When Nintendo introduced its portable DS system in 2004, many longtime fans were skeptical. Its innovations — the dual screens, the stylus-based controls, the built-in microphone — seemed gimmicky. How could this clunky slab ever replace the beloved Game Boy? Five years and 100 million units later, no one doubts that Nintendo knew what it was doing. The second version of the hardware, the slender DS Lite, has been particularly popular; in December, Nintendo sold 3 million in the United States, breaking the one-month sales record for any video-game console.
