Innovation

Not a long ago the Nintendo DS celebrated its 20th anniversary. That made me curious and I went to Youtube to check if there was any recording of the initial presentation for the DS and bingo!
A video of the full E3 introduction was there!

It surprised me how they talked about all its functions. Things that we take for granted today, like Wi-Fi connection, were new back then. Of course I’m well aware of this, but while watching the presentation it really struck me, the DS was super ahead of its time!

Big console upgrades mostly happen in home consoles, so it’s surprising how the DS, a little handheld, was packed with so much and pretty much changed consoles forever.

It was the first console to have 2 screens, a touch screen (before they were “mainstream” in general devices), Wi-Fi, wireless communication and a mic in 2004! The DS was supposed to be a “companion” to the GBA, but they gave it so many features it ended up taking its place instead.
Generational jumps are mostly power-related (in graphics and such) but the DS went beyond that!

Design

The original DS was great, but what I especially love is the DS Lite, it’s practically perfect in all ways!

I think it’s one of the most pleasant looking game consoles. It’s compact, simple but not boring, plus it came in a lot of pretty colors.
You can hang keycharms from it and decoden cases are comfortable since they’re put on the top screen (and you hold the console by the bottom one).

Double screens and touchscreen made games very intuitive to play thanks to the UI being divided between the screens (with one of them often being used as a map or status) so everything is less cluttered, and simply touching whatever action you want to do instead of having to scroll menus or memorising button controls.

The DS Lite is also compact and very lightweight, so it’s super comfortable to play with, the 3DS XL sometimes makes my wrists cramp ;-;

Oh and they spent a lot of time re-wiring the hardware to maximise energy use, so the Lite can last 20 whole hours without charging! I can spend 1-2 weeks without touching a charger, it's amazing.

Of course, nothing is perfect and somehow despite making a console with the most sleek design ever and ultimate battery use, they decided it was a good idea to give it a hinge that breaks after 2 uses (and after the hinge breaks, after a bit the top screen will fail as well since the ribbon cable slowly detaches).
You can “remedy” this by keeping your console open as much as you can instead of closing it every time you stop playing, but it’s an huge nuisance

Games

Of course, a console is made by its games. A great thing about handhelds is that their games are smaller scale (regarding budget and such) than home consoles, so developers are more free to experiment since if the game fails, the loss won’t be too big.

Mix that freedom with the DS’ multiple gimmicks and you get some of the most original videogames ever in both genres and gameplay.

I love so much how they use the DS’ abilities to the max, even its “wonky” screens (colors get a bit off if you look at them from the side) were used to hide messages in games. Or puzzles that required you to close the DS to make a stamp in the bottom screen.

I already said it in the Design section, but the touchscreen made games so intuitive and gave us super fun mechanics. The mic is more debatable, but it was fun at times as well (who remembers DPP Chatot?)

This is more of a general handheld positive, but the DS amplified it thanks to wireless connection: It gives us a sense of connection home consoles can’t replicate.

Yes, we now can play with anyone around the globe, but handhelds encourage you to go outside to meet and play with people in real life. Pictochat, games that save the records of people you pass by, etc…
The 3DS improved on this even more with streetpass, I’m sad we are about to lose this, home consoles always felt so lonely to me.