MTE reviews: Nintendo DSi XL

Growing up, I can't say I was ever much of a video game girl.  I believe we had a Radio Shack version of some early video game system, but all I did on that was learn to play poker.  (And still not very well at that... I lost a whole lot of fake money.)  I'm not too good with the old hand-eye coordination, so making things move across the screen in a particular manner isn't one of my strong suits.  We do have a Wii, which I find fun for bowling, something that I'm actually pretty good at, and also for reminding me that I should really get my butt off the couch to use the Wii Fit that I won a while back from Stimey.

But when it comes to handheld devices, I have to admit that I didn't even know what a DS was until just a few months ago when a friend of my oldest's brought it over.  The two of them had so much fun recording their voices and then distorting them, and they took the standard tween pics of themselves, extremely close-up shots of their most ridiculous expressions.  With that being my one and only exposure to the DS, I had no idea what this small system was capable of.

That is, until I got one in the mail!  Oh, our beautiful Nintendo DSi XL is simply too cool.

I won't be publicly announcing my pathetic first "Brain Age" according to the mocking little man in the game, nor will I be admitting just how much more my nine year old son already knows about the functioning of this device than I do, nor will I admit just how much fun I've been having looking at potential games to purchase.  Should an almost-35 year old woman be embarrassed to be seen in public clicking away on a game?  Heck no!  I've got an amazon gift card just burning a hole in my pocket.

I do have to say that I will not allow our son to become one of those kids who is constantly attached to the game system- this device will not see the inside of a restaurant or any table at which the family is eating, but I do owe it some extreme gratitude for helping to keep 1/3 of the children entertained for much of our recent should-have-been-6.5-hours-but-really-turned-out-to-be-10-hour car drive, and with a certain piece of software in hand, there's even a wholly educational component to the experience.

Full disclosure time-- I received the DS unit and this wonderful new piece of software, 100 Classic Books, for review purposes for 5 Minutes for Books, and JAM and I have been enjoying reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer together from it.  Even though JAM is in that demographic that often gets described as "reluctant readers," he's certainly not your stereotypical nine year old boy who avoids books.  He's seriously eating this whole thing up- combine his love for reading with his fascination with anything that has a screen, and you've got one blissful guy.  So yes, he may be playing Star Wars: Clone Wars on the thing at times, but he's also got his own bookmark going in Huck Finn, too.  And he's a nine year old boy.  Freaking awesome.  Making the DS systems also function in part as an e-reader is a beautiful thing.

Big old thanks to Nintendo for providing these materials for reviewing purposes!

If you want to read me jabber on about my experience reading a classic book with JAM, please head over to my 5 Minutes for Books piece, On Reading: Going "Classic" with my Child.


Okay, off to "train my brain"   That age better come down, I tell ya!!