Support NeoGAF

[Tenguman]

In effort to feel more important I thought I'd grace everyone with my words

Ok, sorry...


since everyone and their mother got to say something about the DS when they played it, I might as well try it too

Initial thoughts? Boy this thing is tiny. Having NEVER seen it in person, only in pictures, I thought it was going to be much larger than it really is.

First thing I did was restart the system. It sat there on the "Nintendo DS" screen for a few seconds before I realized I had to hit the touch-screen. I can see that being annoying....I'm used to my game booting up ASAP.

The GUI, while boring in pictures, is actually kinda stylish as it flows when you work with it. Pictochat is kinda cool, but I'm still wondering what's the point if people are close by. However, maybe kids will have more fun with it. Grown-ups will stick to their cel-phones Maybe Nintendo will implement it to use Wi-Fi down the road or something...

I've never heard anyone say this, but I'm not sure I like the stylus itself very much. I've never used a PDA so I don't have a reference to compare, but for me -- when I write something on paper I like to see the point of the pen make contact to the paper. The DS stylus is more of a short nub, and (especially if your hands are big) it feels a little awkward writing things out since I can't see the tip of the pencil as I write. I guess it's still perfectly functional for what the DS will be used for...but it's still a little gripe. It may only be an issue for me though

Next I booted up Metroid Hunters....

Now, this may sound odd, but there's something pretty damn gratifying about traversing through game menus with just a touch of the screen. It's hard to describe, but I can see where Nintendo is going with this "touch" business you see in the ads. Something just natural about pointing. Probably why PDAs are so popular.

Metroid was pretty cool. It's a multiplayer game definatly. We had lots of fun in deathmatch, but then again deathmatch is always fun in ANY game -- at least a few mintues until you get bored with it. The fact that it was deathmatch on a handheld -- wirelessly -- was still nifty.

Single player is more "Kill all the enemies in the area before you advance to the next section" kinda stuff -- IE boring -- but hey - Halo and Halo 2 get away with it

*ducks and runs*
*Edit: For all rabid Halo fans who are searching these forums for even the slightest negative remark about the Halo series, please note that I AM KIDDING

I have to say though, controlling the game with the touch screen rocks. Initially it's a little awkward but in about a minute you'll get in that "PC-mouse" groove in where you're looking around, turning around quickly, circle strafing like no tomorrow...etc.etc. Still not as natural as a mouse (however a thumbstrap could change this.).

basically it comes down to this:
mouse >> touch-pad >>>>>>>>>> dual analog

The graphics are good. I mean, it's not PSP level of course but it's not N-Gage fugly either.

Will I get one? If it was just Hunters alone -- then no. It makes for a nifty demo but I can't see it being something I'd by the system for.

Mario 64 though? I'll wait and see

 

[MrPing1000]

Single player is more "Kill all the enemies in the area before you advance to the next section" kinda stuff -- IE boring -- but hey - Halo and Halo 2 get away with it

*ducks and runs*

DoomIII would have been a better analagy. So I can only give your opinion a C-

 

[Mrbob]

Single player is more "Kill all the enemies in the area before you advance to the next section" kinda stuff -- IE boring -- but hey - Halo and Halo 2 get away with it

*ducks and runs*

Unreal Tournament = Halo

Enclosed arena shooter = wide open expansive sandbox style battling

In this case:

Bad UT clone = Halo/Halo 2

???

What?

 

[Tenguman]

IT WAS A JOKE

*sigh*

the whole *ducks and runs* thing? See that? I was kidding

I wasn't trying to draw a serious comparision between Hunters and Halo

*sigh again*

 

[Mrbob]

DS SUCKS.

IT'S A JOKE.

The whole ducks and runs thing is usually a translation for "I couldn't think of an intuitive troll, so I have to run and hide." But I'll forgive you this time.

 

[Tenguman]

oh yes, I made a huge ass 300 word post about the DS just to troll Halo

whoopee! You got me!

 

[Sein]

I saw a thumb bandana on one of IGN's DS videos. Is that meant to be used in lieu of the stylus?

 

[shpankey]

well, it was a pretty dumb comparison. but i liked your preview.. dunno if i would agree about those being that much better than dual analog though. i take it from all that you're not a fan of FPS heh.

anyhow, thanks for the writeup

 

[etiolate]

The wifi, voice and thumbstrap aiming makes me wonder about other games. Could the DS hardware handle something like the first Tribes game?

 

[Tenguman]

well, it was a pretty dumb comparison. but i liked your preview.. dunno if i would agree about those being that much better than dual analog though. i take it from all that you're not a fan of FPS heh.

anyhow, thanks for the writeup

No, I'm a HUGE FPS fan....

on PCs

i need my mouse-style accuracy for these types of shooters, I get annoyed with dual analog stuff -- especially with fast-paced multiplayer. The touch pad comes pretty damn close to a mouse from what I played.

when playing deathmatch, it *felt* like a pc-fps rather than a console-fps if that makes any sense.

 

[Spiritreaver]

Thanks for the impressions, further hypes me up for the FPS controls.

I'm not getting how people putting down the thumb stylus for shooters. Maybe I'm the only person here who uses a trackball mouse for most shooters? Hell, all the PCs in my house only have trackball mice for mouse input. The DS combo seems to be exactly the same, just with a flat surface. I never liked having to actually move the mouse, rather just moving my thumb seems to work much more fluidly. And a normal mouse alone is far better than any dual analog control scheme I've ever tried. So I've definitely got a lot of hope for DS shooters.

 

[MadOdorMachine]

I just got thru playing it and I think Metroid was ok. I tried using my thumb with out the bandana at first but it wasn't very responsive, so I just used the stylus.

First I'll list some complaints. It was quite awkward playing with the stylus. It's a cool idea but it never felt comfortable. I'm sure it's partly because the unit was harnessed down and the thumb strap will probably help too. One thing I noticed while playing was that my hand inadvertantly kept pressing the face buttons while playing the stylus. If I didn't want to touch the face buttons I had to hold my hand in an uncomfortable postion. It all felt too compact when playing that way. The morph ball definately isn't as much fun to control with the d pad as it is with an analogue stick. The screens are kind of small too, but right now, I can overlook that. I'll wait and see what a difference screen size makes until PSP comes out. The face buttons were a bit small too, but I really don't think that will be a problem. The graphics are definately a step down from consoles, but it didn't bother me that much. I actually kind of enjoyed the N64 look.

Now for some praises. The system looks cool, small and very portable. It's slightly better than GBASP as far as design looks go. The graphics were crystal clear unlike N64. I did notice some slight pixelation but it was mainly from the holograms displayed in the level design. The characters and animation looked good. I think it's fair to say the graphics are comparable to the original Playstation. The touch pad is a cool idea, but I think it should either be used with the thumb strap or by the stylus alone. Trying to play with the d pad and stylus is just too uncomfortable. I can't wait to try Wario Ware and Yoshi's Touch and Go. IMO the ds also has a better lineup than PSP too, which goes a long way. This could all change though if people are more impressed with PSP than NDS and Sony gets ahead in market share. To be honest the main reason I'm interested in the DS is for Castlevania. I haven't play the PSP yet, but at $50 more, it's gonna be hard to pass up. GBA's main draw to me was the old school 2D games. It's a lot harder to go back to last gen's 3D graphics than than to SNES level 2D graphics, NDS looks to have a good mix of both which is a plus. I felt like I was settling for the 3D graphics in Metroid though. It didn't feel like cutting edge technology, which is what PSP's impression is to me. In the end it's all about the games. I'm going to take a wait and see approach about the NDS and PSP. It's going to be interesting.

 

[Mejilan]

I played it today for the first time, and the brief 20 minute experience fully justified the blind-faith preorder I made a few weeks ago.

I started off by being handed off in-game, and I understood instantly why the guy before me was sucking so bad. He was stuck with the um... questionable controls from E3 that had you tapping the screen to shoot. Ugh.

I switched over the the PC mouse-look view (move, strafe with the D Pad, shoot with L, look around with the stylus) and that mode is fucking fantastic. It controls better than any other non-PC FPS, imho. Totally smokes dual analog. It took me, literally, 10 seconds to adapt, and was kicking hologram ass the whole way, not even wasting any ammo as I went.

Morph ball control with the stylus was also freakin' perfect.

The DS has the potential to usher in a whole new way to play FPS games away from your PC... and as a bonus, on the go!