Nintendo DS (2004)

Nintendo DS

🥇Best-Selling Handheld Video Game System of All Time

The Nintendo DS, launched in North America on November 21, 2004, was Nintendo's experimental "third pillar" that eventually became the best-selling handheld in history, permanently retiring the Game Boy brand. Its defining "Dual Screen" design featured a standard top display and a bottom resistive touchscreen, enabling unique stylus-based gameplay in titles like Nintendogs and Trauma Center. Beyond the touch interface, the "Nitro" (as it was known internally) introduced built-in Wi-Fi for local and online multiplayer, a microphone for voice commands, and backward compatibility with Game Boy Advance cartridges via a dedicated secondary slot. While the original "Phat" model was criticized for its bulky, industrial aesthetic and a screen that was difficult to view in low light, its success paved the way for the sleeker DS Lite and the camera-equipped DSi. Today, these 20-year-old machines are prized by enthusiasts for their "pixel-perfect" rendering of DS games, though they often require maintenance for cracked hinges or "stuck" touchscreen digitizers that lose accuracy over decades of play.

Source: Retro Games Plus