And I have to say, that I really like the way that it opens and closes because I feel that it’s safer in my bag. The extra money it costs will I think, be worth it, because it means it’s not going to get broken as easily. Unless you buy a case for them? I assume there must be cases for them?
The boys loved the Mario Kart games – I couldn’t even get them to try the Biff and Kipper Phonics game! From a family perspective, I think we need a system where one day can be educational games and the next Mario Kart style stuff. One thing that I did like was the how long the battery lasts – I was pleasantly surprised by the battery life. They did really well. This pleased me as we took them out of the house. Some of the photos here are of the boys using them when we went shopping. They kept them amused whilst Lovely Bloke and I were looking at what we needed to buy. I also liked the sleep function – it was quick, easy to use and could teach boys about battery life concepts!
The other thing that I noted, was with the set up of them both. I was really impressed in set up – by how to use pin codes – and I liked the helping hand tutorial. And I needed the help of the tutorial to set it up so I appreciated it. The other good bit is the reminder that if I forgot the pin and couldn’t answer the security question it would be a royal pain in the bum to make it work and would have to go to Ninetndo etc to fix it. Seriously, I think that’s really good.
Lovely Bloke had a great time making a Mii character – E was annoyed that Daddy made a Princess for Mario Kart but it was one that was super fast, so he was reprieved. He said it was easy to do and that he can see why the boys would want to make their own.
Overall, I’d recommend both of the Nintendo DS’s, but I think that the key to making this work for our family, will be to set boundaries and instructions. I don’t know if I expected it to be lower tech than it was. I remember playing on a DS as a teenager and that it was fairly low tech – still in black and white! With these versions, I think that the 3D aspect works so long as there’s just one person playing it – not different people who like to hold the screen at different positions because you set the 3D position. The only thing I’d change is making the cable on the charger pack longer – much longer – the boys wanted to play whilst they charged sometimes and they were huddled on the floor next to the plug sockets! I would be anxious if we took them on a family holiday as the cables really are quite short – I don’t need a meltdown over that kind of thing…
I’m looking forward to hearing about what other people think to the Nintendo DS sets and will link to them here as I find them…. I think you find everyone will be using #NM2014Nintendo so if you find anyone else before me, let me know!
Disclosure: I am a member of the Netmums Blogging Network, a unique community of parent bloggers from around the UK who have been handpicked by the Netmums team to review products and brands on their behalf. I may have been paid expenses, and have been supplied with a product sample for this review, but retain all editorial control. All my Netmums Reviews will display the Netmums logo within the post.
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