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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."
"The system will use a rechargeable battery that's estimated to last roughly 10 hours."
Straight from GameSpot
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.
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.
.. 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
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"
How many times do I have to say this on Slashdot? It's to the point where I should assign the pasting of this bit of text to an f-key macro:
NINTENDO DID NOT DESIGN, MANUFACTURE, OR SELL THE POWER GLOVE.
Blame Mattel.
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every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
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.