Matt January 20th, 2005
A lot of people just don’t know what to get me for those occasions where a gift is merited (even though my wishlist is almost always kept up-to-date); however, there are those special few that know exactly what to get me: cash and/or a gift card. With one of my Christmas gift cards I decided to get myself a Nintendo DS. 149$ is a little too steep for me, however I had a 200$ gift card so it’s not as if I paid a dime. I also bought Mario DS.
First off, from the photos I was expecting some sort of thick monstrosity, however the DS is not as heavy as everyone holds it out to be (hey, have you picked up an original gameboy recently?), plus it is quite slim! I’d say the most pleasant surprise of all is how easy the touch screen and stylus are to use - I was up and running within seconds, setting up my system and using the built-in Pictochat. Pictochat is simply amazing - the fact that you can draw or type in the same window is great, but it’s the whole keyboard layout that works so well. You can choose to manually ‘punch’ each letter/symbol in (the keyboard is thankfully set up in a traditional QWERTY layout) or you can actually drag them onto the Send area, essentially you’re able to annotate anywhere you please. I don’t think I’m articulating this very well, but the whole process is very fluid and it’s something I wish I had in AIM. You can see a picture of the setup here, but please note that none of that text has been ‘typed’ in - it was all drawn on the stylus.
I also tried the included demo of Metriod Prime: Hunters - I was up and running/rolling in just a few seconds. The movement was smooth and natural and using the touch screen to manage the morphball, missiles and map works seamlessly. The jumping took a bit getting used to but even that was easy to get down in just a few tries.
Which leads me to Mario. This game’s controls disappoint me, especially after playing the unlocked mini games and marveling at how fluid and creative they were (this game, where you pull back a sling shot and shoot at bo-ombs, was hands-down my favorite). First off, when you start the game the only things you use the stylus for are to move the character, control the camera and to use the menus; if you’re right handed this does you no amount of good, though you lefties probably would have had a better go at it. After random button pressing (select) I found that you could change the control configuration to one of four settings - I chose the very last which put the movement control in my right hand and the action commands in my left. But the game still doesn’t feel right! Running around is fine and dandy, but it’s too hard to get precision movement, such as doing a triple jump and landing in a small hole, or even running up a slope. I expected a lot more from this game but I’m still playing it, hoping that the controls will get to the point where I can successfully do a wall jump without falling to my death.
Overall, I’d say if you have the money you should go buy this now! However, if you’re waiting for it to get closer to 100$ I wouldn’t talk you out of it; there aren’t enough games to play right now (in fact, the new GBA Zelda has been taking up most of my DS time) not to mention the cost of those games that are available, which is ~40$. Putting those aside, this system offers the most enjoyable gaming experience I’ve had in a long time and if you have the money, or have been too indecisive up to now, I heartily recommend getting one while you’re waiting for your PSP.
