I'm a big fan and very excited about the system's future, but as someone who's very interested in the industry I must point out flaws as I see them in the hopes of improvement and construction off of that criticism.
When I say "conceptual", I mean I won't focus on small technical things, such as having to shut down when exiting Pictochat or Settings.
1) The 3D games -- 3D games inherently require more development time than 2D games. As I was playing the MP:H demo, I realized "A lot of these rooms looks really bland, boring, and a some other negative adjectives. I wonder if they will spend time to add some art to the textures." Then I thought, "who cares?" I'm really not playing a handheld for immersion and atmosphere, and I'm fairly certain few people will. Nevertheless, the game WILL be less enjoyable if it looks drab and uninspired.
The conclusion that I reach every time I think along these lines is that 3D simply isn't for handhelds FOR THE MOST PART. Obviously some 3D games will work better than others, but I am hoping that all the new input methods and gameplay possibilites are applied to 2D. It's not like we've dexplored all there using two spatial dimensions. Games like Viewtiful Joe show that, and that's on a conventional console, without a touch screen, microphone, and wireless multiplayer. 2D is much more approachable on a handheld, both because of the more complex control involved in 3D games and because the small screen will keep a player from appreciating and actually paying attention to a 3D world.
2) Nintendo's marketting -- Nintendo is famous for pushing the idea that people don't buy consoles for the hardware but for the games they can play using it. All their big advertisement concepts of the DS have focused on the hardware. Now, I agree that it is good to POINT OUT the new features of the hardware, but that won't do anything alone.
"It's got a touch screen and wireless connectivity to other DSs."
"Oh, cool."
as compared to
"Try this: you're actually designing the path on which Kirby moves. Now play this new Super Mario Bros. game, kind of like Super Mario World, but you have to race against me to the goal AND find the key before you get there."
"******* sweet!"
I'm guessing this "problem" only exists because the DS launch was rushed to make the holiday season and have a significant head start on Sony, but I hope there is some killer software on the way.
When I say "conceptual", I mean I won't focus on small technical things, such as having to shut down when exiting Pictochat or Settings.
1) The 3D games -- 3D games inherently require more development time than 2D games. As I was playing the MP:H demo, I realized "A lot of these rooms looks really bland, boring, and a some other negative adjectives. I wonder if they will spend time to add some art to the textures." Then I thought, "who cares?" I'm really not playing a handheld for immersion and atmosphere, and I'm fairly certain few people will. Nevertheless, the game WILL be less enjoyable if it looks drab and uninspired.
The conclusion that I reach every time I think along these lines is that 3D simply isn't for handhelds FOR THE MOST PART. Obviously some 3D games will work better than others, but I am hoping that all the new input methods and gameplay possibilites are applied to 2D. It's not like we've dexplored all there using two spatial dimensions. Games like Viewtiful Joe show that, and that's on a conventional console, without a touch screen, microphone, and wireless multiplayer. 2D is much more approachable on a handheld, both because of the more complex control involved in 3D games and because the small screen will keep a player from appreciating and actually paying attention to a 3D world.
2) Nintendo's marketting -- Nintendo is famous for pushing the idea that people don't buy consoles for the hardware but for the games they can play using it. All their big advertisement concepts of the DS have focused on the hardware. Now, I agree that it is good to POINT OUT the new features of the hardware, but that won't do anything alone.
"It's got a touch screen and wireless connectivity to other DSs."
"Oh, cool."
as compared to
"Try this: you're actually designing the path on which Kirby moves. Now play this new Super Mario Bros. game, kind of like Super Mario World, but you have to race against me to the goal AND find the key before you get there."
"******* sweet!"
I'm guessing this "problem" only exists because the DS launch was rushed to make the holiday season and have a significant head start on Sony, but I hope there is some killer software on the way.