Nintendo said all along that their DS portable was a video game system first and foremost, in stark contrast to the multimedia functionality of the Sony PSP (where it seems that high quality games play second fiddle). Funny, because it seems that Nintendo is gearing up for an MP3 playing add-on for the DS (Lite): maybe they were inspired by Apple and want a big piece of the accessory selling pie.

Of course, if you wanted music and/or video playback on your Nintendo DS, you could have already picked up any number of aftermarket devices — the Supercard, M3 Perfect, and EZFlash IV are among the most popular — but this is the first official Nintendo product that can transform your DS into an iPod (sort of).

Like all of the other “devkits” on the market, the Nintendo MP3 player plugs into the GBA slot. There is no internal memory, so you’ll need to shove an SD card (up to 2GB) in there to stash your tunes. Different skins are available, and they’ve included an extra headphone jack in the cartridge itself.

We’re expecting this to hit Europe on October 8th, with an asking price of 30 Euros (US$38). And like the Opera web browser, they refuse to tell us if (and when) they’re bringing this to North America.