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[TheDiave]

For those of you who didn't see the thread from a week-ish back, the left hand side is Mario 64 DS on the DS, and the right-hand side is the N64 version of Mario 64. Notice that the DS version looks way better than the N64 version. Mario himself is the biggest indicator.

So if Mario 64 looks better than its N64 counterpart, basically showing us that the DS has a bit more under the hood than the 64 did... Why does it seem like 90% of the games coming from third parties don't look that good? Are they not assigning their best coders, modellers, etc. to their DS projects?

The only exception(s) I've seen in the titles on the horizon are Castlevania DS (god bless Konami for 2D) and Need for Speed Underground 2 (EA may be evil... But it does look good so far).

 

[Justin Bailey]

Some of the games we see now were moved from GBA to DS (like The Urbz).

 

[LowTecky]

look at mario kart for each system

 

[sammy]

Once 'Nanostray' hits, people will be a little more convinced of the DS's abilities ... it is, I think, the first origional engine built for the DS.

 

[soundwave05]

DS has more horsepower than the N64, but the image quality on the N64 is better, so its a bit of a toss up IMO.

My personal feeling is Mario 64 still looks a bit better on the N64.

 

[goomba]

Metroid prime hunters was enough to convince me the DS is easily more capable than the n64.

 

[Vark]

I was playing M64 on the DS again last night and was really impressed with the way it looks. The DS in Motion is so much better than in screenshots. Also Catch! Touch! Yoshi! is some amazing 2d as far as not looking all that pixelated, and sprites being dense enough to look 'round'.

So far most DS games we've seen have either been off of early kit, ports, or GBA projects modified. It'll be a while before truely original 'for the system' stuff pops up.

Same goes for the PSP as its a lot of modified ps2 engine tech.

 

[radioheadrule83]

goomba, your avatar rules. It wasn't showing for me earlier and Amirox's shooting partner comment went right over my head

I believe some people have answered already.

I believe its a combination of several things:
• Some late GBA development moved to DS. For example The Urbs. For shame EA.
• DS seems to be pulling the likes of Gameloft in, who work on mobile phones usually. N gage ports? Then there are the publishers who made a killing on GBA making simple games like Majesco, THQ et al.
• Then there's also the emphasis on DS features. Perhaps publishers feel if they spend some time thinking about how to use the DS' features, they don't particularly need amazing graphics.

I can't wait to see what E3 has in store for DS. We should see some better looking stuff then.

 

[mrfindlay]

Here is a quote by Damir Slogar from Big Blue Bubble, a DS developer regrading the future visuals on the DS.
"I don't think any of the developers have had a DS or development kit long enoughto develop something that is really specifically developed for the DS and its potential. The games out now are quite good, but far away from what you can expect a year from now." NGC Magazine, Issue 103, Febuary 2005

I don't know if this quote will turn out to be accurate but I thought a developers insight would be useful

 

[TheDiave]

"I don't think any of the developers have had a DS or development kit long enoughto develop something that is really specifically developed for the DS and its potential. The games out now are quite good, but far away from what you can expect a year from now."

And that's more or less the scenario I'm hoping for. I mean it's unbelievable to be playing an enhanced Mario 64 on a portable game system as it is. To think that there may be other games equally as amazing is tantalizing. All in all, it just seems unreal (much like the stuff I've heard about Sony's PSP). I do hope that developers are still learning the hardware, and that the best is yet to come.

...and I know I mentioned PSP, but can we keep this thread on point please?