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Players
can control games using the touch-sensitive bottom
screen of the DS.
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The bottom screen also functions as a PDA-style touchpad. It
comes with a small stylus, as well as a stylus that attaches to
your thumb. This touch screen might be both the best and worst
feature of the DS.
One one hand, it brings the freedom of PC-style mouse control
into gaming, but using it also tends to block what's going on in
that screen. For example, while playing the Metroid Prime:
Hunters, you could use the left thumb pad to move, the left
shoulder button to fire, and the touch screen to look and jump.
As you track foes on the bottom-screen map, however, your view
will be partially obscured by your own right thumb.
The good news is that Nintendo has stressed a lot of comfort
options, both in the operating system and in their games. Want
to play Metroid without the touch-pad? Select a different
control scheme in the game's option menu, which also includes
configurations for lefties. You can even customize your DS to
automatically play the inserted title or to start with the main
menu, choose which screen to display your GBA games, to add a
nickname for wireless play, and more.
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Up
to 16 players can connect wirelessly within a 100-foot
radius.
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That's
right, the DS is wireless-enabled. Say good-bye to that
daisy-chain of network cables that was previously necessary for
portable multiplayer gaming. Nintendo's proprietary wireless
format has a radius rated at 30 to 100 feet depending on
environmental interference with its signal.
Surely, it's more than enough for friends to game from one end
of the bus to the other. We experimented in a small, nearly
empty parking lot and got great reception at the upper end of
that rating. The DS network can handle up to 16 users, though
you can expect the maximum number of players to vary from game
to game.
Also, unlike all but the earliest video game systems, the DS
comes with a built-in application. It's called PictoChat, and it
allows people to write and draw pictures in a chat-room format.
Since it's built in to the DS operating system, you'll always be
able to interact with other DS users.
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The
built-in program PictoChat lets you write and draw with
others.
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But not all is new; Nintendo has re-invested some favorite
features of older platforms into the DS. It's backward
compatible to the Game Boy Advance, which means that older Game
Boy and Game Boy Color games won't work in this machine but GBA
games will run fine (sadly, the wireless feature doesn't extend
to GBA games).
Like the GBA SP, the DS is powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion
battery that provides approximately 10 hours of play on a
four-hour charge. Old timers might recognize the A/B/X/Y face
buttons from the Super Nintendo controller, though they're not
in the same positions.
The standard headphone jack and wide-body comfort of the first
GBA model is back, coupled this time with the SP's screen-saving
clamshell design. In terms of its ability to display graphics
and sound, the DS is a little better -- and a whole lot smaller
-- than the Nintendo 64.
Overall, the Nintendo DS represents a rather large leap in
portable gaming. With some mystery shrouding the future
abilities of its internal microphone (voice recognition) and its
IEEE 802.11 wireless network, the DS may have left some
surprises up its sleeve. --Porter B. Hall
Pros:
Cons:
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Sometimes
hard to see and use the touch screen at the same time
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Wireless
multiplayer feature won't work with GBA games
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Can't
connect to other wireless devices...yet
Product
description:
With its two screens, Nintendo DS instantly shows its innovative
face. But capabilities like a touch-screen input, voice
recognition and wireless communication set it apart from every
other game device, and again demonstrate Nintendo's passion for
groundbreaking originality.
Game players need only use their
imagination to see how the DS promises to transform the portable
game industry by changing the way gamers relate to their games -
and each other. Two screens offer two perspectives on the action
at once. The touch screen could make accessing items, moving
characters or navigating menus as easy as a tap or drag on the
screen.
Voice recognition could let players simply tell the game what
they want it to do. Chat software will let users transmit text
messages, handwriting and even drawings to one another. And
wireless functions could link players in the same room - or
across the country. The unique features of the Nintendo DS hold
a wellspring of potential for the future. Game players will be
wowed.
