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Nintendo DS Hands On
The Big N's media event went off well, and people have finally had a chance to experience the playability and feel of the DS system. Penny Arcade has commentary from Gabe and Tycho, and Gamespot gives it a look as well. Quoth Tycho: "The final analysis: I am overjoyed that Nintendo isn't completely nuts, which was my fear initially. This is a pretty cool little machine. But the opening salvo is a little soft in the genres I prize most, and there's no stand-out title that forces my hand on the system."
Built-in lithium battery, buddy. Supposedly with as long a life as the one in the SP (about 8 hours, give or take).
"The system will use a rechargeable battery that's estimated to last roughly 10 hours."
Straight from GameSpot
My understanding is that Nintendo is working on both a hypnotist game - word is it's much better than "Cats" and you'll want to play it again and again - and a game called "Current" which is so involving you involuntary grip your hands on the DS and just can't put it down.
check it out here
like they say, i wonder if they are going to be causing fights in the stores, like the tickle-me-elmo craze..
No AAs involved. From here:
Battery: Lithium ion battery delivering six to 10 hours of play on a four-hour charge, depending on use; power-saving sleep mode; AC adapter
" You use the stylus on the bottom screen to look around and double tap it to jump. In just a few minutes I was pulling off classic FPS maneuvers like jumping, spinning around and shooting Tycho in the fucking face."
Shooting people in the face........what people have been longing for in a handheld system.
-Randy
The touch screen opens so many new avenues of gaming, I cannot wait to see what dev's cook up for it. check out the puppy demo for example http://gba.n64europe.com/specials/nintendogsflash. html
Ubuntu- Linux for human beings.
Is it just me, or is this thing really useless? I think the guy from Penny Arcade had it right: The SP is the perfect size.
And the touchscreen? What the hell? Who here owns a PDA? Ok. Out of you, how many have lost their stylus at one time or another? All of you? That's what I thought. And we're supposed to stick this thing in the hands of junior-highers? Yikes...
Nintendo, don't get me wrong... I love you. I love your gold-encrusted Zelda cartridges; I love Mario in a non-homosexual way. But please, lay off the crack in the R&D department, huh? R.O.B.? The Power Glove and Power Pad? Virtua Boy? And now... DS.
Sony ha
Curse you Nintendo! Now I need new pants to hold all the electronic gizmos I own or will soon own. This DS unit is the proverbial straw that breaks the camels back (or in this case his pants). To date I have a Rio Karma to get my Ogg on, a Toshiba e805 PDA to play Sam and Max Hit the Road (love PocketSCUMM), my Nokia 3650 cell phone and leatherman multi tool. Where oh great purveyor of Mario am I expected to put this new porta game system?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
If they could fit the first five Zelda games onto one catridge, that would be a start. Perhaps even upgrading the graphics of Zelda I and II, but leave the game the same.
Being a left handed person, when I try to use a pen like object with my right hand, it doesn't quite work the way i want it too (I'm sure everyone has tried to write with their other hand once in their lives. This means I will have trouble holding the machine and useing the dpad with my left hand and trying to write on the screen. Any writing would be illegable. I most likely couldnt make precision movements required in an fps if I cant make an uppercase K on paper with a pen.
Can be found here. I recommend them highly.
Be sure to note the insanity that is Pac-Pix and this screenshot.
Also click here to see videos of Mario 64-DS and Metroid Hunters in action.
Especially since it's $150, and I can trade in the old GBA for $25, the old SP for maybe $40... it'll still play GBA games, so it's all good. C'mon, nobody complained about Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo Tournament Edition... don't complain about Nintendo Gameboy Advanced SP Dual-Screen Edition.
All this talk of Nintendo being on crack doesn't matter much. Even if the system isn't that great, Nintendo has a star line-up of games. Just the fact that Square is releasing Final Fantasy 3 (which never before came to america) to the handheld will win over thousands from the PSP. With good marketing and a few good games, it'll be fine.
Those poor bastards, they have us surrounded. Now we can fire at them in all directions!
The Nintendo DS, when you use pen-based games, is set up so that the ABXY buttons on the right side mirror the D-pad on the left. Left-handed people will hold the pen with their left hand and use the ABXY keys as a D-pad with their right hand.
.. Minidisc drive, cartridge port, dual analog sticks, d-pad and twin shoulder buttons.
Goodbye 10 hours (PSP)
Very little in the gaming world requires you to actually *watch* two screens.
It's called innovation, it's a great idea that's been improperly utilized up to date. I know a lot of people who would love to have multiple views in an RTS, one being a touch interface for troop management. The creative options are endless..
The second screen isn't nessesary. In fact, they probably would have done better to make a portable with a larger screen with a better 3Dchipset.
See PSP. How long you want this thing to run for? Also notice the phenomenon that we're currently playing SNES games at least 2 generations behind on the GBA, and having a hell of a time doing so. Sure it would have been nicer to have at least DC quality, but I'm not complaining.
It's cheap, powerful, innovative, and backwards compatible with the biggest selling video game machine ever made. That's worth something.
PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, RTFA! The XYAB buttons are designed to replace the D-pad for lefties. You just use your left hand with the stylus, and the R buttonand Lbutton switch places, and the D-Pad and XYBA buttons switch places. It's that simple. And for the people worried about battery life, again, RTFA. Or go read IGN's interview with Reggie Fils-Aime. Battery life is about what the SP's is. They've come out and said "somewhere from 8 - 10 hours, depending on use, volume, WiFi, etc." And I can't believe people are still using the word "virtual boy" when talking about this thing. This has a better launch/near launch lineup than any system Nintendo has released since the SNES. And it has hundreds of games being worked on right now for it. Virtual Boy had what, 20 in total or something? Everyone knows this will be a big hit. I mean, seriously, wireless multiplayer Sims and Mario Kart and Metroid... Absolutely pure money trees. And rumors of a new Pokemon RPG, plus the movie-downloading stuff, the "go to EB and download demos of new games" stuff, the "whatever warp-pipe is doing" stuff, the "Final Fantasy 3 finally being officially translated" stuff, the "Built in wireless chat" stuff... and it just keeps going on and on... This thing will dominate for sure, and the PSP really isn't any comeptition. Totally different target markets other than age and the fact that they play games. And it's got it's own set of problems... still no word on price or launch specifics, games, BATTERY LIFE, etc. It has the potential to kick ass, but I think it would have better luck if it released for sub-$200 in a few years rather than trying to take over the DS's market. Nintendo is keeping the gameboy brand for the sub-18 year olds, and the DS's demographic is 18-24. PSP is for 21-30. It's a bit of overlap, but the price difference and game styles will seperate them enough that those with good jobs in the overlap will just get both.
Born to Play
Two AA? Nah this comes with a set of jumper cables so you can hook it up to a car battery.
Very little in the gaming world requires you to actually *watch* two screens.
Perhaps, or perhaps you just have no imagination. People once thought that a mouse would be useless as well.
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
Ever think about just not buying that one game rather than give up on the whole concept of "Nintendo"?
Username taken, please choose another one.
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every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Two games:
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and Zelda: Four Swords.
Only now no longer limited to a TV, and (possibly) only four players, and needing to buy like ten accessories.
I realize these games are basically at "rumor" stage for the DS now, but if and when they come out, I WILL buy a DS. Maybe two.
Sorry, you're about 2 years too late for this particular gripe. People said the same thing about Metroid Prime, and it turned out perfect. It's a metroid game, and I have no doubt Metroid Hunters will be as well.
Gamespot Movie
In this movie, it's incredibly clear that not only does the device work, but Metroid Hunters actually has more PC like control than any console based FPS I've seen - essentially, the stylus acts as the mouselook, and the d-pad works like your standard WASD keys. I'm convinced; that's all it comes down to. I can also see things like Flight sims, which, with the stylus, will now have enough area for complete controls, and can do more than one plane. For more "innovative" games, I'm sure we can rely on Sega and Nintendo, but I'm happy if this is what we get.
You can see the game cards and a relative sense of scale from here:0 041007/ nintendo.htm
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/2
Goodbye 10 hours (PSP)
Indeed, indeed. The PSP, according to analysts (who have apparently heard, in turn, from game developers), is apparently only managing a battery-life of around 90 minutes or so ( http://www.n-philes.com/index.php?Id=346 ). @_@
Given that the GBA can already emulate the NES and kinda-sorta emulate the Super NES, and the Nintendo DS CPU runs at four times the clock speed of the GBA CPU (67.1 MHz vs. 16.8 MHz), I see a Sega Genesis emulator for Nintendo DS as a possibility should somebody outside of NDA-zone figure out how to get arbitrary code running on the thing. Run Zero Wing on that, and all Toaplan's base will be belong to you.
1) I'll belive when I see it. Nintendo already has a portable that can easily get 8 hours of battery life and Sony is using a disc-based system.
2) One word: Internet
3) GBA games. PSP has nothing, so your selection is limited to launch titles and you have to build your library from scratch. The second I buy my DS I already own 6 great games from my GBA to play on it without spending an extra cent.
4) Personally, I couldn't care less. Many people will see this feature as a good thing, though.
"Very little in the gaming world requires you to actually *watch* two screens"
Bullshit. Plenty of console games would benefit dramatically from dual screens. Zelda comes to mind. You have to pause in order to equip yourself with whatever weapons you want to use. In the same vein, so does Final Fantasy. Now you can have that screen up + have a much better interface for changing things around. Panoramic views are not the only thing you can achieve with multiple screens. Since the bottom one is a touch screen, it's actually very intuitive. Don't believe me? Go look at an ATM or a telephone. Display up top, interface right below. Not a biggie, and not unimportant.
"This looks like a future Virtual Boy, truth be told. "
No it doesn't. How can you compare the VB to a system that's an enhanced GBA?
"Instead, add a simple IR eye tracking monacle that would do the job of the touch pad..."
That is less Virtual Boy'ish than a tried and true stylus interface that has single handedly made PDAs a common item?
"If Nintendo had any sense, they would market the DS as a PDA that has the additional bonus of playing high resolution 3D games, which, most PDA/Smart Phone manufacturers have yet to claim."
What kind of sense would that be? Why would they leave the portable market with a device that plays their current lineup of games to a market they have no business being in where they wouldn't sell that many games? Sorry for the run-on sentence, but that's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. I suppose you've never heard of the CD-I?
"Derp de derp."
"So, did anyone else want to cry at seeing that Nintendo has finally taken the most wonderful game series ever created by Humankind (ie, Metroid), and made it into a multiplayer death-match-style FPS?"
And that's a bad thing because....?
"Derp de derp."
1. Sony was swapping out the battery packs on the demo PSP units every 2 hours when they were finally shown live at TGS. They have also announced 2.5 hour battery life with constant disc reading. In other words -- if your game has music, levels, movies, or really anything in it bigger than the PSP's ram, it's going to have MUCH lower battery life than 6 hours.
2. There are no link cables for the DS, and the 8 hour battery life is assuming constant Wireless access (since the DS broadcasts and receives constantly while it's on).
3. Oh, they don't have anything TO be backwards compatable with. That's the problem. It's also a major advantage for Nintendo.
4. MP3s but only on Sony's proprietary Memory stick format, and movies only on their proprietary UMD format. Oh, and no UMD burners.