How was an ugly dual-screen Game and Watch-alike going to win a console war?! Nintendo seemed to be grabbing at straws, and inexplicably jumping off the good ship Game Boy, scuppering its flagship handheld for no good reason. There was a nervousness from fans that Sony's arrival on the handheld market was the death knell to Nintendo's dominance in the same way it had been with the home console market nearly a decade earlier. The early reveal model Reggie pulled from his pocket looked undeniably clunky, especially up against the sleek elegance of Sony's PSP.

The original prototype and even the initial 'Phat' version of the hardware certainly didn't look like much of a threat.

That was until it promptly slayed the Boy king and took his throne.

It's strange to think back to a time when the Nintendo DS - that odd-looking folding system - was positioned as a 'third pillar' alongside GameCube and Game Boy Advance.