I question who would win in a fight: the Nintendo DS or the Game Boy Advance? Edited by Scott Wozniak Main Channel: @ScottTheWoz Twitter: / scottthewoz Facebook: / scottthewoz Instagram: / scottthewoz
I kinda miss having actual dedicated hand helds. The switch *is* portable, but more so in a way that's good for like "oh im gonna bring the switch to a party so we can all play mario party" rather than "yeah, ive got 5 minutes on the bus to finish a level of mario" like the ds or gba
Yeah... sadly even my most favorite handhelds today like the steam deck suffer from this problem. Can't take those out in public like a phone unlike with a ds where I can take it out on the bus to grind pokemon, close it into sleep mode, then go back into it when I wanna play again
My problem is i have all these games fully playable and in many ways improved on my android phone...then i end up playing something for 5 minutes and quitting because maybe one of the other 5000 games on my device might be better. If i only had a few cartridges I'd probably actually enjoy them but you can't ever truly go back to that unless you're just tricking yourself into realizing the option exists...when you add that to a Sega Saturn with hundreds of games on a disk drive emulator, mini classics modded with all their best games and everything pretty much on the PC then lots of cool modern stuff i just can't commit to anything long enough to truly get into it
Also, the video mentioned that Nintendo DS was "Nintendo's first foray into non Game Boy handheld territory", ignoring existence of Game & Watch, Nintendo Mini Classics, Pokemon Pikachu and Pokemon Mini (granted, first three may not have counted due to not accepting cartridges, but Pokemon Mini definitely does).
1:45 The reason why the DS had a GBA slot is *probably* in case it failed, in which case they could still market it as something that played GBA games.
I mean, with how cheap it probably was to make GBA ports (economies of scale), it would be losing money to not give the DS access to what was at the time almost 30 years of a library.
When I was a kid, we had a launch SP, a red 001 (the older, frontlit model) that came with F-Zero. I went swimming with the thing in my back pocket, no cartridge, absolutely waterlogged the hell out of the thing. All it needed was time to air out and it worked great again. These days I've reshelled it into a beautiful gold, none of the internals were rusted or damaged, it's the exact same SP and copy of Metroid Fusion I had growing up twenty years later.
Yeah it's like a Scott the Woz episode just done in a more casual style. Which is really cool, I mean of course I love the usual Scott the Woz episode formula, but this is a nice change of pace
I remember when the gba sp came out with its rechargeable battery, all I could think was, "WHAT IF I RUN OUT OF BATTERY ON THE SCHOOL BUS, I CAN'T SWAP BATTERIES NOW IT'S SO STUPID." I still have massive battery anxiety to this day lol
"it looks like a mini laptop" is exactly what my mom said the first time she saw it on tv. That plus the rechargeable battery sold her on getting an SP for me immediately
See it’s probably cause I grew up with it but I love the DS style of 3D Cause while the models were super low poly, developers were way smarter with the low detail than earlier gens when the tech was newer. But my favorite part is that the textures weren’t anti aliased and most devs used it to their advantage so instead of the blurry, kinda ugly textures of other early 3D systems, they had full on pixel art for textures most of the time and I just love the look of it
As much as I think it's incredible we can play console-quality games on devices like the Switch and Steam Deck... The massive size of those things compared to the GBA, DS, even PSP just make it a nuisance to carry around. I hope we can go back to the sizes of the older handhelds one day.
The GBA was so important because it allowed big budget 2D sprite style games to continue existing into the 2000s when they wouldn't have been made otherwise.
If you think about it, for 2004 the DS hardware was a solid jump for the time. It only pales in comparison to the PSP which was actually cutting edge for the time (and also a lot more expensive than the DS). In comparison to other devices at the time like the N-Gage or mobile devices, the 3D on the DS was far better.
The original n-gage's hardware was actually superior to the DS (almost double the clock speed on an ARM 9 core). The problem was that you were basically writing games for Symbian and if you wanted to capture the biggest market with that, you'd probably write your game to run on a terrible contract feature phone rather than require the full horsepower of the n-gage.
I feel like they actually followed through with that on the Switch/3DS. I remember plenty of people getting angry that Luigi's Mansion and Inside Story were released on 3DS well after the Switch released.
@DiGi my cousins bought both the Switch and a 2DS for both siblings. I saw it as the 2DS being ultra portable and more personal while the Switch was for the whole family.
With both the DS and the Switch, they were trying out something considerably different to what came before. The DS was bulkier and had two screens + touch + mic, with many games trying new control schemes. And for the Switch, a non-folding handheld that doesn't fit in a pocket and doubles as a console with last-gen specs. Seems to me they wanted to keep their successful previous-gen handheld ready in case it proved to be a flop -- a return to the tried-and-true GBA or 3DS would be more of a "welp, 3rd pillar didn't work out" or "it's a fine replacement for the Wii U but the New 3DS is still our handheld" rather than a surprising about-face and admission of failure.
Scott arguing that a headphone jack would be better than a link cable slot in the SP is the most “I didn’t play Pokémon growing up” thing he has ever said.
Yeah it's really silly lmao. They obviously excluded it because they figured kids wouldn't even care or use the headphone jack anyway. Still i felt they should have kept it. Micro had one.
The DSi XL is probably the best handheld Nintendo has produced. Extremely high quality overall, down to the stylus. And more importantly the dual IPS screens look amazing
7:50 Can absolutely personally confirm as well. A few years ago I bought an OG DS cause I thought it'd be cool, I never had one before. Literally a few days later the hinge on it broke while it was IN MY POCKET. I think I was carrying a shopping bag and it slightly knocked against it with very little force. The plastic on the inside was EXTREMELY yellow. Telltale sign for it becoming brittle over time. I checked the platic pieces to see how weak it was. I could easily pull them apart w/o trying with two fingers. Another issue with the OG DS design vs. the Lite is that if the hinge breaks then your top screen is hanging by a ribbon cable lmao. At least on the Lite it's still structurally intact.
Same. Even though I probably have more fond memories of my DS, the GBA SP was my first ever proper game system (I say "proper" game system because before it I had the Leapster, which was an edutainment system), so it'll always hold a special place in my heart.
6:56 This has to be a contender for my favourite Scott the Woz joke of all time. And completely improvised too. Fucking magical. Scott, you are an artist.
Really enjoying the hybrid content, mixing the joking environment with facts and information is really nice! This feels like a late-night version of a normal Scott The Woz video!
The amount of bangers on the GBA for how short a life span it had is amazing Edit: lots of people saying the GBA library was just remakes so here's a list of amazing original GBA games -Mario + Luigi Superstar saga -Golden Sun series -Pokemon R/S/E -Zelda Minish Cap -Mother 3 -Metroid fusion -Castlevania Aria of Sorrows -Warioware Inc + Twisted -Fire emblem blazing blade(first released in the west) -Advance Wars -wario land 4 -FF tactics -Pokémon pinball -Drill Dozer -Mario Vs DK -Kuru Kuru Kurrin -Sonic Advance series -F-zero Gp legend -Astro Boy -Megaman Zero series -Megaman battle network series Plus a ton of platformer movie/cartoon tie ins that were brilliant Plus a lot of the remakes were vast improvements e.g. Metroid zero mission
The GBA was a way to get the SNES experience in your pocket, which was amazing and still is. However the DS was truly it's own system, even now the best way to experience it is on original hardware.
From an outsider's perspective, that's definitely the case. However, if you dig into both libraries, you'll notice so many high-quality exclusive GBA games while the DS was flooded with casual games and later on smartphone games.
I mean I love these Stash videos but c'mon man they clearly aren't meant for the main channel what with the lack of a script and a carpet being in view for the entire video
DSi doesn’t have the literal GBA hardware as DSs with the slot has, so it must rely on emulation to run it. But since DSi’s hardware is more powerful than the regular DS’s, it runs the emulation quite a bit nicer. I mean I tried it and I had no hiccups or lag.
Only sort of. GBARunner2 isn't emulation, but it isn't the perfect GBA mode with 100% compatibility that the DS had either. It's doing the same sort of thing, putting the DSi's ARM 7 core into a mode that approximates how the GBA's ARM 7 CPU ran. But since the chip isn't built to have an accurate GBA mode, they can only get it so close. Most games do run perfectly though. The 3DS brings back a perfect, hardware-supported GBA mode since Nintendo planned to release a bunch of GBA virtual consoles games on it, but then decided not to, allegedly because they couldn't get lid-shut automatic sleep mode to work properly.
Let’s not rewrite history. The “properly backlit” SP didn’t come out till almost a year after the DS, compared to the frontlit SP the DS seemed like a huge upgrade at the time.
@@CassiDS Please read this and learn from it. The BACKLIT Game Boy Advance SP released in 2005. The original 2003 model was FRONT LIT, a difference in tech I specifically mentioned in the reply you are responding to. I’m not out to embarrass you, so if you delete your response attempting to correct me, I’ll delete my response, which actually corrects you. Please learn from this and don’t be so eager to try to show off that you end up making a mistake in public.
GBA was my first console that was really mine, I remember playing this thing all the time as a kid. I bought a backlit original GBA a few months back and have been loving replaying some old games. But I do think I like the DS more overall, if only for the fact that in addition to all the great things the DS has going for it it also has a GBA slot. So it was easy for me as a kid, and now as an adult, to just carry over my great GBA experiences to this new console.
I feel like Pokémon really benefited from the DS. 4th and 5thgen really revolutionised the franchise and put forth some of the best games in the franchise, mystery dungeon even as well.
@@AB-sw4kb Pretty much. A big part of the problem is that, like all modern games, the 3D Pokemon games have only gotten more and more complex to make, and that doesn’t really go well with The Pokemon franchise’s psychotic media and merchandising needs. I’d love to see what Game Freak could do if they were given as much time as, say, Nintendo gives themselves to release a Zelda.
@@AB-sw4kb personally, I disagree. While X and Y, the games that came out after it are constantly slandered online, it’s actually not as bad as people make it out to be. And while I did grow up with the game, at an unbiased perspective, it did drop off at some points, but people are failing to see the other points that succeeded them. And yet, some people try to justify a high price point being 100 dollars when it comes to black and white. I don’t care how good those are, I’d rather buy another two copies of X and Y before I bought one singular dinky little cartridge of black and white for 100 dollars.
Me and my friends from summer camp used our DS and DSi’s to play Mario kart on the way to field trips to pass time, that’s what was special about the DS and GBA, they were simply easy to carry everywhere and pull out and get a little progress done and or play a few rounds with friends with limited time, the switch is great and all but still
I really miss the clamshell design, it's the pinacle of handheld design in my opinion. It's the perfect way of protecting the screens without needing added protections.
The DSi XL was a console I didn't understand until I brought it on a roadtrip at the beginning of this year. I've had one from my cousin for years but I was playing the thing for hours on my way down to Texas from the Midwest and my god, its such a gorgeous system. The buttons, espeically the D-Pad are grade A, love them. And the screens, wow. I dont have a 3DS XL anymore but even just comparing playing DS games on the original 3DS and the DSi XL, its night and day. The DSi XL's screens are sharp and so damn crisp. Especially after modding it, it's become my main driver for anything Gameboy, Gamebody Advance, and DS related. Love it to bits.
Picking a clear winner is really hard when it comes to GBA or DS. I like both systems a lot, but if I had to choose I would go with the DS. The DS Lite is simply one of the best handhelds of all time in my opinion, and the games offer much more variety. Plus, you can play GBA on the DS but not vice versa. Good video, thank you.
On the library part, I do agree that DS has the best library. As a PSP hardcore fan, the games on the DS is so unique that even emulating them doesnt give justice. I forced myself to buy a DS so I can experience the game natively and my mind is blown away. World Ends with you, Prpfessor Layton and that detective game I forgot the title really pushed the 😊creativity of DS controls, dual screen and microphone
the ds lite is incredible. if you can get over its size, its still an awesome way to play ds and gba games, it’s still my go-to as opposed to putting them into my 3ds. especially because the games come up a lot nicer on the smaller screens. the design is super refined, i love how sleek it is, especially the white one. what a great revision
i think the original ds looks cooler, i like the weighty look and feels less like it tried to copy the "smooth" design wave that came from the iphone. the ds lite buttons are also rounded for some reason. also hate how the gameboy cartridge sticks out on lite
What’s hilarious is that I never had a DS to my remembering, I had a GBA, a DS Lite, then an original 3DS. I’d have to look at the specific designs, but I remember my DS Lite (I think it was) was red and black and very thin. I used to play Spyro/Crash Bandicoot in the GBA slot on the bottom since it was a 2 for 1 game cartridge I think. Man, those are old memories haha
... I still miss the no light system at times. You could at least see when there was good light. While everything new is opposite. Now if its bright outside you can not see anything on anything. Being able to use both the gba and ds games on one handheld was great.
@@tipsy634 I can not see anything even at top brightness on my switch though. :( To be fair, I do suppose there may have been more contrast because there was not so much colour to work with.
I think part of the reason that the DS had so many more interesting original titles is because it had so much longer to stretch its legs. If the Gameboy Advance lived a long and prosperous life like the original Gameboy, we could easily have seen a GBA Animal Crossing, a more impressive followup to super circuit, and new original ideas for the platform. The DS's life wasn't short or anything, but it didn't have a true successor for almost 7 years, which was a long time to build an impressive library and for developers to familiarize themselves to the hardware. Food for thought.
I don't think you understand how vast the gba catalog is. Trying to debate which had a better library is silly because it's a wash. Both are legendary libraries
@6:25 Culturally, Japanese consumers were more likely to use the link cable system than in the US. Their gaming habits are different like that. One of the coolest things I recall seeing in Japan were groups of friends at restaurants or on the trains, all playing something like Monster Hunter together on their PSPs. They're more likely to engage like that.
Would love a time lapse of like a Target game shelf showing what was available at launch, and then how it may have looked as games were phased out and new ones became available.
I love them both, first got the GBA in 2003 in high school and the DS in 2006 while in college. Been collecting games from each off and on, really got obsessed with collecting games around 2015-ish. Lately, I've been obsessed with collecting hidden gems from both.
I prefer the original GBA form factor, too, and that's exactly why I happily bought a modded one. Recommended! Oh, and I am an old person so I love the DSi XL.
The best GBA version though in my arrogant opinion was the original SP. The AGS-001. Yeah, the screen looked worse compared to the 101, no doubt about that, but in return, you got literally twice the battery life, no ghosting on the screen whatsoever, and instant pixel response times meaning no input lag of any kind. Of course, some people are still gonna prefer the much nicer looking screen of the AGS-101, and that's fair enough, but nevertheless, there is actually a point to owning an AGS-001 over the newer AGS-101.
@@arnox4554 it's okay, that's not an arrogant opinion. I definitely prefer SP for its practical design and lifespan longevity. But for comfortability? The OG GBA design, for sure. It's always better to play long horizontal handheld games
I actually really like the aesthetics of DS games, especially titles with heavy use of 2D like Hotel Dusk. Games could still be low-res while presenting realistic materials, creating a unique hybrid-pixel art style that I find really charming.
I actually like the 3D models and textures in the DS, mainly as a vibe. And it was cool that Nintendo was doing full 3D games for the first time in an handheld, even if Sony was doing better with the PSP in that department.
@@okagron yea, and the DS ran circles around the PSP being the 2nd best selling console of all time so goes to show alot of people weren't to concerned about power
I so agree with loving the visual style of GBA games. In one of your vids you used footage from a GBA game I had never seen and I couldn't believe it was a GBA game because the visual style was so well crafted, I thought it looked like a modern pixel art indie game.
i have very fond memories of playing on my sister's gba as a kid, but my dsi was the first console i actually owned. i love them pretty equally, both of them are fantastic systems. my family lost the gba with moving houses and such, but ive had my dsi for over a decade and my ds lite for around 5 years. i play gba stuff on my lite occasionally still!!
22:51 don't worry, Scott, that was every pokémon fan's reaction to the crossover too. it's a good game and well loved, it's just a downright *bizarre* crossover that basically no one even knew what it was crossing over with
For me, the DS library mops the floor with the GBA. It had: The first 6 Ace Attorney games (I know the first 3 came out on the gba but that was exclusively in Japan, and the ds versions are better in every way) 9 hours 9 persons 9 doors Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Mario Party DS Mario Kart DS Fossil Fighters Bowser's Inside Story The Club Penguin games (which were surprisingly competent point and click adventures) Professor Layton Super Princess Peach The Legendary Starfy (again a GBA game but only in Japan) The Mario Vs. Donkey Kong games Cooking Mama Wario Ware DIY Tetris DS Hell, even some of the shovelware/licensed games were decent. I remember really enjoying Planet 51, the Phineas and Ferb games, and Toy Story 3. Like, does the DS have sonic platformers as good as the ones on GBA? No? What about Metroid? No? Did we get a traditional top down or 3D Zelda? I guess not. Well, okay. I really think I would rather cool new innovative IPs and games rather than another new game in a franchise that is slightly better than the previous one. For every Sonic Advance 4 and Metroid 5 that the DS didn't have, it had Ace Attorney, Ghost Trick, 999 and the best Mario and Luigi game. I'd take a Super Princess Peach over a Mario Advance 5 any day, but that's just me.
Everyone is for pro GBA, well I’m pro Ds. It’s the reason of how I got into gaming in the first place. The first Ds I ever had was the Ds Lite yellow edition, which looked so Good and felt Good. And also the Ds i was also really cool too with the cameras and Flip note studies. And also it had a ass load of great games that sometimes are 3d, (I oddly like the very low poly models, it just had its odd charm).
This video doesn't work without the green IPad and Australian voice Just kidding 😅, I think it's cool that Scott made a video with the style of Dankpods
I am really weird but I really liked the original design of the DS. And not so much now but around the time it was out. I liked the lite too but i remember kind of admiring the orginal DS when it came out, it felt mature. Every handheld before it always felt like kids toy. Let me tell you, 14 year old me felt pre-tty grown up playing Kirby Canvas Curse on the train.
Kirby Canvas Curse, wow. I think that and mariokart were my first original DS games. Mariokart was especially fun because you can play with 8 people on a single cartridge. Did that on a field trip to Canada with my classmates.
The GBA and DS are basically tied for my favourite systems of all time. I love the games on the GBA a lot, but the DS holds a place in my heart as my first system and honestly I can look past the dated 3D as a part of the nostalgia and uniqueness of the system.
I remember getting my first Gameboy Pocket, GBC, GBA, and NDS. Honestly, I was most excited for the DS. It was such a leap in terms of graphical prowess that I was so impressed. Metroid Prime Hunters, Mario 64, Pokemon DPP, Lunar Dragon Song, Lost in Blue, etc. It had such a great lineup of games that it's tough to beat. And come on, we all loved Nintendogs haha
The problem with ds games is that everyone wanted to use the fancy new 3d ds graphics but didn`t want to make an actual 3d game so they put low quality models in a low quality 2d game instead of using sprites so it justs end up feeling tacky.
Quick point for the GBA & GBA SP: they were $99 vs the DS’s $150 and DSLite’s $130. That’s a massive price hike percentage wise. Both consoles would steadily drop in price. For example, the Game Boy Advance SP was $79 by the time the $150 DS came out. I also have to split a point for each console’s game packaging. The DS’s plastic boxes were way better than the GBA’s cardboard. They were actually reusable. However, GBA games always had intricately made paper manuals with tons of custom artwork, story, concept art, and stuff. Sometimes it’d have a tiny guide for parts of the game. They were always my favorite part of getting a new game. Unfortunately, the DS was the console that started phasing intricate manuals out over its lifetime. The Wireless & Download Play stuff eventually ended up taking over 50% of the manual.
The pricing is also the main reason the GB Micro flopped. It debuted at $100 a year after the DS had already been out. Made no sense to most people to get it when you could save up $50 and get the new next gen handheld that can play all the same GBA games anyway alongside completely new ones. Or get the GBA SP that was the same price as the Micro or less and be able to play the entire GB/GBC library.
@@VexAcervery true. I wanted the Micro because it looked awesome, but I held off once I heard about the DS Lite and got that. Glad I did, amazing unit.
I actually loved using the touch screen to look around for Metroid Prime on DS, I thought it was so smooth & intuitive. The only problem for me is that the DS d-pad hurts my finger when playing 3D games.
@@joshentertainment2 I actually have been! I haven't gotten too far since I've been busy with other games but it is 100× better playing with the circle pad
I feel bad for NSMB 1 because the stink of other NSMB games have made it hard for me to look back on it fondly. When you had Zero Mission and NSMB on the screen at the same time, all I could think was "this is the most uneven matchup in history" but that really isn't fair. It's not NSMB 1's fault that Nintendo killed the "New" Super Mario Bros. brand dead
Funny thing is that this wasn't supposed to be a sucessor and just a console to steal some of the psp's thunder. They were working on something called project iris which was supposed to be the sucessor to the GBA but it's new similarities were similar to the iPhone. A video from lowspecgamer covers it well and is a good watch in general
I received a gba sp one Christmas and I was stoked. My cousin got a DS and I thought it was ridiculous. Fast forward a few years and my sister randomly gave me her DS and I fell in love with it! The DS era is arguably my favorite handheld generation.
My childhood handheld consoles. Never had a home console and I never felt like I missed a thing. I still have them today and still turn it on once in a while too :)
If you ask me, you really can't get much better than the DSi XL. The screen is absolutely gorgeous! It's absolutely the best way to play DS games. Also, if you softmod your DSi (which is pretty easy if you aren't Scott) or get a DS flashcart, you can launch emulators and even play Game Boy Advance games, which look so good on that screen. There's actually no slowdown or emulation glitches at all, because it's actually able to run Game Boy Advance games natively as a leftover from the DSes which had a cartridge slot. You can also play mods and homebrew of DS games, Pokémon Blaze Black 2 Redux and Newer Super Mario Bros. DS are really well made. Honestly, I think my DSi XL might be one of my favorite portable game systems at the moment.
DSi is the best version of the DS for softmodding, however isn't it better to softmod a 3ds at that stage, even if it's a bit harder? The DSi XL also mostly had shitty looking colours u_u the original blue DSi looks the nicest of the lot. If you're not softmodding, while the XL is the best way to play original DS games, it's an otherwise far inferior console to the DS Lite. One of the main reasons I got a DS Lite is because the GBA slot can transfer games from Pokemon generation 3 (GBA) to generation 4 and up.
What a time to have been alive, to go from the quaint OG Gameboy to the Color and the GBA. And with the PSP debuting at the same time. It was amazing! As great as the 3DS and Vita are, they didn’t seem as huge a deal as the NDS and PSP. And now that phones have all the power and them some, I don’t care cuz most mobile “”” games “”” are infested totally and absolutely with MTX.
I hope Konami is somehow able to figure out how to do a Castlevania DS collection like they did with GBA collection. I really enjoyed those ds castlevania games. Also love all the Atlus SMT games and one of my favorite games ever was ds game 999. Pokémon Conquest also one of my fave Pokémon games. The GBA is def amazing tho. I had my first experience with a lot of old games on gba like final fantasy 1-6 or breath of fire 1 &2 for example
You nailed it on the DS variety. That’s really what sells it for me. There were so many amazing and unique experience that never happened before or since.
I’ll definitely agree with you that the DS has a lot more variety than the gba. While it is mainly due to the touchscreen, that still allows for an added dimension of gameplay. Sure, there’s stuff like 64 DS and the top-down Zelda games, but there’s also games like the Drawn to Life series, Pokémon Ranger, Mario Party DS, Kirby Mass Attack, Picross 3D, et freaking cetera.
When it comes to Capcom games the GBA has it. The GBA introduced the world to Phoenix wright, Megaman Zero and Megaman Battle network. The DS had Ace Attorney investigations Megaman ZX and Star force. The GBA's lineup here is superior lol
The DS lite and GBA were both such a great part of my childhood. Stumbled upon an SP recently and it's so much nicer-looking than my old gba, and it always bothered me to have one screen just sort of awkwardly turned off when playing gba on the DS. Great time for gaming, never really got into the3ds
I remember picking the original ds up with Mario 64 DS and it blew me away! Had so many great games over time, like lost in Blue, Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and the epic horror Dementium: The Ward to name a few.
