Product Features

BUY NOW !!!!

Product Features

view product detail at AMAZON

Product Features

• Plays two disc formats in a single, self-loading media bay
• Features a processing chip from IBM and a graphics chip from ATI
• Backwards compatible with all Nintendo GameCube games and most peripherals
• Built-in Wi-Fi access for easy connection to Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection gaming service

View product detail at AMAZON

Monopolies are everywhere, but most of them go unnoticed by government regulations. I mean really, how is it that Microsoft was tried for having a monopoly, when Nintendo has slaughtered all competition mercilessly. Of course, I’m not talking about the console market (which they aren’t doing so hot in right now) but rather, their real cash crop. Handheld gaming. The original Gameboy (and it’s pocket and color incarnates) was in total control of the market. Numerous companies tried to steal some market share from this product, and even capable companies like Sega couldn’t break away enough marketplace for their handheld gaming devices to survive. As you would expect, Nintendo finally upgraded it’s line from the 8-bit Gameboy when they introduced the Gameboy Advance, which boasted 32-bits of processing power. The success immediately transferred to the advance line, and as such, Nintendo was becoming really lazy with very few original games that weren’t ports coming to their handheld. This seems to be changing though, as Nintendo is about to face the very company who once stole the console gaming throne from them, Sony. With Sony’s announced Playstation Portable PSP, Nintendo realized that a new handheld may be necessary to combat such a foe. This is where the Nintendo DS comes in, as it was revealed at E3 this year. So what exactly, is Nintendo doing differently this time? Read on to find out.

What’s Included With The Nintendo DS:

• Nintendo DS Handheld Console

• Battery Charger (With Internal Battery)

• Two Stylus

• Wrist Strap With Thumb Strap Stylus

• Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt Demo

• Built In Chat Software (Pictochat)

The System
The Nintendo DS, much like the Gameboy Advance SP features the good old clamshell design. When closed, this handheld can easily fit into a pocket, and you won’t have to worry about scratching up the screen (or in this case, both screens). The two featured screens on the unit seem to be about the same size of the GBA SP screens, if not a little larger, and they feature 256 x 192 resolution which makes things very sharp. I find that the clamshell design is the best when it comes to handheld gaming devices, as it works perfectly to protect screen(s), and prevent the accidental pressurization of buttons. What you will immediately notice upon opening up the clamshell, is the fact that the DS has a secondary screen. This is really it’s claim to fame, as this has not been done with such a gaming device before. The second screen is located on the folding part of the clamshell design, and so the screens fold over each other as you close the unit. The system itself is about the size of a normal Gameboy Advance when closed. While opened, the handheld measures more similarly to two Gameboy Advance SPs sitting right next to each other. Instead of giving exact measurements, I will just leave you with those two comparisons.

The Nintendo DS may look slightly intimidating at first, with it’s various inputs and whatnot. Never fear, everything is pretty self explanatory. Featured on the bottom of this very sexy unit, is the volume control, headphone jack, and the slot for Gameboy Advance cartridges. Yes you heard right, the unit can play Gameboy advance games (but more on that later). While looking at the top of this unit, you’ll notice the two shoulder buttons, AC adapter input, stylus holder, Nintendo DS game slot, and the wrist strap attachment. The face of this unit features many buttons, and it is a very good thing that Nintendo upped the ante after the GBA. Featured on the top hinge of the clamshell design, is the top screen centered in the middle. This screen is surrounded by two stereo speakers. The main unit features all of the face buttons, and the touch screen. On the left side of this, is the Directional pad, with the power button located directly above it. The middle of this unit features the DS touch screen. To the right, are the four face buttons (A, B, X, and Y), with the start and select buttons located directly above these, in a similar position in regards to the power button on the opposite side. The bottom half of the main unit features the microphone, and two LED lights. One of these such lights displays Power/low batter, while the other indicates if the unit is charging.

As far as compatibility with GBA games (Nintendo refuses to call it backwards compatibility because they see it as two different lines of handhelds), there are a couple of problems here. For one thing, this unit will NOT play the original Gameboy games, Gameboy Pocket games, or even Gameboy Color games. This is a major upset, but it isn’t the main problem here. The Nintendo DS also does not feature the ability to allow link up between between units to play GBA games. This is the biggest disappointment with this unit, but there is one more that should be addressed. The Nintendo DS does not allow link-up with the Nintendo Gamecube for the GBA link-up features allowed in some Gamecube games. It’s definitely a wise idea to not throw away/sell your GBA if you’re picking up a DS, but I really feel that Nintendo should have incorporated the GBA perks into the unit, because as it stands, I must keep my current GBA SP to get all of the benefits from it. There are some good qualities of this compatibility with GBA games, and one of these is the fact that you can choose to play the game on either of the DS screens, which have much higher quality backlighting than the GBA SP, so the GBA games look terrific on this unit.

As far as battery life goes, I usually charge my Nintendo DS after every use, so I haven’t run out of batteries yet. I’ve played for about five hours without a charge, with sound and the light did not change to indicate low battery. I believe Nintendo cited the battery should work for about 5-10 hours in between charges. This works very well for the unit, and will likely be an advantage (even if it’s just a small one) that Nintendo has over the competition (The Sony PSP), as the other handhelds battery life seems to fall slightly short of this. This is one of the reasons that I am happy Nintendo stuck with the media format that they did.

The format chosen for Nintendo DS games resembles the SD memory cards which are often used for digital cameras and the like. These cards are very small, and can get lost easily. Thankfully, Nintendo finally decided to ditch the classic cardboard game cases, and has instead gone with cases that resemble DVD cases, only miniature. These cases carry the instruction manuals in them, a fixture for a Nintendo DS game, and oddly enough, a fixture for holding one GBA cartridge. Nintendo has made plans to take advantage of the GBA cartridge compatibility by making some DS games communicate with GBA carts, which adds even more functionality to the games. It is even possible that some DS games will require a GBA cartridge on top of the DS cart (this could help a bit with the limited space capacity within the DS game format).

The Features Of This Two Screened Wonder
The biggest, and most referred to feature of the DS is it’s touch screen, which is located in the bottom half of the unit. This is a very sensitive screen, and most games will take advantage of it’s touch sensitivity. Full games are actually being built around it, which could also bring some new ideas to the market. Don’t be fooled though, this is not the first handheld gaming unit to use the touch screen (Tiger’s Game.com used it), but it seems that the DS is the first to really market this feature. If you aren’t a big fan of the touch screen ability, than you’re out of luck because such games as Wario Ware Touched! and Feel The Magic: XY/XX are nearly completely based around it. The sheer emphasis developers are putting into touch screen based gaming is annoying me a bit, but mainly because they aren’t using it in unique enough ways yet.

The unit comes with two stylus, which are recommended for use with the touch screen. I’m really not used to using a stylus (especially for gaming) so I found myself fumbling around with the little pen quite a bit when I first got my DS. I soon decided to take advantage of the thumb strap, and let me tell you, it works worlds better. It takes a little getting used to, and though I still wouldn’t use it in place of the directional pad for games like Super Mario 64 DS, it is definitely great for some games. Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt particularly comes to mind.

The other biggie feature is the two screens, which should be emphasized more. Just like the touch screen, developers aren’t quite making anything truly unique which takes advantage of this feature. Most developers are merely taking the easy way out, and adopting the bottom screen as a map of sorts. Nintendo has mentioned many, many possibilities with this bottom screen, but the one that intrigues me the most so far is the idea that the two screens may function as one, which has already been touched upon in games such as Feel the Magic and Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt. One idea struck me as particularly cool from Square-Enix, which will come into play for their remake of Final Fantasy III. Basically, the map is displayed on the bottom screen at all times, and when a battle erupts, the fight occurs on the top screen, and action moves back to the map on the bottom screen after battles. I am hoping for some more original ideas with this feature though.

The third most important feature I’d say, is the Wifi capabilities of the unit. Basically, games are played through multiplayer wirelessly. For most of the games it seems that only one game cart will be necessary, and the data will transfer to the others via the wifi capabilities, though some games will require each player to have a copy of the game. The wireless abilities also function with Pictochat, the built in chat software. Basically, the unit informs you of how many people are in the area (I think it’s about a range of 100 feet), and you can write out messages on the touch screen with the stylus, or you can use the software keyboard on the screen. This is a very big step for Nintendo, and it also offers up the chance of online play, which by the way, Nintendo and Square-Enix have publicly stated they are working together on a game to take advantage of these online capabilities.

System Capabilities
The Nintendo DS features a different processor for each of it’s screens, an ARM7 and an ARM9. To my knowledge they haven’t released exact specs for the console, and so I can only base what I know from what I see with the unit’s graphics capabilities. This handheld is closest to the Nintendo 64 in terms of graphics capabilities, though I suspect that it’s more powerful if even slightly. One thing missing from the Nintendo DS is the one mechanism in the N64 which made all textures smooth. This is very obvious, with some very pixelated textures found within the games which looks very reminiscent of the original Playstation. I actually prefer the sharper look of the textures on the DS as compared to the N64.

The audio capabilities in the system seem slightly better than those from the N64, but definitely better than the GBA. The stereo sound from the speakers doesn’t sound so great when there is other noise around, but it isn’t too much of a problem. I was happy just to hear my favorite song from Mario 64 play again when I entered the Dire Dire Docks level. So far I haven’t found any of the common bleeps and blips used to compose most GBA games audio in any of the games, but I’m sure some lone developers will take the easy way out when it comes to the audio department.

The Nintendo DS has quite a bit more going for it on a technological level than the GBA. Right when you start up the system, you are commanded to make a nickname for yourself, tell the system your birthday, the current date, time, and language. From here you’re good to go. The system features a touch screen menu at start up (though you can eliminate this) which can let you fiddle with the settings, load up a GBA cart, DS cart, or chat up a storm with Pictochat. These features are very sexy for a handheld system, though I was hoping for organizer software to be included right with the hardware.

Third Party Support
In the past, Nintendo has proven to the world that you can’t survive with just 1st party software. Luckily, they have a full roster of third parties developing a multitude of software for the Nintendo DS. Along with the ones you could have already guessed (Capcom, Namco, Sega) I was quite surprised to see the sheer amount of support that one of my favorite developers, Square-Enix is throwing behind the handheld (maybe they aren’t so loyal to Sony after all). You’ll find some big names in the future on this system, with such franchises as Harvest Moon, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Secret of Mana, Ridge Racer, Viewtiful Joe, Xenosaga, Sonic the Hedgehog, Dynasty Warriors, Need for Speed, Madden, Bomberman, and pretty much every big name that Nintendo has. Though the DS is off to a short start in terms of software being released for it, I’m expecting it to explode in the coming months.

Update: The Nintendo DS Goes Online
Starting today, it is now possible to play certain games online with the new Nintendo Wi-Fi Service. So far the only game playable across this network is th