You don't need the drum skin to play as it is simply a bit of plastic, it doesn't plug into anything, it was just designed to make things a little more comfortable and 'realistic'. Obviously the drum skin will only fit over a DS Lite, but you can still play all three segments on a DS or a Lite. The only system missing out is the DSi as it is obviously incompatible with the guitar grip. But you should in theory be able to play the drums and sing along on the DSi.