The DS. Why is it so good? (Anonymous)

I've gone from utterly underwhelmed, to completely disinterested, to strangely intrigued and now to totally charmed by the Nintendo DS since it's unveiling last summer. It's a strange beast that's for sure, something that feels completely fresh yet dated, ugly and poorly designed but a joy to use and built to appeal to hardcore and non gamers in equal measure. Now I'm no hardcore gamer, but I'm not a non-gamer. I bought Ikaruga, true, but never played beyond the third level because it was too hard. I never bought Wario Ware for the GBA. I am am the very definition of middlecore. Could this be my ideal console?

Yes. The DS is perfect. Now before I receive the full wrath of Nintendo anti fan-boys, let me qualify that. It's perfect for me. Sure, the thing was obviously designed by a retarded Iowan farm-boy on a bad day - it's too big, it looks and feels cheap (although still adheres to Nintendo's bulletproof hardware ethos - Sony, take note PLEASE) and looks stupid next to a PSP. But the GAMES....

Wario Ware is brilliant of course. It starts slowly, but within 10 minutes it kicks in, punches you in the face and shouts FUN at you over and over again. Mario 64 is good, although I have yet to feel comfortable with it (bad point no 4 - the bulk of the console means the touchscreen can be uncomfortable to use). But Polarium is the big hitter. A game SOOO good even my wife is addicted. Insanely simple, insanely addictive and basically the perfect handheld game. It's immediate, tactile, intelligent gaming following in the Tetris school of simplicity.

With Meteos, Yoshi Touch N Go, Mario Kart and others on the horizon the future looks bright for the DS. I hope people see past the frankly disgraceful design and pick it up and play games like Polarium and see that this thing might just provide them with some much needed fun.