Best Hand Held Games Machine

jghal

Hi all,

I am looking to get my 8 year old son one of these hand held games machines (like a game boy).

Can anyone advise me as to what sort of things I should be looking for and maybe what is the best machine.

I'd rather not pay over £100 if that is possible, but am open to persuasion

Thanks in advance :beer:

jghal

Darksun

You can get a Nintendo Dual Screen (DS) - a very nice console imo - for about £80-90, and you can expect to pay £20-30 for games.

The older GameBoy Advanced (GBA) isn't that much cheaper at around £70, but there are a lot of older games that you can get for around £10.

Incidentally, the DS can also play GBA games, so my personal recommendation would be to get the Nintendo DS rather than the GBA.

wolfman

Well if you don't want to break the bank, a Game Boy Advance is a good option. Look on eBay, people are often selling complete sets with quite a few games for around £50-60. It's a little dated though.

The next step up would be the DS which would probably be the best to go for, and then if you can afford nearer £180 a PSP.

jghal

Thank you both. Looks like the nintendo DS seems to be the way to go. Thanks again :T

ceebeeby

Did anyone tell the poor OP that these things are like gold-dust at the moment!!!

simes

Yeah.. its a good job nobody recommended Nintendogs as the best game for an 8 year old too. Because its very difficult to find in stock anywhere.
Don't even bother trying to find a nintendog pack ( the Nintendo console in blue or pink bundled with a nintendog game for £99). These are so rare they are fetching £160- £200 on ebay as very few ( if any ) stores will get more stock before christmas.

You can get the silver console bundled with mario kart for £99 though..

beautifulgorgeous_2

Don't think much of the micro. The ds is really good and you can use it wirelessly to talk to another machine in about 1m proximity. Use the code for 1500 points on a 100 spend on boots.com.and get triple points and free delivery. the cheapest thing to reach £100 is basic toothpaste for 23p or soap.

nightswimmer

My 8 year old nephew has a GameBoy Advance and always has his nose stuck in it. I don't think you can go far wrong with either the GBA or the Nintendo DS for younger kids, especially as their games tend to be more accessable for the younger gamer.

intel

What about a ZX Spectrum