There's definitely some weirdness going on. >From a marketing perspective it IS the new Gameboy - it's backwards compatible after all. However the GameBoy SP is still selling strong so I doubt they wanted to infringe on the sales.
That being said the SP and Advance obviously have HUGE market penetration. So I fully expect most new games to ignore the new DS-only capabilities in favor of complete backwards compatibility (ad larger sales). I also suspect (although I've not heard of any) that there will be games that include "DS-support" without requiring it (for example, if you have it an RPG might use the lower screen to show larger text or a map, which would still be available in the SP on the single screen). There doesn't seem to be all that much using the new capabilities really well. All the new games use them after all, but from what I've seen and heard they are either gimmicky at best (using the screen for no real reason other than to use it) or just plain lame. There are a few promising sparks out there, but I still think most publishers will go for SP compatibility and larger sales for most games. Lastly both sides (Nintendo and Sony) are still claiming that the PSP and DS appeal to vastly different audiences and are not in direct competition. I think that's complete bunk. Nintendo is obviously marketing the DS to an older audience and I think there'll be a lot of competition from the PSP (especially in Japan where the two devices were released very close together and Sony has made the PSP the hottest thing around). Considering just the system itself: it's bulky. Way too large for my son (six years old) to use comfortably and with the touch screen I think will turn out to be much more fragile (I'm a handheld PC veteran). For me it seemed comfortable enough (my knuckles and wrists start to ache fiercely when I try to use the SP - to cramped for my big ham-hands), but on the heavy side. All told I'm not sure - it definitely has lot going against it, but all it would really take is one "must have" game (Tetris did that for the original GB). Nintendo is large enough to support it for a long time to come, but they've had their failures (remember the "Virtual Boy"). In short: I'm not ready to buy yet either. ;^) Jim Davis -----Original Message----- From: Raymond Camden [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 11:11 AM To: CF-Community Subject: Nintendo DS Any thoughts so far? Frankly, it worries me that Nintendo isn't calling this the new Gameboy. It seems odd that they would have 2 different hand held product lines, so I'm avoiding buying this for now. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Special thanks to the CF Community Suite Gold Sponsor - CFHosting.net http://www.cfhosting.net Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:137822 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
