Nintendo DS Editorial

[NFG]

Thought I'd offer my opinions on the Nintendo DS system, even though it's not out yet.  Everything's subject to change, but much software is clearly far along the development pipe, and the hardware's apparently done....

1. The Design
It looks fantastic.  I love the clamshell design, it's not only a lovely retro gesture bringing back images of Nintendo's Game & Watch history, but it's also protective and I'm sure will enable a sleep mode when the system's closed.  The GBA's screen and to a more extreme extent the PSP's are far too easily scratched and damaged.  Clamshells are cool.  It's a bit thicker than I would have preferred, but I'm sure it's chock full of goodness.  On the downside I fear the shoulder buttons, as they've been shown at least, are too small and don't project enough; they might be hard to press.

Also, finally, four buttons on the face.  It's about f**king time.

2. Dual Screens
It's a gimmick.  There's no reason for it whatsoever, except that it facilitates the clamshell design.  Besides the ability to close the shell granted by the twin screens there's absolutely no advantage to this design, and don't give me that horseshit about twin screens allowing new and amazing play modes.  It's cheaper to manufacture a single larger screen and require all the software produced to divide it in half, if that's what Nintendo wants.  Having a map available at all times is a superfluous concept, and games like Pac'n'Pix totally waste the second screen with a massive score display and gobs of unused space.

There are plenty of disadvantages to the design; the distance the eye travels to see the other screen is farther than looking to the other half of a single screen; the chances of failure are higher (more parts).  There's more parts to use to connect the two screens too.

3. Dual Processors
This is neither a here-nor-there addition, really.  Dual processors have a small effect on the cost (A single faster processor or two slower ones is 50% of one, half of another..).  There's no reason to make each processor control one screen, a single faster processor can easily control two screens.  Sounds like Nintendo got a good deal on certain parts more than anything else.  It remains to be seen if Nintendo will make them a single piece of silicon or dual, which will affect the cost by a few millicents per unit.  

4. Touch Screens
This is a great idea, no question, however I wonder about its durability and whether it'll be comfortable.  How can you hold a the system and work the dpad and/or the buttons at the same time?  Obviously games will have to use one or the other, and if you're going to be drawing on the screen at all I can imagine the normal controls will be totally unused; there won't be enough brainpower left over to manipulate the controls, touch the screen and hold the system.  As a portable there's only two hands available for support and manipulation.  

As far as durability goes, I think the first kid with sand on his fingers is gonna fuck up the screen hardcore, and in my experience these capacitive touchscreens are really kind of crappy, I've never seen a three year old palmpilot work very well if it's seen any kind of significant use.

5. Wireless Connections
Nintendo fears change.  They've staunchly refused to take more than a few baby steps into the connected world, despite bullish words to the contrary back when the NES was king.  Their modem + BBA adaptors for the GameCube remain virtually unused.  Built-in wireless on the DS is a stonking great idea, but it's not new - the NeoGeoPocket had wireless (though of course no one cared) and the GBA now has wireless, hell the GameBoy Color had an infrared port no one used.  Games like PictoChat would be great online applications, but the odds of anyone over the age of 18 getting to put this to any kind of use are slim indeed.


6. Teh Gamez
The promise of a touch-screen capable game system is a powerful lure to me but it seems no one knows what the hell it's good for.  Nintendo's examples, like drawing clouds under a falling BabyMario, leave me cold.  Sega's demo of making sonic run by swishing your finger back and forth quickly on the other screen make me cringe, that's just f**king stupid.  How can you prevent the system from shaking when you do that?  

The N64 rehashes shown as tech demos strike fear into my heart.  I don't want decade-old technology and be handed a bunch of re-releases and remakes, but you just know - the very instant Nintendo says 'N64 games could easily be ported thanks to the great power of the DS' that all the developers hear is "fast and easy ports of existing IP" as dollar signs flip over their eyes.  We've got the first and second generation Nintendo hardware being resold to us on the GBA, it's too damned early for Nintendo to be scouring their backcatalogue for re-release.  And an argument could be made that the number of good N64 games worth purchasing twice is a small number indeed.

Hudson's Bomberman is ridiculous, a complete waste of the second screen.  One screen shows the game in its proper 2D full-view glory, the other shows a fancy 3D mode.  You can only watch one at a time, the user could have selected the preferred view on a single-screen system.

So far the best looking game I've seen, that makes good innovative use of the touchscreen and 3D capability of the system, is Namco's Pac'n'Roll.  While the second screen is totally wasted as a display, it's put to good use as a track-pad-alike input device.  The game appears to be a Marble Madness remake.

7. Conclusion
Of course none of this is anything more than fanboy masturbation in the absence of cold hardware and hot games, especially since Nintendo's known for pulling the rug out from under their hardware for no reason at all.

The DS is a gimmicky good-looking system with some very real potential that I'm certain will go completely unrealized.  And what of this new GB replacement, rumored to hit shelves next year?  What the fuck is Nintendo playing at, releasing this thing at all?  It's a stop-gap, a weird tech demo, certain to add fuel to the fervour of their detractors when it sells moderate amounts before the new GB lands.  Did they think Sega was successful with the 32X or what?  The potential for blow-uppage here is, IMO, pretty serious.

[Chuplayer]

Whatever its fate, I'm glad this info came out before I plopped a deposit down on that gimmicky NES GBASP. I'd rather get the DS than an SP. I don't care if it turns out to be a 32X. I hate my original GBA. I only have three games for it (F-Zero Maximum Velocity, Sonic Advance, and King of Fighters EX) because of its crappy design, and I've had it for over three years! I swear, I put less than 24 hours of playtime into all three of those games combined! Not because they're bad games, but because the GBA sucks so hard! Bad button placement, subpar d-pad, and crappy screen.

Anyway, Nintendo would be fools not to put stereo speakers to the left and right of the top screen in those indentations where the buttons go when the system is closed. There hasn't been a Game Boy since the first one from 1989 that I haven't had my hand slip over the speaker and render the game silent. (GBASP's speaker is also placed well, but I don't have that.) And too bad Nintendo was afraid of alternate modes of connectivity. Even though they put the IR in the GBC, I was lucky to actually use it once. Me and my cousin traded Pokemon Pinball high scores using the IR, and couldn't you just use the link cable for that if you had to? I'm pretty sure that was an option. And I don't care if the 64DD was the SEGACD of the 32/64-bit era, I wanted it. I wanted it so badly. Yeah, it was released in Japan, but if it wasn't for that F-Zero X accessory (yes, it was an accessory) and that one online game, it might as well have not been released because it did nothing new or revolutionary. Mario Paint 64DD? Give me a break. I haven't touched my SNES Mario Paint in over two years. (Although that Gnat Attack minigame was kind of fun. Never did beat it.) I fail to see how the DS is the alternate "third party" that was going to be the new genre of video game hardware and wasn't going to be the next Game Boy. It's backward compatible with all other Game Boy games for crying out loud! If it's the dual screen, it's been done already in the old Game and Watch games. If it's the touch screen, it's been done already in the crappy Tiger Game.com system. They might as well just say "WE'VE GOT TEH FOUR FACE BUTTONS!!!!!11!!!!!1!1!!1" because that's the only thing anybody ever really wanted. That and lighted screens. (Both screens better be lighted or heads will roll.) Whether you like it or not, the DS is the best handheld hardware Nintendo has got. It's got to be worth something.

[gannon]

I think the 2 screens might come in handy though for games like pso and racing games.
Although I like the psp design, I don't really like how wide the screen is. It leaves very little room to actually grip the unit, and my hands are kinda big any ways so  it would make holding the thing somewhat uncomfortable.

[Chuplayer]

I figured that I'd just share my displeasure about the recent news that the DS is only going to support GBA games and none of the older Game Boy formats.

I wouldn't be so upset if they took out all Game Boy functionality completely. The DS wasn't supposed to have it to begin with. I was surprised that they announced that it was going to be fully compatible with older Game Boy games. I was upset that it was going to be less of that "third party" but I was ecstatic because this would be the ultimate handheld system. By taking out all the older Game Boy support, the DS is becoming more of the alternative third party that Nintendo first announced it as, and in a way, that's a good thing.

But they kept the GBA support. What kind of shit is that? It's half-assed backwards compatibility. It's a totally stupid decision. The system went from an already promising system to the ultimate handheld system to a crippled system. It's not even the GBA support that I'm upset about. It's the fact that they half-assed it and didn't follow through on the rest of the Game Boy support. Hell, they didn't even need to make a hardware component for it. Throw an emulator on the firmware for crying out loud. They're already cramming enough PictoCrapChat shit into the firmware. It can be done. And I hate the PictoChat concept because every snotty girl when I was in 4th grade had these stupid personal organizer things that also had communication features like this and they always pissed me off because they were always standing up and beaming messages across the lunchroom at each other. Anyway, the half-assed crippled nature of the backwards compatibility is a shame. It doesn't need to be this way.

BTW, they're scrapping the Game Boy link port, too. So even the GBA games are crippled to only being played in single player, and there's no word as to emulating the link port wirelessly which would kick ass. Imagine that. Playing the game on the top screen and managing the link port connection emulation on the touch screen. If I were a girl, I'd be moist just thinking about it. Why not keep the link port? Even if it's for some stupid printer thing down the road, the old Game Boy link port could handle it.

This is worse than Sony's cutting of PSX features. At least that was a niche system with niche features to be cut. The features cut from the DS are critical features, and the features they chose not to cut make those cut features seem more ridiculous The DS just wreaks of half-assed bullshit, and I don't want it anymore.

[atom]

The older gameboy support isnt there, because the older gameboy games are obsolete, and because you said it would require another chip. The GBA uses a whole new CPU and actually has the old GMB CPU in it to play the older games! The DS cant be a huge monster, they dont cant throw everything into it. Even having a software emulator would require a rom being put inside of the DS, its just not going to happen. Besides,  remember the emulation Nintendo did for the n64 zeldas? Not too impressive. (It was emulated right?)  You still have that gba right? How about a gameboy color? Use those if you want to play those games, the gameboy doesnt play NES games does it?

So far, I think the DS is very promising, I think dual screens is a great idea that could be put into great use. Its teh h4x.

[NFG]

I have to wonder about chuplayer's logic.  No backward compatibility is fine, 100% compatibility* is great, but meeting you half way is an affront of some sort?  How does that work?

* Note that no system besides the Super GameBoy plays SGB carts properly, so there's not been 100% compatability since the SGB.

[Chuplayer]

Somebody didn't like my previous post. I thought it was a pretty good one, too. My NES-on-a-chip point was great.

I have to wonder about chuplayer's logic.  No backward compatibility is fine, 100% compatibility* is great, but meeting you half way is an affront of some sort?  How does that work?

It is an affront of the bullcrap sort. If anybody can give me one good reason why GBA games are supported but GB/GBC games aren't, I'd like to hear it.

Examples of bad reasons:
1. Older games are obsolete. That argument holds no water whatsoever. They were obsolete when the GBA rolled around, and the GBA supported them. Since the DS is supporting the GBA, why can't the GBA part support the older stuff?
2. GBA games are still being made. Great. That does zilch in the way of explaining why older games aren't supported. The freaking cart port is right there for crying out loud.
3. The GBA didn't play NES games. If I ever find anybody using this argument in real life I will brutally murder them.

The way I see it is that this is just some stupid corporate decision that promotes the GBA because they couldn't decide if they wanted it to be an independent system or part of the Game Boy family. It doesn't benefit the gamer at all, and I don't need to explain again why it's a stupid idea. It's either all the way or no way, and half-way is simply an insult.

* Note that no system besides the Super GameBoy plays SGB carts properly, so there's not been 100% compatability since the SGB.

I was miffed about that back in GBC days, too. But I didn't have the internet back then to complain about it. I was really hoping that the GBC would support SGB colorization, but it never happened. Whatever. Complaining about it now is pointless.

[Martin]

[rant]

In my personal opinion, I don't think I'll like the DS,
Having 2 screens is a distraction for me, I didn't even like those Dual screen G&W games,
And imagine trying to play an Arcade shooter or fighter with 2 screens? I can't, That's probobaly why there's none in development for it, or imagine a decent driving game? (No, not another Mario Kart rip-off from nintendo, MarioKart sucked since the N64).

I'm pretty dissapointed with nintendo, Ever since the snes they seem to have gone downhill.

[/rant]

Btw, on an off topic note.

Anyone got the Xbox version of OutRun 2 yet?
It's out over here in europe already

And it "0WNZ!!!1!!11!111"  

[benzaldehyde]

1. Older games are obsolete. That argument holds no water whatsoever. They were obsolete when the GBA rolled around, and the GBA supported them. Since the DS is supporting the GBA, why can't the GBA part support the older stuff?

Thank you. I was going to flip out and start throwing things when first read the initial remark. Obsolecence is in the eye of the beholder.

Anyone got the Xbox version of OutRun 2 yet?
It's out over here in europe already

And it "0WNZ!!!1!!11!111"

You lucky bastard!