Lemurnator
Banned
So I was under the impression that none of the stores around where I live would get their shipments of DS's in until well after the new year. Every other store I'd been to that day and before had all been completely sold out within a half an hour of the release. I had gone to the Circuit City, browsed, looked to see if they had any DSes in stock yet just for the shit of it. They did not so I hopped back into the car with my parents and asked if we could check FYE(Fucking Y Expensive), when they didn't I figured screw it I'll just spend $100 something of my money on overpriced CDs (jesus christ FYE sucks ass). Black Sabbath Black Box which is every Sabbath album during Ozzy years and John Lennon - Mind Games. I bought all this shit because I figured if nobody else had what I wanted neither would the Game Spot down a ways inside the same mall. After all, every other GameSpot I'd been to or called was out of stock plus FYE and Circuit City I had been to that same day.
I walk to GameSpot anyway just to look around with my $110+ goods I had purchased and asked the clerk "I know it's a long shot but you don't happen to have any DSs in stock do you?" The dude said yes and they had all the games as well. Super, only I just spent a needed portion of my money on CDs and shit. So not 5 minutes after I bought the CDs from FYE I walked back in and had the same clerk who rang me up give me a refund. Went back to gamestop, bought the DS and Mario 64 DS, ate at subway with my mom and step dad, then went to go see The Life Aquatic.
Before we left the mall, while in Subway I checked my half charged (yay) DS to see if it had any dead pixels and there were none. Played a little bit of Metroid Prime Hunters demo, it's decent but I have to say, the level of fun you have in that demo is an extreme variable depending on what control settings you have on.
The DS screens are both rather small and not the best to view 3D images in my opinion. Playing Mario 64 on the tiny screen made me wish there were a way to hook my DS up to my TV via AV cables. It was as though the screen itself was what made the game look slightly grainy and jaggy. Nice and bright, just not extremely crisp and much too small. There seemed plenty more room on the top flip part of the DS to widen the screen a good deal and not get rid of the GREAT speakers.
When I got home I had played through as much of the 1st level in Mario 64 as I could with Yoshi. I'm not sure what to do as Yoshi in the part of the first level where you have to fly through the air. I think you need Mario and his flying hat. When I had read reviews about Mario 64s controls I blew off the medias comments about the lack of a analog control being a major blow to the games fun. I figured they were just weaksauce pussies like GamePro was in their review of the original Metroid Prime. They were right however, Mario 64 DS is rather hard to control. It's especially irritating having to position yourself just right as Yoshi to get in front of a wild enemy in order to swallow or attack them while standing still. The thumb strap and the analog control through the use of the touch screen is nifty but not very effective since there really is no resistance. Plus the analog circle moves awkwardly as you move out of the bounds of the control area.
The thumb strap is awkward because I'm not sure how to keep it on the tip of my thumb, and I don't know how to use it without putting fingerprints all over the screen. I'm nervous using the touch screen on ANY device with a that technology even though its what youre supposed to do. I've been told I have OCD because of how protective I am of the screens of my electronic devices (and my glasses). I wish the stylus was made out of a kind of hard polyfoam or softer plastic. I'll also keep my eyes peeled for wear and tear on the stylus since I've heard it tends to sharpen on the DS screen. It's cool it comes with another stylus. I hate scratches and fingerprints. I hate fingerprints because it's often when I'm cleaning my lenses/screens that I put the most little fine scratches in them.
Overall I'm happy with my purchase and feel as though I'm going to get more use out of my DS than a shit load of Sabbath... even through a shit load of Black Sabbath sure is awesome. ;_;
Maybe next Christmas.
I walk to GameSpot anyway just to look around with my $110+ goods I had purchased and asked the clerk "I know it's a long shot but you don't happen to have any DSs in stock do you?" The dude said yes and they had all the games as well. Super, only I just spent a needed portion of my money on CDs and shit. So not 5 minutes after I bought the CDs from FYE I walked back in and had the same clerk who rang me up give me a refund. Went back to gamestop, bought the DS and Mario 64 DS, ate at subway with my mom and step dad, then went to go see The Life Aquatic.
Before we left the mall, while in Subway I checked my half charged (yay) DS to see if it had any dead pixels and there were none. Played a little bit of Metroid Prime Hunters demo, it's decent but I have to say, the level of fun you have in that demo is an extreme variable depending on what control settings you have on.
The DS screens are both rather small and not the best to view 3D images in my opinion. Playing Mario 64 on the tiny screen made me wish there were a way to hook my DS up to my TV via AV cables. It was as though the screen itself was what made the game look slightly grainy and jaggy. Nice and bright, just not extremely crisp and much too small. There seemed plenty more room on the top flip part of the DS to widen the screen a good deal and not get rid of the GREAT speakers.
When I got home I had played through as much of the 1st level in Mario 64 as I could with Yoshi. I'm not sure what to do as Yoshi in the part of the first level where you have to fly through the air. I think you need Mario and his flying hat. When I had read reviews about Mario 64s controls I blew off the medias comments about the lack of a analog control being a major blow to the games fun. I figured they were just weaksauce pussies like GamePro was in their review of the original Metroid Prime. They were right however, Mario 64 DS is rather hard to control. It's especially irritating having to position yourself just right as Yoshi to get in front of a wild enemy in order to swallow or attack them while standing still. The thumb strap and the analog control through the use of the touch screen is nifty but not very effective since there really is no resistance. Plus the analog circle moves awkwardly as you move out of the bounds of the control area.
The thumb strap is awkward because I'm not sure how to keep it on the tip of my thumb, and I don't know how to use it without putting fingerprints all over the screen. I'm nervous using the touch screen on ANY device with a that technology even though its what youre supposed to do. I've been told I have OCD because of how protective I am of the screens of my electronic devices (and my glasses). I wish the stylus was made out of a kind of hard polyfoam or softer plastic. I'll also keep my eyes peeled for wear and tear on the stylus since I've heard it tends to sharpen on the DS screen. It's cool it comes with another stylus. I hate scratches and fingerprints. I hate fingerprints because it's often when I'm cleaning my lenses/screens that I put the most little fine scratches in them.
Overall I'm happy with my purchase and feel as though I'm going to get more use out of my DS than a shit load of Sabbath... even through a shit load of Black Sabbath sure is awesome. ;_;
Maybe next Christmas.
