Kid Tech: iPod Touch vs. Nintendo DS
Friday, March 20, 2009 at 10:02PM Even though our children’s friends have received electronic games for presents, my wife and I have generally resisted this. We bought a Nintendo Wii to emphasize “family” gaming in a controlled setting but there is something about games like the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP that have a strong appeal to kids.
So in response to the repeated please we have told our kids they need to save their money. And one day they called our bluff - they had enough money to buy their own. One bought a Nintendo DS and one bought an iPod Touch. After the jump I’ve included my observations about each as they would apply to a young (pre-teen) child’s use.
Nintendo DS: This is by far the most popular handheld game that my children’s friends use. It is also the noisiest and in my opinion the most unoriginal. Two small screens, loud beeping and old-style controls combined with a card-based game distribution system make for…a video game and many trips to GameStop for games. Yes it has a pen and Wi-Fi but those seem more like afterthoughts. Not impressive.
iPod Touch: The games available on the Touch are not the heavy graphics and classic titles you’ll find on Nintendo but the Touch is a more versatile device. My daughter uses her Touch for games (there are games like PopMath that are great for learning times tables) as well as music, movies, e-books (she has a book about Abraham Lincoln from Amazon) and a few classic games like Hangman, Pac-Man, etc. This is perfect for her, and my son (who bought the Nintendo DS) is a little jealous of her iPod. She keeps a calendar, a few contacts and hasn’t even really gotten into the internet stuff yet (we’ve tuned much of it off) but loves getting her daily weather report to figure out what to wear to school
If I were buying a game console for a child today I would seriously consider an iPod Touch over a PSP or DS. The games are cheap and instantly downloadable and the device is far, far more versatile even without the internet features like email, browsing, etc. When you add in the internet capability it blows the other products away.
Reader Comments (9)
I can't decide which one 2 get, I think I would like the ipod touch longer but the ds is so tempting
My oldest son's birthday is coming up in October and my wife and I are leaning toward the iPod Touch. The reasons:
- Once you purchase the DSi plus one or two games, you're at the same price point as a 8GB iPod Touch.
- The Touch is much more versatile in other functions like MP3, video & Internet.
- We already own a Wii (and my PS3) for consoles so I really don't think we need another console in the house.
- The DSi is not backward compatible with our 10 or so Gameboy Advance games.
Given all of the above, someone would have a hard time convincing us to go with the DSi vs a Touch.
My son has now purchased an iPod Touch, largely to achieve parity with his sister. Outcome: He uses his iPod for movies mostly - there is one game he likes - however he still is a DS addict. As a result we have to establish hard limits around DS playing but this has NEVER been an issue with iPods for either child. I wish that DS were to magically disappear, but since he paid for it and all I couldn't bring myself to make that happen.
Thanks for the article. My wife and I are considering the iPod touch for our five year old. The primary reason isthat he is already playing our iPhones and likes the memory games and the racing games. he does well with the letter games as well and is getting better at his math. Maybe I haven't seen them on the DS, but the touch seems like it would be more versatile. For the price of an entry level DS we can get the touch and only pay .99 cents a game or a bit more, or even get games for free. We looked at the DS but found they don't have a lot of games for small kids, plus the price of games is prohibitive with our childs fickle nature. The touch would also let us put my son's favorite songs on so he can listen to it when he wants. If the touch is like my standard iPod we can set a password to lock it out if necessary.
In my opinon the iPod is the better value - I find the actual expense of a DS frustrating - $25+ for games, then it's on a cartridge that ends up lost, investment gone. DS chargers keep disappearing while I seem to always have an abundance of USB ipod cables about the house. It's just easier to manage.
Kids get fickle with games also and between all the varieties free app options and the .99+ games available, there's enough there to keep them interested.
I just like the fact that the content is in the cloud with the iPod and all your stuff is backed up on the host machine. iPod is better value.
I just have to say thank you for your post! I think we will go with the ipod Touch. I was also torn and thinking about getting one of each, but was afraid they would fight over who gets to play which. We have 2 boys, our youngest who is turning 6 later this spring and a nine year old. I have to agree with others poster here that we simply don't need another console system and I like how the Touch will grow with them. Our oldest can now use email, calendar, and contacts to keep track of his friends and soon the younger one will be able to do this as well. I also agree that the learning games for the younger kids on the Touch is nice compared to what the DS offers. The way I see it is that the world is turning to Mac and soon Windows will be a thing of the past. If I can introduce my children to the Mac in a fun and friendly way, then this will only help them as the grow up and are required to use a computer for school on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong here, keeping my kids out of the mud or inside for any period of time is a very difficult task, but I think this is great for those rainy days or for in the car!
Great review of the both, I didn't realise iPod Touch has many games for it, I've just purchased a Nintendo DSi for my 5 year old son for Xmas this year, I am guessing he probably wouldn't have really benefited from the iPod Touch in this particular instance. :) There are so many options available out there now, it's difficult to know where to turn.
Geoff @ gaming pc shop.
Thanks so much for your post. This is the exact dilemma we are having right now. We have a high level reader in first grade and we can't decide between the Leapster Explorer, DSi or iPod Touch.... I wish that some readers had found some more educational games and posted their ideas for the touch. Thanks again.
I've found similar behaviors between the kids on the two devices as well: the DS games generate more addictive behavior to the point where we heavily restrict its use.