The Nintendo DS

[Extra Terrestrial]

It seems that there has been a slight decline in terms of news, previews, reviews, first play threads and comments and general enthusiasm towards DS games when personally speaking, the DS is just as good if not better than all three current systems (Xbox 360, Wii and PS3).

I was one of those people who ? admittedly ? thought the DS was a pointless idea when it was first revealed considering I wanted a successor to the GBA and something to compare to the PSP, specs wise of course.

How wrong was I to do that?

The PSP is a great handheld and has been slowly but surely getting better games in the past year or so but we will save that for another day (or another thread) for this is all about the DS.

While the launch line-up wasn?t very spectacular, we managed to get the gist of what the DS is truly capable of by putting Super Mario 64 on that tiny little cartage and giving us different control methods to see what unique controls are available.

While it is a technical achievement itself, the game wasn?t as enjoyable to play in comparison to the N64 version simply because the controls ? whilst unique ? were sometimes awkward, clumsy and frustrating making the easier moments on the N64 version harder than it should be.

On the other hand, Feel The Magic: XY-XX was a joy to play and showed us just how marvellous the touch screen really is as well as using a rather nice art style, if I say so myself. While it is a mini-game at heart, it was a first decent attempt at showing the audience what the DS is all about.

After a slow period for several months since launch day save for WarioWare: Touched!, which I really enjoyed despite being short lived and reasonably straightforward to play as well as my personal favourite, Zoo Keeper, the DS managed to catch its stride and produce some fantastic software for the library in 2005:

Advance Wars: Dual Strike
Animal Crossing: Wild World
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Kirby: Canvas Curse (Kirby: Power Paintbrush)
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
Mario Kart DS
Meteos
Metroid Prime Pinball
Nintendogs
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Polarium
Sonic Rush
Tony Hawk?s American Sk8land
Trace Memory (Another Code: Two Memories)
Trauma Centre: Under the Knife
Yoshi Touch & Go

Since then we have had some great games that keeps the DS owners happy but it was the introduction of the Touch Generations software that made me hug my DS for real; they are probably the most social and enjoyable games on any system. It shows that a game can be incredibly simple and basic to look and play at just like the NES / SNES days.

What a lovely little handheld, eh?

Let?s show it the love it deserves!

[JP]

The DS is pure class!!!!

I'm looking forward to using it hooked up to my Wii as add on controller/item screen or something.

[Fuddle]

ds is easily my most used console this year, with rocket slime, pokemon and now ouendan 2. seems quite likely the next few games i buy will be sim city ds and the new taiko game.

hopefully nintendo will get a ds demo channel up on the wii soon.
i wonder if anybody will create some wii store games that link up to the ds?...that would be sweet.

[MartyG]

Eh?

There are four very active first play threads on recent released DS games and both of the last two reviews on this very site are DS game!

[ItsThere]

I don't have time to give this thread the time it deserves but I want to add something.

The DS is a great platform but the only game I have KEPT that uses the unique facilities of the DS is Zoo Keeper.

The other games I have kept, Tetris, and the two CastleVania games could be reproduced on other formats.

So while the DS is great - I don't feel it is because of the possibilities it offers as a different gaming platform - it's just because Nintendo have always been good at promoting good handheld content.

[Ouenben]

I don't have time to give this thread the time it deserves but I want to add something.

The DS is a great platform but the only game I have KEPT that uses the unique facilities of the DS is Zoo Keeper.

The other games I have kept, Tetris, and the two CastleVania games could be reproduced on other formats.

So while the DS is great - I don't feel it is because of the possibilities it offers as a different gaming platform - it's just because Nintendo have always been good at promoting good handheld content.

thats the thing isn't it. It's got all sorts of games, stylus controlled (zoo keeper, brain training etc) , traditional games (ie mario kart, mario bros), non-games (brain training, nintendogs etc), girlie games, remakes (Final fantasy 3)

I'd rather get another mario kart or super mario bros playing like they would on any other handheld/console rather than ruined by stylus control like quite a few early releases were when every developer felt the need to use the touchscreen/mic at every possible chance.

[Miguel007]

The DS is really class, I have four in our house. One for each member of the family.

I really enjoy the puzzlers and quirky titles it throws out, I can't wait to get my hands on New York Times Crossword game.

Like someone previously mentioned above I look forward to the Wii / DS Connectivity, I hope we will get the ability to try demo's through the Wi-Fi and hopefully some DS games will make better use of the connectivity than the previous rubbish GBA / GC attempt.

[taurusnipple]

Noticed a couple of new colours on Play-Asia's coming soon section for more DS love.

[Nu-Eclipse]

I sold my PSP (which I'd owned since Feb 2005) and got a DS Lite for Xmas last year. I haven't looked back.

'Nuff said.

[Richard.John]

Sales wise, it currently rules them all. An amazing gamble that has turned into pure gold for Nintendo and its investors.

[Ish]

I was one of those people who ? admittedly ? thought the DS was a pointless idea when it was first revealed considering I wanted a successor to the GBA and something to compare to the PSP, specs wise of course.[/FONT]

Likewise man. I was happy to be proven wrong in this instance!

[Ady]

The DS is one of the best machines I've ever owned. Every new game almost feels like a new gameplay experience, and the GBA backwards compatibility expands the range of its games even further.

[Duddyroar]

I play very little else at the moment. Games like Actionloop and Picross DS are keeping me very busy.

It's just a shame that my DS Lite hinge has developed a crack and the right side of the touch-screen isn't responding the way it should (I've tried cleaning it, too) - the build quality isn't fantastic. I've not been treating it badly, either.

[djjimbob]

The DS is a superb piece of kit. All I'm doing at the mo is playing Puzzle Quest for about 2 hours per day.

It's great to take on holidays too. Plane journeys fly by with it.

Nice to see the Zookeeper love - can we see some scores please?

I'll do mine when I get home. From memory I think I've managed about 7million on the Normal Game (Super-Hard)

[v3rtigo]

I play very little else at the moment. Games like Actionloop and Picross DS are keeping me very busy.

It's just a shame that my DS Lite hinge has developed a crack and the right side of the touch-screen isn't responding the way it should (I've tried cleaning it, too) - the build quality isn't fantastic. I've not been treating it badly, either.

I'm loving Picross DS too and found the same thing with the right hand side of the touch screen. I think Picross shows up any problems more than any other DS game. Did you calibrate your screen recently? I completely forgot you could do that on the DS's start-up settings and it fixed all the alignment problems with Picross.