Mai Valentine
Moderator
Strengths:
-Plays all old GBA games, which gives it a huge library of favorites right out of the gate
-Cart-based games mean no loading times and a long battery life
-Nintendo has ruled the handheld market for more than 15 years, so they know it better than anyone
-Nintendo makes the best first-party games in the business, and a few million people will buy anything to play a new Pokemon game
-It's possible to play multiplayer games across multiple DSes with only one cart of the game
Weaknesses:
-Front and shoulder buttons are too small (and they don't have the same satisfying give of the GBA's buttons), and the lack of an analog stick is a step backward for 3D gaming
-Cart-based games also mean worse sound and less storage space for things like speech and video
-Big and, well, pretty damn ugly--won't win any beauty contests, unless those "minor tweaks" become major
-The touch screen seems prone to scratches, especially when you're rubbing a stylus over it all day (Nintendo says it is working on a solultion)
Vital Stats
Release Date:
Official: By the end of 2004
Our guess: November 2004
Price:
Official: "Over $99, less than $300"
Our guess: $150
Media:
-DS carts are roughly half the physical size of GBA games--they can hold 1 gigabit (1/14 the capacity of the PSP's media)
-Plays DS and GBA games
Other:
-Up to 16 players can network within a range of at least 30 feet (or more, depending on location) or connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi
-Includes a standard headphone jack and rechargeable battery
-Won't work with GBA-Gamecube link cable for "connectivity"
Out of the 8 people on the staff, only 3 of them thought the DS was better than the PSP.
-Plays all old GBA games, which gives it a huge library of favorites right out of the gate
-Cart-based games mean no loading times and a long battery life
-Nintendo has ruled the handheld market for more than 15 years, so they know it better than anyone
-Nintendo makes the best first-party games in the business, and a few million people will buy anything to play a new Pokemon game
-It's possible to play multiplayer games across multiple DSes with only one cart of the game
Weaknesses:
-Front and shoulder buttons are too small (and they don't have the same satisfying give of the GBA's buttons), and the lack of an analog stick is a step backward for 3D gaming
-Cart-based games also mean worse sound and less storage space for things like speech and video
-Big and, well, pretty damn ugly--won't win any beauty contests, unless those "minor tweaks" become major
-The touch screen seems prone to scratches, especially when you're rubbing a stylus over it all day (Nintendo says it is working on a solultion)
Vital Stats
Release Date:
Official: By the end of 2004
Our guess: November 2004
Price:
Official: "Over $99, less than $300"
Our guess: $150
Media:
-DS carts are roughly half the physical size of GBA games--they can hold 1 gigabit (1/14 the capacity of the PSP's media)
-Plays DS and GBA games
Other:
-Up to 16 players can network within a range of at least 30 feet (or more, depending on location) or connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi
-Includes a standard headphone jack and rechargeable battery
-Won't work with GBA-Gamecube link cable for "connectivity"
Out of the 8 people on the staff, only 3 of them thought the DS was better than the PSP.
