Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Nintendo Announces Western DS Game Line-Up

Posted by simoniker on from the lotsa-stuff dept.

Thanks to Nintendo's press site for a release listing the Nintendo DS dual-screen handheld titles currently in development for a Western release. Although sharing many games with a recently announced Japanese listing, it's explained: "Many of the industry's biggest software companies confirm that they will deliver names like Madden NFL, Viewtiful Joe, Rayman and SpongeBob SquarePants to the Nintendo DS", and other new/surprising DS titles include GoldenEye from EA, an Atari Classics pack from Atari, and a Western release of the previously mentioned Caduceus surgery game from Atlus.

5 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. Concerns about the lineup by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It seems to me that a lot of these games should probably be GBA games instead of DS games. The DS can play GBA games, but the GBA can't play DS games, so it doesn't make sense to release a DS game unless it actually makes use of some of the DS's new features. Granted, the features include the larger media and the extra buttons as well as the two screens and the touch screen, but some of these games don't sound like the sort of thing that need any of those features.

    Of course, it could be that I'm too cynical and these developers all have great new ideas. Certainly, many of them do. Even some of the games that at first prompted me to type this could, on second thought, make good use of the DS. Atari Classics, for example, sounds like nothing special at first, but then I realized that the touch screen could be used to emulate the trackball from such arcade classics as Centipede.

    I guess what I'm trying to say is that I really don't have faith that these companies will make the best possible use of the DS, which will ultimately be what determines whether the DS is a gimmick or a revolution. I'm hopeful, though.

  2. Re:Not very many original games by Rydia · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You're confusing originality with... I'm not even sure there's a word for it, but something along the lines of "lack of franchises." Just because something sports the name of a franchise doesn't necissarily that it'll be old-hat, nor does it mean it won't have both new content and novel concepts. To whit, Super Mario 64 was completely off from the previous games in the franchise. Sure, it was still a platformer, but the way it played was so completely different. Difficulty could no longer come only from enemy placement, everything had to be more non-linear, and so on and so forth. So what you saw was a game that could have been old hat do a lot of crazy things to take advantage of the new system instead of simply trying to recreate previous incarnations.

    So, if the only test you have for originality in a game is whether or not it is in a series, than yeah, sure, a lot of the list will upset you. I think that most of us, however, are going to wait and see what the developers DO with the new hardware using the franchise they've already built up. I, for one, am looking forward to what a touchpad can do for some of these franchises (maps and menus in castlevania, minigames in goemon, control in metroid, and whatever else they thing up), because I realize that innovation, while many times is running around in left field, is also taking what you have and making it new and exciting with new capabilities and ideas.

  3. Re:Well they are library fillers by EddieBurkett · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Nintendo is just doing what it has always done. Cheap low price crappy hardware but fun. Sony is/seems to be doing quality good pricey hardware.
    Most people I know are still able to play their original NES's. (Assuming they can get the cartridge to stay down.) Granted I haven't touched it in the last year that I've had my GBA, but my original Gameboy worked near perfectly (save for a couple missing lines near the edge of the screen.) Not that I pay all that much attention, but I haven't heard of anyone having any problems with the current line of GBA's or Gamecubes. Nintendo may be selling their hardware cheaper than their rivals, but by no means is that an indication of the quality of their product.

    As for Sony, as I said, I don't pay all that much attention to these kinds of things, but even I have heard about problems with PS2's dying after a relatively short period of time. And this is from the company using the 'good pricey hardware'...
    --
    The only thing I hate more than hypocrites are people who hate hypocrites.
  4. Re:Not very many original games by MBCook · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Exactly. What if in that football game you could draw your own plays using the touch screen and then the game would interpret them and run them out for you. Just because you've heard the name of the game doesn't mean it can't be innovative, as my parent comment pointed out.

    --
    Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
  5. Re:Where's Metroid? by Grey+Ninja · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Metroid Prime: Hunters was shown at E3 this year (usually only games slated for US release are shown at E3), and Metroid is QUITE well loved in the US. More so than any other region. I don't think you should be disturbed in the slightest. Especially considering that the list presented is a list of 3rd party titles coming out for Nintendo DS.