Nintendo DS Verdict? Can't Touch DS!

We've had a couple of weeks to make our minds up about Nintendo DS - here we present our verdict and discuss the games, with media.

It's hard to believe that it was less than 11 months ago that Satoru Iwata announced the Nintendo DS. To unveil, develop, demo, develop further, hype and release a game in 11 months is an achievement, but to do that with a piece of hardware is downright stunning. And yet with the North American and Japanese releases of the portable now behind us, Nintendo seems to have got it right.

There was another address by Iwata not long before the Nintendo DS announcement where the affable president of Nintendo lamented the difficulty of playing games that were too complex, and that Nintendo wanted to take gaming back to its roots. It's worth juxtaposing these statements because in many ways what the Nintendo DS offers right now makes for a rather contradictory picture.

"The Nintendo DS hardware is a strange beast; a Game Watch for the MTV generation."

The Nintendo DS hardware is a strange beast; a Game Watch for the MTV generation. The primary components, the twin 3-inch Sharp screens are great and their clarity is accentuated by the unit's backlighting. The effect of the backlight is most noticeable when playing Game Boy Advance games, which are reborn on the new console. If you have any Game Boy Advance cartridges lying around - and shame on you if you don't - you'll get a treat just going through them all to see which looks best.

The DS boasts aesthetic appeal since its nip/tuck.

In fact, it's a good idea to have a Game Boy Advance cartridge in your machine all the time, since the slot at the bottom of the Nintendo DS can get a little uncomfortable as you squirm to position yourself for the optimum claw-like grip, not to mention that the plastic surrounding the slot buckles quite easily when it's empty. The unit doesn't feel as solid as I thought it would. While I don't give a second thought to chucking my Game Boy Advance SP into my bag, investing in some sort of padded case seems the way to go with the more delicate Nintendo DS.

Apart from the excellent screen quality, the biggest draw of the Nintendo DS is the sound. The stereo speakers, well positioned to bracket the top screen, are amazing. The sound is clear with a good frequency range and the stereo effect is a neat feature to have on a portable system. It makes quite a change from the perennial silence gamers not willing/able to buy the fancy earphones required for the Game Boy Advance SP have had to endure.

GBA games look even better on the Nintendo DS.

There are some new start-up conventions to get used to with the Nintendo DS too. Since the unit can hold Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance games at the same time, the system will always boot to a menu and allow you to choose whether to start either of the games or the built-in messaging program, PictoChat. The front end is perhaps a little sterile, but it's functional and you'll be playing the game of your choice within seconds.

PictoChat is instantly accessible fun

"PictoChat being built in to the system is quite a bonus."

PictoChat being built in to the system is quite a bonus; right now it's not so easy to find people to play Nintendo DS with, but at the launch night held by Nintendo not so long ago, one of the most surprisingly popular aspects of the unit's well publicised wireless feature was none other that this communications application. With alaphabets to suit gamers from pretty much anywhere and the free-style on tap, PictoChat is immediately accessible but you could argue the appeal might wear off. Naturally, when Nintendo "switches on" Internet enabled abilities of the DS, PictoChat will benefit from a further boost. Just get a partner who loves games and say goodbye to fiddly text messaging...

Since we received a regulation North American Nintendo DS (courtesy of the mighty fine people at Nintendo UK) our package came with a copy of the Metroid Prime: Hunters demo, subtitled First Hunt. Nintendo has been mum on any specifics for the European launch - even now, after the unit has launched in both North America and Japan - so no one knows whether the same demo will be included when it does finally hit the domestic market. But since the game is due for release in the second quarter of 2005, it seems likely that the game will be there come launch day.

Metroid Prime: Hunters - demo included with US hardware.

Including the demo is a smart move by Nintendo, as the wealth of new gameplay possibilities offered by the DS means that a lot of people are going to need some handholding. Playing the game will also be the first time the typical player will realize what the little plastic thumb-pad on the included wrist strap is.

While First Hunt provides a good opportunity to get acquainted with the hardware, it's unfortunate that none of the three control schemes offered feels intuitive. In fairness, opinion among the Kikizo staff is a little divided; Adam is pretty convinced about the whole effect of First Hunt, being somewhat of a more casual FPSer and all, while Alex maintains that using the stylus as a faux mouse only makes you realize how much better a mouse would be, and playing with the thumb-pad to simulate an analogue pad likewise makes you wish that the DS had an actual analogue control stick.

Mario Kart DS is one of the highlights still to come

In the absence of a unanimously perfect control scheme, we did the next best thing, and chose the stylus scheme and stuck with it - for as long as possible, at least. And to ensure the DS was given a fair shake in its natural environment, we threw caution to the wind and headed for the murder express, aka the London Underground.

"Playing the Nintendo DS on the move does introduce an obstacle."

Playing the Nintendo DS on the move introduces another obstacle. While playing First Hunt in stylus-mode, you have to hold the DS with your hand in such a way that you can still reach the D-pad and a shoulder button to fire - not the easiest thing to do. Now try doing this while people jostle you to and fro and you can immediately see that it's too fiddly a control scheme for practical use in public. It doesn't help matters at all that the included styluses are only a few inches long, which not only makes them easy to lose but also hard to hold comfortably for an extended period of time.

Puppy Times is a firstparty title on our 2005 shopping list

The thumb-pad makes for a suitable alternative in these situations, but it too has problems. Turning more than 90 degrees is a pain, and although the singleplayer demo modes aren't too taxing, doing well against the boss - not to mention playing multiplayer - requires that you be able to move around in as unencumbered a manner as possible. At least for the Metroid Prime: Hunters demo, play at home is the best option, since this affords you all the time and space you could want to properly set up both your person and the Nintendo DS.

Many a day will pass while playing Animal Crossing DS.

There's not all that much to say about the multiplayer aspect of the Metroid Prime demo - it just works. At the launch event, where the DS units were plentiful and there was no shortage of eager folk to test them, the concept of Metroid's multiplayer went down a treat; choosing one of three quite distinctive multiplayer stages, waiting for your DS to magically find someone else's and then entering into a wireless blast fest did offer a certain feeling of novelty and even sophistication, but for both Metroid and the system itself it will really come down to how well these kinds of multiplayer environments are designed, and how much variation is on offer.

DS uses the same battery charger as the GBA SP.

Nintendo was also sexy enough to provide a copy of Super Mario 64 DS, the flagship game for launch in both North America and Japan. While the main game is largely similar to the Nintendo 64 game that spawned it, there are some notable differences (look for our full review soon). The original game was designed with analogue control in mind, so it should come as no surprise that the various control schemes fall short of the sterling example set by their purpose-built predecessor.

Super Mario 64 DS spearheaded the US launch.

All these concerns simply melt away once you give the mini-games a whirl though. Here we see what can be done with the stylus. Most of the mini-games make use of the stylus in an intuitive way and controls are seldom a problem. The only hiccup is that occasionally your hand will be in the way of you seeing the screen properly, but that's an inherent flaw in the nature of the controls and it's largely a non-issue.

I do think Nintendo made one mistake with the release of the Nintendo DS in North America (which has now been rectified with last week's Japanese launch) - where was Wario Ware: Touched! (Nintendo's exclamation, not ours)? After recently spending just ten minutes with this innovative title it's clear that this is the game that should have brought the Nintendo DS to the masses. The puzzles are ingenious - from scraping the screen furiously to unravel a toilet roll to slicing fruit flying through the air - and only the most stone-hearted will be able to avoid cracking a smile. The Wario Ware developers have proven for a third time that they have a true understanding of the core of enjoyable gameplay.

WarioWare Touched! is basically pure genius.

"No Wario Ware in the US is alleviated by Sega's Feel The Magic."

Having said that, the lack of Wario Ware in the US is partly alleviated by the presence of Sega's Feel The Magic: XY/XX. Like Wario Ware, the game is an example of the lateral thinking that's going to be required of developers to fully use the touch-screen functions of the Nintendo DS. Some of the puzzles might seem strangely out of context (see for example the parachute minigame where you have to input numbers in a touch-screen calculator to open the parachute in time), but there are others that border on genius, like the sailboat game where you blow into the microphone to move a boat across the water.

Feel the Magic: XY/XX

Whatever your expectations for the Nintendo DS, there's no doubting that it has the possibility for greatness, as a smattering of early gameplay ideas demonstrate. The hardware itself is solid, though news of those dead pixels on some screens was a tad concerning (though not nearly as concerning as Nintendo's "stop moaning about it" official reaction). As clichéd as it sounds, the success of the Nintendo DS will come down to the quality of the games, and with over 125 already in development, there are bound to be a few winners. Developers, publishers, the media and gamers are all in the same boat - we're all coming to grips with this new technology and trying to determine just how far it can go.

Nintendo has shown its hand in the first round of real handheld competition - now we just have to wait and see Sony's response when PSP hits Japan this weekend.

Alex Wollenschlaeger & Adam Doree
Still fighting over who gets to keep Kikizo's only DS.
Video Coverage
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PLEASE DO NOT DIRECT LINK TO ANY MEDIA FILE ON KIKIZO
DescriptionDur.SizeDetails
Nintendo DS Line-Up
Direct feed footage including Mario 64 DS, Metroid Hunters, Feel the Magic / Project Rub, Nintendogs, Pokemon Course, Wario Ware Inc DS, (640x480, 1.4Mbps)		 1.07min 11.0MB WMV
Nintendo DS Line-Up (New)
Direct feed of various other titles as well as some tech demos. (640x480, 1.4Mbps)		 1.46min 21.3MB WMV
Feel the Magic XY/XX
Lots of direct feed gameplay
(640x480, 1.4Mbps)		 2.25min 22.4MB WMV
Super Mario 64 DS
Direct feed gameplay, no audio (480x360, 1.3Mbps)		 0.37min 3.29MB WMV
Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt
Direct feed gameplay, no audio (480x360, 1.3Mbps)		 0.37min 3.29MB WMV
Feel the Magic XY/XX
Teaser sequence and interactive foolishness (TGS 2004 showfloor) (640x480, 1.8Mbps)		 1.11m 15.1 MB WMV
Super Mario 64x4
E3 2004: Direct feed gameplay (640x480, 1Mbps)		 0.34m 4.28 MB WMV
Super Mario 64x4
E3 2004: Showfloor gameplay (640x480, 1Mbps)		 2.18m 17.51 MB WMV
Metroid Prime Hunters
E3 2004: Direct feed gameplay (640x480, 1Mbps)		 0.33m 4.23 MB WMV
NEW Super Mario Bros.
E3 2004: Direct feed gameplay (640x480, 1Mbps)		 0.34m 4.27 MB WMV
Mario Kart DS
E3 2004: Direct feed gameplay (640x480, 1Mbps)		 0.34m 4.26 MB WMV
Animal Crossing DS
E3 2004: Direct feed gameplay (640x480, 1Mbps)		 0.34m 4.28 MB WMV
Wario Ware Inc DS
E3 2004: Direct feed gameplay (640x480, 1Mbps)		 0.33m 4.21 MB WMV
PictoChat
E3 2004: Direct feed gameplay (640x480, 1Mbps)		 0.34m 4.25 MB WMV
More Nintendo DS Tech Demos
E3 2004: Showfloor gameplay including Pokemin, pinball, and other stuff. (640x480, 1Mbps)		 1.23m 10.52 MB WMV