Nintendo DS Wireless Networking is the Cat's Meow.

I just got back from a meetup of Webloggers I put out a call for anyone with a Nintendo DS to bring it so we could Bring it on and try out the wireless networking. One of the nerds in attendance with his teenage son brought a Nintendo DS so I got to try the multiplayer functions in my games for the first time.

We started of with Ridge Racer DS. I freaking love this game and the multiplayer game should be an example of how to properly do wireless handheld multiplayer games. I just started a multiplayer game that I hosted with only one copy of the game. I picked one level and it transferred the level data to his Nintendo DS in less than five seconds. There was no lag of any kind and I could add AI cars to the race and pause the game during the match. I got up and walked around the room and there was no break or lag in the connection. There was two Wifi networks at the cafe and there was probably about fifteen laptops, PDAs and Tablet PCs using the Wifi network but we did not notice any problems or interference with other networks. Unfortunately the kid is a quick learner and I regret letting him pass me a couple times. He picked up the game in short time and was able to keep up and win some races.

We played some Super Mario 64 games where the goal was to find some stars on a course in a certain amount of time. It was nifty but it sort of felt like a mini game in Mario Party. Super Mario 64 is not an ideal game for a multiplayer death match.

We messed around with Pico chat a bit but I wondered what the point of it was because you have to be within ear shot in order to tell the other person to launch the Pico chat program. It is sort of like having two paper cups together on a string. It is a cool tech demo but not that useful in the real world.

We also played some Asphalt : Urban GT but I just liked Ridge Racer better and seeing that Namco and Nintendo was able to pull of a good racing game with out requiring multiple carts. He tried to out race my New VW Beetle in a Hummer H2 with no luck. He forgot his copy of Metroid Prime Hunters demo so we could not try it.

I still think that a wireless based Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario tennis and other multiplayer games would be the killer app for the Nintendo DS. I am sure there is going to be lots of First Person Shooters on it but the wireless Bomberman and Advance Wars will really make it a hit.

I can dream of Nintendo releasing a branded wireless hub that will allow Nintendo DS gamers to play games over a standard internet connection but until that day I am sure that there are going to be plenty of Wireless Lan action on school yards all across the world. The ten hour battery life is a big plus to me over the PSP three hours off a charge.

I think Nintendo would sell a hell of a lot more Nintendo DS systems if they had demo game kiosks of multiplayer network games set up at shopping malls. This is not just like the old gameboy cable with out the wire this is like comparing a twenty year old 2400 baud Modem to a fiber optic line. The Gameboy networking cable was an eyedropper. This is a super soaker of data. There is no software to update, no patches to install, no disk drives to fail, no cheating bastards with aimbots. It is a cool hybrid of network gaming and an old school arcade.