Viewing Thread:
"Innovative Nintendo?"

Well, the DS has been shown, whoopee, I bet Dringo wet his pants this afternoon.

So, anyway, this dual screen malarky, revolutionary? A brilliant change to the way games are played by the industry?

Well, guess what, I don't agree, and I'm going to be called a Sony fanboy, or at very best, an anti-Nintendo zealot for it ;)

Anyway, here's my gripe, there's nothing revolutionrary about the DS what-so-ever. People are talking as though they have never seen dual screen hardware in gamers lifetime, well, I hate to dissapoint you all, but the dual screen handheld format was tried, tested and loved by us golden oldies a little short of 20 years ago.

[URL]http://www.infa.abo.fi/~buck/misc/gizmos/pix/nintendo.game+watch.mickey+donald.open.jpg[/URL]

This picture shows a NINTENDO Game And Watch handheld single game device from almost TWENTY years ago.

[URL]http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/12/nintendo_ds_comms/[/URL]

This image shows an almost identical looking handheld game platform, released by the very same company, but claim this dual screen arhitecture to be new, revolutionary, and well, good.

I'm not saying there may be some niche elements available to gamers, but I feel that most games developers will not use the additional screen for anything useful. Football games will have a top down radar, metroid will have a map, mario kart will have the track and player positions, basically world information about locations and the layout of the world will be used on this screen.

There is a good reason for this too, people can only concentrate their vision to a single focal point at a time. No one can concentrate on both of those screens at the same time, so one screen will be used for gameplay, and the other for displaying information.

This is a good thing given the paltry size of the DS screen, it means the game screen can be uncluttered with HUDs and the like but concentrate solely on letting the player play the game.

I will be truely amazed if anyone on this forum can come up with an original gameplay dynamic which could actively use the two screens of the DS in a way that could not be done on a single screen.

I'm even thinking of having, say, a heat sensor camera on the top screen, and a normal view on the bottom. This would be done MORE effectively on a single screen as a current day frame rate is at a higher reresh rate then the ability of a person to change their point of focus from one screen to the other. Sinply hitting a button to change views whilst focusing on a single point is a more natural way of playing a game.

So, I suppose I have set myself up for a fight by challenging the might of Ninetndo, again, but surely there are more innovative things happening in the world of gaming than a twenty year old handheld design being rereleased to a massive fanfare with no clear cut example of how this creates a revolution.

Nintendo should be commended for spinning up some dust to hide Sony's far nore impressive PSP handheld entertainment device.

The PSP is much more of a students system, good games, good movies, good sounds, wireless and one decent big widescreen which will let people who commute, or like to enjoy the comforts of their bedroom in some glorious sunshine.

The DS is not a gaming revolution, it's a bit like 90s pop music, a remix of something old people liked twenty years ago, just with more colours and more marketing hype. Take the DS with a pinch of salt, it's not worth the hype.

Darwock wrote:
> Nintendo have gone mental, in my opinion.

Nintendo have wowed E3 this year and by the sounds of it, stolen the show from right under Sony and Microsofts feet.

I think the wowrldwide gaming press counts for a hell of a lot more than your Sony obssessed thoughts.

Well, if you'll be able to play Mario 64 in various co-op/versus multiplayer modes then I, my older brother and my younger brother will buy the system just for the opportunity for that gaming greatness.

Well if it is to steal some of Sony's thunder it is doing a good job.

But NB you must confess that Mario 64 2 and Metroid Prime: Hunters looks the muts nuts... especailly with MP:H being a touch screen game.

Though Mario Kart looks uninspiring.

I can see the possibilities of the DS, I do have a rather fertile imagination. But most developers don't.

Let's take voice recognition. It was pretty decent in RS3, but that was because it only really had a small number of commands and some rudimentary algorithms to match sound input patters to the commands. It will take a lot more work to make it happen on a handheld. Reason for that is it needs to be a more powerful mic than the one in the Xbox Live headset, and more powerful and further away equals lots more background noise to remove.

Wireless.. everything I've read says 802.11b. Which is good, hell I have an 802.11b router in the house. But unless it can do an ad-hoc mode with more than 2 people then it will need wireless access points for multiplayer, which in most cases will mean wireless hot spots. And therefore money.

A touch screen could be good, it depends on what they do with it. But it would also require a very sturdy screen and sensor, otherwise it will break.

A second screen. This is the most intriguing and also most likely to be messed up feature. You could use it for a variety of things in different games. You could use it as an extension of the first screen. It could be used as a map in some games, or a damage screen for a racing game, like the F1 WGP games had a bit in the top right corner.

But until I see something really decent being done with these features, I'll remain my pessimistic view that the main reason for them existing is to steal Sony's thunder. Hey, I want to be wrong, I really do. But at least I will not be disappointed.

That's the point thought Cyclone... you are a hardcore gamer... it wouldn't bother you. But it DOES bother the casual gamer... I mean I personally, even despite the fact I own 2 Gameboy's, would never dream of moving on the go with it.

If you saw that humerous Reg guy from the press conference and how he opened and closed the machine it looks VERY much like an extended version of the SP.

Oh. My. God. The honeyz on da street will think I'm a real geek and not approach me like they were going to before I started not giving a toss and playing on my games console....

Actually it looks almost exactly like a Game and Watch. Particularly in the latest pics of the red coloured DS.

Rikimaru Dark wrote:
> I myself think that the DS wont cut it. And as for Wifi there probly
> wont be many hotsposts in england anyway and I wouldn't be seen in
> public with something that looks like its been made by Fisher Price.

A: It looks like the SP so looks nothing like a fisher price toy.
B: Despite the fact Nintendo currently hold a 95% of the market share for handheld games?
C: It's bluetooth really so it shouldn't be too much trouble.

Rikimaru Dark wrote:
> No good titles on the PSP?
>
> Metal Gear Acid, Tekken 5, Gran Turismo 4 are all games confirmed for
> the PSP.

Along with Frogger, Syphon Filter, Ridge Racer, Tony Hawk's, Bust A Move, Ape Escape, Medievel, Twisted Metal and Wipeout.

*YAWN*

"Why?"

"Because."

This could go on forever... :-)

I don't know where people are plucking the £250 price tag from, no prices have even been mentioned. Although interestingly, EB in the states are taking preorders for the DS at $199.