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Eight years ago today, Europe became the last major territory to get its hands on the original DS, that now known as the "phat". It can be easy to forget that it was a handheld that truly innovated the concept of mainstream handheld gaming, incorporating a clamshell two screen design famously pioneered in the Game & Watch handhelds, while throwing in an intuitive touch screen to match the additional buttons on offer.

Since the phat model it's seen two major iterations with the rather gorgeous DS Lite and the DSi, which included Nintendo's first handheld download game service; naturally there were plenty of colours, bundles and the XL model, too. It's a system that's succeeded due to creativity and fun rather than raw power, with its various models making it the biggest selling handheld games console of all time, with over 150 million unit sales. It also has a games library that can be argued as one of the best collections available, with plenty of classics to choose from.

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So here's to Nintendo's most successful console in its illustrious history, and you can also check out our feature — Hardware Classics: Nintendo DS Lite — if you want to know what made that model so special.

Whether you're in Europe or elsewhere in the world, let us know your abiding thoughts on the DS in the comments below.