DS Education

Professor Rowsell gives us a little lesson on all things Nintendo DS.

So Nintendo got serious.

Really, really serious. In a fun, playful, mad-genius take-over-the-world kind of way.

Serious.

The company that brought you the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Mario Brothers, the Gameboy, and the Power Glove are lined up for their Next Big Thing, and its name is the Nintendo DS. It's a handheld. It's very different. It's sold like hotcakes in the US and Japan. It's coming to New Zealand on February 24th. And thanks to the good folks at Monaco Entertainment we got a sneak peak at this marvel recently in Wellington, and came away pretty much sold...

Nintendo DS At a Glance

NZ Release Date: 24/02/05

Price: $249.95

CPU: ARM9, ARM7

Display: Dual 3-inch TFT LCD

Features: Clock w/alarm, touch screen, PictoChat

Dimensions: 5.85 x 3.33 x 1.13 in.

Battery Life: 6-10 hours

DS Overview

A lot of the DS's weirder features are a lot easier to demonstrate than write about, so bear with us - and think about heading down to a game store for a trial. The DS is small and flat, shaped like a wallet with a lift-up lid. Larger than the GBA SP, and slightly heavier, the DS looks more like a PDA than a gaming unit, which is all part of the concept. Opening it up, the most obvious new aspect is the DS or Dual Screen itself. Both backlit displays are slightly larger than the GBA SP's (3 inches versus 2.9), and work independently of each other. Most of the titles we've seen make fairly basic use of this - Super Mario 64 DS, for example, uses the top screen as the normal game view while the bottom shows a rolling map screen - but the Dual Screens open up vast new possibilities for gameplay and have been a major factor in getting developers on board with the machine.

On the tech side the DS runs dual processors, an ARM 9 and ARM 7 at 66 and 33 MHz respectively. These give 240 x 160 resolution on each screen and make the whole system roughly equivalent to a Nintendo 64 in terms of graphics power - a Nintendo 64 that's been squeezed into a wallet-sized container. Put it this way: the DS is a powerful little bugger that looks GOOD and has no problem running anything from the traditional platform fare to full-blown first person 3D.

Game Formats

DS games use a new cartridge format, but the machine is still backwards compatible with GBA games via an expansion slot. There's no Game Boy/Game Boy color support, though, so be warned that your vintage copy of Pokemon Blue might be headed for retirement. The DS also abandons the e-Reader, GBA link, and Gamecube-GBA connector abilities in favour of full-on wireless support. And we do mean full-on - more about that later.

Touching Is Good...

The basic DS controls are a D pad with four standard buttons and L and R shoulders, though the real story's a little further over. The lower display also functions as a touch screen, and this is where things start to get very interesting indeed. Nintendo have really gone after this new, tactile control method: the DS comes with a PDA-type stylus and a wrist strap with thumb pad, but you can also just gently stroke the screen, or blow on it, or any other, ahh, interesting variation you can come up with on how to get sensation into the thing.

The possibilities and satisfaction of this are incredible: first person shooters like Metroid Prime use the touch screen as a free-look mouse, with the D-pad working for direction keys. Mario, on the other hand, encourages stylus use on a map, PictoChat lets you draw freehand with your fingers, while the bizarre dating title Feel the Magic gets you into the blowing (don't ask) and the singing side of it.

Oh, yes, the singing. The DS has voice recognition as well. Nintendo are hinting at huge plans for it in the future, though for now the rollout seems limited to a couple of titles.

All seeming like a bit much? Wait'll we get to the wireless....

Wireless and DS Download

The Nintendo DS comes fully kitted out with 802.11 wireless networking, at a maximum range of 30-100 feet depending on conditions. Up to 16 players can join a local connection to play games, swap files, and chat, plus with certain titles like Super Mario 64 DS they can take advantage of the fantastic DS Download feature.

DS Download lets other players join in games with you, without having a copy of the game themselves. Anyone within range can download the necessary data from the host, which took about a minute when we tried it, then start playing right off the bat. On Mario, the DSD section is a fun little multiplayer war with the characters running around playing tag and squishing each other. Not all titles will support DS Download, and it's not a substitute for owning the full cartridge, but it is a fantastically easy way to jump in and out of games with whoever's around.

Even more social is PictoChat, the chat program that comes bundled with the system. PictoChat is essentially DS-based txting, with a huge range of icons and options, and it'll tell you whenever other DS's are within range. We were in Central Wellington with our pre-release unit when the beep came through - someone else was wandering around with a DS! The possibilities of PictoChat combined with DS Download are nearly endless, and Nintendo's strategy definitely seems to lie in the direction of further social enhancements. The message is clear: this isn't just about gaming anymore. Though there are of course games, lots of them, and we've had a go at several...

The Games
Super Mario 64 DS
The Nintendo 64 legend returns as the featured DS launch title, jacked up to a new level with extra characters (Yoshi, Wario, and Luigi are all in there), levels, and a whole host of superb minigames playable over DS Download.

Metroid Prime: Hunters
This fully playable demo of MP: First Hunt, which comes bundled for a limited time with the system, is graphically astounding. It's a first person showcase of both the graphics and the controls, using the touchscreen like a mouse pad for aiming. Anyone used to keys'n'mouse on will take half a day to get used to things, but after a while Hunters feels as intuitive as any PC shooter.

Asphalt Urban GT
Asphalt GT is a straightforward racing title that we suspect will lose out to the forthcoming Ridge Racer. It's all in there, cars, tracks and noisy multiplayer, but this one hasn't held our attention as much as the others.

Project Rub
Project Rub is a surprisingly non-multiplayer dating title where you have to win the affections of a girl through various subgames. It's, well, it's completely silly, but good fun, and a showcase for the DS's more esoteric controls. One game has you blowing onto the touch screen to propel a sailing ship through shark infested waters, while another has you trying pick-up phrases through voice recognition to get the girl's attention. We're not sure about Project Rub's lastability, but it is a quick intro to the weirdness that is the DS.

The Others

The early promised DS lineup goes for everything from puzzle games to the NFL, with many more titles to come.
Some of the highlights so far include:

• Ridge Racer DS - a remake of the classic Nintendo 64 racing title
  
• Nintendogs/Puppy Times - a voice recognition pet
  sim
  
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf
  
• Wario Ware, Inc
  
• Sprung - Another dating sim, apparently. The new trend?
  
• Another - Japanese point'n'click adventure
  
• Rayman DS
  
• The Urbz - yup, Sims is in there as well....
  
• Spider-Man 2
  
• Ping Pals - an upgraded version of PictoChat, apparently.
  
• Yoshi's Touch and Go - not much on this yet, but it sounds like another Wario Ware, and is apparently designed from the ground up to make full use of the DS's features
  
• Advance Wars DS
  
• Madden DS - large, sweaty men of the NFL come to Nintendo...
  
• Metroid Prime:Hunters - the full version of the highly impressive demo.

Final Thoughts

We've had several weeks now of DS time, and we're still overwhelmed by the featureset. From the screens to the touch function to the instant wireless, the machine is a wish list of everything smart and interesting you could cram into a portable. It really is classic, old school Nintendo - rather than evolving to the next generation with an upgraded GBA SP, they've taken a step sideways and up into something that could be truly revolutionary.

That "could be's" still the sticking point, though. Is the DS going to turn portable gaming on its head and take over the world? Or are all these features going to end up in the trashpile, somewhere next to the Gamecube or (even worse) other brilliant but failed systems like the Konami Arcade Machine or the Atari Lynx? The test now is whether Nintendo can take all this innovation and turn it into market share.

The early signs from overseas are good, and the NZ launch price, $249.95 for a DS bundled with PictoChat and the Metroid Prime: Hunters demo, is a welcome change from high-end console debuts. It remains to be seen whether this will take them back to the top: but make no mistake that Nintendo are deadly, deadly serious about the DS. In that fun, playful, mad-genius kind of way of course. Now go stroke the screen again and sing your new friend a song...

» Return to Top