The Nintendo DS

[Bijo]

Anybody here likes Nintendo, specifically the DS? Anybody has a DS? Some would argue it's only for kids due to the games' looks and such, but they could be very wrong. It's very well known that Nintendo's been the master of gaming, and have been very innovative throughout the time, which is the case with the DS.

I got one though I hardly play it, but with the coming of Zelda The Phantom Hourglass I might pick this thing up once again. Ah, the joy of Nintendo I've had in the days. The NES, the SNES, etc.

Seriously, what hand-held console has the innovation the DS has? What hand-held or game company is so refreshing as Nintendo('s), steering, influencing, and forcing game developers to invent good innovative gameplay?

Personally, I've always liked the approach of Nintendo (including the Wii), not focusing on graphics and mere horsepower, but on gameplay, innovation, reduction of energy used, design, creativity, etc. The PSP doesn't really allow you to blow into the device and having it associated with an actual gameplay element, heh heh.

Not that I want this thread to be a "VS." between Nintendo and Sony, but-- Well, actually I wouldn't mind :P


[rantish]
Sony is the amateur game console designer wannabe who goes for raw horsepower technology, and no/hardly innovation. The only new things added were more power, while the basic designs of their consoles stayed the same. For many it didn't matter, 'cause certain series came out anyway (Final Fantasy, Tekken, etc., etc.).
But you'd think that after all this time Sony would've done their homework, right? If it weren't for those popular series that appeared on the PS, what would it have been now?


I think there must be a good balance between a console's capabilities and designs, and the game developers' capabilities and designs. Nintendo is the creative one doing their part in this, while Sony lags behind like a couple of schmucks, while Microsoft is making big bucks 'meantime.
[/rantish]

[frogbeastegg]

There are quite a few DS owners here, and PSP owners too.

I’ve got a black DS Lite. Love it. Also got a black PSP, and I enjoy that too. I'm not a supporter of any company these days, but Nintendo will always have a special place in my heart after 6 systems, while Sony have produced two systems I really like and two I'm not interested in (admittedly my interest in the PS3 might pick up when the price halves and some good games are on it). I was sceptical about both handhelds, and ignored both for more than a year after their UK launches. Then I wound up buying a DS, followed a couple of months later by a PSP.

The DS I mainly blame on Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. That was the game which snagged my attention and got me looking to see if there were four other games I had an interest in (I never buy a system without a minimum of 5 games I want). It didn't help that I got chance to play on one of my work colleague's DS while I was mulling over the prospect of getting one. I didn't think the touch screen and dual screen set up would be used correctly by many companies; it also felt gimmicky and unnecessary.

The PSP I nearly completely blame on Fragony and his Locoroco topic. It sounded interesting, so I looked up a bit more about the game. I watched a movie of the game in action, and the stupid song got stuck in my head. That song must be mind altering - after a week of endlessly humming it I was hunting for another 4 games. A couple of days after that I was rolling little blob monsters around their world and singing along.

I find both systems have some great games on, and both have a lot of crap I wouldn't touch with a six foot stick. Both have innovation, both have fun pick up and play titles, both have deeper titles. Yet within that they are different, and the best games work to each system’s unique strengths. Lumines uses the PSP's superior sound and screen to produce a puzzler which wouldn't work nearly as well on the DS; Meteos uses the touch screen and dual screens to make a puzzler which wouldn't work nearly as well on the PSP. Incidentally, those two games are the only 'puzzle' games I've ever liked; never could stand tetris, columns, et all.

As for the future, there's an equal amount I'm looking forward to on each system, again in different flavours. Perhaps tellingly, most of those things have one foot in the past - I want the revival of the point and click style game on the DS, and the remakes and ability to buy and play PS1 games on the PSP.

Being a miserable kind of frog, however much I like Nintendo and their innovation, I do have to admit that a great many games makers don't use the likes of the Wii and DS to make new types of games, or to reinvent old types. They use them to make bad ports of generic games, and to play home to all sorts of half-baked ideas. Sony get their fair share of innovative games too: ico, shadow of the colossus, locoroco, lumines, every extend extra, rez ...

You know, I prefer having two good handhelds, for the same reason I could never go back to being a one-console frog: it provides far more variety, and when one’s in a quiet spell there’s usually something on the other.

[Kekvit Irae]

I love my DS. But there's really only one DS game I ever bought: Advance Wars DS. It's quite good, but I keep my DS with me for a much sharper image when I play GB and GBA games (and it does have a better image display than the GBA). I also like my PSP because of the number of games that are fun on there. Metal Gear Ac!d 2, Me & My Katamari, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, etc.

[Samurai Waki]

I generally play my DS more than my PSP. The games seem just a little more fun, and I like the dual screen system. My latest purchase was New Mario, which I've been playing non stop since my appendicitus.

[Phatose]

I've got a DS. Essentially the last bastion of 2d gaming. The good castleroids, the MMZ/ ZX (though I wasn't quite a big a fan of those as the CVs), Mario & Luigi. Lots of great games. Some real scrubs, too - but you get right down to it, most games for any system, console, handheld, or pc - are outright garbarge.

[Xiahou]

It's odd that this topic comes up today- I just dusted my DS off again when I bought Elite Beat Agents on a whim... It's a fun & funny game, but very shallow (like you couldnt have guessed that).

There's really a ton of good games out there for the DS that no one mentioned yet... New Super Mario Brothers, Conact, Trauma Center, Brain Age, MarioKart, Castlevania DoS and PoR... the list goes on. I love my DS, I just wish I had more opportunity to use it.