Tech’s taking a holiday this holiday — no substantial hardware upgrades for gaming are expected before Christmas.

But that hasn’t stopped manufacturers from repackaging products to make them seem new. As an example, Nintendo is offering two refashioned DS handheld systems this season.

Both devices have undergone cosmetic surgery to drive up system sales during this gloomy-looking shopping season. One DS has a red case and a big “M” in one corner to promote the “New Super Mario Bros.” game that comes with it. The other is ice blue and packaged with “Brain Age,” the popular yet aging brain-training game.

Nintendo has started shipping both systems for release Friday, the semi-official start of the Christmas shopping season. The company says it’s targeting newcomers to gaming with these systems, capitalizing as well on the cachet of carrying around a DS that doesn’t look like every other DS out there.

Market watchers predict the systems will sell briskly. Game Guy, however, prefers to wait a few months until the DSi — a true system upgrade; the “i” refers to its wireless Internet capability — crosses over from Japan next summer. Because when money’s tight, investing in real change beats cachet every time.