BombermanBoard

Soniti 254 · #1 Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 10:33 pm

I'm bored, and I felt as thoguh more life should be given to these forums, so [s]without Reg's permission[/s] I created a third system discussion topic. This time, concerning everyone's favorite touch screen handheld, the Nintendo DS. Let's look at some of the characteristitics of Nintendo's latest handheld console, shall we?

First of all, let's take a look at the DS's main feature. That's right, the touch screen and how it's used for gameplay factures. As some of you may already know, the DS has two screens, a normal top screen, and a touch bottom screen. Most DS games I've played tend to play by having the top screen being the main screen, or the screen where all of the action takes place with the bottom screen for things such as a map, item screen, or something among those lines (although there are games that use the bottom for action or sometimes even both screens are used for the action). Now most of the DS games I've played tend to throw in a sometimes unneeded touch screen feature, for example New Super Mario Bros.'s item storage system, which required one to press onto the icon to take out the item and use it, which effectively left you nearly defenseless for a short time if you happened to use the item at a bad area. Although, the touch screen feature can sometimes be used for some interesting and cool ideas, such as Mario Kart DS's emblem design, PictoChat, among other uses. However, although not particarly a problem with the Nintendo DS's touch screen abilties, it is quite easy to lose the stylus for the console if one is not careful enough with it (I have yet to lose my first one, but I know some people lost theirs sometime during the time they owned a DS).

Second is a feature I personally like, which is the ability to play Gameboy Advance games on the DS. This allows one to be able to play multiple different games without needing to switch game paks or cards. However, there is one bad point about this: You can not play older Gameboy titles on the DS. This hurts the DS a little bit in my opinion since this requires one to bring two handhelds in order to play older Gameboy and Color titles along with DS. However, some DS games add speical features if a certain game pak is inserted (the only example I know of is Kirby: Canvas Curse, which unlocked the Waddle Doo character from the get-go if Amazing Mirror is inserted and the Nightmare in Dreamland music if Nightmare in Dreamland was inserted).

The third and last feature I'll discuss is the well-known Wi-Fi connection, Nintendo's free online service for the DS. As you may know, this allows people with wireless routers and access points to paly with people around the world that have the same game as you. It may sound like a dream come true, but I disagree. For one, some games don't grant players the ability to speak to other players. This unallows one to be able to make friends on Wi-Fi to other people. Second, the gameplay can be quite laggy depending on how far away a player is from their access point/router. This allows one to get booted for the slighted movement if too far away, or kicks other players in their case. I personally don't like it, as I've only played Mario Kart DS on Wi-Fi and most of the people I've played with are jerks in some way, shape, or form and thus I don't really like it.

Noteworthy titles for the Nintendo DS

Super Mario 64 DS
- There has been some debate about weither or not this title surpassed it's predessor for the Nintendo 64. Some people love it while other people dislike it for some particular reason (the most common reason is the controls, as most people claimed that Super Mario 64 was made with control stick in mind for gameplay. Others debate over the actual additions and subtractions (some say Luigi is too useful and Wario too unuseful, while others insist that there is no real reward for collecting all the stars etc.)). Although I personally love the title and think it surpasses the original for my own reasons, I know that others will disagree with me on this.

Mario Kart DS
- Being the first Nintendo DS game to use the Wi-Fi cabilites, many gamers recongize Mario Kart DS as being a important flagship title to the DS, and some sources say it is the best selling Nintendo DS game when it was first released.

Kirby Canvas Curse
- Being one of the first games to play entirely with the touch screen, Nintendo seemed to put the DS's touch screen's abilites to the limit for this title. Although some may not agree with me, I feel as though that KCC played a vital role for the Nintendo DS's gameplay abilites, as it was among the first games to use the touch screen for gameplay purposes.

So what do you guys think about the DS? Is it good, bad, or ugly?