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Nintendo DS Launches
The DS system has launched today, allowing everyone with a interest in dual screen action to get their fill. Gamespy has a Beginner's Guide to the system available, while Gamespot has a detailed page reviewing the system and some of the first games available. Bionic_Baboon wrote in with a press release about the sale of the system at EB Games on Businesswire.
I got one this morning too. My only real complaint is that I think it should have had an analog stick. The touch pad works well in Metroid Prime Hunters, but it just doesn't do it for me in Mario 64. The analog stick just worked better. Or have made the directional pad analog (like the buttons on the PS2).
Still, great little system. I can't wait for more games!
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
DS is a third system not a replacement for the GBA according to nintendo. Basically, they will still be introducing a ton of new GBA games, and DS games too.
Nintendo could have given the DS better graphics, but they chose not to. This is not because they hate their customers as some people have suggested.
.24 x .24mm for each pixel and a 3" screen, better graphics would not necessarily look better anyway.
They had to make some choices. There were some constraints.
One was battery life. The Nintendo DS's 6-10 hour battery life is at full load. Sony has admitted that the PSP's 4-6 hour quoted battery life is at a certain brightness, using headphones, without using wireless, and playing games that are not that graphically taxing. Tokyo Game Show people were reporting 2 hour actual battery life.
Another was media. Optical media is less durable, and it takes more power to run, so they chose cartridges. 128 MB per cartridge will likely increase over the life of the system as it did with the GB and GBA, but you need a certain amount of space for the code for the better graphics.
There is the screen resolution itself. At
Then of course there is the cost--the cost to the company and the cost to the customer. Sony may be selling the PSP at $190 in Japan (without any memory card I might add), But it is costing them a lot more to make. Nintendo expects to make a profit immediately.
Other challengers have fallen to the Gameboy, because they were too power hungry, too costly, and simply too ambitious for the technology of the day.
The DS blows me away with what it gives me for the cost, battery life, and innovation. I knew going into EB this morning that the graphics would not be better than I had ever seen. It is the package that impresses.