I was, until almost exactly one year ago, a console-hater.
The last console I'd owned was a Sega Genesis, and the last time I'd played it was about eight years ago in my college dorm room. I was most recently a firmly entrenched, Windows-gamer with a penchant for the first person shooter and a great love of the realtime strategy genres. But then I bought a Mac, got heavy into “for fun” development and pretty much stopped gaming.
When I started craving a good video game fix a few months later rather than lament the non-entity that is Mac gaming, and at the advice of my two closest gaming advisors, I decided to give the Nintendo Gamecube a try. I fiddled with it, and pretty much found it a vehicle to be devoted to the temple of Madden. Though it was full of gaming potential, I just didn't use it as much as I'd like to.
When I heard Nintendo would be releasing a new handheld system with built in WiFi I surprised myself by getting a little excited about it. The last handheld gaming system I'd played was the Atari Lynx. But the idea of sitting on my couch — or a coffee shop for that matter — playing MarioKart online really peaked my interest. My brother got one. My game-guru friend who has burned out more than his share of Gameboys and GBAs was absolutely itching to get his hands on one.
I thought I'd ask for one for Christmas.
Thanks Mom and Dad.
It's awesome.
The graphics are fantastic — but I never really understood all the fuss about previous handhelds and their dark, migrane-inducing monochrome displays anyway.
Both the top “display” screen and the bottom “touch” screen on the DS render their respective graphics in all their smooth, clear, and backlit glory.
How the two displays get used is of course entirely up to the various game designers out there, but there are some exceedingly interesting ideas already in place — particularly in Feel the Magic, where you rub the touch screen to clear jacks out of the way of a speeding shopping cart or massage a goldfish out of your stomach. Serious.
Some games, like MarioKart show the game on the top (non-touch) screen and use the bottom (touch) screen for “extra” information — like a map of the racetrack. Other games, like Castlevania show the main game on the bottom screen and put their ancillary information on the top screen. Still other games — like the previously mentioned Feel the Magic — show the whole game on both screens at once, making a sort of a single long vertical screen between the two of them. I read the processor behind the top screen is more powerful than the one for the bottom one, and I'm really curious to see if a “standard” comes out of all of these different possibilities.
As for the WiFi, it's amazing. I played MarioKart against my brother DS-to-DS and it worked seamlessly. We also played FIFA 2006 without a hitch, dropped connection, or even the slightest hiccup. Nintendo must have put their time into getting the networking right. Playing MarioKart online is a slightly different story. Though it's a very smooth experience once it finally gets going, it takes a very long time to find three other people to play with using Nintendos player match system — sometimes up to six or seven minutes.
If I had to pick something to complain about on the system I'd have to go with comfort. I don't have particularly big hands and the unit feels a little small to me, like my right thumb has to bend awkwardly to get at the B button. Comfort-wise the system also favors right-handed gamers when it comes to the screen-touching, particularly due to the thumb-stylus built into the DS's wrist strap that pretty much only works on your right thumb. As a leftie, I've had to take to using either of my thumbs — or even my left index finger in some situations — to work the screen.
All in all though, I love the DS. I can tell that I'll be turning to the DS instead of the Gamecube for my future gaming fixes. It's got all the gameplay I'm looking for, plus it's portable and it's networked. Fantastic system.
