The Nintendo DS: Part One

I'm stealing my favorite videogame writer's idea and writing about Nintendo DS games in anticipation of the 3DS release - although I'm changing a bit to be a timeline of my experience with the DS, measured in terms of games.

I'm doing this because the Nintendo DS was not something I looked forward to, and in fact didn't like at all at first, yet eventually became my favorite gaming system of all time. In fact, this was a system that I asked for for Christmas simply because it was a Nintendo system and I figured it would eventually have good games. I was scared - terrified, actually - that the PSP, the system I didn't choose, would overwhelm the DS and outsell it, effectively ending Nintendo because at the time, they were losing badly with the Gamecube to Sony's PS2 juggernaut and Microsoft's powerful Xbox 360 was just around the corner. The Wii was just a twinkle in Satoru Iwata's eye at that point (okay, so it was being developed, but us non-Nintendo peons had no idea it existed at the time).

When I got the system, I wasn't too thrilled with it. The included demo, Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, was the main reason why. Here was a shooter, which I didn't like anyway, which played terribly with touchscreen controls (which were apparently improved for the actual release of the game) and honestly didn't look too great. The fact that Samus had to interact with other bounty hunters was the first sign that the Metroid series was beginning to decline in quality, too, but that's another topic altogether (and I haven't played Other M yet anyway).

The other game I got was Super Mario 64 DS, what is thought by many to be the main launch title. Nintendo's goal, as far as I can tell, was to show two things: first, that the graphical capabilities of the DS were roughly on par with the Nintendo 64, and second, that even a game with a complicated set of traditional controls would work with a touchscreen.

The fact that the graphics were as good on Nintendo's flagship DS game as they were gave me some hope that the DS wouldn't be utterly crushed in the marketplace. Of course, the PSP could outdo the DS without so much as breaking a sweat, so I was still a bit worried.

But the real problem with Super Mario 64 DS is its control implementation. You can control the game with the D-pad, but it is clear that Nintendo never really intended for players to do much of that: to run, you have to hold down a face button to change Mario's speed. This is needlessly complicated, which is a huge problem because momentum and precise control of Mario on precarious platforms are the main challenges in the original Super Mario 64. So what is your best option? To use the touchscreen to guide Mario around.

This is, of course, a complete and utter terrible way to control a 3D platformer. It just doesn't work. You see, you control Mario by moving your stylus (or thumb-nub, which came with the game) on the bottom screen, while watching Mario move around on the top screen. So right there, you have a disconnect between where your finger/stylus/thumb-nub is and where Mario himself is moving. With buttons, this is fine, because the position of the buttons never changes - your thumb-nub, however, by necessity, must change positions. You can also remove your nub from the screen, which of course causes Mario to come to a stop and also forcing you to recenter your thumb on the screen when you inevitably must move Mario around again.

What a mess, right? At least Nintendo threw in thirty extra Power Stars to collect, and a few characters who controlled a bit different than the eponymous star of the game. I just wished I could control them with an analog stick, which is of course what the original Super Mario 64 was designed around.

The original DS unit itself wasn't very attractive, either. It was a large, plastic, gray blob that was heavier than it should have been, and certainly wasn't very streamlined. It did, however, have great speakers (which were neutered in the first system redesign, the DS Lite, but eventually brought back with the DSi speakers) and my favorite D-pad of all time. This made a certain racing game a blast to play, but that's for the next post.