Hollywood said:
1) How much better does GBA games look on the DS over the SP, if any at all?
2) Is it more comfortable to play GBA games on a DS over an SP? Ergonomically and everything? What are the excess buttons used for?
3) Does the battery last longer on a DS than GBA SP when playing SP games?
4) Do the games sound any better on the DS than on the SP?
5) Does the DS help any GBA games TECHNICALLY speaking? Less slowdown in games that have it, smoother look, etc?
Thanks ... and any other thing of note in comparing the two would be appreciated also.
1. Subjectively comparing the two, I'd say the DS makes GBA games look a little sharper and brighter. It's slight, but any uptick is always appreciated. This assumes you don't mind a black border surrounding the screen, since the DS has bigger screen dimensions.
2. Like others have said, the DS face buttons are a bit cramped and the system as a whole is wider than an SP. Personally, I have no problem playing RPGs and strats on a DS, but action games really make me feel the pain caused by ergonomic differences. Whether it's because the system is too wide, the shoulder buttons are spaced far apart, or because the d-pad requires a slightly harder press, I can't pin down any one cause, BUT I can say that after an hour of Donkey Kong Country 2 or Metal Slug, the muscle on my left hand below the thumb hurt like hell and my fingers on that hand were feeling arthritic. I'm sticking to the SP for fast-paced games.
3. Yep - seems to be a good 2-3 hours more than the standard SP battery.
4. In a way, they do sound better on the DS, since you're getting stereo sound out of the speakers instead of mono, but if you used headphones in the past, there'd be no difference.
5. The DS doesn't do a damn thing to help GBA games. One of the system's two processors is an ARM7, which is the same processor the GBA uses. When you play a GBA game, only that processor is used. One thing that may be pro or con depending on your perspective though, is that you can keep a GBA game in the GBA slot while a DS game is in the DS slot. It's kinda nice having two games in the system at once and selecting them from a menu....
(I actually still prefer the SP for GBA play, firstly because I like its light weight and smaller size, secondly because I don't get hand fatigue from using it so long as a game isn't shoulder-button intensive, and lastly because the shell's color scheme isn't so distracting--I have a black SP)