I don't want to bash other peoples recommendations, but I would like to say that the Wii is a bad choice when in comparison to the DS. The Wii still needs to build up it's library for one thing. The DS crushes it in that area. Then there is pricing. If you buy a much cheaper DS now, with much cheaper games, and more games available it is a much better deal imo. You can get a Wii later when there are more options color-wise, and it is cheaper as well as a larger backlog. The only thing I see that the Wii has that the DS doesn't is an appeal to people who mostly play consoles and can't get into handhelds. If that is the case with you, then get a Wii. It is all your opinion though, and should be mostly based on what games you want the most as well as the amount.

You say DS has sold 106,000,000 when it has actually sold about 109,510,891. Comment me on my profile and I will give you a list of must-have Wii and DS games.

Like others have said, you really need to take a look at what games you're interested in... so here's some links to what to look forward to!

Wii
Games Out Now
Games Coming Out Later in 2009
Games in 2010

360
Games Out Now
Games in 2010

DS
Games Out Now

Go with what he is saying :)

Save up the money for Uncharted 2, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, Call Of Duty World At War 2, Gran Turismo 5, Tekken 6

Use some money to treat yr family to a meal so that they'll love u more n buy u more games.

Others have said much of what I want to say, but I'll go into a bit more detail.

The good part is that price is no longer an issue.

Since you're obviously very interested in the experience that the PS3 offers, the 360 seems to be your best bet, as it offers a very similar experience. The drawback is that the two might be too similar: nearly every third-party game is shared between the two systems. So take a serious look at the 360's first-party offerings, and ask yourself it they entice you enough to make you want to purchase the system. Remember that many of those titles can be gotten for very cheap by now, which is an added bonus. Also, make sure to look at XBLA, as it has some excellent exclusive games as well.

The Wii is both easier and harder to recommend. It is markedly and deliberately different in what it has to offer compared to the HD systems. The upshot is that nearly every good game on the system, released and upcoming, is an exclusive. The downside is that many of the best titles (i.e. Nintendo's own) are still at full-price, and aren't going to drop anytime soon. Also, make sure you think long and hard about whether you'll appreciate the values behind the Wii, as they're very, very different than those on the HD systems: online and good graphics are there, but in smaller quantities and with much less emphasis.

If online gaming and HD graphics are your thing, the Wii is a waste of your money. Also be warned that the Wii is deficient in certain genres, most notably FPS, fighters, and racing (although that seems to be slowly changing), and what it DOES offer in those areas are still different than those you'd get on the HD systems. Finally, and most importantly, realize that the motion controls are not 1:1, and never will be. That said, your concern about Sony's Wand is nearly irrelevant: the software is almost certainly going to be radically different, and it's unlikely that the Wand will ever be the centerpeice of the PS3 (in contrast to the Wiimote). Put that out of your mind when calculating your next purchase.

Also, don't overlook WiiWare, the Virtual Channel, or the complete backwards compatibility: the latter is especially important if you never owned or extensively played a Gamecube, as that system has several fantastic games available for low prices. And it's not like the graphics are that much worse.

The DS is very easy to recommend, but it really doesn't seem like you're that interested in it. Again, know that it's a completely different experience from the PSP, and that the two offer very different software. If you like what you see, go for it (the fact that you can get it, and its games, relatively cheaply makes the DS less of a risk).

I can't tell you more without you telling me what you like in your games.

I strongly disagree. I would go so far as to say that the two systems offer dramatically different experiences, making direct comparisons moot.

I find the two platforms very similar. They both have the same marketing goal, as well as a similar library when you compare the years they have been released on the market. The thing that I think that makes them different is how their similar goal is implemented as well as how strong their competition is. I think I should rephrase what I meant to say in the quoted post. I meant that the DS has a much larger library of quality games right now than the Wii does. It also has more diversity than the Wii. Even if they did have vastly different libraries(which I would say otherwise), the DS still outnumbers it when you think of value and how many choices you have to choose from on the system. If I were to only have one console out of the two for say a year I would choose the DS over the Wii because of the Droughts the Wii brings and me not having to worry about running out of quality games.  Having said that, I would admit that my favorite games this generation have been on the Wii. They are just too spaced out compared to the DS for me to say that the Wii is a better console. Now this may and probably will change as time goes by and the Wii's becomes more and more like the DS in terms of how much support it gets.

Xbox 360

So wrong it hurts.

Untrue. Granted that both systems are designed to expand the market and fight indifference, but remember that the Wii, unlike the DS, is deliberately designed to be a disruptive product. It seems like a minor point, but in fact it is not; one of the Wii's goals is to completely change the values behind gaming (in Nintendo's favor, of course), a goal that the DS does not really have (there is a difference between trying to appeal to a wider audience, and trying to completely change how the game is played. I can go into more details in a separate place, if you wish, but I feel like we're getting sidetracked). This difference, I believe, helps to explain the different levels of third-party support the two platforms are receiving...

I don't see it that way. The DS' library is primarily, although not exclusively, focused on single-player experiences, with many of its top-titles being about single-player. Think of Nintendogs, Brain Age, Imagine, the Trainer titles, NSMB, Pokemon, etc.: while most of these titles have multi-player, the emphasis is definitely on the single-player mode. This emphasis is only heightened when you look at third-party games, which are much less likely to have Wi-Fi than Nintendo's own (and when they do, it's implemented in a much less significant manner, often as a throwaway feature).

The Wii, by contrast, focuses on social gaming to a greater extent: the flagship title, Wii Sports, is meant for multiple players. The much-maligned "party games" are another clear example, as these titles would have sold much less on any other system. Even NSMBWii, a Mario platformer, is emphasizing the fact that it has four player local play, and the big feature about Animal Crossing Wii is that I could visit my friends' cities and chat with them in real time. There are few titles, even third-party ones, that don't offer localized mutliplayer: even Madworld, a qunitessentially single-player experience if ever there was one, implemented a fairly decent score-attack multi-player mode.

Granted that there are clear examples on both systems that cut the other way, but I feel comfortable stating that the two systems are very deliberately going for different experiences, and their libraries express that division.

This is pretty subjective though (which reinforces, but does not prove, my point). I, for instance, own both systems, but despite DS games being about half the price I still own twice as many Wii games as DS games. The systems' tie ratios (at least in America) argue that I'm more the rule than the exception here, as the Wii has sold more units of software for each unit of hardware than the DS has. The future will only stretch the figures in the Wii's favor: I'm getting about ten new Wii retail games (and several WiiWare/VC ones) by mid-2010, but only about three DS games (and possibly six DSiWare ones, when I get around to buying the system).

But if those libraries offer different experiences, as I maintain, the DS' breadth of titles is pretty irrelevant. Consider this analogy: there are two shops right next to each other. One of them offers a modest-to-large selection of great soft-serve yogurt, the other sells a massive variety of fantastic ice cream (we're talking Willy Wonka levels here). The choice of which to go to is obvious, right?

Well, not so much, because you're assuming that the customers treat yogurt and ice cream identically. In reality, tons of folks don't: while I personally love both, health nuts and the like will eschew the ice cream parlor and its wide variety of quality treats for the yogurt joint, because the yogurt offers them what they're interested, while ice cream does not. Similarly, there are folks who genuinely prefer yogurt to ice cream, people who can tolerate yogurt but despise ice cream (yeah, I don't get it either, but they exist), etc. etc. The point is that when products are similar, but not identical, offering a wider variety of ice cream when the customer is less interested in it than yogurt is probably not going to overcome a person's preference for the yogurt, especially when the yogurt place offers a "good enough" variety of stuff.

To relate this more to gaming, your average Wii owner doesn't give a flying flip that the 360 offers a greater variety of high-Metacritic-rated titles: they want their friggin' Wii Sports/Fit/Resort etc., and the 360 doesn't offer them that. Neither does the DS.

A few points: first, while many (perhaps even most, I can not say) would agree with you, the point I'm trying to get across is that this is not a universal sentiment, because Wii experiences and DS experiences are not the same. I know we disagree on that point, and I look forward to more discussion on the subject, but for now it's still my thesis, and I've not been convinced to abandon it yet.

Second, having software droughts is a different topic than the one we started with.

Third, a person who's only just getting a Wii, three years after release, is going to take a long while before any software droughts affect him, especially when that person already owns two other systems (and presumably will be keeping up on those as well). WiiWare, Virtual Console, and Gamecube compatibility will only further stretch the time before he runs out of good games to play. Remember that this thread is trying to see the situation from the point of view of a person who does not own a Wii (and may never do so, for that matter).

Okay, really need to get back to reading. Will continue tomorrow!