Slashdot Mirror
Revolution Interface, DS Chart-Toppers
Joystiq reports on the continued success of the DS in Japan, where the two-screened console is not only outselling the 360, but topping the charts as well. They're also showing off mock-ups of what the Revolution virtual console service might work like. As Doc Brown said, "Please excuse the crudity of this model." The virtual console will allow Revolution owners to buy and play classic Nintendo games. Includes a list of possible launch titles.
As a note: the mockups were just made (by either Nintendo or the polling company, not Joystiq) to illustrate the poll's point. They are in no way indicative of the final product. The word "look" in the summary should be replaced with "work."
"where the two-screened console is not only outselling the 360,"
Come on, I'm sure even the old Bandai Playdia is still outselling the 360 in Japan. My grandmother can outsell the 360 in Japan. The meaningful comparison is how it's doing compared to the PSP, GCN, PS2, or (dare I say it) the GBA.
this is probably the most worthless article i've read in a long time
it's a bunch of images, that anyone could have drawn, that shows how the system would most likely work
anyone could have figured out how it would work
so.. why is this news and interesting?
i love slashdot, but this.. ?
The DS is doing amazingly well in Japan. I got mine outside of Osaka in early December and boy am I glad - there are places selling used machines for $200 American dollars. Kids are using their New Year's money to snap up the machines (If I weren't so convinced that Nintendo will soon have a handle on production again, I'd buy a load of the machines in the U.S. and bring them over).
The only machine that has the shelf space in nearly all the consumer oriented video game stores (as opposed to the holes in the wall in Den Den Town which cater to more hardcore gamers) is the PS2. The DS is well on its way to being a ubiqutious platform just like the PS2.
There are shelves for the PSP, but the games are crap and there's not nearly as much advertising, compared to the brochures, banners, and boxes for Nintendogs, Brain Training, Mario Kart, and Animal Crossing.
The place to be is the DS.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
You're playing it on the Revolution, you don't care what the original console was. More likely the list will be sorted by title, with (NES), (SNES), etc after.
I bought a DS last week after reading numerous posts here and there about how great it was, and i'm not disappointed. Games are great, the system is great.
And this comes from someone who had totally given up gaming since 4 years or so, basically because of the lack of any innovation since the days of "modern gaming" (the first generation of accelerated 3D games). And i think it's way better than say, the Gamecube, because the gamecube imho lacks good games and it feels like nintendo is pushing its franchise hard while not really exploiting it in terms of gameplay. Or maybe i just didn't try the good games... But mario sunshine for example was a big let down.
The userbase of the DS and PSP in the U.S. are roughly even at this time, although Nintendo's had a good holiday season with multiple great games while the PSP only really had GTA.
But in Japan, the DS is smoking the PSP. In sales each month it comes in ahead of the PS2. And during several reporting periods, the DS has outsold all other consoles combined. And in the last reporting period (link only accurate to my statements temporarily, and may change soon in fact, the period I'm talking about is the week from Dec 26-Jan 1) eight of the ten top software titles on the list are DS games. The top-rated PS2 game, at #4, is Kingdom Hearts II, a very eagerly-awaited game in a nation that loves RPGs. #3 and #2, respectively, are Mario Kart DS and Animal Crossing! #1 and #5 are in the Brain Training series that has yet to make it to the U.S., but are supposed to be coming soon.
But why is this important to us U.S. players? For these reasons:
1. It proves the DS is no Virtual Boy. It's here to stay.
2. It is vindication for the DS' unorthodox design elements. The DS' success in Japan is so tremendous by this point that it can only be called an unqualified success, even if the rest of the world had never bought a single DS.
3. Most importantly, Japan is the first market for many video game systems. There is a feedback loop here: if a system is popular, it attracts many developers, which make the system even more popular, etcetera. But the market here is the one in which many of those developers live and work, and that's gotta have a strong influence. That's one of the reasons why relatively few Japanese publishers developed for the original X-box.
Mario Sunshine is a big let down. It's practically the same as Mario64 but with better graphics: Princess is kidnapped, enter worlds and collect Stars/Shines to open new worlds/areas and restore the castle and Toads/Delfino and it's denizens, you only need X of Y total Stars/Shines to get to the last level, remaining (Y-X) Stars/Shines are for perfectionists who want to get bonus at the end that is useless because you've beaten the game (130 lives and a sparking triple jump in Mario64, for example). Also, obtaining (Y-X) remaining Stars/Shines is a bit of a chore, much more so in Sunshine than in Mario64.
If you want to enjoy your Gamecube, at least through first party games, play the Metroid Prime games, Zelda: Wind Waker (20 minutes of game play, or getting to the first "level" will get you hooked, whichever comes first), Super Smash Brothers Melee, & Mario Kart Double Dash.
Resident Evil 4 is also spectacular by most accounts, but I haven't played it, since I don't have the time to devote to a console attached to a TV these days. damn job.
I purchased a DS this past summer because I could not hold out any longer, I missed playing games (see above) and Mario Kart DS was on the horizon, and I love it. I purchased Mario64 DS because it at least has fond memories attached to it of playing on the N64, and the 3 other characters + new levels + $30 price tag made it impossible to resist. I am not disappointed with it, it's a great game in and of itself (it's Mario64 after all), but it does suffer from the 'more of the same' I mentioned above. If you consider what the DS is able to do with Mario64, it is quite impressive, but you can't judge the system on that one game. I got the DS with the Metroid Prime Hunters demo, and aside from crippling hand cramps due to inexperience using the DS, it is equally impressive what the little-clamshell-handheld-that-could is pumping out. It's not up to Metroid Prime standards, but considering it's using N64-like hardware, it looks pretty good.
Long story short, do yourself a favor and play something besides Mario Sunshine to judge the Gamecube.
lets hope that is not the real thing because that is ugly, and hurts my eyes
Am I the only one to notice this? I thought this was Slashdot!
...success of the DS in Japan, where the two-screened console...
Since when did the DS get classified as a "console"? Last I checked, this term is reserved for those game systems that sit by your TV. What kind of crack comparison is that?! Comparing a hand-held to a console...
How dod all the trolls miss that one?
That joystiq article SUCKS. Out of all of the sites that have this information theirs is the only one that didn't post the numbers.
Try this link instead.
http://www.revo-europe.com/news.php?nid=8699
How in the world can a $120 system that's available everywhere outsell a $400 monster that most local stores might've had half a dozen of since release if they were lucky?!?!?!?!
The problem is that the 360 isn't sold out in Japan. It's sitting on shelves taking up space and not selling.
It would be a much different story if the 360 was sold out. The story here is that the DS is sold out.
I wonder if this nintendo thing is true emulation.
Judging by the list of games under "SNES", it looks like they seem to be supporting quite a number of the special chips (like the DSP1, FX chip and SA-1).
I wonder what they are going to do about gun games like Super Scope 6 and Duck Hunt, maybe there is something in that wierd revolution controler that will be used for this without actually being a gun per se.
Also notable is the ommissions from the list.
Why Donkey Kong Country and DKC2 but not DKC3?
Which game are they talking about for "Zelda" under N64? Majoras Mask? Ocarina of Time?
Where are the Mario Kart games?
Super Smash Bros?
(actually, I suspect the problem with the latter 2 is that if they were available on the download service, there would be much less reason to buy the newer versions)
But mario sunshine for example was a big let down.
Especially compared to the Jak/Ratchett series from the PS2, which were all excellent.
But how, you might ask, can you emulate the touch-screen DS on a TV? How about with the Revolution's TV-Remote controller? Think about it: if you have a widescreen TV, you could put the two DS screens side-by-side (might make Sonic Rush a bit strange) and use the pointing controller like the DS's stylus. On a 4:3 TV, you could put the screens one on top of the other.
Now admittedly, the resolution of the DS is such that the games wouldn't look all that great, but that's not the point. The point is adding one more unique aspect to Nintendo's unusual gaming approach. And while the games wouldn't compare to 360/PS3, they'd be close to N64 standards, and that's not too bad. Remember for many people, especially younger players who Nintendo targets, it's the games that count, not the ultra-realistic graphics.