Okay, so I admit that I have been wanting a Gameboy SP ever since they came out with color, flip action, and I saw that they have a bunch of the old Nintendo games on Gameboy now. Now I see that the NYtimes says that Nintendo will be releasing the DS in America in November for only $150. I also see that apparently it will have wireless capabilities so you could conceivably make a VoIP call from any wireless network. This thing just gets cooler and cooler! I have succumbed to the technolust; however, I refuse to preorder one at $200 from Wal-Mart. What are they trying to play at anyway? Will they really be that hard to find if I wait to buy it at the normal price? Oh, and I see that they have a Mario Kart for it too! I’m almost ashamed at how much I’m looking forward to getting one. Nintendo’s trying to go for that over 20 market and boy have they got me. Anyone else going for it? Or are you going to wait for the PSP (which I’m also tempted to do)?
I’m all over this baby (though it’s actually called the Nintendo DS, despite it clearly being an extension of the GameBoy line). Also, you may not have read that the system is also shipping with a demo of Metroid Hunters, both solo and multi-player modes.
I played both the DS and PSP at E3 (a large industry event), and while both are impressive machines, the PSP really offers little more than what’s available on the home consoles. Whereas the DS is capable of introducing entire new gameplay methods. The touch screen just feels so damn good, it should be criminal.
I will most definitely be getting one. Eventually. According to this, no games will be out until March 2005. That’s a long ways to wait for a system with no games. Yeah, wireless capabilities are a good thing, though. I’m glad it was included with the newest versions of Pokemon, but I wish it was compatible with ALL games rather than just ones that can support it.
That’s wrong. Retailers are notorious for playing guessing games when it comes to console release dates and their prices. I can guarantee Nintendo won’t release the DS without at least a handful of games, it wouldn’t make any sense to do otherwise.
Activision has already pledged that Spider-Man 2 will be out on launch day, November 21. So there’ll be one game at least.
http://www.gamingtarget.com/SectionViewer.aspx?ArticleID=2552
Just out of curiosity, what age group do you all fit in? I’m wondering if Nintendo is really hitting their target demographic with this one. I’m 23, will be 24 by the time it comes out.
It ships with a Metroid demo? Samus, you sweet, sweet goddess of Nintendo Icon-atry, prepare to be mine.
Anybody with any more knowledge of the wireless capabilities in here? I’m curious as to how you’d go about using it as a phone. Would it require a hack of some sort, of could you just do that straight out of the box? And what’s with the $50 overcharge for preordering?
I’m 19. I think the Metroid Demo is a brilliant move in obtain an older audience.
As for the wireless feature, the system supports both its own wireless infrastructure (for immediate play between any units within 30-100ft) and wi-fi, for online gaming. Rumor has it that Nintendo actually intends the DS to be used as a telephone type device, as not only does the system have an internal microphone, but also a port permitting a headset. Of course, this is unconfirmed, though I’d bet dollars to donuts that even if Nintendo doesn’t make calling other DS’s a feature, some third party will.
Here’s a story providing more information:
Up until two days ago, there was no release date and no MSRP, so many retailers were just guessing. What was $200 a few days ago is probably the corrected price now.
I see on WalMart.com that it’s now listed as $150. So how’s pre-ordering work anyway? Do I pay now and then it’s sent to me at that time? Am I guaranteed one no matter what? Also, are there any disadvantages to buying the first model of it (i.e. bugs that haven’t been worked out, hardware problems)?
It’s possible. The first batch of Xbox consoles have had several problems, as with the PS2. However, Nintendo has always been notorious for its quality control; to my knowledge, Nintendo has never had a problem with either a console or handheld having a technological problem that can be attributed to a specific generation (assuming there were any problems at all, which I haven’t heard of). The only slight case I recall is that the early GameBoy SPs were easier to scratch the paint job than the later ones, however, I would expect this not to be a problem with the DS as I doubt they’d repeat a mistake, regardless of how minor.
Even though the possibility of a problem does exist, I’ll be picking one up on the launch day.
Yeah, with Nintendo products I wouldn’t worry so much about bugs. Now, Sony products on the other hand… well, let’s just say I haven’t trusted them since my launch-day Playstation refused to work unless you turned it on its side.
So Duderdude2, you said you played both of them at E3? What was the touch screen used for? I saw one pic that had it set up like a PDA almost, with a stylus to make notes and all. Will you have to control stuff with the stylus too?
Oh yeah, don’t sweat the PDA similarities. Nintendo’s a gaming company, through and through, what you saw was their picto-chat program which will be built into the DS. It’ll allow you to send text messages, drawings, etc to other DS owners.
Anyways, the majority of the games at E3 utilized the touch screen for various control methods. I don’t know whether you’ve played Wario Ware on the GBA (it’s a compilation of 150+ “micro-games” that one plays in 5 second bursts), but one of the demos at E3 was a DS version. In one “micro-game”, for instance, you’re instructed to scratch Wario’s back, so the player must quickly run either stylus over Wario’s back. Another might have you dragging coints into a purse, or rotating a sphere to find an image.
One of the more unique demonstrations stemmed from a game known as “Pac-Pix”. In this game, the player had to actually draw Pac-Man (as large, or as small as they’d like), upon completing the image, your drawn Pac-Man will spring to life and actually animate (which is amazing to see). It is then up to you to lead Pac-Man to the ghosts by drawing walls in front of him, which will steer him whatever in the direction you desire.
Metoid Hunters, a demo of which will ship with the DS, used the touch-screen as an aiming reticule. You actually just touch the screen where you want to shoot.
And these were just demos, I’m anxious to discover how Nintendo will utilize the touch screen in their launch games.
You just point at what you want to shoot? That’s either too easy or too hard. It seems like it takes the challenge out of shooting if you just point at it with the stylus. And it also seems like it’d be really difficult to move around with both hand while also trying to hold the stylus. Having said that, I can’t wait. That Pac-Pix sounds pretty cool. Did it make a difference how big you made Pac Man?
Well, firstly, I should clarify that I meant you use the touch screen to aim, then tap it to shoot. So it’s not exactly how I made it out to be in the first post. As for Pac-Pix, you could make Pac-Man as large or small as you’d like, so long as your virtual ink supply didn’t run out (so as to prevent a Pac-Man the size of the entire screen, ha).