DSi vs. DS lite

I'd say DS Lite because you don't lose the GBA slot that way, but at the same time, there just aren't that many RPGs of note on the DS or GBA. As an RPG fan myself, I share your dismay, but you might really be happier with a PSP. You can get Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, Crisis Core the Final Fantasy 7 prequel, Disgaea with the full voice acting of the PS2 original (trust me, it's worth it) and a special Etna-centric mode, you can import a copy of Tales of Eternia (which is a remake of Tales of Destiny 2 IIRC), there's a God of War for when you want a little more hacking and slashing, Riviera is a respectable little title as well. You also have Star Ocean 1 and 2, and a remake of Final Fantasy 1 and 2.

Since your finance already has a DS, and you can play the few good DS RPGs that there are (FFIV, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy Tactics A2, a couple Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles) on her DS. This way you maximize your portable RPG options.

DS Lite is a great solid system with lots of triple AAA games and you get the Gameboy Advance slot which adds even more great titles to its big library of games.

I think nintendo needs to do something better than the DSi because the Iphone is going to be a huge problem for them soon.

how much does a DSi and a DS lite cost? I saw its selling from the starting bid $1 on cannla just before, is this a good deal?

this may sound weird but my dog chewed the corner off my ds lite so my mum said she would buy me a new one when we got the i said i would put in the extra money to get a dsi. when i actually used it i was a little disappointed, no GBA games. although because of its sd card slot it is a lot easier to mod i have mine all modded up now and its great but the silly thing is i could do that on my old ds lite use a ds card that you can put a sd card in. but then i still cant put GBA games thats the only real problem i have with it apparently it plays better music but i have an ipod so i don't care. oh yeh and the camera it comes which is ounce again kind of pointless, because every phone comes with a camera anyway. the way i look at it is we lost a GBA slot and gained a camera personally i wound rather keep the GBA slot. but this begs the question why the hell couldn't we keep both?