Friday, October 08, 2004
I hate to say it, but I'm totally underwhelmed by the DS.
I think maybe my hopes were too high. I just thought that when Nintendo unveiled a handheld with a slew of outlandish (for gaming, anyway) features like two screens, a touchscreen and a stylus I figured they actually had some revolutionary ideas to back it up. So I kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting for something that makes their wacko hardware decisions make sense. And I'm still waiting.
Before that though, just LOOK at the list of US launch titles. It's embarassing. Nintendo's lone title is a remake of Super Mario 64, while the rest of them are ports (Feel the Magic XX/XY is a notable exception, as is Ping Pals which curiously seems to provide the same service as the built-in PictoChat, just not as good). Those 11 titles aren't terribly impressive, but then to add insult to injury not all of them will be available at launch anyway. The Japanese launch is better and gives me slightly more hope, if only for the appearance of Sawaru! Made in Wario.
But this is the thing: This is a revolutionary piece of hardware, and the two games I want... are a sequel and a port. I LOVE Made in Wario (I'm counting down the days until the GBA sequel Mawaru! Made in Wario comes out), but come on: It's a collection of freaking minigames! Super Mario 64 I want solely because it's Mario, but I'm not exactly pumped for it because of the DS's controller. Super Mario 64 was made for the N64's controller, and I just can't see how it'll work on that d-pad.
What really bugs me is that we still have yet to see a use for the dual screens. Look at that list again. Do any of those games have a good use for two screens? No, not really. I don't consider a map or (however useful it may be in Animal Crossing) an inventory screen a good use for a second screen. In fact, the best use is probably in Madden, and that's a... map. And the touchpad seems awfully gimmicky too, though I'm reserving judgement until they can work out whether it's feasible to turn the touchpad into a pseudo-analog-stick.
To be honest though, the root of the problem is that I don't think even Nintendo knows what to do with the hardware. Instead of a situation like the N64 where you have a console and controller that were pretty much moulded to fit the needs of Super Mario 64, with the DS Nintendo have made this admittedly interesting piece of hardware and have asked developers to make sense of it. And I don't think they have yet. Made in Wario makes decent use of the system's features, but that's a collection of minigames. Feel the Magic does as well... but that's ALSO a collection of minigames. Yoshi's Touch & Go? A game built around the Baby Mario Balloon Trip tech demo. Notice how the announced games have a whole bunch of extra modes and control schemes attached? That's because a month and a half from launch they STILL don't know what they're going to do with it. Super Mario 64 isn't a great fit for the DS... so they're porting it anyway and throwing in a bunch of minigames that DO fit the DS.
On the bright side (yes, there is a bright side)... despite Nintendo's best efforts, this thing might actually do pretty damned well against the PSP. It's cheap, it's out early, and it's getting a good deal of hype (and I've heard from a few developers that it's actually generating quite a bit of interest from publishers). But on the other hand, the unit itself is damned ugly, it's pretty underpowered (those screens look more PSone than N64, warping textures, pixellation and all), and it's not sure what it wants to be -- it has a stylus, supposedly has more "mature" PDA-esque functions, but is sold on the basis of a Mario game and a wireless chat advertised by kids doodling funny pictures. Contrast this to PSP, which has no trouble whatsoever in knowing what market it wants to nail: It's cool-looking, it's powerful, it plays MP3s, and it's gunning for the iPod's place as a hip young adult's signature gadget (whether it succeeds however is an entirely different story). The DS? I can't picture it with a kid or an adult.
Still, part of being a Nintendo fan is being stupidly optimistic. So I'm hopeful that somehow, somewhere, Nintendo will pull a rabbit out of Miyamoto's hat and make everything better. Deluded? Oh yes...
Posted at 11:06 PM
