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Nintendo

The Nintendo DS Turns 10 61

Posted by samzenpus from the got-to-play-them-all dept.
An anonymous reader writes The Nintendo DS has reached a remarkable milestone: it's turned 10 years old. A new retrospective on one of Nintendo's greatest ever smash hits points out that it's now old enough to become a Pokemon trainer, and looks back at some of the greatest (and possibly overlooked) titles on the platform which has sold 154 million copies in a decade.
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The Nintendo DS Turns 10 More

The Nintendo DS Turns 10

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  • Two Tony Hawk games? THPS2 on GBA was crazy for its time to cram it into a handheld, but still, you wouldn't have ever preferred a portable to a handheld for that series.

    GTA was vaguely neat in the sense that it was on a Nintendo system

    How about Elite Beat Agents (or Ouendan)? Hotel Dusk Room 215? Phoenix Wright? Professor Layton? 999? BRAIN AGE! Gawd. Get a better list. :P

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mwvdlee ( 775178 )

      Red Bull's only product is marketing.
      All the "extreme" sports events, websites, media and soft drinks are the means by which they push their marketing into the world.
      This article's primary goal is to push their brand, any information or entertainment contained within it is just collatoral damage.

  • Copies? (Score:4, Informative)

    by ArcadeMan ( 2766669 ) on Thursday November 20, 2014 @09:38PM (#48431041)

    ...the platform which has sold 154 million copies in a decade.

    I understand using the word "copies" for things like movies, music, software. But with hardware, shouldn't it be "units"?

  • Bowser's Inside Story, Knights in the Nightmare, Dragon Quest IX (or the remakes), DQH: Rocket Slime, World ends with You, so many titles. ... The DS maybe my favorite system of all time.

  • The DS, eh? (Score:3)

    by Nethead ( 1563 ) <joe@nethead.com> on Thursday November 20, 2014 @09:40PM (#48431047) Homepage Journal

    Now I feel old, I don't even know what that is.

    • Yeah, me too.

      I'm pretty sure a DS is sort of an updated version of one of these things:

      http://s.hswstatic.com/gif/sli... [hswstatic.com]

    • Nintendo DS is a handheld video game system using software stored on proprietary Game Cards. These links might help (sound warning): DS Irae [ytmnd.com] | White Lite [ytmnd.com]

  • Funny Timing (Score:3)

    by RyoShin ( 610051 ) <<tukaro> <at> <gmail.com>> on Thursday November 20, 2014 @10:06PM (#48431131) Homepage Journal

    After a few weeks of thought I just today came to the conclusion that I am completely over the Pokemon series, which I was in love when it first released in 1998 at 13. Black, for the DS, was the last version I purchased. Maybe if they ever give it a huge overhaul or MMO...

    Anyway, more on topic, I would have thought that Nintendo would learn from the DSi. Not that it's a bad system, but the camera features went mostly unused because there was no guarantee that players had a camera-equipped system. Only a few games made heavy use of it, and a few more than that had some incorporation that could be ignored if you weren't on a DSI (or DSi XL).

    So here we are with the 3DS and now Nintendo is releasing their "New 3DS" (what a horrible name) that has some nice features that will also probably not be used. The big selling points are the "nub" (why couldn't we just have a second, if smaller, stick?), two extra shoulder buttons, and, most importantly, added horsepower. They've already announced Xenoblade Chronicles 3DS, which will require the New model as it will need the better specs, and the already-released Smash Bros. 3DS will not allow you to use many system tools you could normally use while running a game because of its requirements on the 3DS, but you can on the New 3DS. This will wind up with the same thing as the DSi, with so much fractioning of the base that developers will have to program with the assumption of the Old model; at best we'll get more games that will use more of the Old processing power, like Smash Bros., but otherwise it will play out the same. Some games will have support for the extra controls, a scant few (likely those that need the New hardware) will require the controls, and most games will ignore them completely.

    And US/EU will get it at some point in the near future... maybe. Nintendo kinda shot themselves in the foot by announcing it, and giving it to only Japan and Australia this year (though it's cool that our kangaroo friends are seeing some love after usually being the last to get stuff). Sales for the existing models of the 3DS in America and Europe are likely going to flatline this holiday season, purchased only by parents for their kids who don't keep up with gaming news (or are too little to do so.) Anyone else who had been considering the system is now going to sit on that cash, because why would you buy the old model now when the new hotness could come in a few months?

    After the poor reception of the Wii U, I'd hoped that Nintendo would look at their failures and learn from them. Instead, it seems like they're only doubling-down...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rinikusu ( 28164 )

      Having owned a DS and a few other portable gaming systems.. I have to say my favorite handheld is my Gameboy Advance Micro. Battery life is excellent, portability factor is unmatched, and I much prefer carts over discs (PSP), and even over the DS cards.

      • I just fired up an old beat up micro I had laying around last week. At the time it was released, the micro had one of the highest DPI color screens I'd ever seen. Still the SP is my favorite. It was the first Gameboy of any kind with an actual backlit screen, and it was beautiful to behold. Games looked so vibrant and clear compared to the Gameboy Advanced, that they almost didn't event seem like they were the same games. The clamshell design was also new and suited to the device perfectly. When close

      • The Gameboy Advance SP is my preferred Pokemon platform. It can run Red or Blue or any of the old carts, and it's the perfect host for the best Pokemon version, Emerald.

    • I never understood the popularity of Pokemon as a video game. Pointless random combats and very little story. Hours and hours of watching animations of attacks happen. The entire idea of the game is enslaving animals and forcing them into pit fighting. Micheal Vick was sentenced to prison and vilified by the entire world for doing the same.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by aliquis ( 678370 )

        I don't get it for Zelda on the DS either really.

        Though I appreciated my time in the first game for some reason. Guess it's because it was the first Zelda game I actually experienced & played through (I had played Zelda on NES but wasn't good enough on it to have any clue where I was going, also tried Link but had even less of a clue there.)

        Half of the game is spent transporting yourself from some point to another point with repetitive game play, many of the puzzles are similar and repetitive too and th

        • Though I appreciated my time in the first game for some reason. Guess it's because it was the first Zelda game I actually experienced & played through (I had played Zelda on NES but wasn't good enough on it to have any clue where I was going, also tried Link but had even less of a clue there.)

          By "Link", I'm assuming you mean The Adventure of Link for NES?

          Honestly, if I had to introduce people to the Zelda series, I'd introduce them to the SNES/GBA A Link to the Past.

          A Link to the Past may be 20+ years old now, but it's the first 2D Zelda game that gives you hints as to what you're supposed to be doing.

          It's not truly open world (unlike its 2013 direct sequel A Link Between Worlds for 3DS), but unlike most games in the series, you have some idea of where you're supposed to be going at any given ti

    • Well there is the circle pad pro for the old models, that at least allows the new controls on the old models. I hope some more games start using it because since I finishing metal gear solid 3 I only use mine because of the better grip.

    • If people are really following Nintendo so closely as to know about the impending release (and I am not sure how many really are) and they intend to wait and buy it, then Nintendo only loses a sale if they don't actually complete the purchase of the upgraded 3DS. The new 3DS very possibly has higher margins (while the old 3DS will be discounted to deplete stock) anyway, so Nintendo might end up making MORE money if people hold-out.

      It is nothing like the Wii U. The Wii U's problem is that after the initial

  • What you are looking at is quite possibly the last of the species. There likely wont be a mainstream successful handheld console that is made for gaming.

    • . . . making handheld games, I strongly suspect you are in error. People want to play games on the go. Smartphones are not exactly good gaming devices as they exist out of the box. Unless that changes, there is likely going to be a market for handheld gaming consoles for the foreseeable future.

      People were making similar claims about the 3DS, that it was selling poorly because of smartphones, but it is currently the best-selling game console of this generation.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hjf ( 703092 )

        You don't talk to kids, do you?

        Remember when ALL YOU WANTED was your own computer?
        Kids are over that.
        They're also over the ALL I WANT IS A LAPTOP
        and ALL I WANT IS A NETBOOK

        Now, all they want is a tablet. Kids don't want PCs anymore. It's unbelievable.

        And even worse: many don't even want a tablet. they want just a smartphone.

  • The DS turned 10 in the same way that the Playstation turned 20.

    Current DS is a completely different device from the first DS.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dbIII ( 701233 )
      However there are still original DS's out there in use. Tough little things, seems it's main mode of failure is theft.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by wed128 ( 722152 )

        Yea, Mine still works, got it at launch.

      • Both of my original DS's have a cracked hinge (rough handling from the kids), but both of them still work. Our family still uses them occasionally to play multiplayer games like Mario Kart and New Super Mario Bros DS with our two 3DS XLs.

        That's a pretty awesome feature. Several months ago I picked up three used copies of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time for cheap, and the 3DS XLs my wife and I got last Christmas can play multiplayer with the systems we had even before we had kids.

        • Both of my original DS's have a cracked hinge (rough handling from the kids), but both of them still work,

          Cracked hinges were a common problem with the original DS and DS Lite. A design defect, if you will.

          I kept using my DS Lite with cracked hinge until the R button stopped working and replaced it with a DSi XL... and replaced that with a 3DS XL once decent games started arriving for it.

          I still have my DSi around here somewhere...

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