Hands-on preview: Nintendo DS is ready to play
By Steven Kent Special for, USA TODAY
REDMOND, Wash. – Nintendo executives say their new dual-screen portable game system is more than a Game Boy with two screens. To prove it, they invited USA TODAY into their offices for an exclusive hands-on look at some of the first games for the DS.
Though the final lineup has not been determined, Nintendo expects to have eight to 10 games ready – including such familiar names as Super Mario 64 DS, The Urbz: Sims in the City, Madden NFL 2005 and Spider-Man 2, as well as new titles such as Asphalt GT – when it launches Nov. 21. The DS will cost $149.99, games $29.99.
"We're feeling quite good about the number of titles and, in particular, what the key titles are and what they represent," says Reginald Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America executive vice president of sales and marketing. He expects 20 to 25 titles to be available early next year.
Previous announcements from the company stated that over 120 developers have received the necessary information for writing games and other DS software such as chat programs.
Nintendo will continue to market its popular Game Boy Advance SP (which retails for $80) alongside DS. The two products, he says, are aimed at different markets: Advance is designed to appeal to early teens; DS is expected to draw 18- to 20-year-olds.
Along with its two screens, DS brings other innovations to portable gaming, including a touch-sensitive screen, voice activation and wireless networking with up to 16 DS units. Though Nintendo has built these features into the hardware, game developers must find ways to make use of them.
By adding stylus control (think Palm or Pocket PC) to portable gaming, Nintendo opens the way for real-time strategy games and other titles that require precise controls. The wireless communications will enable more players to compete head-to-head.
The early games include:
•Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt. This playable demo, which will come packed with DS hardware, taps into DS' touch-sensitive screen and networking. First Hunt, a first-person action game in which players control a space bounty hunter, features both single-player levels and arenas in which as many as four players can stalk each other.
The graphics and speed of the game are impressive. DS, said to be comparable in power to 1996's Nintendo 64 system, has far better graphics than any previous portable. But the basic controls are cumbersome; players aim and jump with a stylus while controlling their movements with a directional pad and shooting with a shoulder button. This complex arrangement nonetheless works fairly well when players grip the DS with their left hand, hold the stylus in their right, and rest the DS on one thigh. (Users can switch to alternative control schemes.)
•Super Mario 64 DS. The best of the games that Nintendo demonstrated is an impressively updated version of the N64 best seller. Nintendo designers did not simply port this quintessential Mario adventure to DS; they also added familiar characters Wario, Luigi and Yoshi the dinosaur with unique abilities that bring new aspects to the game. Nintendo also has added a selection of impressive "mini-games."
Using the stylus controller, players can easily navigate Super Mario 64's 3-D world. Also, many of the mini-games use the stylus controller; each character has his own set of games. The stylus is the perfect controller for Luigi's mini games, for example, which involve cards.
•Spider-Man 2 Graphically remarkable though not nearly as innovative, Activision's new title uses the touch-sensitive screen to let players scroll through Spider-Man's abilities. Spider-Man 2's gameplay is a return to the two-dimensional style of the original Game Boy rather than the 3-D movement of the latest Spidey titles, but the speed and style are good, and the action is excellent.
"I expect to sell every single DS that I can get on my hands," Fils-Aime says. "Our company has publicly stated that by the end of March we expect to sell 4 million units. We're talking big numbers."
But Nintendo won't have the handheld market to itself for long. Sony, maker of the best-selling PlayStation 2, plans to release the PlayStation Portable (PSP), its new handheld, in Japan this year and in the USA in spring, possibly in March, Sony says.
The PSP, with its wide, high-resolution screen and multimedia abilities, was the talk of last month's Tokyo Game Show. PSP will play games and movies stored on mini-DVDs, as well as MP3 music files.
"I think PSP is a fantastic unit," says Billy Berghammer, managing editor of Game Informer Online. "Games look great on it. The movie demonstrations look good."
Sony has not announced a price for PSP, though most industry experts expect it to retail for $299 – the launch price of both PlayStation and PlayStation 2. "PSP will be as revolutionary as the original PlayStation," says Sony executive vice president Andrew House, because it "integrates several forms of entertainment and overlays them with wireless communications."
You can find the article here
By Steven Kent Special for, USA TODAY
REDMOND, Wash. – Nintendo executives say their new dual-screen portable game system is more than a Game Boy with two screens. To prove it, they invited USA TODAY into their offices for an exclusive hands-on look at some of the first games for the DS.
Though the final lineup has not been determined, Nintendo expects to have eight to 10 games ready – including such familiar names as Super Mario 64 DS, The Urbz: Sims in the City, Madden NFL 2005 and Spider-Man 2, as well as new titles such as Asphalt GT – when it launches Nov. 21. The DS will cost $149.99, games $29.99.
"We're feeling quite good about the number of titles and, in particular, what the key titles are and what they represent," says Reginald Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America executive vice president of sales and marketing. He expects 20 to 25 titles to be available early next year.
Previous announcements from the company stated that over 120 developers have received the necessary information for writing games and other DS software such as chat programs.
Nintendo will continue to market its popular Game Boy Advance SP (which retails for $80) alongside DS. The two products, he says, are aimed at different markets: Advance is designed to appeal to early teens; DS is expected to draw 18- to 20-year-olds.
Along with its two screens, DS brings other innovations to portable gaming, including a touch-sensitive screen, voice activation and wireless networking with up to 16 DS units. Though Nintendo has built these features into the hardware, game developers must find ways to make use of them.
By adding stylus control (think Palm or Pocket PC) to portable gaming, Nintendo opens the way for real-time strategy games and other titles that require precise controls. The wireless communications will enable more players to compete head-to-head.
The early games include:
•Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt. This playable demo, which will come packed with DS hardware, taps into DS' touch-sensitive screen and networking. First Hunt, a first-person action game in which players control a space bounty hunter, features both single-player levels and arenas in which as many as four players can stalk each other.
The graphics and speed of the game are impressive. DS, said to be comparable in power to 1996's Nintendo 64 system, has far better graphics than any previous portable. But the basic controls are cumbersome; players aim and jump with a stylus while controlling their movements with a directional pad and shooting with a shoulder button. This complex arrangement nonetheless works fairly well when players grip the DS with their left hand, hold the stylus in their right, and rest the DS on one thigh. (Users can switch to alternative control schemes.)
•Super Mario 64 DS. The best of the games that Nintendo demonstrated is an impressively updated version of the N64 best seller. Nintendo designers did not simply port this quintessential Mario adventure to DS; they also added familiar characters Wario, Luigi and Yoshi the dinosaur with unique abilities that bring new aspects to the game. Nintendo also has added a selection of impressive "mini-games."
Using the stylus controller, players can easily navigate Super Mario 64's 3-D world. Also, many of the mini-games use the stylus controller; each character has his own set of games. The stylus is the perfect controller for Luigi's mini games, for example, which involve cards.
•Spider-Man 2 Graphically remarkable though not nearly as innovative, Activision's new title uses the touch-sensitive screen to let players scroll through Spider-Man's abilities. Spider-Man 2's gameplay is a return to the two-dimensional style of the original Game Boy rather than the 3-D movement of the latest Spidey titles, but the speed and style are good, and the action is excellent.
"I expect to sell every single DS that I can get on my hands," Fils-Aime says. "Our company has publicly stated that by the end of March we expect to sell 4 million units. We're talking big numbers."
But Nintendo won't have the handheld market to itself for long. Sony, maker of the best-selling PlayStation 2, plans to release the PlayStation Portable (PSP), its new handheld, in Japan this year and in the USA in spring, possibly in March, Sony says.
The PSP, with its wide, high-resolution screen and multimedia abilities, was the talk of last month's Tokyo Game Show. PSP will play games and movies stored on mini-DVDs, as well as MP3 music files.
"I think PSP is a fantastic unit," says Billy Berghammer, managing editor of Game Informer Online. "Games look great on it. The movie demonstrations look good."
Sony has not announced a price for PSP, though most industry experts expect it to retail for $299 – the launch price of both PlayStation and PlayStation 2. "PSP will be as revolutionary as the original PlayStation," says Sony executive vice president Andrew House, because it "integrates several forms of entertainment and overlays them with wireless communications."
You can find the article here
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