Gadfly2317
11-21-2004, 04:07 PM
Picked up the DS today. The Gamestop I shop at had 16 units, 16 pre-orders, and sixteen people there dutifully reporting at 11am to pick it up. Yes, I felt the shame of geekness, especially with my wife there laughing at us all. If I'd had a brain, I'd have hung around and got some of the purchases to test out the wireless gaming with me. Oh well. In addition to the system, I had Mario 64x4 pre-ordered, and I went ahead and picked up Feel the Magic since it looked so cool.
While waiting, I played the DS on the arm its bolted to in the store, and its difficult to get a good sense of how to handle the system, or what its like ergonomically and structurally that way.
Turning it on. First time, it prompts you to enter dates, times, your name, your birthday. Subsequently when you turn it on, the top screen displays a calendar, a clock, and the bottom screen has a menu letting you select your GBA slot, your DS slot, pictochat, or download.
Hardware: It does not feel as solid as the GBA, which feels like a brick with no hollow space in it at all. But it is reasonably sturdy. Ergonomically, I like it much better than the SP, which is so small. Shoulder button access is not quite as good, somehow. System has slots out the wazoo, mic inputs, headphones, power, DS slot, GBA slot, and a place to hook the wrist band it comes with. The wrist band also adjust to fit your thumb, and has a flat plastic bead on it for thumb-slide controlled games. It's more precise than your actual thumb. System also comes with a spare stylus, though it seems difficult to lose. . there's a slot that it slides into that holds it nicely.
It goes without saying this system has ultra fast load and save times. . . I don't know how that will work out on PsP, but its something I really value in a portable system.
Battery life is still in question. I'm not sure if the batteries were fully charged, and I'm not sure how many hours I sat there playing it, but they did run out today, and I doubt it was over four hours. I did have volume on full blast. I'll charge it up overnight, and hopefully get a reliable idea of how many hours you really get. Has anyone read any reviews that say? I haven't read much of anything in the last two weeks, so I don't know.
There were no accessories available today, no mic/headphone set.
D-Pad and Buttons: D-pad is basically the same as every nintendo handheld. It gets the job done, its placement is fine. There's room beneath it for an analog stick. They should have put one there. If they release a new model next year with analog stick, I'm gonna scream. The buttons are small. I'd hvae preferred buttons the size of the ones on the GBA, but there are four of them now, and actually, I had no problem with them like I thought I would. The shoulder buttons are springier, kind of odd. I'm not sure how I feel about them yet. Since I'm hoping to mostly play games that are touch screen interface, it may be a non-issue.
Touch Screen I'll talk about the touch screen more when I talk about the games. I used it with thumb, finger, stylus, and tried the Q-tip (what Shigeru claims he likes to use.) All methods work fine, depending on the game, or mini-game. I really prefer the stylus for its precision. Some of the mini-games on Mario 64 I just used a finger, and the mario main game a bare thumb works fine for turning the camera. Young kids will have a large distance to reach the screen with their thumbs. Adults and teens, no problem. Q-tip, appropriately enough, worked well for a some of the mini-games on Feel the Magic. Touch Screen is a slightly less bright than the top screen. Also, if you set the DS on a table, and play with the screens at a 90 degree angle, you can't see the bottom screen if its at an agle to your eyes. The responsiveness on the games I've played with the touch screen are great, and so far, in the mini-games, there have been really creative and fun uses for it.
I didn't like using the stylus while riding as a passenger in a car. Kinda jittery for a precise control.
Screens in General/Graphics The screens are just so slightly bigger than the GBA screen. . .same width, and just a touch more verticle. Color was good, brightness was nice, but dimmed somewhat in the car with sunlight. The way people were dogging the graphics around here had me nervous. But Mario 64's main game looked as good, if not better than the original (perhaps the smaller screen made objects and characters less blocky. Dark games are dark games. . . I don't think they are ideal for small screens, and Metroid looked damn good, certainly better than "playstation 1 quality" graphics, but it was too dark for my tastes on a small screen. I think the issue with a game like Madden "looking like ass" as has been said, may be fitting a bunch of small characters in 3d onto a small screen. I am certain a game like that will be improved on the PsP, but still, 3d games with lots of characters are not the ideal type of game to play, even on the larger PsP screen. I'd still like to see it myself on the DS though, and I'm considering picking up Tiger Woods DS, to see if EA's touchscreen golf controls are cool.
The best thing about the two screens is the ways they can be made to work together. My big hope was to have a second screen for menus and actions for RPG's and Tactics games, but I never would have come up with some of the things that are in the Mario and Feel the Magic games. I'll get to those in a bit, but for example, in some games, its like one big verticle screen. You may be controlling something on the bottom screen withe the stylus, but the scrolling landscape, you can see what's coming toward you on teh top screen. Also some great use of targetting things on the top screen via weapons on the bottom screen (like in my favorite mini-game so far where you control a sling shot and shoot bombs out of the air.)
GBA Games They work fine, look great, its no different than playing them on the GBA except the screen looks better. This was the only reason I picked this up at launch: I had no SP, preferred the GBA shape, but needed a back lit screen. I played some Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. What it really did though, after having spent all that time with the speedy, precise interface of the touch screen was make me wish there were already a DS version of this type of game. FF: Tactics with the DS would need ZERO button interaction. You could rapidly and easily select characters, move them, pull up their spell and attack menus, all with the touch screen. . . no hand cramp, and much faster gameplay. This is the potential that's there, and it will be a joy to play these kind of games when they arrive.
Feel the Magic Simple, cartoonish graphics, zany japanese themes (you can even select Japanese as your language, if you speak it) and a simple story--win the girl--that ties together trippy mini-games that make great use of the touch screen. A must buy if you are an early adopter of this system. I loved the shopping cart races (where you are trying to clear the junk out of the way for people racing in shopping carts) and everyone has probably already heard of the one where you get the go to puke up the gold fish he's swallowed. I have to move on though, to the game that sucked my brains out today.
Mario 64x4 Let's get the main game out of the way. You start out as Yoshi, instead of Mario. It looks gorgeous, much like the original but it seemed smoother to me, probably the smaller screen. Lack of analog stick is only a mild annoyance at first, if you were used to it from the earlier game. To make up, your character takes off slowly, and at about 2 seconds reaches his maximum walk speed. I want to be at full speed immediately. Fortuntaly, with your run button, you are at full speed instantly. Camera controls are on the touch screen, you just tap left or right with your thumb on the bottom corners of the touch screen, and it swings the camera around. It's all fine. Personally, Mario 64 is not one of my favorite games. I bought this for the mini games. Mini-games are perfect for portable gaming, and there are some cool ones.
Initially, your four charcters each have two mini-games open beside them. I do not know for sure how many you can unlock. Let me tell you about a few of them.
"Mario Slides." This one is HARD. Mario is sliding down one of four polls. At the base of three are Pirahna Plants, and at the other is a star. You have to draw lines or "paths" connecting the polls to guide Mario to the star. The lines you draw stay, though, and you have to guide five falling Marios to the star without dying before moving on the next level. Hard to really convey, but its very addictive and fun, and its all touch screen, no buttons (you might have figured out I don't like buttons on handhelds. I press enough buttons on my console gaming.)
"Mario Bounce n Pounce" has marios falling from the sky. There are elements of pong here. you have to bounce mario back up to the top screen to keep him from falling out of the sky, but need him to land on these critters (I forget what they are called) and squish them. Sounds easy. It's not.
Luigi's two mini games are both card games. One is a variation of Memory. Yawn. Xbox's Fable had a bar game like this too. Memory is one for the kids, at least, the last time I was any good at memory was when I was a kid. Have no short term memory left these days. The other card game is too weird to explain.
My favorite one so far is Wario's "Bob-omb Squad." You are using a sling shot to shoot falling bob-ombs out of the sky. The slingshot control really gives you the feeling of using a little slingshot, you pull back on it with the touch screen, it creaks nicely, you aim and fire, and blow the falling bombs on the screen to smithereens. This is extremely entertaining portable gaming.
Metroid Hunters Sorry, I'm all typed out and Simpsons is coming on. I'll say more later. The demo is cool, and it does have some controls to get used to. 4 schemes, I found I liked the stylus to aim, shoot, and control direction. I had to set the system on my lap . . .a little weird, but there will be no game on PsP EVER that can match the fluid speed you can whip around aim and fire. Dual analog on consoles doesn't do it. It's almost mouse/keyboard fast. It takes some learning, but for wireless deathmatches in FPS, this is where its at. It's not my favorite genre, and this new action heavy metroid wasn't my most anticipated, but I'll be damned if it doesn't work out much better than I'd ever expected.
Should you pick this system up? I recommend waiting for most gamers. Wait for a price drop and software to come out. Like I said, I needed a backlit system for GBA games anyway. That 2 launch titles, Mario and Feel the Magic are so fun is just a plus. Wait and see if the if the PsP turns out to be all that's promised, and play both and decide what kind of portable gaming you want to do.
For me, DS exceeded my expectations, which had dropped a lot after listening to so many people here complain. This system has very nice looking graphics at a great price, fast load and save times, and TRULY unique gameplay. That's what its all about for me. Something new and different. . .because seriously folks, most games have gotten pretty redundant and stale. Just judging from two games alone--and launch titles no less--this system will have some seriously different gameplay experiences.
While waiting, I played the DS on the arm its bolted to in the store, and its difficult to get a good sense of how to handle the system, or what its like ergonomically and structurally that way.
Turning it on. First time, it prompts you to enter dates, times, your name, your birthday. Subsequently when you turn it on, the top screen displays a calendar, a clock, and the bottom screen has a menu letting you select your GBA slot, your DS slot, pictochat, or download.
Hardware: It does not feel as solid as the GBA, which feels like a brick with no hollow space in it at all. But it is reasonably sturdy. Ergonomically, I like it much better than the SP, which is so small. Shoulder button access is not quite as good, somehow. System has slots out the wazoo, mic inputs, headphones, power, DS slot, GBA slot, and a place to hook the wrist band it comes with. The wrist band also adjust to fit your thumb, and has a flat plastic bead on it for thumb-slide controlled games. It's more precise than your actual thumb. System also comes with a spare stylus, though it seems difficult to lose. . there's a slot that it slides into that holds it nicely.
It goes without saying this system has ultra fast load and save times. . . I don't know how that will work out on PsP, but its something I really value in a portable system.
Battery life is still in question. I'm not sure if the batteries were fully charged, and I'm not sure how many hours I sat there playing it, but they did run out today, and I doubt it was over four hours. I did have volume on full blast. I'll charge it up overnight, and hopefully get a reliable idea of how many hours you really get. Has anyone read any reviews that say? I haven't read much of anything in the last two weeks, so I don't know.
There were no accessories available today, no mic/headphone set.
D-Pad and Buttons: D-pad is basically the same as every nintendo handheld. It gets the job done, its placement is fine. There's room beneath it for an analog stick. They should have put one there. If they release a new model next year with analog stick, I'm gonna scream. The buttons are small. I'd hvae preferred buttons the size of the ones on the GBA, but there are four of them now, and actually, I had no problem with them like I thought I would. The shoulder buttons are springier, kind of odd. I'm not sure how I feel about them yet. Since I'm hoping to mostly play games that are touch screen interface, it may be a non-issue.
Touch Screen I'll talk about the touch screen more when I talk about the games. I used it with thumb, finger, stylus, and tried the Q-tip (what Shigeru claims he likes to use.) All methods work fine, depending on the game, or mini-game. I really prefer the stylus for its precision. Some of the mini-games on Mario 64 I just used a finger, and the mario main game a bare thumb works fine for turning the camera. Young kids will have a large distance to reach the screen with their thumbs. Adults and teens, no problem. Q-tip, appropriately enough, worked well for a some of the mini-games on Feel the Magic. Touch Screen is a slightly less bright than the top screen. Also, if you set the DS on a table, and play with the screens at a 90 degree angle, you can't see the bottom screen if its at an agle to your eyes. The responsiveness on the games I've played with the touch screen are great, and so far, in the mini-games, there have been really creative and fun uses for it.
I didn't like using the stylus while riding as a passenger in a car. Kinda jittery for a precise control.
Screens in General/Graphics The screens are just so slightly bigger than the GBA screen. . .same width, and just a touch more verticle. Color was good, brightness was nice, but dimmed somewhat in the car with sunlight. The way people were dogging the graphics around here had me nervous. But Mario 64's main game looked as good, if not better than the original (perhaps the smaller screen made objects and characters less blocky. Dark games are dark games. . . I don't think they are ideal for small screens, and Metroid looked damn good, certainly better than "playstation 1 quality" graphics, but it was too dark for my tastes on a small screen. I think the issue with a game like Madden "looking like ass" as has been said, may be fitting a bunch of small characters in 3d onto a small screen. I am certain a game like that will be improved on the PsP, but still, 3d games with lots of characters are not the ideal type of game to play, even on the larger PsP screen. I'd still like to see it myself on the DS though, and I'm considering picking up Tiger Woods DS, to see if EA's touchscreen golf controls are cool.
The best thing about the two screens is the ways they can be made to work together. My big hope was to have a second screen for menus and actions for RPG's and Tactics games, but I never would have come up with some of the things that are in the Mario and Feel the Magic games. I'll get to those in a bit, but for example, in some games, its like one big verticle screen. You may be controlling something on the bottom screen withe the stylus, but the scrolling landscape, you can see what's coming toward you on teh top screen. Also some great use of targetting things on the top screen via weapons on the bottom screen (like in my favorite mini-game so far where you control a sling shot and shoot bombs out of the air.)
GBA Games They work fine, look great, its no different than playing them on the GBA except the screen looks better. This was the only reason I picked this up at launch: I had no SP, preferred the GBA shape, but needed a back lit screen. I played some Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. What it really did though, after having spent all that time with the speedy, precise interface of the touch screen was make me wish there were already a DS version of this type of game. FF: Tactics with the DS would need ZERO button interaction. You could rapidly and easily select characters, move them, pull up their spell and attack menus, all with the touch screen. . . no hand cramp, and much faster gameplay. This is the potential that's there, and it will be a joy to play these kind of games when they arrive.
Feel the Magic Simple, cartoonish graphics, zany japanese themes (you can even select Japanese as your language, if you speak it) and a simple story--win the girl--that ties together trippy mini-games that make great use of the touch screen. A must buy if you are an early adopter of this system. I loved the shopping cart races (where you are trying to clear the junk out of the way for people racing in shopping carts) and everyone has probably already heard of the one where you get the go to puke up the gold fish he's swallowed. I have to move on though, to the game that sucked my brains out today.
Mario 64x4 Let's get the main game out of the way. You start out as Yoshi, instead of Mario. It looks gorgeous, much like the original but it seemed smoother to me, probably the smaller screen. Lack of analog stick is only a mild annoyance at first, if you were used to it from the earlier game. To make up, your character takes off slowly, and at about 2 seconds reaches his maximum walk speed. I want to be at full speed immediately. Fortuntaly, with your run button, you are at full speed instantly. Camera controls are on the touch screen, you just tap left or right with your thumb on the bottom corners of the touch screen, and it swings the camera around. It's all fine. Personally, Mario 64 is not one of my favorite games. I bought this for the mini games. Mini-games are perfect for portable gaming, and there are some cool ones.
Initially, your four charcters each have two mini-games open beside them. I do not know for sure how many you can unlock. Let me tell you about a few of them.
"Mario Slides." This one is HARD. Mario is sliding down one of four polls. At the base of three are Pirahna Plants, and at the other is a star. You have to draw lines or "paths" connecting the polls to guide Mario to the star. The lines you draw stay, though, and you have to guide five falling Marios to the star without dying before moving on the next level. Hard to really convey, but its very addictive and fun, and its all touch screen, no buttons (you might have figured out I don't like buttons on handhelds. I press enough buttons on my console gaming.)
"Mario Bounce n Pounce" has marios falling from the sky. There are elements of pong here. you have to bounce mario back up to the top screen to keep him from falling out of the sky, but need him to land on these critters (I forget what they are called) and squish them. Sounds easy. It's not.
Luigi's two mini games are both card games. One is a variation of Memory. Yawn. Xbox's Fable had a bar game like this too. Memory is one for the kids, at least, the last time I was any good at memory was when I was a kid. Have no short term memory left these days. The other card game is too weird to explain.
My favorite one so far is Wario's "Bob-omb Squad." You are using a sling shot to shoot falling bob-ombs out of the sky. The slingshot control really gives you the feeling of using a little slingshot, you pull back on it with the touch screen, it creaks nicely, you aim and fire, and blow the falling bombs on the screen to smithereens. This is extremely entertaining portable gaming.
Metroid Hunters Sorry, I'm all typed out and Simpsons is coming on. I'll say more later. The demo is cool, and it does have some controls to get used to. 4 schemes, I found I liked the stylus to aim, shoot, and control direction. I had to set the system on my lap . . .a little weird, but there will be no game on PsP EVER that can match the fluid speed you can whip around aim and fire. Dual analog on consoles doesn't do it. It's almost mouse/keyboard fast. It takes some learning, but for wireless deathmatches in FPS, this is where its at. It's not my favorite genre, and this new action heavy metroid wasn't my most anticipated, but I'll be damned if it doesn't work out much better than I'd ever expected.
Should you pick this system up? I recommend waiting for most gamers. Wait for a price drop and software to come out. Like I said, I needed a backlit system for GBA games anyway. That 2 launch titles, Mario and Feel the Magic are so fun is just a plus. Wait and see if the if the PsP turns out to be all that's promised, and play both and decide what kind of portable gaming you want to do.
For me, DS exceeded my expectations, which had dropped a lot after listening to so many people here complain. This system has very nice looking graphics at a great price, fast load and save times, and TRULY unique gameplay. That's what its all about for me. Something new and different. . .because seriously folks, most games have gotten pretty redundant and stale. Just judging from two games alone--and launch titles no less--this system will have some seriously different gameplay experiences.