First, I knew almost immediately after I wrote this that I might change my mind. I also knew that my decision that the iPhone wins was heavily based on what I perceive as weaknesses of the DSi vs. the DS Lite, and that if I were reviewing the DS Lite, I might have rated it above the iPhone. I have two major problems with the DSi: 1) the larger-but-same-resolution screens look like crap compared even to the DS Lite, to say nothing of how bad they look compared to the iPhone’s screen, and 2) DSi Ware is a major disappointment. The selection is pathetically limited, and most of the good games are also available for the iPhone. Sacrificing the Game Boy slot for DSi Ware is not a good trade-off.

Second, I was writing this review in a bit of a vacuum in terms of new DS games. There’s a lot of shovelware on the platform. And, granted, there’s a lot of shovelware on the iPhone too, but you don’t pay $20-$35 for it. But I knew Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks was on the horizon. And now that I have it… wow. Graphically, it’s spotty: when Link is running around, it looks pretty good, but when it goes into full 3D on the train, the ugly, blocky texture maps are a sad disgrace. I can’t believe Nintendo released the game looking like it does.

But that doesn’t matter. The game is so polished in every other way, so engaging, so deep, it blows away anything I’ve ever seen on the iPhone. And the DS has other major franchise games, especially New Super Mario Bros., that nothing on the iPhone can match.

So, would I change my ultimate winner if I rewrote this post today? Maybe. Maybe not. And, like a coach’s challenge in the NFL, if there’s not clear evidence to overturn the call on the field, it stands.

Winner: iPhone.

I only have limited play on the iPhone so I can’t say too much on where those games have gone. I do like the old school DS scheme though. The backwards compatibility of the DSi is a bummer though.

I gotta throw some Android comments in there too. I have only free games at this point. They are mostly puzzle type games. There are a few others. It looks like it is capable of doing some good graphics. I’ve played some demos of some pretty good graphics intensive games. There is a long way to go though. The one plus is that I have a physical keyboard on my G1, which makes more traditional game play possible. With the touch screen and accelerometer new schemes can be done too.

1. An either-or situation. I am fortunate in that I didn’t have to choose between an iPhone and a Nintendo DSi. I own both, and I can take advantage of the benefits of both. The main reason I was in the market to replace my old DS was my anticipation of the upcoming release of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

2. Price comparison. An iPhone or iPod touch costs more than a Nintendo DS. The going price for a DSi is $169. You can get an iPhone for as little as $99, but that’s with the AT&T subsidy. So let’s focus on the iPod touch.

An 8 GB is $199; a 32 GB is $299, and (I just learned this exists) a 64 GB is a whopping $399. Hard to justify dropping 400 bucks on an iPod touch, even with that much storage, but for the sake of argument let’s say you have a total budget of $300 for both the system and the games. You could get a 32 GB iPod and stick with free games, but let’s talk about the 8 GB at $200.

8 GB may not seem like enough storage, but as long as you’re not going to fill it up with music and video, that’s actually a ton of space: I have over 100 apps installed on my iPhone, including over 50 games, and they’re only consuming a total of 4.5 GB.

So… it’s down to the price of the games. New release DS games retail for $30. iPhone games range from free to $10, but most of the good ones are in the $3 to $7 range. For the sake of argument, let’s assume an average of $5 per game.

What does $300 get you? It’ll get you a DSi and 4 games. Or, it’ll get you an 8 GB iPod touch and 20 games. I’m not trying to argue quantity over quality, but the quality is there. I could name 20 iPhone games worth owning almost as easily as I could name 4 quality DS games. There are a handful of amazing DS games that I would unequivocally say are worth $30 but honestly I feel like most of the DS games I own were grossly overpriced, especially now in the context of what’s available for the iPhone.

But the iPhone will never have a Mario game, or a Zelda game, or a Metroid game, or a Pokémon game. And, for that matter, it probably will never even have a knockoff of these legendary Nintendo franchises that’s worth 99 cents. So factor that in.

The tilting/twisting mechanisms for iPhone games are still tiresome to me as well, and I don’t think I’ll ever really appreciate those. But the touch-based controls have come a long way, and the overall quality of the games on the iPhone has improved by leaps and bounds.

Ultimately, what it comes down to for me is a subjective experience: I had gone a few months without playing a DS, but playing games on the iPhone (mostly puzzle/board/word games, to be honest) almost daily. When I got the DSi, I was frankly shocked at how cruddy its display looks, and I found myself not really very interested in playing any of my old games — although I quickly became addicted to the DSi Ware version of Dr. Mario that came preinstalled. Losing the GBA backward-compatibility is a big hit against the system, and the DSi Shop is a joke.

Platformers on iPhone are still kind of weak, but a few worth mentioning are Dungeon Hunter — as I cited in the post — and Soosiz, a game that’s very much in the spirit of Super Mario Bros., with a lot of the kinds of gravity-warping tricks of Super Mario Galaxy.

By the way — if your opinion of iPhone gaming is in any way shaped by having played Super Monkey Ball, please do yourself a favor and throw that one out the window. It was a high-profile early release, but it’s complete garbage due to an unplayable control scheme.

The DS Lite has a tendency to make my hand cramp up if I play too long (maybe that’s a good thing), but for playing games, having tactile buttons and a D-pad is a must. As far as the feel of handheld gaming goes, I think the original Gameboy was the most comfortable to use.

As far as selection… I’m a fan of 2D platformers like Super Mario Bros. That’s never going to feel good without a directional pad and real buttons.

But for me, it’s always a big thumbs down to cell phone gaming in general, and the iPhone/iPod touch is no exception.