My impressions of the DS

[XboxEvolved]

I decided to get a DS just because I had the extra games to trade in at GameRush. The Nintendo DS has its high and low points and I will definitely discuss as many as I can here, but will in full on my full articles, both of which will appear on Nintendonow.com and Nintendo-evolved.com

Good-
Interface is EXCELLENT by far the most impressive thing I have seen on there.

It is good that the bottom screen has a coating to protect it, although it also means if you use that screen for the main action it may be blurry

Lots of features, touch screen is pretty nice, battery life has been tested (already) and it seems to do well in that department

Metroid Hunters had pretty good graphics, fairly entertaining

for $150 your getting pretty much what you paid for

headphone jack

Bad-
The top screen of the DS feels a bit heavy sometimes, almost hard to balance if you are using the touch screen with stylus

the design, while improved over E3 still feels like it could of been thinner, buttons seem a bit small (although not a HUGE problem)

could have came with mroe functionality (like full on PDA system inside already)

THe top screen is basically a GBA SP screen...couldnt there have been a wider screen?

The sound while decent, sounds like the same exact speakers we had with GBA SP

My biggest complaint is a poor launch list. Mario 64 does NOT cut the mustard. Metroid Hunters should of been at launch, teasing us with a game we wont see for four months is wrong. What about Pac Pix, or Wario Ware? Both also should have, and could have easily been launch titles. In the horizon there seems to be a lot of good titles but chances of them being delayed is pretty good.

OVERALL GRADE: B-

If you dont have a DS yet, save your cash. Wait until about February or March when the truly good titles start to roll out.

[Ninjazn]

Exactly what I plan to do. I want a DS, but I don't think its worth it because of the launch games. Mario 64 DS looks awsome but thats about all I want right now.

[Squeek]

I just hope the negatives don't kill the DS >.<;;;


-Squeek!

[Spartacus]

Basically, all the bad things wont kill the DS. Small screen, do you think a causal gamer can tell it's only a little bit bigger then GBA? From what most people say, the sound is better (some say a lot). And while I mostly agree with you john, the part I don't, is when you say that Metroid Hunters, Pac Pix, or Wario Ware should of been launch tittles. If they were, they would have been rushed just like most of the games out now, and would have ended up disappointing. And if "teasing us with a game we wont see for four months is wrong", then all demos are wrong.

[Zaraf]

I personally think that the sound is a HUGE improvement over the GBA. I loved going through Mario 64 DS and having surround-like sound through the speakers and in the headphones. Although, I will admit that some sounds in the game sounded kinda like static, but then I found out it was a boulder rolling down the hill :P

I do agree that the buttons seem too small. But I think I'll probably get used to that and not notice it. Also, I don't know if my thumb is too small, or too fat, or whatever, but I couldn't get the thumb strap to stay on my thumb very well. I always found myself readjusting the thumb strap every 30 seconds. Now I don't even use it, and whenever I need to touch the touch screen for a menu or something, I just touch it with my fingers upside down so that my nail touches the touch screen (no finger prints that way). In any case, I have high hopes for the future of the DS.

[soupysal]

The only game that interested me from the launch was Mario, and that was just kinda so so. Does anyone know what games will be out by Christmas?

[Squeek]

Ridger Racer presumably...

I believe Mr Driller...


-Squeek!

[Miggy-AMN]

I think John may have some points. But then I realize it may the be alcohol speaking. :D

[brian23987]

I love it and would give it an A+. One thing though, does anyone ever have trouble with the ds freezing? It happened to me a few times during pictochat and Metroid. I had to restart the system and got a little annoyed but it was not too bad.

[cubeenigma]

yes his froze when we weere pictochatting hehe ^_^ but like yeah the screens are nice but theySUCK REALLY BAD OUTSIDE with MPHfh because it is so dark but when they are used in the dark THEY ARE AWSUM also i think nintendo is goind to make MPH online because it has no official date yet and they had really early builds onn the game even at E3 ...same with AC (i wish if tht were to happen i would...yeah)

[Vinny-AMN]

John has some points but I've come to the conclusion that he must basically be deaf. Since he thinks the DS sounds the same as the SP.

[Crossover]

I won't be touching a Nintendo DS until it gets its first decent RPG.

[Darc Requiem]

I won't be touching a Nintendo DS until it gets its first decent RPG.

::Grabs Crossover and drags him to EB and forces him to touch a DS display unit:: ;)

I agree with all of X-box Evolved assertions with the exception of a few. The screen size of the DS doesn't bother me, try some Q-tips man the sound is excellent, and the DS isn't heavy to me at all.

[bill TSM]

I've gotta agree with John for everything accept for the speakers. They're louder and have less of a tinny sound to them.

Since I own an unplayable in most lighting conditions GBA, I held out from getting an SP so that I could spend the now $80 that the SP costs on a DS. Yeah I bought Mario 64 and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I would have waited until there were better titles for it, but I wanted it so I could play my GBA games with a backlit screen. Plus now I'll have it for the future titles that will be released for the DS.

Other than having to exchange my initial DS, I think the DS is a very solid handheld and I'd have to "1-up" my rating from John's to a B. Hopefully the future software will raise my rating further. Can anyone say portable wireless Animal Crossing?

[XboxEvolved]

let me correct what I mean--the sound is better of course, but the sound coming out of the speakers sounds raspy and static like to me.

[Kirk]

Having played with the SP for a while, I have to say that the DS's upper screen doesn't feel too heavy to me. I suppose that some people may be more sensitive to it, but it doesn't seem to make too much of a difference when compared to the SP upper screen.

The sound is pretty good, and it's even better with headphones. The speakers can't do everything that a good pair of headphones can; you get a better "surround sound" effect with headphones. The DS speakers don't really sound like the GBA speakers--the quality is already much better. Nintendo didn't exactly up the quality of a GBA SP speaker from the original GBA speaker, so there's not much point in specifying the SP's speakers in comparison.

The buttons could definitely have been bigger, but that's something that I'll get used to over time. There isn't much to say about the button sizes, except that their small sizes are obviously not helping to shrink the DS system.

Thumb-strap works better than I'd hoped. After watching the speaker at the Nintendo Summit try to demonstrate the thumb-strap on SM64:DS, I was worried it would be really awkward to use. The thumb-strap is not meant to stay tight around your finger. It's meant to be loosely looped and only tight enough to not slip out of place. I haven't had any problems using it while playing MP:H yet, so I've still got pretty good opinions towards it.

The screens, while nearly the same size as a GBA screen, satisfy me. Nintendo upped the resolution of the screen by only a little, so if the screens had grown in size, we would've just ended up with huge GBA quality screens. Of course, Nintendo could have upped the resolution again, but with bigger screens, we'd have bigger units to carry around.

The DS unit could probably be somewhat thinner (think PSP unit), but I guess that with two screens, it's okay to have a slightly larger system. It just annoys me that it doesn't necesarilly fit into any of the places I usually put my GBA: pockets, etc. I guess that I'd have to compare the DS to the PSP in the size department--since the PSP is a more complex bit of hardware than the DS, but is smaller than its rival, it's relatively obvious that the DS isn't as small as it possibly could be. Still, the DS is probably far less fragile than a PSP.

So far, I've had no problems with dead pixels or lock-ups. My DS has been running smoothly without any problems, and I've been playing for pretty much the whole two days I've had it. >.> (Got it at 12:00 on launch day, then went home and played... O.o)

DS Grade: A/A- (Still not a full score, but pretty good. My expectations weren't as extreme as some people's.)


Games out by Christmas
-Ridge Racer
-Tiger Woods
-Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits
-Rayman DS
-(Some more that I can't think of right now)

[XboxEvolved]

It feels heavy not that it is heavy. My example is playing Metroid. My left had is using the stylus on touch screen and one hand is controlling the 4 face buttons and R button, unless your sitting down it feels like you could drop the damn thing.