Every console in this generation has undergone some sort of redesign.
The Xbox 360 underwent drastic changes to fit into a shiny black number, the PS3 managed a miraculous weight loss that would have been worthy of reality TV if it were human, and a stripped-down, horizontally-inclined Wii launched to rather less fanfare at the end of last year.
The handhelds are at it too, and they're arguably the worst offenders. Nintendo's DS went under the knife four times over its lifecycle, topped only by the PlayStation Portable, which has been available in five different versions.
Often a redesign is best for both the gamers and the manufacturers. Not everyone is going to love the initial design that ships day one and with parts and manufacturing costs getting smaller and smaller, it just makes sense to start cramming more into the same space or trimming the fat altogether.
With the larger than life Nintendo 3DS XL out in the open and rumours of a significantly slimmer PlayStation 3 on the production line, we've picked out five of the console redesigns that did everything right.
Nintendo DS Lite (launched June 2006)
Back in 2005, things looked uncertain in Nintendo and Sony's war for handheld dominance. The original Nintendo DS, despite a wealth of software, was an ugly silver sandwich that was still battling for supremacy over Sony's new PSP.
Drastic measures were taken. The dual-screened portable was taken back to the drawing board in June 2006, and the DS Lite was rolled out.
A sleeker revision, the DS Lite had it all: bigger screens, longer battery life, comfy thicker stylus, and a design that was nice to look at.
The sacrifice? The GameBoy Advance cartridges stuck out a few centimetres (Nintendo would later tear backwards compatibility out of the system with the DSi). But despite that, the DS Lite didn't just win the fight - it won the war.
PSone (launched July 2000)
Released alongside Sony's PlayStation 2 in the year 2000, many were surprised to find this dinky little fella topping console charts well into its successor's launch.
Though that may have been down to the PS2's short supplies, plenty of people were snapping up its slimmer older brother.
Sony tucked all of the original Playstation’s now-outdated tech all into a considerably smaller, lighter, paler slab of plastic that featured an attachable LCD display for on-the-go PlayStation gaming.
Sony also used it as an opportunity to up the system's protection from mod chips and other piracy issues that had plagued the console since its launch.
Game Boy Color (launched 1998)
These days the original Game Boy is idolised as an iconic piece of gaming history, but to those who actually owned one it was a bulky hunk of plastic that dragged its power from a whopping four AA batteries.
Some would argue that Game Boy Color was a fully-fledged successor to the original rather than a redesign, but it was also the Game Boy we'd always wanted. It was a trimmed down handheld that borrowed much of its visual profile from the earlier Game Boy Pocket, had a colourful screen, and boasted twice the battery life of the Game Boy from just two AA batteries.
Xbox 360 Slim (launched June 2010)
Thinner, sleeker, and lacking the iconic circle of LEDs where its infamous 'red ring of death' used to glow, the Xbox 360 Slim isn’t adored for its sleek design and neat touch controls but because it addresses almost everything people hated about the Xbox before it.
Powering up the system doesn’t sound like a Hoover being turned on in the next room. You can get online wirelessly without having to fork out on a pricey dongle or fiddle with wires. It's got an even bigger hard drive and is less prone to system failures. It even has a Kinect port to save on plug space next to its slightly smaller power brick.
It took a good five years for Microsoft to patch up the failings of the original Xbox 360, but the result was worth the wait.
Game Boy Advance SP (launched March 2003)
Despite an impressive number of handheld classics, aesthetically the Game Boy Advance was everything you didn’t want in a portable. Even overlooking its battery life and landscape design, that lovely big screen lacked a backlight to illuminate its impressive colours and visuals. Playing it without a light source became a nightmarish experience (remember squinting at that tiny dark screen on all those sunny holidays?).
The Game Boy Advance SP solved all its predecessor's failings in one fell swoop. A new clamshell design made the system perfect for almost any pocket big or small, an optional backlight made the screen explode in all its 32-bit glory and finally, Nintendo admitted defeat and slapped a built-in rechargeable battery into the handheld.
If it wasn't for the absence of a headphone jack, The Game Boy Advance SP would be portable bliss.
What’s your favourite console redesign? Let us know in the comments below.
Source : ign[dot]com
