Topic: EDITORIAL: DS is for Old People

[Karl Castaneda #2]

Use this thread to discuss Obi's new editorial: DS is for Old People.

http://www.planetgamecube.com/editorials.cfm?action=profile&id=167

[Berto2K]

"I was luke-warm on the DS until E3 this year. I went into the show thinking what lots of people are thinking, there are no excellent games on this system."

didn't care to look in the horizon or do some research?  i could have named off prob close to half of the games that were gonna be at e3 before hand.

[gally]

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that old-school games are the ones best made for handhelds. Handhelds, by their nature, are largely played in short bursts. Most people don't want to look at a small screen for too long, so handheld games need to be played in short bursts to fit these people's needs.

Adventure games such as Metroid let you save every few minutes, to give you ample opportunity to take a break. Action games often let you save as well, and tend to have short levels.

Also, due to the fact that people spend less time playing handhelds than they do playing console games, handheld games can afford to be shorter, knowing that players will take longer to beat the game than they would a console game of similar length.

None of this is meant to deny the DS's strengths and the fact that games like Meteos, Wario Ware Touched, Mr. Driller DS, Another Code (I imported it from Europe), Kirby: Canvase Curse, and others are great games due to their old-school-esque qualities. But the handheld is the natural home for these qualities due to its very nature.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I agree with most everything stated in this article, in fact I created a topic similar to this on the Nintendo DS board and why I believe PSP is struggling. One reason why I sold my PSP and rebought a NDS was because the PSP felt like a mini-PS2 which is not what I look for in gaming, on handhelds gamers are looking for experiences unique to handheld gaming (such as pick up and play) and do not want quick ports or rehashes of "pretty" console games. Sure SM64 DS was a good game but it is not the type of game gamers want all the time on a handheld, unlike PSP which is basically a PS2 on a small screen.

Handheld gaming benefits little from fancy hardware, at least in comparison to consoles since the games that are IMO, the best are simple graphically such as Meteos, Kirby, WW Touched along with others. Not only that but a handheld should be affordable! A 250$ handheld is not attractive, and those that have the money probaly won't want to sit down for hours when they get home from work to beat the newest PSP RPG or platformer on a small screen, but will instead fire up a console or a movie. With Nintendo's handheld philosophy continuing, I see a bright future in console gaming for a long time to come with companies like Sony washing out in the market.

[Hostile Creation]

First off, excellent use of the word bafmodads.  If nothing else good came from that game, at least that word did.
Secondly, good editorial.  I agree pretty much wholeheartedly with it, and while it is nice to get lost in a game sometimes (Pikmin 2 and Metroid Prime Echoes got me at college), I like to play short burst games a lot, too (Kirby: Canvas Curse, DK: Jungle Beat).  DS is definitely providing some great content for that.
Though I'm also looking very much forward to the next Mario and Luigi game.

Conflabbed kids.