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Next Gen suggests improvements for DS
Vegan
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Registered User regular
Sorry if this has popped up on the forum already. Searches for "DS" prove difficult.
When I first heard the description of the article before reading it, I thought, "Yeah, whatever, you know what they say about opinions," but the suggestions really are very good, and realistic.
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4991&Itemid=2
When I first heard the description of the article before reading it, I thought, "Yeah, whatever, you know what they say about opinions," but the suggestions really are very good, and realistic.
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4991&Itemid=2
The DS could well be the ideal portable platform; it certainly has all the right ideas. Here's what Nintendo can do to push it over the wall, and follow through on all the system's promises.
1) Give the system some internal flash memory. Right now you can store a downloaded demo in RAM until you cut the power. Though nice in its own right, that's not enough. For points I'll address in a moment, this extra storage space is crucial.
2) Improve the system interface. Nobody wants to reboot every time he changes the system clock or exits Pictochat. I don't necessarily even want to shut down the system when I turn off a game. The user should have the option of returning to the home menu at any time – perhaps suspending the game for a moment to fiddle with a system setting, then resuming. The game will react as if the player snapped the lid closed, then open again.
3) Make the system interface expandable, preferably over wi-fi download. Hey, those Wii channels? Good idea. Should have thought of it earlier. I want the option to expand my options – to upgrade features like Pictochat for wi-fi glory. To add new functions, like...
4) A Virtual Console. I keep hearing grunts over the lack of Game Boy games on the Wii Virtual Console. That's a kind of a strange thing to mope about, as the Game Boy is a portable system; the Wii isn't. Portable games and home console games are kind of different. Considering that, like the Wii, the DS is only backward-compatible by one generation (another source of minor annoyance), it makes sense to expand the system's range, transforming it into the handheld of all handhelds. Surely the DS is punchy enough to drive a Game Boy / Game Boy Color emulator. Or a Game Gear one. And hey, this would be the perfect place for SNK to wave all of those amazing Neo Geo Pocket games under a new set of eyes. And what about the Atari Lynx! If Nintendo really wanted to be cute, it could offer new adaptations of its old Game & Watch LCD games (including the dual-screen ones everyone joked about when the DS was announced), for cheap.
5) Integrate wi-fi support, already. Allow people to keep universal friend lists, and support them in future games. Make it easy to manage Internet options from the system menu.
6) Integrate Pictochat more. Make it active in community games like Animal Crossing, and – as with Xbox Live – allow people to see if friends are online. Make it the tool it's meant to be. It's already the best IM program on the planet; a shame to waste that on... well, when do people use it? At gaming conventions?
7) Let users toy more with the system menus. The DS has a stylus – let people draw and organize. Doodle avatars for Pictochat. Doodle wallpaper. Doodle borders for windows. Choose which options and applications they want on the main menu, and where (all the more handy, should wi-fi system updates and expansions become commonplace). Build in a "portrait" mode for people who like to hold the system Brain Age-style. (It really is comfier.)
Note: Although IM avatars would be neat, the DS doesn't need a "Mii" system; portable systems are intimate enough, as they sit inside the player's personal space. On a portable, all Miis would do is distance the player by adding a layer of abstraction – when in fact the point of this article is that we want to remove that layer. (That Miis are such an amazing idea for a home system should illustrate why Game Boy games would be pointless on the Wii.)
8) Make real, native use of the Game Boy advance slot by offering a system update cartridge that incorporates all of the above features. And maybe also serves as a rumble pak, if there's room. The advantage over typical "system upgrades", like the ram expansion for the N64 or the PS2 hard drive, is that this cartridge should have little direct effect on game software; it would simply transform the DS into a more useful and personal tool. Such an update would also weed out the necessity to offer a whole new DS model, further annoying people who felt forced to upgrade to the DS Lite – itself only a cosmetic adjustment.
Judging by current sales and cultural penetration, the DS is going to stick around for a long time. It would be a shame if it lacked the ability to keep up with its own legacy. If Nintendo makes the above adjustments, there will be practically no end to the system's shelf-life. If not... well, it'll still be a neat little system. In the face of the Wii's "new every day" philosophy, though, it's already feeling like yesterday's news.
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The homebrew crowd used to update the firmware with their own, custom firmware (I say "used to" because I think they have other methods now). So if they can do it easily, I'm sure Nintendo can, too.
Hell, *I* could design the system for them, and it would literally print even more money for them then they are already making.
Everyone would buy one of these carts.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Wii Code: 1040-1320-0724-3613 :!!:
Personally, I'd rather have my DS games with the most available resources than be able to flip back to the menu. It's not like it takes very long to get a game started anyway.
Heathen.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I'm not convinced that Nintendo would release blank, writable cartridges for the DS. They would basically be official, first-party piracy devices.
Nope. I've got the original cart still, and an old game boy costs like 3 bucks. VC is one thing, I love getting hard to find shit that it's cheaper to dl for the Wii. There's enough legit games for me to buy for the DS without having to give Nintendo money for older games.
"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms, history shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjected peoples to carry arms have prepared their own fall"
- Adolf Hitler, Edict of March 18, 1938.
I'd rather see them add GB/GBC and eventually GBA games to the Wii VC. They already made the Super Game Boy and the Game Boy Player so it's not like they don't know the "I want to play Game Boy on my TV" market is there.
In other words, the DS's firmware is not upgradeable.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I don't necessarily want downloads, just the ability to play the game cartridges I already have.
Exactly. I want a bunch of portables on the Wii VC, so I can have all my games in one place. The ability to download portable titles (and maybe some NES and even Genesis games) onto the DS a la Animal Crossing should be a given, and would work well.
For DS owners that don't have a Wii, yes, have an abbreviated VC specifically for the DS. But don't make it so that I have to buy a DS to play Mario Land, when all I need is the Wii.
Hopefully the DS 2 will have have some sort of memory for these functions, because I don't see them happening on the current system. Also for the DS 2, I'd like to have even more hardware features for developers to toy with-- a built-in camera, rumble, and tilt/twist technology, and multitouch if it's feasible.
I think a built-in Nintendogs/Pokemon Pikachu feature would be a good idea, sort of a virtual pet thing to complement the Mii system. You could choose from various dogs, cats, select Pokemon, Yoshis, Chaos, and random fantasy pets (dragon, robot dog, etc.). With a tilt feature, the "walking around helps the pet" idea from Pokemon Pikachu could be integrated, while Nintendogs's "Bark Mode" could be a fun social tool. You could use the pet's bark or whatever as an alarm clock. And of course, upload the pet to your Wii to play with your Miis in some sort play area.
Yeah, I've been thinking about this for a while.
Man... it's all about Skype and AIM on a DS cartridge. I can find a WiFi point no problem... now let me do something with it.
I'd say the market for both is there.
I can't see how you can reasonably not want any of the features outlined in that article. The interface opinions were especially solid.
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That just baffles me. So if given the choice between handheld games for the Wii VC or for a hypothetical DS VC, you would prefer the not portable option? It is the inferior option in every way but screen size (and even that isn't that beneficial because of blown up pixels etc.) and you would still rather want that than play VC GameBoy games whenever wherever? I will never understand that.
I play primarily at home and given the choice would prefer the big screen.
If they want to roll it out for both platforms, I certainly won't complain, but if I can only get it from one place I'd much rather that place be compatible with my television set.
Also, the ability to check news and everything while outside on campus is pretty sultry.
Oh yes. Honestly, I think they could put out a system that's basically a PSP with two screens. Heck, the battery life would, quite possibly, still be longer than the PSP's, simply because they wouldn't have to worry about running a disc drive within it.
Because handheld gaming isn't more comfortable for everyone. It is for you, it is for me, but it is not for everyone, because different people like different things and consider different things comfortable.
These aren't PS3-esque additions. Everything here either expands the system's capabilities as a gaming machine or improves the functionality of a feature the system already has. Being able to store a downloaded demo does not make the system go from happy fun time console to bloated multimedia misfire, it just expands the usefulness of a feature the DS has already had from the very beginning. There were no LETZ WATCH MOVEYZ suggestions in the list.
(if this angers the mods, by all means, delete it)
Pokémon HGSS: 1205 1613 4041
Um... except for people who do find portable gaming uncomfortable, whether it be due to eye strain, neck strain trying to find a comfortable way to hold the system and look at the screen for extended periods of time, cramped hands due to button layout (on a console you can ususally buy a third party controller better suited to your hands if the default one is uncomfortable), etc. The most common issue for people who complain about portable gaming comfort tends to be neck strain for long games, which obviously isn't an issue with console games as the location of the screen and the location of the controller are not tied to each other. You can look up with a controller in your lap for console gaming, you cannot with handheld gaming. Depending on the person (and the system itself... this issue is taken into consideration when a handheld system is designed by a good company) this can lead to neck and shoulder pain after a little while.
I prefer handheld gaming, and this does not personally affect me (though I did used to get neck strain after about 20 minutes, that is no longer the case), but I know people who it does bother and it's a pretty well-known issue in general, which is why products like Super Game Boy and Game Boy Player had such a big market.
And I said nothing about "de facto convenience", just comfort for some people. Of course handheld gaming is more convenient.
Why play metroid when you can BE metroid?