Writing
Pushing the Envelope- Published by N-Philes, May 4, 2005
"I love Nintendo more than chocolate, but after spending time with both systems, I must declare Sony the victor." I read this statement on a university newspaper website. One comment that the author of this article made earlier in his analysis caught my attention, "The only thing that stops the comparison [between the PSP and the DS] from being completely pathetic is that touch-screen thing Nintendo is doing."
Is the DS unique in that it is more than the sum of its features? Nintendo has set out several goals that it hopes to achieve with the system since the first announcement was made about the DS over a year ago. With the Electronic Entertainment Expo fast approaching, I would like to step back for a moment and see how Nintendo is achieving these goals, and determine whether the DS is what Nintendo wanted it to be.
Expanding the Market
Nintendo has been very vocal about trying to appeal to the non-gamer by simplifying how games are played and offering new styles of gameplay that can appeal to large groups of people.
Many of the games currently available for the Nintendo DS allow the play with only one hand. This greatly simplifies the experience for people new to videogames, without cutting back the gaming experience for established gamers. Games that exclusively use the touch screen, like Pac-Pix and Pokemon Dash, are simple enough, yet compelling to a degree that anyone can pick them up and enjoy their gaming session.
Nintendo has also been blurring the concept of in-game missions and, for lack of a better term, winning. Nintendogs and Animal Crossing to Go have no sense of winning and losing, yet they still offer a deep element of entertainment.
Point-and-click adventures, which are finding new life on the DS, are ways to get people of all ages involved with gaming. Another Code, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, and to a lesser extent, Sprung are compelling titles that rely on a simple point-and-click system.
Nintendo's goal of providing new uses for the DS is even further along in Japan with the sonic art game Electroplankton, a Japanese dictionary device, and adult brain exercise titles on the horizon.
First Contact
In a world where buttons and joysticks have been the dominant input devices, a platform has been introduced where the main gameplay focus is the touch screen. Not only is it new, but it's also the main selling feature of the Nintendo DS.
This touch screen does breathe new life into several genres. First person shooters have long been criticized on home consoles, but the DS allows for a near PC experience, as shown with Metroid Prime Hunters. The mouse-like touch screen allows for an experience that is much more intuitive. People like myself who cannot play FPS titles on consoles have a much better chance at playing them well with this new form of control.
Real-time strategy titles will also play on the DS unlike any other game system yet. The ability to point, click, and drag, combined with buttons that can be assigned to various functions may also emulate the PC experience. Two screens allow the player to interact with a small area while keeping an eye on the whole map without having to switch using menus. Age Of Empires and Shogun Warrior will prove whether such games are viable on the system.
Nintendo is bent on connectivity. Pictochat, sixteen-player local and internet wireless play, and Nintendo's own upcoming voice over IP application show people not new ways they can connect with their games, but with each other.
Games To Go
Sony's ambitious goal with the PSP is to recreate the home console experience on a portable game device. Nintendo, in contrast, feels that portable gaming is a form of "inter-tainment," short-burst entertainment to be had between other activities.
The sleep mode, a utility that was underused on the Game Boy Advance, perfectly illustrates this philosophy. All of Nintendo's first party efforts thus far fully use this feature to suspend gameplay when the system is shut. Not all third party games use this, unfortunately.
Puzzle and minigame titles extend the idea of quick action. Feel The Magic XY/XX, Wario Ware Touched!, Zoo Keeper, and Polarium are meant to entertain in bursts as opposed to long play sessions. Even the arcade-like platformer Yoshi Touch & Go has you playing exciting and intense rounds that last several minutes each. Super Mario 64 DS mixes it up, allowing for both quick accessible levels and more engrossed explorative scenarios.
Evening Out the Score
With GameCube's Mario Kart Double Dash!!, Nintendo tried to balance the game such that new players could still compete with the veteran racer. The result was an unbalanced racing game that felt too dependent on items. This time around, Nintendo has taken a new approach to put novice and expert gamers on the same page.
The obvious example is Kirby Canvas Curse. This platformer requires the player to manipulate Kirby's movements around full levels by drawing paths and walls, and accelerating him through loops. Defeating enemies requires tapping then running into them. This style of gameplay, quite simply, has never been done before. Experienced gamers, like newbies, will be starting out on the exact same page. Pac-Pix, Yoshi Touch & Go, and Jam With the Band are other examples.
Nintendo and other companies have yet to show more titles where the experienced gamer does not have an edge over newcomers.
Developer's System
The Nintendo DS struck a chord with game developers around the world for one simple reason: it creates a creative challenge. Not since the genesis of electronic gaming have developers had an entirely new standard input device to tackle. With two screens, a touch-sensitive screen, local and internet wireless support, advanced 2D abilities, and more than competent 3D abilities, game makers can come up with completely fresh game experiences. High production costs convince many game publishers to stick with what works. Case and point, only five of the top 100 selling games in Japan in 2003 were brand new games.
This puts the DS in a great position in the market. Production costs can be lower because of the 2D/3D nature of the system, and because the game storage is very inexpensive. Developers are free to be more experimental. It's an era in gaming not unlike the NES era, when numerous familiar franchises got their start. Another, Caduceus, Feel The Magic, Jam With The Band, Meteos, Nanostray, and Polarium are all brand new properties born on the Nintendo DS, and it hasn't even been out one full year.
The very nature DS also allows publishers to take more risks with releases. Some titles like Phoenix Wright, Naruto, and Jump Superstars may make it to North America for the first time. While they may seem almost too Japanese for a stateside release, the same was said about Pocket Monsters and Dobotsu no Mori. Both Pokemon and Animal Crossing have shown their appeal both here, and around the world.
Closing Comments
Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata, suggested that in upcoming years, the innovative titles with big ideas will excel over those that are merely made with big budgets. Giving developers the tools, and encouraging them to try new and different things is a step toward a future based on big ideas, a step closer to testing his hypothesis. The DS can be friendly to those unfamiliar with gaming, especially in an era where games demand significant time to learn how to play, and complete. The Electronic Entertainment Expo this year will show how these seeds that Nintendo has planted have begun to grow, and whether experienced gamers will be satisfied with the DS' offerings that cater to new audiences.
The Playstation Portable and the Nintendo DS are two different beasts trying to achieve very different things in the handheld gaming market. Though slow in its execution, Nintendo is on its way to show the world that the DS is more than a Game Boy with a touch screen. Time will tell not only if it can outsell the big budgets of the PSP and bring new audiences to the gaming universe, but also if these ambitious goals can be achieved in the process.