I remember first seeing the DS in News paper ad, and I was immediately intruiged by it's uniqueness. 2 screens?, 3D graphics? Even if its initial design was fugly as uck looking back on it, Seven year old me was still dazzled by it's look, especially when I later found out about its touch screen and mic. I didn't get a DS at launch, I didn't even own one until 2007, but during the system's earlier years, I went to every kiosk I could find to play this thing, even with Sony's PSP staring me right in the face, I always played the DS simply because of what it could do, and once Nintendogs dropped, I knew this the DS was special. Looking back in hindsight, the first few months of the system were extremely rough, with very little to play outside of a somewhat compromised, but still playable port of Super Mario 64, and a demo of a game that was about 2 years out from a release.
In the end though, the DS ended up being a fantastic system, I'd even go as far as to call it Nintendo's magnum-opus in mobile gaming, at least until The Switch tops it. It had everything you needed for a handheld of its time, great games, 3D graphics, intuitive controls, wi-fi, local wireless, and camera, audio and game downloads with the arrival of the DSi.