The Nintendo DS: The World You Wish For | VideoGameDocs
- Thread starter IbizaPocholo
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Chittagong
Gold Member
Great history for the DS, thanks for sharing. It's nuts how quickly they went from Iris being the primary GBA follow up in December 2003 to announcing the DS in January 2004 and having it playable in E3 2004 just a few months later.
I remember queuing up to play it. The touch screen with stylus felt fresh, even if the demos on the display - Wario Ware and Steel Diver I think - were paper thin.
But then in the next year or two, we saw just huge innovation from Nintendo - Nintendogs, Electroplankton, Another Code, just really fresh and fun game experiences.
I remember queuing up to play it. The touch screen with stylus felt fresh, even if the demos on the display - Wario Ware and Steel Diver I think - were paper thin.
But then in the next year or two, we saw just huge innovation from Nintendo - Nintendogs, Electroplankton, Another Code, just really fresh and fun game experiences.
Hero_Select
Member
The DS was so damn good, so many great games and the DS Lite was perfect
DownLikeBCPowder
Member
Remember playing this for the first time at E3 2004 and meeting Charles Martinet as he was doing a sort of promo exhibition for bit illustrating it. Still have my t shirts with their seemingly pulled slogan, "See it. Touch it. Play it." 
Will check out the video.
Will check out the video.
Muchacho
Member
Thanks
IbizaPocholo
, that was a great bit of history from Nintendo.
Cool thing that it was made compulsory to make use of the dual screen and touch functionality, which made the games feel unique.
I've not scratched the surface in terms of the DS library I've touched.
Contra 4 was legendary. One I'll always come back to the DS for.
DS had a few great Castlevania games too.
IbizaPocholo
, that was a great bit of history from Nintendo.Cool thing that it was made compulsory to make use of the dual screen and touch functionality, which made the games feel unique.
I've not scratched the surface in terms of the DS library I've touched.
Contra 4 was legendary. One I'll always come back to the DS for.
DS had a few great Castlevania games too.
DownLikeBCPowder
Member
Cool visuals in that game. For some reason I own 3 or 4 copies, lol.
Truly an all time great system and library.
Horatius
Member
fantastic system, fantastic timing on using the technology commercially. touch screens became ubiquitous soon after with the launch of the iPhone, but nintendo managed to exploit the exact window where they were completely novel and interesting but good enough and cheap enough to be viable for a mass market.
a lot of the good usages of the touch screen made it into later systems too obv, but without ever being the main selling point again. hell the 3ds might still be nintendo's best handheld because of this; switch is excellent but losing the two screen setup drops a lot of QoL features in some games like pokemon.
a lot of the good usages of the touch screen made it into later systems too obv, but without ever being the main selling point again. hell the 3ds might still be nintendo's best handheld because of this; switch is excellent but losing the two screen setup drops a lot of QoL features in some games like pokemon.
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snapdragon
Member
The dual screens were far more than a gimmick, the bottom screen was almost always utilized well for information/gameplay features by developers
NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt
Biggest Trails Stan
3DS was a good handheld but DS overall was the better portable by far. Switch surpass both by far for me though
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Durin
Member
Makes me sad that I missed out on the DS & 3DS, but I'm hoping that second-screen accessory for the Switch 2 is a thing so they can bring those games back.
I've tried emulating some DS & 3DS stuff that don't do anything complex with touch controls, but I know there are great titles that do.
I've tried emulating some DS & 3DS stuff that don't do anything complex with touch controls, but I know there are great titles that do.
amigastar
Member
To me 3DS was the best as it could play also DS games. I didn't buy a Switch but i'm looking forward to the Switch 2.
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Impotaku
Member
Ah good old DS the system that until the switch was released held the record for the biggest library in my collection at 403 games owned, it was the perfect mix of traditional types of games along with batshit crazy ones that usually only Japan got. Add in all the weird and wonderful non game software that i loved to hunt down & use it literally had something for everyone. I used to use some of the DS Japanese cookery books to make stuff as they were pretty useful, i had that DS stuck on my fridge on it's magnet stand as i used the voice commands to navigate. It left one hell of a legacy one that quite hasn't been matched in certain aspects.
My DS library is pretty much anything that was worth playing i probably have, it's one of my collections where i have a huge level of expertease of whats out there. I literally went through all releases to find all the good stuff but there was a lot of crap out there too, the side effect of it been so popular meant that the volume of shovelware was insane. My DS stuff is currently safely packed away till i can get all my collection back out and back on shelves, i'm planning on having my nitro capture unit hooked up to 2 wall mounted monitors to make a giant DS, also have a download station with a full set of download station carts to replicate that store demo experience.
DS also had a pretty amazing homebrew scene, the ZX spectrum emulator is fantastic & i still use it to this day.
Probably one of a tiny few in the west that bothered to unlock the DS TV adapter game and watch games, originally you had to travel Japan with your DS and tune into tv stations in various regions in Japan to make the adapter record your position & update the map for the various games unlock. I hunted for so long to find an AR code to unlock them as even if you lived in Japan that requirement was a bit harsh all for some G&W games lol. Yeah i love this little handheld and all it's weird peripherals.
My DS library is pretty much anything that was worth playing i probably have, it's one of my collections where i have a huge level of expertease of whats out there. I literally went through all releases to find all the good stuff but there was a lot of crap out there too, the side effect of it been so popular meant that the volume of shovelware was insane. My DS stuff is currently safely packed away till i can get all my collection back out and back on shelves, i'm planning on having my nitro capture unit hooked up to 2 wall mounted monitors to make a giant DS, also have a download station with a full set of download station carts to replicate that store demo experience.
DS also had a pretty amazing homebrew scene, the ZX spectrum emulator is fantastic & i still use it to this day.
Probably one of a tiny few in the west that bothered to unlock the DS TV adapter game and watch games, originally you had to travel Japan with your DS and tune into tv stations in various regions in Japan to make the adapter record your position & update the map for the various games unlock. I hunted for so long to find an AR code to unlock them as even if you lived in Japan that requirement was a bit harsh all for some G&W games lol. Yeah i love this little handheld and all it's weird peripherals.
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NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt
Biggest Trails Stan
Yeah I love Switch but I can tell it was rushed to market due to Wii U failing. It's looking like all the time they had with developing Switch 2 is gonna to result in a hybrid with a better build from the start. And the fact they are using Hall Effect for thier sticks is a good thing since they don't want to be sued again. I will say the Switch OLED is a massive improvement in build quality and is what the OG Switch should have been when it comes to holding it in your hands
LavitzSlambert
Member
I like my DS well enough, but I can't say I am a huge fan of the era. Wii/Wii-U and DS/3DS were Nintendo's dark ages to me (Zelda and Metroid basically non-existent until the very end of the 3DS lifespan). Feels like I'm one of the few that would much rather have had the Game Boy line continue instead.
999 was one of the very few games to actually make good use of the dual screens.
999 was one of the very few games to actually make good use of the dual screens.
Saber
Newd Member
DS might be one of few consoles I did feel engaged for. Back at time I wasn't that much focused on console gaming(at least not back in the old good SMS and SMD days).
I have alot of good memories with it. I still have mine, even though it have seeing better days I will never discard it. Its priceless to me.
Stranfe this didn't happened with 3DS though. I barelly picked any game for it.
I have alot of good memories with it. I still have mine, even though it have seeing better days I will never discard it. Its priceless to me.
Stranfe this didn't happened with 3DS though. I barelly picked any game for it.
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
I've actually been playing a bunch of DS games this year and have been having a ton of fun. It's crazy to me how much stuff there is to discover, and it's a system that's always been fun to go back to for me. Big fan. I think the big draw is that it's one of the last systems where the prevailing design mentality for the games was focused, tight design. 2D was also fantastic. The 3D has - to my surprise - actually aged well. When the system was current, I didn't like that the games had that N64 look to them... but going back, it's clear that developers had refined their approach to rudimentary 3D visuals and stylized them in a way that looks like a valid art style, rather than grappling with low tech. I really don't think there'll ever be a point that I stop enjoying the DS.
Anyway, I'm excited to watch the video.
Anyway, I'm excited to watch the video.
NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt
Biggest Trails Stan
I didn't start gaming seriously with handhelds till the Switch came out. I did have a DS, 3DS and Vita beforehand but I hardly touched them due to the low resolution screen. I would always get headaches playing those games on those handhelds for extended periods of gaming. Switch 720p Screen really helped in letting me game in portable for long sessions without getting a headache. That I feel was one of the biggest barriers for me when it came to enjoying games on handhelds
Dr.brain64
Member
I loved the ds.
Bought this to play mario kart ds online. Ah the memories.
Bought this to play mario kart ds online. Ah the memories.
Impotaku
Member
Urgh that thing, it was the bane of my life i found it a pain in the ass to get working lol. Yeah mario kart was fun onlin well until everyone learnt how to do snaking then the races became broken. Used to spend a lot of time playing animal crossing online although the DS version was pretty bare bones compared to the older releases. I mainly used mine to grab the WFC download DLC as a lot of games during the DS lifespan had additional free content that was released monthly like picross 3D as well as ninokuni, professor layton & dragon quest amongst many. A time when online was still free as well as the DLC been free too, that DLC is now valuable as it became lost when nintendo closed the WFC service thankfully i have it all backed up to my PC in case any of my cart saves nuke themselves, the save adapter is a godsend. Thankfully people realised this and made an effort online to try and rescue as much of that WFC DLC as they could.I loved the ds.
Bought this to play mario kart ds online. Ah the memories.
Exactly, they have identical resolution, so emulation is pixel-perfect
Impotaku
Member
Yup looks gorgeous on a ds lite, well as gorgeous as a speccy game can be lol. But it is a wonderful emulator due to the touchscreen it's functions are a lot more friendly instead of countless menus and options. It was interesting what fun stuff the homebrew community could come out with.
My favourite is the dragon quest 9 save editor that allows you to generate grotto maps. Normally before the WFC ended you got them using the online download feature or swapping them locally between friends. With the editor you just had extract your save off your cart to your pc then create a grotto map of your dreams in the editor then move your save back to your cart and boom an endless amount of grotto dungeons to explore.
Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
Out of everything they left out, when they worked on their fairly ingenious custom GPU, bi-linear filtering hurt the system the most IMHO. Caused extra work for devs and worsened the look of the games on the system (Mario 64 DS should have not looked inferior in any possible way to the N64 original).
Paasei
Member
Great handheld. Still have the original one.
The amount of hours I spent on the Mario 64 port, only to spend most of those hours on that damn minigame to prevent Mario's from falling off screen. Such a great game.
Kirby Canvas Curse, Nanostray and Yoshi Touch & Go we're my favorites.
The amount of hours I spent on the Mario 64 port, only to spend most of those hours on that damn minigame to prevent Mario's from falling off screen. Such a great game.
Kirby Canvas Curse, Nanostray and Yoshi Touch & Go we're my favorites.
Impotaku
Member
The first wave of DS games were a bit strange, while they were competent games some like Yoshi touch & go as well as Pokemon dash felt like extended tech demos more than a fully fleshed out games. It took a while for devs including Nintendo to find really neat uses for the touch screen & mic. Hell some games even used the screen closing as a fun game gimmick, resident evil DS had a simply ingenious puzzle where the tablet of the map was on the top screen and the paper on the bottom screen you then closed the DS and opened it back up and it would print a copy of the map onto the bottom screen. When it's features were used in creative ways it felt like no other handheld.
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phant0m
Member
Dual screen concept still has so much potential. I was kinda hoping the Switch 2 would support a reverse-WiiU capability where it could transmit signal to the dock for TV while acting as the 2nd screen itself
Lambogenie
Member
RCX
Member
Loved it. So pocketable and sleek.
Nintendo was taking major inspiration from Apple at that time (arguably their strongest era under Jonny Ive). It suited them very well.
IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
CuteFaceJay
Member
The DS was amazing. Back in the day free and open WiFi's were all over the place so could just play some Mario Kart in the middle of the street if you wanted back then.