To Nintendo DS or Not?

fannyadams

preloved DS lites for both my DS (aged 6 and 10)
they love
Mario Cart (we also have this for Wii)
Lego Battles
Lego Rock Band
Lego Star Wars (starting to see a theme here?)
Club Penguin

Two DSs can connect together (i know this as my DS#1 & DS#2 play together on their DS games.

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Questions -

what's an R4 card and where does it come from? please can you give me a website to look at?

do I need something special on my PC to download games to the R4 card? like a USB-card reader (the USB thingy I have for the card in my camera).

where does the R4 card go on the DS? is it where the game chip goes in? or where the gameboy chip slots in (i.e. where the DS guitar hero finger board plugs in)?

Hope someone can help - sorry OP for hijacking your topic.

Fizzpop

My kids have ds's and they are brilliant.

My youngest is 4 so has the original ds to come out but he (with my help too) knows his letters and can write them as there are programs on there that help to teach this x

My oh works in console repair and has come home and informed me that non of our kids will be getting the new ds 3d as apparently it is really harsh on the eyes and ppl have been getting headaches from using them even for only a short while x

shelley_crow

fannyadams wrote: »

preloved DS lites for both my DS
--
Questions -

what's an R4 card and where does it come from? please can you give me a website to look at? I bought mine from a man locally, selling 60 games on the card for £30. it would prob be cheaper to do them yourself but I'm not very savvy on technical suff

do I need something special on my PC to download games to the R4 card? like a USB-card reader (the USB thingy I have for the card in my camera). not sure, sorry

where does the R4 card go on the DS? is it where the game chip goes in? or where the gameboy chip slots in (i.e. where the DS guitar hero finger board plugs in)? There's a memory card slot on the back of the ds unit and it fits in there.

Hope someone can help - sorry OP for hijacking your topic.

See highlighted bits, hth

bluenoseam

fannyadams wrote: »

preloved DS lites for both my DS (aged 6 and 10)
they love
Mario Cart (we also have this for Wii)
Lego Battles
Lego Rock Band
Lego Star Wars (starting to see a theme here?)
Club Penguin

Two DSs can connect together (i know this as my DS#1 & DS#2 play together on their DS games.

--
Questions -

what's an R4 card and where does it come from? please can you give me a website to look at? I'll go slightly on my high horse here as someone who worked in games retail for 7 years, these are ILLEGAL, it's piracy and as such are subject to the same rules & regulations as movies & music. MSE advice dictates that you do stuff as cheaply as possible, but within confines of the law - which this most certainly isn't. While you could point out the fact games is a multi billion dollar industry, it's also fair to remind you that retail of these things isn't - and things like this put honest, hard working individuals & companies out of business!

do I need something special on my PC to download games to the R4 card? like a USB-card reader (the USB thingy I have for the card in my camera).

where does the R4 card go on the DS? is it where the game chip goes in? or where the gameboy chip slots in (i.e. where the DS guitar hero finger board plugs in)?

Hope someone can help - sorry OP for hijacking your topic.

On the OP - the DS is a cracking console, however i'd go for the XL model, avoid the 3DS - it's said to cause problems with eyesight in younger gamers. As it's still in infancy, portable "3d" gaming might not be the wisest of moves for the time being! Another reason i'd advise against, their previous 3D console (the Virtual Boy) was notorious for causing motion sickness - it actually made me feel pretty icky when i played it. The advantage with the XL is the bigger & slightly more advanced screen than previous incarnations of the console. UNFORTUNATELY though (bah isn't there always a but!) it has two issues which may prove a bit offputting.

The DSi & DSi XL were the first two in the DS range which DON'T include GB Advance slots, now this isn't in itself a massive drawback - the games are getting to the "rare" stage, mostly second hand & no new games released in years, but it has a secondary effect. The Guitar Hero games (inclusive of Band Hero) require the GBA slot in order to function, as you'll understand this rules them out although not really much of an issue since they've recently been halted by Activision!

The DSi & XL are also the first Nintendo handhelds to be region locked - meaning you can no longer buy cheaper imports from US/Asia. The issue isn't massive on face value, however beware some cheaper online sites for games which often provided US/Japanese imports for DS series games on the basis they worked. Most of these are easy to spot (for a start the "age ratings" are vastly different) however a number of retailers may still have them stocked - meaning you could wind up with unhappy kids after a trip to the local indie games store.

There are however a ton of games available & will continue to be for a while yet, Nintendo have always supported the product range well with a variety of games. Most of them will be suited to "all ages" with at worst some rough & tumble but again, your age rating should give you an indicator as to it's content. If you're concerned about the content then you can visit the sites below, first is the heads up on 3DS' issues, second being a link to the games rating people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3ds#Health_risks

https://www.pegi.info

ailuro2

It's a great piece of kit - bet you enjoy it too!

sillygoose

My kids 6 & 8 have them and they are unbeatable, especially for long car journeys. Some of their friends have the R4 cards with all the illegal pirated games on but they all tend to be 'restless' with them and not really get into many of the the games apart from a few.

I use it as part of the kids motivation, good behaviour earns them the chance to buy a new game, bad behaviour can result in DS confiscation for a period. When they have played a game to death I take them to CEX, Play or Game in town and they can trade in the game for another one (preowned). Not had any problem as the cartridges have a warranty. This often means it only cost £2 - £4 to get a 'new' game, all those stores do preowned purchase/sales. The kids keep the best ones. You realise why the Mario games are more expensive, you pay for quality and depth and they will keep kids amused for 5 times longer than many cheaper games.

A slow paced non violent game like Mr Bean is a good 1st game to explore how the DS works and some character control.

Final point - the age ranges on the games are NOT the rating of what age its suitable for from a playing point of view, just a guide of how 'scary' or 'offencive' it may be so what age below it may upset.

gunsandbanjos

Guess my DD is the only child without one!

My parents offered to buy her one and i said no:o

I think they are probably ok in small supervised doses but a lot of people i have seen seem to use them as little electronic babysitters.

I work in a restaurant and have seen so many kids glued to them, no social interaction with anyone else at the table and i thought that was quite sad:(

**Puts on tin hat and runs for cover**

sock-knitter

my kids are 15, but not your typical teens, they have learning difficulties adhd etc.
mine have the ds lite, before that they had a game boy colour. there is no way i would allow mine to walk round town, or sit in cafe's and restaurants playing them, kids need to learn social skills. there ds's also live downstairs, so no playing in bed.
they love the cooking mama games, jamie oliver cooking game, art academy, sonic and mario at the olypics, and brain training, and the nintendogs
quite useful in the car, if u have spare stylus's as my two are forever losing them

chalkiesalem_2

I finaly caved and bought my 5year old son one for christmas. He loves it, he isnt allowed on it all the time but it is great for long car journeys. I am betting it will be a life saver on the plane when we go to America in November.
His fav games at the moment are
Lego Star Wars
Lego Indiana Jones
Super Mario Bros

bylromarha

gunsandbanjos wrote: »

Guess my DD is the only child without one!

My parents offered to buy her one and i said no:o

I think they are probably ok in small supervised doses but a lot of people i have seen seem to use them as little electronic babysitters.

I work in a restaurant and have seen so many kids glued to them, no social interaction with anyone else at the table and i thought that was quite sad:(

**Puts on tin hat and runs for cover**

I'd like to think everyone on this thread agrees with you that too long on them or using them as electronic babysitters are a bad idea. Don't run away!

Me and OH have one each and DD(4) has Dora/Disney style games to play on it. Also Faraway Tree Flips.

DD(6) loves the Lego Batman/Star Wars games and Mario Kart and Incredibles.

The bet bit they love is linking them together and typing messages to each other!

They don't play on it for more than an hour as they get really agressive and grumpy. They also only play on them about once a fortnight.