“The Reports of my Death are Greatly Exaggerated”

As quoted from Mark Twain & the Nintendo DS…

I’m getting a little tired of stories referencing the death of the Nintendo DS. I’ve been seeing features on its demise since the 3DS was announced last year and, even now, with Nintendo’s latest handheld floundering under the weight of a dozen bad decisions, every article that mentions the DS points to the fact that “it’s on its way out.”

And yet, if you compare DS releases to 3DS releases for the next six weeks, you’ll find it’s the DS with the incredible line-up.

This is not a rant against the 3DS. Nintendo may have dropped the ball, but they don’t deserve the ire the noisy fanboys are drowning the company in right now. I have no doubt that 3DS version 2 will be a fantastic piece of hardware I’ll certainly add to my collection. Buying version 1 of any tech is always a crapshoot, has always been a crapshoot. No one should be surprised, or angry, especially with a company that has provided so much joy to so many of us. Not every Nintendo product is going to be a beam of light from heaven.

The real problem here is the “Cult of the New” that permeates all technology. Sadly, I believe the game industry suffers from it worst of all. It’s enthusiast press can only exist with the cooperation of the industry, so they have no choice but to propagate the notion of new is better — “go play the latest” and “crave the upcoming” is the message du jour. They even coined a term for the games you buy new but never play, the “pile of shame”. Why should I be ashamed of not playing a video game?

And there’s the dirty little secret. When we gamer’s buy into the hype and excitement, drool like rabid dogs on our laptop screens scrolling through each bit of news hand fed to us by the industry through the keyboards of the “independent” game press, that pile of shame begins to represent not a lack of time, but a lack of common sense. Why buy games we have no intention of playing immediately? Why not wait six months when the price has been cut by 50% or just wait and buy it when you know you’re going to play it? The “Cult of the New” is responsible for the backlash against Nintendo right now. The “Cult of the New” drove the 3DS hype right up to the front door of every Nintendo fan. It’s still laying there — go ahead and look — right there on your welcome mat like a dead bird dropped by your neighbor’s cat.

The truth is we didn’t need a new DS. It was already a mature, reliable technology, with a fan base that spanned multiple generations and, arguably, the best back catalogue of any game console and enough content to keep any gamer entertained for a lifetime. It’s hard to look at the DS and not say, “hey, that’s enough for me!” The DS’s “keep it simple” design philosophy made it a charming and extremely accessible platform (not to mention financially lucrative).

Then Nintendo broke their own rules, filled up their device with every bell & whistle they were comfortable with, took aim at a market they have no business jousting… and promptly fell on their face. I’m well aware of the arguments — “always move forward”, “plan for trends”, “adopt to the ever changing marketplace or die”, blah, blah, blah. All I know is there are 100 million six to eight year olds worldwide that don’t own smartphones, don’t need 3D or accelerometers, but do need something cool to carry around in their backpacks. A bit more polish, better screens, better online functionality, maybe a little social media sprinkled in there, that’s all a new DS needed and we, one and all, would have lined up on day one.

In the next eight weeks we get several amazing DS titles, any one of which deserves to be a bestseller. From Kirby Mass Attack, Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Towns, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 for those who love the classics to Solatorobo: Red the Hunter and Aliens: Infestation for those looking for something new and even Professor Layton and the Last Specter & Bejeweled 3 for the broader audience. That’s an insanely great line-up. Can someone please explain, in the light of that list, why the DS is “on its way out”?

- Andy

Ni No Kuni Coming to PS3

The Level 5 and Studio Ghibli collaboration is still coming out for the DS, but now that a PS3 version has been announced, I can’t help but think it’ll be naturally superior.



The game looks absolutely great, and the over world traveling clips are some of my favorite of the trailer. When Square-Enix removed over world traveling from Final Fantasy I was pretty bummed, so it’s good to see a developer understand the sense of wonder and smallness that a player can get from a huge over world.

While the game looks like a fairly traditional RPG through and through, if they can nail the gameplay solidly regardless of any originality, I’m sure the story, characters, music, and art will carry the game into that precious fun and relevant zone that so many games never reach.

- Kyle