By Sood
I've had my NDS Lite for about eight months now and have never regretted buying it. I was initially put off with the bulky original DS, but after seeing an NDS Lite thought I would bite the bullet. I also bought an external see through case/skin and a small hard pouch/case to put the nds lite and its peripherals into it. If your going to spend this much money spend a little more to protect your investment. I'm glad I did - Ive dropped this a couple of times onto the floor some time ago (not recommended!), but the hard crystal case/skin (which i bought separately) appears to have saved it.
The NDS Lite itself is incredibly addictive many games use the touch screen stylus and microphone as well as the buttons. I have since played with a PSP and been overawed by the PSP - the games on PSP look way more better than on the NDS, but again Nintendo have got the mixture just right and I still don't regret buying the NDS Lite - its my faithful companion that I even take to work (to play during my breaks).
I hate carrying all my cartridges around with me so I ended up buying a m3 ds real, a flash cart that you use instead of the game cartridges. This is a bit if a grey area as although it doesn't invalidate your Nintendo warranty, its usage is frowned upon as a lot of people use it for piracy. But its advantages cannot be denied - Ive got a 8gb micro sdhc card which slots into the m3, and allows me to carry 8gb worth of games all on one cartridge! (you have to download the games, and you can download legal home brew software, but please support the game developers and *only* download the cartridges you own). I tend to find prices on play.com very good for buying nds cartridges. The m3 also allows me to play video, music and pictures on the NDS Lite - something Nintendo should have done ages ago.
Also with some games you can actually export your saved characters onto the Wii!! For example Pokemon Daimond/Pearl on NDS to Pokemon Battle Revolution on the Wii!
If your debating whether or not to buy - just buy it, you wont regret it! (Now all you have to do is choose what colour you want!)