I finally played the Nintendo DS. On Saturday I stopped by a game store in Seattle and they had a demo kiosk of the Nintendo DS with two units with the Metroid Prime Hunters demo. I played it for about a half and hour and so and made up my mind to try to get one when it comes out in the US on Sunday November 21st.
The design is pretty sexy, professional and space-age looking and I think it is capable of delivering some pretty keen games.
However I am an idiot who did not have antiquate faith in Nintendo to reserve one until the first batch of units have sold out at game store that have been taking pre-orders. I am not fretting because I have a plan. Toys R Us will be getting a big shipment at the launch and they do not take pre-orders for anything. My plan is to be in line outside my local Toys R Us on the Nintendo DS's launch day this Sunday about a half an hour before the store opens at 10. If all goes well I will have my DS unit before the sell out later on that day and will be sitting pretty with my copy of Mario 64 DS.
The interest in the DS is beyond what Nintendo had been expecting. I betcha twenty bucks that some shyster will be trying to sell these for five hundred bucks on eBay to desperate parents trying to get one for their spoiled brats for Christmas. That is what happened for the PS2.
Oh Nintendo I will never forsaken you again. I forgive you for the Virtual Boy. Here is hoping that you can get a established market base before Sony tries to take you out with the PSP
I still think the two screens is kind of pointless. I mean yeah you can see a map of the area of where you are and what not but we've gotten by in the past didn't we?
I do think it's a good plan Jake. I just don't like the DS nor the PSP. I'm happy with my GBA SP. *hugs the GBA*
Here's a good link that shows the merit of two screens:
http://gba.n64europe.com/index.php?id=2824
I'm with Mike on the two screens. Nice, but I'd rather have 1 big screen. I'm also not sold on the stylus. However, a new Advance Wars might make me buy one.
i played metroid for a few minutes yesterday, and i must say that i am impressed. i will probably ask for one for christams, we shall see.
the screens are plenty large, also. i dont know about walking around, holding it with one hand while using the stylus with the other... seems like if you got bumped into youd drop it for sure, and of course the thing would be open... ohhh, not a pretty image.
DS wars! map on the bottom screen, stats/ info on the top. everything can be done with the stylus... and wireless multiplayer to boot!
There's a thumb glove on the end of a wrist strap you can use to move around the bottom screen instead of using the stylus. Which means you can still use both hands to carry it and not get smudges all over your touchscreen.
http://www.nintendo.com/accessoriesds
I'm also not to happy about Metroid. You have to tap the screen to fire? That's going to be really annoying when it comes to fighting bosses. Imagine trying to fight Mother Brain from the first Metroid using the DS's style of shooting!
...and rightly so you should forgive Nintendo for the Virtual Boy. Come on, it didn't even get a full game development cycle. The DS looks pretty sweet but there are just too many other cool gaming items coming out before Christmas. I'll be sure to look here for an unbiased review of the DS after launch.
Tapping on the screen to fire is one option, the other is to use the trigger buttons. I sat and played the Metroid demo for about 15 minutes and was not impressed. It required more multi-tasking than PC FPS. I will be getting a DS for a couple of games that are slated for future release, but also because of it's backwards compatibility. I don't figure I'm wasting too much money if I can still use it for my GBA games, which I have a metric ton of! But hopefully not all the games on the DS are as un-ergonomic as Metroid Hunters.