Systems I have bought at launch


The DS lite headlines a short list of videogame-systems I have bought at launch. I didn't really want a DS phat, because it had ugly 3D graphics, and the GBA was still relevant. By the time DS lite was launching, innovative games like Brain Age, and a new 2D Mario in New Super Mario Bros. were coming out. The DS lite was light and white; it looked good, and so I wanted to get one.

I preordered one at Gamestop or ebgames. On the day of release, I went there, and I was the only customer. I was only going to get Brain Age, but then the sales-clerk asked me something, which prompted me to get New Super Mario Bros. as well; I was teetering on the fence about it, but somehow he got me to buy it.

I really liked Brain Age. It was like no other 'game' I had ever played, and this was the kind of thing I had been looking for in the DS. NSMB was a mild disappointment. It was aesthetically unappealing, and aurally different from past Mario-games.

The DS lite, however, doesn't really qualify as a launch-system, because it didn't start the ecosystem. In that sense, the only system I have bought at launch is the newest member of the Nintendo-family, the Nintendo Switch.

Zelda has certainly not met the expectations caused by all the high review-scores and hype. I have taken a greater liking to Fast RMX, a modestly priced, port of a Wii U game I already have. As a system-showcase, Fast RMX is the only candidate there is; it looks gorgeous and runs fast at sixty frames per second.

Do I regret the purchase? No, but it certainly doesn't feel like a good purchase right now. There is no Virtual Console, AAA third-party support is completely absent with only a handful of games coming in the future (Skyrim, NBA 2K, Steep, FIFA), and there are numerous hardware-problems from the JoyCons to the dock.

Such is the plight of the early adopter. On the one hand, we get to be part of the hype, but we also have to experience the early problems as well. Like life, it is a balancing-act.

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