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Review : Nintendo DS
This morning I got up and got my ass to my local Toys R Us as they opened to get my Nintendo DS. They had a whole bunch of Nintendo DS loot that had my name on it. I walked out of the store a happy man but there is only a handful of games out so I had to check some local stores in order to get the games I wanted. I decided on Super Mario 64 DS, Urbz : Sims in the City DS, and Asphalt Urban GT. It comes with a demo of Metroid Prime Hunters and there will probably be some more games released soon.
The Nintendo DS unit is pretty slick and sci-fi looking. You can whip it out in public and most people would think you are using some new hand super cell-phone PDA thingie rather than a Nintendo product. It is about twice the size and weight as the Gameboy Advance SP but is still smaller than the original gray and green Gameboy, and the Sega GameGear. The rounded clam shell design is nice and the sliver finish is high teching it.
The DS sports a standard Nintendo control pad, two top shoulder buttons and a Super Nintendo style four button layout. The two screens are 4x3 aspect ratio and Gameboy Advance games look great on it but there is black bars on above and below the game. There is two stereo speakers, a standard headphone jack and a microphone for possible voice recognition. There is a PDA style stylist holder, a Gameboy Advance SP power charger and a wrist strap with a little thumb nub on the end of it. It has a built in battery that will last for several hours but I have not had a chance to try out how long it will last.
The games look like a memory card for a digital camera and are much smaller than a Gameboy Advance cart but since they are similar to a SD/MMC card in technology they are cheaper to manufacture than traditional cartridges. There is also a Gameboy Advance cartridge port.
The graphic are way cooler than any thing the GBA or any previous handheld game systems. The Nintendo DS has 3d graphics chips and can crank out better than Nintendo 64 graphics on both screens. The screens are higher resolution than the Gameboy Advance and they are back lit brilliantly to be visible in total darkness and in direct sun light. The DS can handle most Nintendo 64 graphics with ease.
The stereo speakers in the DS sound great and the headphone jack should have been in the GBA SP. The sound effects, music and samples sound great but there is not recorded symphonic sound recorded on the wee chips. The audio chips also have to process the data coming from the microphone. The interesting thing is that Nintendo first put a microphone into a controller back in the Japanese 8-bit Famicom but this is going to be the first time that games are really going to use it.
The one big thing that the Nintendo DS will sport and the Playstation Portable will not is the lower touchscreen. It is a very cool controller that can be use with they pen stylus, tapping with your finger or there is this nub on the end of the wrist strap that you can wrap on the end of your thumb. You can simulate an analog controller with ease and we have not seen the whole capability of the screen. In the Metroid Prime demo you can use the screen as a mouse look and you tap the screen to jump. The menu system is context sensitive and will change as needed. Trust me if you play some Nintendo DS games for an hour you will get the reason for the second touchscreen. Most of the DS games that I have played have the ability to choose from a variety of user interfaces so you will be probably be able to configure the controls to best suit your likings.
The Nintendo DS has built in high speed wireless networking from day one and there will be some very nice games that take advantage of it to deliver some kick ass multiplayer games. There is no plan for online gameplay over the internet with the DS but since it supports Wifi networking it is not a technical impossibility. When I was at the mall waiting for the game store to open after i got my DS there was some other nerds who were playing with their Nintendo DS units so I was able to log in to them wirelessly via the built in Picto chat program. Picto chat is not that useful but kids will love it. Since the DS has 11-megs a second some games will be able to have one player host a multi player game with one cart. Some games will require multiple carts but it can hand off a lot of data fast.
There is a built in OS that can save user preferences and acts as a loading program to choose between DS games, GBA games, network games and the Picto chat program. It even has you enter your birthday so your games can wish you a happy birthday.
The DS loads GBA games and they look and play great on it. Hell even Castlevania Circle of the Moon looks bright and crisp on it. You can pick what screen the GBA game comes up on. However there is no way that you can have the X and Y buttons as the L and R buttons. That sort of sucks and it would really help GBA 2-D fighting games if you did not have to use the buttons on the top of the unit.
What there is not is a Gameboy Advance networking port. This means that you can't network the Nintendo DS to a GBA, GBA SP, Gameboy Player or the Gamecube in anyway. It means that you can't play two player GBA games with the DS and you can't use it for Final Fantasy : Crystal Chronicals on the GC, Animal Crossing and Legend of Zelda Four Swords on the Gamecube. This is really dumb and I hope that Nintendo figures out a way around this. You might want to reconsider trading in your GBA if you use it to link to other Gameboys or the Gamecube when you get a Nintendo DS. The DS can't play classic green and gray Gameboy games or Gameboy Color games so you might want to hold on to your GBA or Gameboy Player. I don't care that you can't play older Gameboy and Gameboy Color games because I can play them in my Gamecube Gameboy Player but if it had the wired networking port you could use it as a full GBA replacement.
For those with small hands it is more a portable than hand held you can't really play it standing up if you want to use the pen. I don't think it is bulky but it would defiantly not fit into your pants pocket.
There will be great debate and comparisons between the DS and the forthcoming Playstation Portable. It looks like the Playstation Portable will cream the Nintendo DS with pure 3d power but I think the DS games are going to be well done and fun. Nintendo has a clear lead by releasing the DS before the PSP in America and I can see both systems co-existing in the marketplace. The first generation of games are decent but I can't wait until next spring when the amount of kick ass games start to pick up the pace. I am very glad I got my DS. It is all I was expecting and more. I could see this selling well to kids age five to fifty. Nintendo is going to sell buckets of these things this holiday season and I think they just successfully launched another great game system. I assure you it is not another Virtual Boy.
Jake at November 21, 2004 
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Comments
hmmmm, I'm sceptical about handhelds...
but what you wrote sounds pretty solid.
good price, good technology, good creativity.
Posted by: Jim at November 22, 2004 12:44 AM
I hope the next gen has the ability to play media. The Ipod is moving in that direction and Nintendo knows it has to be diverse.
Of course if they put a hard drive in their someone would hack it to copy down ROM games or something like that. =)
That would rock.
-Dave
Posted by: Dave at November 22, 2004 7:47 AM
Well the PSP will be able to play MP3 files that are stored on the memory stick as well as hook up to Sony's online music store.
I am not sure about iPod rumors. I mean Apple never made that iPod PDA and they don't have a first party PVR solution.
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at November 22, 2004 8:00 AM
oh I forgot: I really appreciate your review of the NDS. well done.
Posted by: Jim at November 22, 2004 2:04 PM
I foresee an accessory that converts the wireless signal into the controller input for GC and/or standard GBA link cabling. After all Nintendo's put into connectivity, I think the question is not if, but when.
Posted by: Riley at November 22, 2004 2:22 PM
I just don't see why Nintendo would stress the linking of the GBA to the Gamecube and then not inlude the wired networking port on the DS.
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at November 22, 2004 7:01 PM
> It looks like the Playstation Portable will
> cream the Nintendo DS with pure 3d power but I
> think the DS games are going to be well done
> and fun.
Nintendo seems to still be sticking with competing with pricepoint rather than technology. This has always worked for them in the past.
Posted by: Nick at November 24, 2004 12:54 PM
I think both stratigues will work and I don't see Nintendo or Sony failing to make a good handheld and both having a good share of the marketplace.
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at November 24, 2004 4:17 PM
hello, i just wanted to say you have a very informative site which really made me think, thanks very much! have a nice day!!
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Posted by: government grants at February 23, 2005 3:00 PM
I have A ds Can some one Plzzz Get on Pictochat plzzzzzzzzzzz
Posted by: robert at December 26, 2005 4:37 PM
