I was fortunate enough to spend two days with the final retail-ready Nintendo DS unit. I got my grubby hands on every DS launch title, experienced wireless multiplayer, and played several early versions of other announced titles. But for the sake of keeping the focus of this hands-on geared towards the DS itself, I’ll skip out on talking too much about the games.
First off, the DS has evolved, for the better, since my last hands-on at E3. Upon seeing the final build of the DS, my first reaction was how much smaller it was than I anticipated. That is not a bad thing as it fitted very comfortably in my hands. It is very light weight – about the weight of an SP. One concern I had that got washed away was that the weight might feel un-proportioned since the DS is much wider than an SP and the top half of the DS is dead weight on your hands and wrists. My many hours with the DS never brought a feeling of strain, so no worries there.
It is extremely easy to switch your focus and attention back and fourth from screen to screen, even when heavy action is going on. Thus far, most all the games only require you to focus on one screen at a time, but there are a few that do otherwise. With most games thus far, one screen is used for the action while the other screen acts as an option menu, map, or some other sub feature that may or may not have a direct impact on the game. It is easy to say that the potential options and features that can be utilized from two screens and a touch pad have barely been tapped, if at all.
As of now, the most unique ways the two screens and the touch pad are being optimized is coming from the simplest of games. That is one thing I am particularly excited to see, the redefining of the portable gaming world. The DS is to the handheld gaming market as the NES was to the home console market. The NES brought a revolution of new types of games, new experiences and new ways to play. Even though most of the games were sub-par, there were countless new games and fresh ideas, many of which were backed by the simplest of ideas and styles of gameplay. I think the DS has the potential to do just that – a boatload of new ideas brought to life that will lead to new gameplay experiences (something that we really haven’t had in the handheld gaming market since the original Game Boy). Sure there will still be plenty of game ports to the DS but from the small selection of titles already available for launch, expect to be impressed beyond just the usual graphical update that each new generation of hardware brings… expect much more from the Nintendo DS.
Moving into the touch pad, the DS already has more than its share of hits and misses. There is an obvious connection between the innovation and uniqueness of the dual screen and the touch pad. If the bottom screen does not offer much in terms of on screen action, it is safe to assume, in most cases, the level of innovation and interactivity with the stylus is not going to be that exciting either. I feel that once developers get adjusted and acquainted with the DS hardware, we can expect to see some really innovation titles. I do however have a complaint with the stylus – it is a tad too small. When resting in my hand, the end of the stylus poked into the side of my palm (depending on how I held the stylus) and after several hours of gameplay, it started to irritate the skin. An alternative to the stylus is the thumb strap which comes included when you buy a DS. It is a little piece of plastic that attaches to your thumb, allowing you to use your thumb on the touch pad as a means of analog control or an alternative to the provided D-pad. From my experience with the thumb strap, it has a very hard learning curve and takes quite a while to get used to on certain games. It does though work particularly well with Super Mario 64 DS.
The face controls of the DS work in different ways. Nintendo kept left handed gamers in mind when constructing the DS. Whether you hold the stylus in your right or left hand, you can use your opposite hand to maneuver with either the D-pad or the face buttons. For example, in Metroid Prime Hunters, you can use the styles with your left hand to shoot and aim, use the face buttons to move forward, backwards, and side to side. A great thing about several of the games and the configuration of the DS in general is the ability to control the way you play the DS. With that said, it would also be inaccurate to say that it feels natural. After all, this is a whole new way of gameplay and at times it can feel like having to learn to play video games all over again. Indeed a new gameplay experience.
Upon the first boot up of the DS, you’ll be asked to configure the front-end menu options. Date and time, language and quite interestingly, a user profile for wireless play. Create a user profile and whenever you connect with another DS owner to battle it out wirelessly, you’ll get to know who you’re playing with and ultimately who fragged you. Other front-end feature is a touch screen calibration option and the ability to chose which screen you want to play your GBA games on ( I prefer the top). The DS also tells you which DS and/or GBA game you currently have inserted into the DS hardware and allows you to chose which game you wish to play by simply touching the screen to the respective title. Lastly, you are given the option to temporarily download a game from another nearby DS to play wireless multiplayer off of a single game pack. Using this technique, I played Ridge Racer DS with five other DS users off of one game pack.
As most of you already know, the wireless messaging service, PictoChat, is a free built in application. Without going too in-depth, you can have up to sixteen people in a single chat room and up to four individual chat rooms hosted in a given area. PictoChat options include: full alphabet, using stylus as an electronic pen, symbols, and a few other drawing features. You are also able to view the history of the chat room up to the point in which you entered the room. My personal experience with PictoChat was hilarious to say the least. At one point we had about ten people in a given chat room, posting obscene pictures, words, and other immature gestures. In the middle of the chat, I jokingly tried to organize a secret agenda to break into Nintendo’s product testing area and look for anything Zelda. Of course PictoChat is rather useless unless you have somebody to message, but with the ability to communicate at about 100 feet apart, imagine cheating on a school test or planning a team-up assault on an unsuspecting friend before playing a multiplayer game of Metroid Hunters.
Did this article answer all of your Nintendo DS questions? Still have unanswered questions? Please send me an email at KenCauley@advancedmn.com and I will not only get back to you with an answer, but post your question on this article with the answer for others to see.
