Looks like the kid's picking up a DS.

[theWacoKid]

Well, I found out the toys r us canada is having a buy a DS and get Super Mario DS free promotion starting tomorrow, so, I'll go down tomorrow morning and pick one up. Portable madness. Multiple portable systems I can take, its not like these suckers take up much room. After this, I'm done with game purchases for a while. I'm putting my ps2 on moratorium. I'm done buying games for it with the exception of wanda and the colossus should it ever make it to US shores. I might pick up the odd $10 game as I see those as rentals essentially. Otherwise, all my game purchases will be for the portable segment. I'm tired of being a slave to the couch. I'll be trimming down my ps2 library as well.

I like this whole notion of a self contained system, free of wires, cords, cables, controllers, etc. But, previous systems were a little too bare bones, the screens were too crappy and the performance underwhelming. Also, those effin link cables for multiplayer, argghhhh. I still have scars from being forced to play mario kart on a gba with my nephew. Couldn't see crap with all the glare and those cables. Now, we're talking backlit screens and wireless play. And, oh, yes, the touch screen has interesting possibilities, although I think DS games at the moment are a case of style over substance. And there are some gba games I'm interested in. I don't think I could hack dredging up my snes and hooking it up to play Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island, but with a DS, I won't have to. Final fantasy tactics is the only psone game I own for my ps2 and I'm looking forward to ff tactics advance. Advance Wars I've only heard about, now I can give it a shot. And wario ware is for mindless diversion.

Other gba titles I'm scoping, that mario and luigi superstar saga or whatever it is, horrible title. Minish Cap. The Legend of Zelda: A link to the Past.

The psp will be my sports and racing system of choice and whatever else shows up for the system down the road. The DS will cover the unusual, the bizarre, rts style games, stylish little gimcracks. By this fall, I may dump console gaming altogether and pick it up down the road in a year or two, when pricing falls and a console leader has established themselves. I'm just not going back to multiple systems choking my a/v center. I won't. Those days are done, over. There shall be only one, and so I'll let the dust settle and side with whoever emerges victorious, be that nintendo, sony or microsoft.

On a side note, gba packaging sucks monkey balls. I didn't realize how incredibly cheezy those boxes are. Yuck! No class at all. The DS and PSP packaging is much nicer.

[Jupiter_x]

I too have trimmed my PS2 and GC game collection. I just wan't playing all the games! Mind you, most of these titles were bargain bin titles: (Rogue Ops, Run Like Hell, etc) I am finding now that I just want to play the top notch games.
I really only have 2 titles on my DS, but the fact that it plays GBA games is a bonus!

hope you enjoy it!

[Gadfly2317]

I've got a ton of console gaming left after I get moved, but right now all I am able to play is handheld. It's definitely nice that he medium has reached a point where its a viable alternative. . . it just really wasn't for me before. It was almost there with the GBA. . . it wasn't that the games weren't great--I played a lot of them on my GBA Player via GC, but only occasionally on the actual GBA itself. But GBA games look freaking great on DS, and I still say that despite having been playing lately on the larger, better graphics of the PsP.

I hope you aren't disspointed since you've got the PsP to compare it to. Mario 64 DS. . . I don't play it with the stylus, I use the d-pad about 95% of the time; its a compromise, but it's not that big a deal. I'm not dissaponted with the DS at all n comparison to the PsP, because they are really so different in the type of gaming they offer there is no comparison.

Nintendo is at its creative best on handhelds; it's where they are pouring their energy (they sure aren't putting much into the GC at this point in the race, besides that gorgeous looking new Zelda.)

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance that you mentioned is a really great game, and its' one that I'm most hoping Square will make sequel for on the DS. There are certain games that can eat 100 hours of your life, and that just scream for a touch screen interface.

I play guitar and type a lot, and with all the gaming, my hands get sore playing the old way. Stylus-only games I can game for hours, and some of my favorite games (like FFTA and Advance Wars) can easily be done primarily via stylus. Add in Zero load times for instant gratification gaming. . . .and you see why the DS is gaming heaven for me.

[theWacoKid]

The way I see the psp and ds is this, gadfly. Psp, beautiful woman, night on the town, but high maintenance. All that effin wiping the system and the screen and I still wind up with all those micro scratches. The standard speakers are craptoid, so headphones are a must. The DS will be the girl next door, call her up, go for a coffee, nothing fancy, just kill some time, a low maintenance woman.

[Gadfly2317]

The way I see the psp and ds is this, gadfly. Psp, beautiful woman, night on the town, but high maintenance. All that effin wiping the system and the screen and I still wind up with all those micro scratches. The standard speakers are craptoid, so headphones are a must. The DS will be the girl next door, call her up, go for a coffee, nothing fancy, just kill some time, a low maintenance woman.

I like that. Yeah. . .I like that analogy a lot.

And that low maintenance girl next door, she swallows.

[theWacoKid]

I've had the DS since Saturday, so this isn't a review, but my impressions. I've got 5 gba games and two DS games currently. I haven't played any extensively, just putzed about.

The gba games feel impoverished, only one screen and not a full one at that, we're talking some small screen gaming here, and the audio is considerably inferior to the DS. I actually took back Super Mario World, it looked so plain and the audio was so tinny, I couldn't hack it. Putting on earphones just made it worse. I picked up Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga instead. Dumb title to be sure, but plays like the paper mario games. I can't help but feel that the gba is on its last legs, the DS games have two full screens, better audio and innovative control with the touch screen and the prices are about the same for nintendo branded product. Still, there's some impressive gameplay and suprising depth in some of these gba titles like Advance Wars 2 and FF Tactics Advanced. AW2 has awful music, I had to turn it off, and even the sound effects required a lowering of volume.

I can see one or two more gba titles in my future but beyond that, I seriously doubt it. The gba games also can't make use of the sleep function which was disappointing. My view on some of the gba titles like the ports, is that sometimes you can't go back again. What worked masterfully on the snes doesn't necessarily translate to the gba. For whatever reason I couldn't warm up to SMW at all. I just coudn't do it. Maybe its a case of been there, done that, but I just wasn't into the whole bopping the baddies on the head routine.

I have Feel the Magic and Super Mario DS. Two screens are nice any way you cut it compared to just one and the audio through the headphones was suprisingly good. Mario DS actually has a headphone option which is nice. I like the stylus only gameplay of FTM. It keeps the gaming simple. The styilized graphics and catchy soundtrack are well done and the games are sorta neat in a bizarre surreal way.

Super Mario DS has mini-games as well, and I like a couple and thought there were quite well done. I only tried the initial 8. I liked the slingshot bomb one and the falling marios mini-games. In terms of the main game, I've done very little, but I did try out the thumbstrap and found it worked suprisingly well. I didn't think it would work at all, period. But, there's actually a measure of analog control with the thumb strap.

I like the two games slots, one for DS, the other for gba. I wish the volume control was a little more high tech. Also, the headphone port is constructed in such a way that my shure's jack doesn't fit properly, so it emits a buzzing noise when plugged in. I won't be using that for the DS. It would be nice to get some type of battery readout, rather than panicking when the red light starts flashing.

Overall, interesting device, loads of potential. Coupled with my psp for more traditional gaming, I'm getting to the point of seriously dumping console gaming altogether. I feel like I've just had it with the current generation of console gaming. Too many damn sequels, and my excitement level with console gaming hasn't been this low in a long time. It's all about more in console games, more bad guys, more features, more complicated control schemes. Console gaming requires an investment in time, I just can't afford anymore. On consoles, gaming seems like a chore now. I just want to game in small spurts and the sleep functions in the handhelds is a beautiful thing. The psp has mulitmedia featurs going for it along with gaming, and the DS has two libraries to choose from. Add to that their high tech wireless and internet features, and these aren't your old handhelds.

The ennui for console gaming has hit me. Right now, it just doesn't do anything for me. I'm tethered to that sofa, I have to face in one direction only, turn on multiple devices and game in essentially the same manner for what seems like ages. I feel imprisoned.
If I had to pick one system just for gaming, it would probably be the DS. The psp gets the overall nod for versatility, but I'm not seeing a lot upcoming titles, that are thrilling me. The DS games, even if it's a novelty item, seems to be more interesting.

[Gadfly2317]

Waco, you see anything for the DS in the E3 coverage that impressed you? What are you picking up for your DS down the road?

[theWacoKid]

Waco, you see anything for the DS in the E3 coverage that impressed you? What are you picking up for your DS down the road?

Kirby's Canvas Curse, most likely, and I'll take a look at Meteos. Those are in june. Nintendogs. Super Mario DS looks pretty good from the footage I saw. Advance Wars DS most likely, Mario and Luigi 2. There's a fair number of games, but a lot of this stuff, who knows how far off we're talking. Trauma Center looks pretty whack. The big problem with DS games and gba for that matter, nobody rents these games or if they do, the selection is highly limited.

Stuff I definitely won't be getting is Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory for the DS.

I have some store credit with EB so today I picked up a used copy of Yoshi's Island for the gba, yea!, my favorite side scrolling platformer on the snes by far and also Wario Ware Twisted. Haven't tried WWT yet, I'll let you know in a bit how the gyro sensor works. In case you're interested, the new Fire Emblem game came out today.

I'm more into the gba games at present then either the DS or psp. I'm back to considering dumping the ps2 and keeping a few games for the ps3 whenever it comes out. Playing on the consoles seems like a chore right now, like work. I was playing Zone of Ender 2 last night, and I swear I spent 30 minutes watching the opening cinematics and just learning the controls. As these games become more complex and story driven, they become more like work and less like play. That's why I love katamari damacy, just roll a little ball around and make it bigger.

The DS has a promising future lineup and I've held off on buying much of anything because I know it'll get better. I was disappointed with Polarium, fortunately I didn't pay much for it and it wound up costing me less than the price of a rental when I sold it off. There just isn't much of a game there. This is only for hard core puzzle fanatics, which I'm not. I like a good puzzler, but staring at a screen for minutes at a time, isn't my idea of fun.

Right now, I have Super Mario DS, which came with the DS when I bought it, Wario Ware Touched, which is better than I thought it would be, and Feel The Magic which is not as good as I'd hoped it would be. But, still, what I like about both Touched and FTM is that they're stylus and microphone only and they both make good use of the dual screens.

Right now, in japan, sales for everything have slumped big time. DS sales fell off 40k from last week and gba sp sales fell below 10k for the first time since, ... well, I cant' recall gba sp sales every being below 10k since I've been following sales in japan. Cube sales are just pathetic right now, under 2500 for the week. So, nintendo has reason to be concerned. Get the lead out, nintendo, otherwise the end may be sooner than you think.